FAITH FORUM WORKSHOP
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
INTRODUCTION ▸ Why does this question matter? ▸ Some Christians have suggested that we can maintain biblical faith without an historical resurrection. ▸ Paul’s answer: “But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain…. if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor. 15:13-14, 17).
“IF RELIGION BE MADE INDEPENDENT OF HISTORY, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GOSPEL… FOR ‘GOSPEL’ MEANS ‘GOOD NEWS,’ TIDING, INFORMATION ABOUT SOMETHING THAT HAS HAPPENED. A GOSPEL INDEPENDENT OF HISTORY IS A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS.”
J. Gresham Machen
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
INTRODUCTION ▸ Philosopher Douglas Groothuis remarked that Christianity is the only religion whose beginning and whole existence is centered on the claim that its founder was raised from the dead.1 ▸ Therefore, Christianity stands or falls on the resurrection. ▸ Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, Messiah, and Savior also depends on the resurrection.
“THE RESURRECTION IS THE SUPREME VINDICATION OF JESUS’ DIVINE IDENTITY AND HIS 2 INSPIRED TEACHING.” Lee Strobel
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
INTRODUCTION ▸ Finally, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the Christian’s ultimate hope for forgiveness of sins and eternal life. ▸ N. T. Wright wrote that the resurrection confirms that “the living God has in principle dealt with evil once and for all, and is now at work, by his own Spirit, to do for us and the whole world what he did for Jesus on that first Easter day.”3
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
OUR THESIS AND METHOD ▸ According to the historical and biblical evidence, Jesus’ bodily resurrection is the most plausible conclusion. ▸ Working Assumptions: ▸ First, the New Testament is a reliable historical resource for Jesus and the early church.4 ▸ Second, we will assume the possibility of miracles.5
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
OUR THESIS AND METHOD ▸ Our method will be abductive. Think: Sherlock Holmes. ▸ First, we will examine the term resurrection in its ancient context and survey the predominant views on resurrection. ▸ Second, we will look at the eyewitness testimony to Jesus’ resurrection. ▸ Third, we will consider the implications of the early church movement.
“RESURRECTION” IN THE ANCIENT WORLD
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
DEFINING “RESURRECTION” ▸ What did “resurrection” mean in the first century? ▸ Greek term for “resurrection” - anastasis ▸ N. T. Wright on anastasis in The Resurrection of the Son of God:6 ▸ First, the content. What action does anastasis describe? ▸ The re-embodiment of the previously deceased. ▸ It does not mean the spiritual state following bodily death.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
DEFINING “RESURRECTION” ▸ Second, the narrative shape. ▸ Anastasis is a two-step story. What does Wright mean? ▸ A one-step story would be death followed by whatever state comes after death—the afterlife or nonexistence. ▸ A two-step story means 1) the event of bodily death and the state that follows it, and then 2) a re-embodiment in new life. ▸ Wright calls this definition of resurrection as “life after life after death.” ▸ Therefore, when the New Testament claims that Jesus rose from the grave, there’s no question that they intended a bodily resurrection. Everyone in the ancient world understood this.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
ATTITUDES TOWARD RESURRECTION ▸ We often assume that premodern people would have found the resurrection story plausible. Would they? ▸ Historian Richard Carrier said that their world “was an age of fables and wonder. Magic and miracles and ghosts were everywhere, and almost never doubted.”7 ▸ The Greeks believed in a spiritual realm. They also had many legends of dying and rising gods. ▸ However, there was no question that they were legends.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
ATTITUDES TOWARD RESURRECTION ▸ Even Bart Ehrman, historian and atheist, said that “there is very thin evidence indeed for anything like a widespread pagan belief in a dying-rising god, on which Jesus was modeled.”8 ▸ Aeschylus, an ancient playwright, once wrote, “When the earth has drunk up a man’s blood, once he is dead, there is no resurrection.”9 ▸ Therefore, the ancient Greeks would have found the news of Jesus’ resurrection no more plausible than us. ▸ Moreover, it would not even be appealing to them.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
ATTITUDES TOWARD RESURRECTION ▸ What about Jews? It was equally troublesome. 10 First, there was a spectrum of beliefs regarding the resurrection. ▸
▸ The Sadducees outright rejected the possibility. ▸ A group of Jews associated with Philo and the Book of Jubilees hoped for a non-physical state of bliss. ▸ The Pharisees believed in the re-embodiment of the righteous at the end of time. This was the predominant view (Jn. 11:24). ▸ Note: Jesus’ resurrection does not fall in any of these categories.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
“RESURRECTION” IN THE ANCIENT WORLD ▸ Christianity entered the global stage with a well-formed, entirely new worldview. The belief that a man had actually risen from the grave in space-time history was novel, even foolish, to the Greco-Roman. ▸ Jesus’ resurrection, however, was equally problematic to the first-century Jew. As a movement that began within Judaism, this sudden, drastic development in the understanding of resurrection is quite puzzling.
