Why Christianity

Worldview Australia Talk: Jesus’ Resurrection

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Why it Matters?

  • So, what if Queen Elizabeth came back to life?
  • The context of Jesus life (cf. John 14:6)
  • 1 Corinthians 15:14–19
  • What is Christianity and what is the main support for this?

How Can We Know?

  1. The Bible Tells Me So
  2. The Spirit’s Witness
  3. Historical Investigation

Scripture

  •  i.e., 1 Cor 15:3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. (NET)

Is this circular reasoning?

See also: Mark 15:15–16:8; Matt 27:26–28:20; Luke 23:32–24:53; John 19:1–20:31; 1 Cor 6:14; 15; 2 Cor 4:14; Gal 1:1; Rom 1:4; 4:24–25; 6:4–5, 9; 7:4; 8:11; 10:9; Eph 1:20; Col 2:12; 1 Thess 1:10; Phil 3:10–11; 2 Tim 2:8; Acts 1:22; 2:24, 30–32; 3:15, 26; 4:2, 10, 33; 5:30; 10:40; 13:30, 33–34, 37; 17:3, 18, 31–32; 26:23; 1 Peter 1:3; 3:21.

The Witness of the Spirit

  • The testimony of the Holy Spirit to you of a relationship with God and of the truth of the Bible (Rom 8:9; 16; Heb 10:15; Gal 4:6-9; 1 John 5:6–10).
  • Can belief in Jesus’ resurrection be properly basic belief? Meaning can reformed epistemology include the resurrection and hence one could be justified/warranted in that belief, without other evidence.
  • See: Plantinga, Alvin. Knowledge and Christian Belief, 2015.

Historical Investigation

Historical Criteria of Authenticity

See: Bock, Darrell L. Studying the Historical Jesus: A Guide to Sources and Methods, 2002.

  1. Distance of the source
  2. Bias of the author
  3. Multiple independent attestation
  4. Criterion of embarrassment
  5. Dissimilarity
  6. Unintentional signs of history
  7. Criterion of the impact of an event
  8. Coherence with existing data

(note these are being challenged and some suggest memory as a way forward).

Multiple Independent Attestation

  • Having more than one source lends credibility to the account. And not two copies of the same story but two separate accounts that cohere. For instance, we have multiple accounts that Jesus performed miracles.

Criterion of Embarrassment

  • Embarrassing details for the disciples are unlikely to have been created by the church. For instance, why would the early church make up the story that one of their key leaders Peter, denied Jesus.

Double Similarity and Dissimilarity

  • Similar to Judaism thereby suggesting Jewish roots and yet distinct, suggesting growth; and similar to the early church, showing it appropriately fits and yet distinct, suggesting it was not merely created by them.
  • For example, Jesus’ self-use of the title “the son of man.” Has OT antecedents in Ezekiel or Daniel but wasn’t thereafter used by the church.

Jesus’ resurrection: The Minimal Facts

See: Habermas, Gary R., and Michael R. Licona. The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. 2004.

1) Jesus’ Death

  • Whipped, crucified, and speared. See: Edwards, William D., Wesley J. Gabel, and Floyd E. Hosmer, “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ” JAMA 255 (1986): 1455–1463.
  • Extra biblical sources: 1st Century Roman historian Tacitus, 1st Century Jewish historian Josephus; Mara Bar Sarapion (AD 73) in War 7.219–43; Julius Africanus (AD 170–240) on Thallus (AD 52); Lucian of Samosata’s The Passing of Peregrinus (c. AD 115–200); Rabbinic text (b. Sanhedrin 43a); church fathers Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch.
  • “Now, there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of surprising works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named for him, are not extinct to this day” (Josephus, Antiquities 18.63–64).
  • Wrote in early second century, “Their name comes from Christ, who, during the reign of Tiberius, had been executed by the procurator Pontius Pilate” (Tacitus, Annals 15.44).

