DID YOU KNOW?
The answer
Having Jesus baptized by John — a rite 'for the forgiveness of sins,' with John appearing as the senior figure — is awkward for the later church, so historians reason it's unlikely to have been made up. That's the 'criterion of embarrassment' in action.
Why it’s interesting
Tools like this, along with 'multiple attestation,' are how scholars weigh the Gospels as sources. Interestingly, scholars now also debate the criteria themselves — even the method is under study.
Scholarly consensus
You can know the Bible.
Not just the stories, but the history, authorship, and scholarship behind it.