“THE QUESTION ANY HISTORIAN MUST ASK... IS OBVIOUS: WHAT CAUSED THESE DEVELOPMENTSFROM-WITHIN, THESE NEWLY ARTICULATED RESURRECTIONBELIEFS? PAUL HIMSELF WOULD HAVE ANSWERED: IT WAS JESUS’ OWN RESURRECTION.”11
N. T. Wright
THE EYEWITNESSES
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE EYEWITNESSES ▸ Resurrection was a new and unique belief in the ancient world. But is it what the actual eyewitnesses to Jesus claimed? ▸ In How Jesus Became God, Bart Ehrman argued that belief in the bodily resurrection was a later embellishment.12 ▸ We'll consider the eyewitness evidence from 1 Cor. 15:1-11 and the Gospels.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE EARLY CREED ▸ Paul is addressing a number of issues in 1 Corinthians. One of those issues was their rejection of resurrection. ▸ "Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (1 Cor. 15:12) ▸ They had denied Jesus’ bodily resurrection for a Gnostic belief in spiritual resurrection. ▸ Craig Blomberg said, “they would have been disputing the Jewish and Christian doctrine of bodily resurrection and endorsing one of the more Greek forms of belief that limited the afterlife to disembodied 13 immortality of the soul (cf. 2 Tim. 2:17-18).”
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE EARLY CREED ▸ Paul “reminds” them of what he “delivered” (vs. 3-8). ▸ Gary Habermas argued that it is the earliest record of written and oral evidence for 14 Jesus’ resurrection. ▸ First, the letter of 1 Corinthians was probably written 15-25 yrs. after Jesus’ 15 death. ▸ Second, Paul received the creed during one of his visits to Jerusalem 4-6 yrs after Jesus’ death (even Ehrman agreed). ▸ Lastly, scholars believe that the creed was formulated by the early church anywhere from a couple years to several weeks after Jesus’ death. ▸ Cambridge scholar Richard Bauckham: “There can be no doubt that... Paul is citing the eyewitness testimony of those who were recipients of resurrection 16 appearances.”
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE EARLY CREED ▸ Ehrman argues that the creed doesn’t say that Jesus’ tomb was empty; therefore, indicating that belief in the bodily resurrection was a later embellishment.17 ▸ Two reasons that is unlikely: ▸ First, resurrection was enough to imply an empty tomb. ▸ Second, Jewish burial custom was a two-step process.18
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE EARLY CREED ▸ Maybe the disciples stole the corpse and fabricated the story? This is called the “Conspiracy Hypothesis.” ▸ This is highly implausible for two reasons: ▸ First, it would have required overpowering or bribing the guards at the tomb. ▸ Second, it would have required an assumption that they would be believed! ▸ Therefore, the earliest record of eyewitness testimony clearly shows a conviction that Jesus had been bodily raised from the dead, rather than a conspiracy or late embellishment.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE GOSPEL WITNESS ▸ The Gospels are our primary sources for studying Jesus. ▸ Let’s consider three points in their testimony: ▸ The lack of legendary evidence. ▸ The description of Jesus’ body. ▸ The first eyewitnesses.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE GOSPEL WITNESS ▸ First, the Gospels read as true eyewitness testimony, not legends. ▸ Their storytelling lacks the legendary elements commonly found in ancient literature.
“NOW, AS A LITERARY HISTORIAN, I AM PERFECTLY CONVINCED THAT WHATEVER ELSE THE GOSPELS ARE THEY ARE NOT LEGENDS. I HAVE READ A GREAT DEAL OF LEGENDS AND I AM QUITE CLEAR THAT THEY ARE NOT THE SAME SORT OF THING.”19
C. S. Lewis
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE GOSPEL WITNESS ▸ First, the Gospels read as true eyewitness testimony, not legends. ▸ Their storytelling lacks the legendary elements commonly found in ancient literature. ▸ Second, the Gospels present a peculiar description of Jesus’ resurrection body. ▸ Does that imply a hallucination? ▸ No; first, mass hallucinations are implausible. ▸ Second, hallucinations usually don’t produce beliefs in resurrection.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE GOSPEL WITNESS ▸ Third, all four Gospels assert that women were the first eyewitnesses to the empty tomb. ▸ If the disciples were fabricating stories, then they never would have chosen women to be the first witnesses. ▸ Why? Women were viewed as unreliable sources. ▸ Objection: “Maybe that was their goal!” ▸ This is ad hoc reasoning. Even Ehrman regarded this part of the Gospels as accurate.20
THE RESURRECTION MOVEMENT
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE BIRTH OF THE CHURCH â–¸ First, consider where Christianity began.
