Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

The claim of Jesus rising from the dead might seem like some strange religious miracle or a weird zombie fairytale. However, in the context of the Christian story, God came to live among us, to show us how to love and live as he intended, yet we rejected him and had him killed on a cross (cf. Luke 23:41). Jesus was innocent, and he died not for any wrongdoing he had done but for us and in our place (cf. 1 Cor 15:3). If he was raised from the dead, that means God has vindicated him—Jesus really was who he said he was and what he spoke was true. Jesus promises eternal life to all who trust in Him because, in his death and resurrection, there is forgiveness to all who freely choose to receive his gracious offer (cf. Rom 10:9). That sounds too good to be true, so is there any reason to believe it?

The facts of Jesus’ resurrection are found in the Gospels (cf. Mark 16; Matt 28; Luke 24; John 20–21), which were likely written within 30–60 years of the events in question.[1] These Gospels are generally agreed to be written in the genre of ancient biographies,[2] meaning they were written to provide a historical account of what happened. Further, Paul’s letters were written within twenty years of Jesus’ death, and some scholars think 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 contains a tradition that is within months of the events.[3] All that to say, we are not dealing with some later legend or myth, rather that Jesus died by crucifixion, was buried, the tomb was found empty three days later, and that various people asserted that Jesus appeared alive to them are historically established and in need of an explanation.[4]

Some suggest that Jesus’ followers did not experience anything but falsely or wrongly claimed that he was risen. A problem with this theory is that many of the disciples gave up their lives and proclaimed God’s promise of forgiveness through Jesus’ resurrection as such while the disciples might have been mistaken, it seems that they were sincere and were not lying about this (cf. Acts 5:40).[5]

So given that the disciples were telling the truth, another option is that they only “saw” Jesus risen in their minds. It was a dream or a hallucination, some sort of intra-mental subjective experience.[6] A problem with this hypothesis is that it does not account for Jesus’ body and needs other assumptions to explain the full scope of the historical data. Another issue is that hallucinations are relative to individuals, so given that groups of people saw Jesus, this view is less probable (cf. Matt 28:16–20; Luke 24:33–43; John 20:19–29; 1 Cor 15:5–7).[7] Further, hallucinations usually occur in a single sensory mode, such as only sight; however, the encounters with the risen Jesus include not only visual elements but also physical touch and audible speech.[8]

So, if the disciples were sincere and what they experienced was an extramental entity, some have proposed it was a case of mistaken identity. Perhaps Jesus was seen at a distance, and it was wrongly concluded to have been him, or maybe Jesus had a twin brother, whom they confused with him.[9] A difficulty for this view is that the Gospels record the encounters as being up close, so it was not some far off mix-up (cf. Matt 28:5, 8–10; John 20:11–18, 26–29). Further, Jesus’ own brother saw him, and so even if Jesus had a twin (not that there is evidence for this), surely another brother could have distinguished who he was (cf. 1 Cor 5:7) (especially given the scars from crucifixion; cf. John 20:27).

So, we know that the disciples honestly had an experience of Jesus in the real world; however, perhaps Jesus had only swooned on the cross; he fainted and later revived.[10] A challenge for this view is why the disciples did not just say, “wow, it is amazing that you did not die; we need to get you to a hospital.” Instead, the disciples declared that death had been defeated (cf. 1 Cor 15:25–26) and that the kind of body that Jesus now had was like the glorious body a believer will one day receive (cf. 1 Cor 15:42–49).

Therefore, that leaves the resurrection hypothesis—the disciples sincerely had extra-mentally seen Jesus, who had died, and now God has raised Him from the dead. Of course, if God does not exist, then He could not raise Jesus, but the question of God’s existence was addressed in another article, and it was concluded that there are good reasons to think that God exists. Jesus’ resurrection then shows not only that God is alive, but that he loves this world enough that he would die in your place so that you might be able to enjoy a fulfilling life forevermore. It sounds too good to be true, and we have only been able to scratch the surface on the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, but I can assure you it is something worth looking into.[11]

By David Graieg 31 Mar 2022

[1] Cf. Carson and Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament.

[2] Cf. Keener, Christobiography.

[3] Duun, Jesus Remembered, 855. Cf. Bass, The Bedrock of Christianity, 81, n. 115.

[4] Cf. Craig, Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?

[5] Against the view that the disciples knowingly spread a falsehood, Paley states, “the nature of the undertaking, and of the men; the extreme unlikelihood that such men should engage in such a measure as a scheme; their personal toils, and dangers, and sufferings, in the case; their appropriation of their whole time to the object; the warm and seemingly unaffected zeal and earnestness with which they profess their sincerity; exempt their memory from the suspicion of imposture” (Nairen and Paley, Paley’s Evidences of Christianity, 377, italics origin).

[6] Cf. Allison, The Resurrection of Jesus, 236–61.

[7] Even, if a multisensory hallucination occurred, they are “consistently interpreted by reasonable people to be at most ‘communications of comfort about the departed from beyond the grave” (Levering, Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?, 215; quoting Bryan, The Resurrection of the Messiah, 164). Cf. Wright, Resurrection of the Son of God, 690–1.

[8] Licona notes that hallucinations that occur in more than one mode (i.e., containing, say, both visual and auditory components) are rare (The Resurrection of Jesus, 483–5).

[9] For the twin theory, see Cavin, “Miracles, Probability, and the Resurrection of Jesus,” 309–58.

[10] Cf. Irenaeus Haer. 1.24.4; Origen, Cels. 2.56, 60–1; Ign. Trall. 9–10

[11] Cf. Graieg, “The Implications of a Memory Approach for the Various Alternatives to interpreting Jesus’ Resurrection;” Graieg, “Jesus’ Resurrection in Early Christian Memory.”