Quote Originally Posted by antisocialmunky
The New Testament isn't really a historical document.

True, but as both a Christian and a Historian, you can see some tidbits about what WAS going on in Jesus's lifetime; societal movements, religious movements, and it provides, weirdly enough, a "snapshot" (albeit blurry) of the life of what amounts to the average citizen in the Roman world: the poor, disgruntled peasant which is always walked over.

This, IMO, does make the gospels valuable for historical research. Whether what it says about Jesus is true or not is irrelevant for the historian, IMO, and only relevant for the believer.