Historicity of the Resurrection and Jesus[1]

1. The Five Facts

• Jesus’ Death by Crucifixion
• Disciples’ Beliefs that Jesus Appeared
• Conversion of the Church Persecutor Paul
• Conversion of Skeptic James
• Empty Tomb

2. Jesus died due to crucifixion

• Josephus
• Tacitus
• Lucian
• Mara Bar-Serapion
• Talmud

3. Jesus’ disciples sincerely believed Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to them

• They claimed it
• Paul
• Oral tradition
• Creeds (i.e. 1 Cor. 15.3-7)
• Sermon summaries (i.e. Acts 2
• Written tradition
• Gospels
• Matthew
• Mark
• Luke-Acts
• John
• Apostolic Fathers
• Clement
• Polycarp
• They believed it
• Willingness to suffer
• Acts
• Clement of Rome
• Polycarp
• Ignatius
• Dionysius of Corinth
• Tertullian
• Origen

4. Empty Tomb

• Jerusalem Factor (Everyone could go see it)
• Enemy attested
• Testimony of women

5. Fraud Claims of the Resurrection

• Fraud 1 (Disciples lied/stole the body)
• Disciples really believed resurrection
• Conversion of the church persecutor Paul based on appearance
• Conversion of the skeptic James based on appearance
• Fraud 2 (Someone else stole the body)
•  Conversion of the church persecutor Paul based on appearance
• Conversion of the skeptic James based on appearance
• Beliefs of the disciples based on appearance
• At best, only questions cause of empty tomb

6. Wrong Tomb

• Does not account for appearances to disciples
• Followers not convinced by empty tomb, but by appearances
• Paul not convinced by empty tomb, but appearance
• James not convinced by empty tomb, but by appearance
• No sources suggest the wrong tomb
• Burial by Joseph indicates tomb’s known location

7. Apparent Death Theory

• Crucifixion was death by asphyxiation
• Spear wound
• Paul experienced a “glorious” appearance

8. Hallucinations

• Not group occurrences
• Empty tomb
• Conversion of the church persecutor Paul
• Conversion of the skeptic James
•  Too many personal variances

9. Delusions

• Conversion of the Church persecutor Paul
• Conversion of the skeptic James
• Empty tomb

10. Visions

• Visions is a vague term
•  If vision is objective then risen Christ
• If vision is subjective then hallucination/delusion
• Empty tomb
• Bodily nature of appearances

11. Combination theories

• Combinations generally lead to higher improbabilities
• Many of the same problems still exist when considered individually
• Number of additional explanations needed appears ad hoc
• Must show other explanations are true

12. Discrepancies in the Gospels concerning Resurrection

• At most, calls inerrancy into question, not resurrection
• Historical conclusions are not made this way
• Differences may indicate Gospels are independent accounts of resurrection and, therefore, provide multiple attestation
• Many, if not all, tensions in accounts can be answered

13. Biased testimony

• Paul unbiased
• James unbiased
• Eliminates virtually all history
• Bias does not require distortion
• Genetic fallacy
• Ad hominem fallacy

14. Something happened, but don’t know what

• Rejects conclusion not evidence
• What we know counts heavily
• Evidence points to resurrection
• Opposing theories fail
• Religio-Historical context increases likelihood of resurrection
• Jesus claimed divinity
• Jesus performed miraculous deeds
• There is other evidence for God’s existence

Posted on Saturday, April 7th, 2012 at 12:30 in Apologetics, Historical Jesus   |  RSS feed |  Respond  |  Trackback URL