Testimony of the Evangelist

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''Testimony of the Evangelist Examined by the Rules of Evidence Administered in Courts of Justice'' or simply Testimony of the Evangelist is an 1846 Christian apologetic work by Simon Greenleaf, a principal founder of the Harvard Law School. Greenleaf allegedly set out to disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ by applying the principles of law to the Four Gospels as well as other available accounts of the event.^{[citation needed]} His "A Treatise on the Law of Evidence (15 vols., 1842-1853)" forms the basis for his study of the gospels. He was certain that a careful examination of the internal witness of the Gospels would dispel all the myths at the heart of Christianity.^{[citation needed]} But this legal scholar came to the conclusion that the witnesses were reliable, and that the resurrection did in fact happen.

Testimony of the Evangelist is often cited by contemporary Christian apologists. Simon Greenleaf also published A Full Collection of Cases Overruled, Denied, Doubted, or Limited in their Application, taken from American and English Reports (1821), and Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence administered in the Courts of Justice, with an account of the Trial of Jesus (1846; London, 1847). He revised for the American courts William Cruise's Digest of Laws respecting Real Property (3 vols., 1849-1850).