Additionally, a number of other considerations must be added which strengthen the credibility of the Jewish tradition.
Not all traditions are to be considered equal. There are stories that are easy to convince people to believe, even if they did not really happen, and there are stories that are very difficult to get people to accept as true if they are not really presented in the best light. When we want to find out the credibility of a tradition, we must ask ourselves the following question: How easy or difficult would it have been to create such a false tradition, if the event had not really taken place? The more difficult it is to make people believe in an event, the more likely it is that the tradition is true.
As we shall now see, the Jewish tradition has a number of characteristics that strengthen its credibility, in that they illustrate how difficult it is to “implant” such a false story in the national memory of the people of the Book:
1. The event described by tradition is a founding national event.
2. The same event was witnessed by hundreds of thousands of people.
3. Tradition testifies to a direct connection between the people who believe in it today and those who witnessed the event in the past.
4. The event in question is exceptional in light of the events occurring in that period.
We will now examine these characteristics one by one.