2) Burial

  • Multiple independent sources (Matt 27:57; Mark 15:43; Luke 23:51; John 19:38; 1 Cor 15:4) indicate that Jesus’ body was buried (by Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin; embarrassment).

3) Empty Tomb

  • Discovered by women (Embrassing; Talmud, Rosh Hashannah 1.8; Josephus, Antiquities 4.8.15) and others (Peter and John).
  • Jewish leaders acknowledged this fact by admitting the body was missing (Matt 28:11–15; Justin Martyr, Trypho 108; Tertullian, De Spectaculis 30).

4) Belief of Appearances

  • The disciples, skeptics, and enemies believed they saw appearances of Jesus (1 Cor 15:3–8; Luke 24:13–35, 34l 26–45; 50–53; Acts 1:3–11; 13:31; Matt 28:16–20; Mark 16:9–19).

Criteria to Evaluate a Theory

Theories to Explain the Data

The story developed as legend over time; a mere myth

  1. The disciples didn’t experience anything but claimed they did (false claims or no experience hypothesis)
  2. All experiences of Jesus were intra-mental (hallucination theory)
  3. What the disciples experienced was extra-mental but was not actually Jesus (mistaken identity theory)
  4. The disciples extra-mentally experienced Jesus, but Jesus didn’t actually die on the cross, just fainted and revived naturally in the tomb (swoon theory) [or Jesus escaped, someone else was crucified and Jesus later showed himself to the disciples].
  5. They experienced Jesus who had died and was back from the dead (resurrection hypothesis)

Loke, Andrew. Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach. 2020.

Myth and Legend over time

  • Accusation that the NT is too far removed.
    • The early dating of the NT, written during lifetime of the eyewitnesses.
  • Copied pagan myths of dying-and-rising deities.
    • Superficial (i.e., Tammuz Osiris, Adonis season symbols for the crop cycle)
    • Is there a causal connection?
    • Generally, the Jews didn’t like pagan teachings.

What about other Gospels?

The Gospel of Peter

  • 10.38. Then those soldiers seeing it awoke the centurion and the elders, for they were present also keeping guard. 39. While they were reporting what they had seen, again they saw coming out from the tomb three men, and the two were supporting the one, and a cross following them. 40. And the head of the two reached as far as heaven, but that of the one being led by them surpassed the heavens. 41. And they were hearing a voice from the heavens saying, ‘Have you preached to those who sleep?’ 42. And a response was heard from the cross, ‘Yes.‘

a) No Experiences

  • The view that the disciples lied and made up a story
    • Why die for a lie?
    • Denies the appearances
    • Doesn’t explain the conversion of skeptics such as James and Paul
    • What happened to the body.

b) Intramental

  • Hallucinations
    • Does not explain empty tomb
    • Not likely since happen to multiple people including enemies like Saul
  • Visions

c) Extramental: Mistaken Identity

  • Ad hoc: Jesus must have had an unknown, identical twin brother who was separated from him at birth, and who showed up in Jerusalem at the time of the crucifixion, stole Jesus’ body, and then showed himself to the disciples, leading them to mistakenly infer that Jesus rose from the dead.

d) Extramental but Swooned (Apparent Death Theory)

  • Jesus didn’t die just fainted
    • “It is impossible that a being who had stolen half dead out of the sepulcher, who crept about weak and ill and wanting medical treatment, who required bandaging, strengthening, and indulgence, and who still at last yielded to his sufferings, could have given the disciples the impression that he was a conqueror over death and the grave, the Prince of life: an impression that lay at the bottom of their future ministry” (David Frederick Strauss, The Life of Jesus for the People, 2nd ed., 1879, vol. 1, 412).

e) The Resurrection Hypothesis

  • The disciples really saw Jesus and Jesus was really dead but now alive.
  • God raised Jesus from the dead.
    • Requires that God exists, and that God would want to raise Jesus.
  • Some implications: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep” (1 Cor 15:20)

The Historical Method

  1. The earliest Christians believe Jesus rose bodily from the dead.
  2. The earliest Christians believe Jesus was raised bodily from the dead by God.
  3. Jesus actually did rise bodily from the dead.
  4. Jesus was actually raised bodily from the dead by God.

Douglas Geivett, “The Epistemology of the Resurrection Belief,” in The Resurrection of Jesus: John Dominic Crossan and N.T. Wright in Dialogue, ed. Robert B. Stewart, 2006, 95.

What Happened to His Body?

  • Jesus’ friends (why go on to die for a lie)
  • Jesus’ enemies (why didn’t they just produce the body)
  • A neutral party (what is their motivation, how did they get past the guards, why didn’t they tell afterwards, still requires another account to how the disciples brief of appearances came about)
  • Jesus himself – he didn’t die (that he lived is unlikely, and a wounded individual does not inspire one to believe death is conquered)
  • Jesus himself – he died and rose again.

From: The Third Day – A Defense of the Resurrection Part 2 http://www.confidentchristians.org/resources_third_day.html

A Spiritual Resurrection?

  • 1 Cor 15:44–- sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.
  • Not a comparison of material versus immaterial but rather spiritual/holy vs sinful (see 1 Cor 2:13).
  • Luke 24:36–43 Jesus eats fish.

How Other Worldviews / Religions Respond?

  • Atheism – no miracles
  • Hinduism and Buddhism – reincarnation
  • Islam – Quran 4.157 Jesus did not die
    • Sura 4:157 states: “That they said (in boast), “We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah”;- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-”

Modern Resurrection Claims

Conclusion

  • Three ways one can know whether Jesus rose from the dead:
  • The Spirit’s Witness
  • The Bible Tells Me So
  • Historical Investigation
  • “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21)

Recommended Reading

  • William Lane Craig, “The Resurrection of Jesus” (6 pp.) http://www.reasonablefaith.org/the-resurrection-of-jesus
  • Wright, N. T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. 2003. 740 pages.
  • Licona, Michael R. The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, 2010. 718 pages.
  • Loke, Andrew. Investigating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach, 2020.

How do you respond to apparent conflicts such as:

  • Was it still dark or morning when the women reached the tomb? (Mark 16:2; Matt 28:1; Luke 24:1; John 20:1)
  • How many women were at the tomb? (Mark 16:1; Matt 28:1; Luke 24:2, 10, 22; John 20:1, 11)
  • Was there one or two young men or angels at the tomb? (Mark 16:5; Matt 28:2, 5; Luke 24:4, 10, 22; John 20:13)
  • Did Jesus first appear to the disciples in Jerusalem or Galilee? (Mark 16:7; Matt 28:10; Luke 24:33–43)

Geisler, Norman L., and Thomas A. Howe. The Big Book of Bible Difficulties: Clear and Concise Answers from Genesis to Revelation. 2008.

Archer, Gleason L. Jr. New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties. 2001.

Why Did Jesus Die? (What do these passages tell us)

  • “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (John 19:30) (cf. Luke 23:46–47).
  • “but God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8)
  • “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5)
  • “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2)

What About Science?

  • Are miracles possible?
  • Science has the clause “in a closed system”
  • Miracles are possible if there is a God
  • Video: Licona Myth #8: Science Proves that Resurrections Cannot Occur http://vimeo.com/39315039

Jesus Family Tomb

  • James Cameron’s documentary, “The Lost Tomb of Jesus,” 2007.
  • Bock points that this is highly unlikely as the tomb was found in Jerusalem and as Jesus’ family was from Galilee, the names were very common names and so they really could have been anyone, they try to link the tenth ossuary to that of James, but it is 4cm too short to fit the data and the DNA testing wasn’t carried out on all the remains. They also try to claim that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene that the disciples stole the body and lied about the resurrection.
  • For more information, see: Bock, Darrell L. and Wallace, Daniel B. Dethroning Jesus. 2007, 193–214; and http://www.garyhabermas.com/articles/The_Lost_Tomb_of_Jesus/losttombofjesus_response.htm

By David Graieg, 2 Aug 2023