“ONE OF THE MOST REMARKABLE FACTS ABOUT THE EARLY CHRISTIAN BELIEF IN JESUS’ RESURRECTION WAS THAT IT FLOURISHED IN THE VERY CITY WHERE JESUS HAD BEEN PUBLICLY CRUCIFIED.”21
William Lane Craig
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE BIRTH OF THE CHURCH ▸ First, consider where Christianity began. ▸ The location and owner of Jesus’ tomb was public knowledge. ▸ The eyewitnesses were available for interrogation. ▸ Richard Carrier claims that their un-scientific age would easily accept the resurrection story. He argued that “few would have been able to 22 check the details of a story if they wanted to—and few wanted to.” ▸ First, you don’t need advanced degrees to know that dead people stay dead. ▸ Second, he ignores that all of the evidence was available for inquiry.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
THE BIRTH OF THE CHURCH ▸ Second, the Jesus movement began in a matter of weeks after his execution for being a messianic leader. ▸ Why did his public execution result in this movement? ▸ Third, the transformation of the disciples. ▸ What changed the disciples from cowards to courageous leaders? ▸ Groothuis: “The actual resurrection of Jesus is the best explanation for the disciples’ transformation from cowardice, despair and confusion to confident proclamation and the willingness to suffer persecution, hardship and even martyrdom for the sake of Jesus and 23 his gospel.”
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
CONCLUSION ▸ If one will examine all of the evidence for the bodily resurrection of Jesus together, then he or she will find a strong case for its plausibility. ▸ The first Christians claimed that Jesus Christ had, as a fact of history, risen from the dead to new life. ▸ Their claim was not a late development of history; rather, as the creed of 1 Cor. 15:1-11 showed, the bodily resurrection of Jesus was their message from the very beginning. ▸ The independent testimony of the four Gospels corroborated that creed with their uncanny, honest reporting of the events on the first Easter. ▸ Lastly, the explosion of the early church, as well as its unique characteristics, is nearly impossible to satisfactorily explain if the resurrection is denied. ▸ Therefore, according to the historical and biblical evidence, the physical resurrection of Jesus is the most plausible conclusion.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
END NOTES 1. Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Biblical Faith (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2011), 527. 2. Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1998), 206. 3. N. T. Wright, For All God’s Worth: True Worship and the Calling of the Church (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997), 66. 4. See Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitness: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2006); F. F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981); and William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008), 334-42. 5. See Craig, Reasonable Faith, 247-83. 6. N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, Christian Origins and the Question of God, vol. 3 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 30-31. 7. Richard Carrier, “Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection Story,” The Secular Web, accessed October 23, 2015, http://infidels.org/library/modern/ richard_carrier/resurrection/ lecture.html. 8. Bart Ehrman, “Fuller Reply to Richard Carrier,” The Bart Ehrman Blog, accessed November 1, 2015, http://ehrmanblog.org/fuller-reply-torichard-carrier/. 9. Norman Geisler, “Mithraism and Christianity,” in Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics (Grand Rapids: Baker House Books, 1999), 492, accessed November 1, 2015, Logos Bible Software. 10. N. T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus: Rediscovering Who Jesus Was and Is, (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 1999), 133-4.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
END NOTES 11. Wright, Resurrection, 373. 12. Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (New York: HarperOne, 2014), 159-256, iBook. 13. Craig Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, a vol. of NIV Application Commentary, ed. by Jack Kubatschek (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994), 295. 14. Gary Habermas, “The Resurrection of Jesus Time Line,” in Contending with Christianity’s Critics: Answering New Atheists & Other Objectors, ed. Paul Copan and William Lane Craig (Nashville: B&H Publishing Group, 2009), 227-31, iBook. 15. Habermas, 279.; and Ehrman, How, 169-70. 16. Richard Bauckham, 308. 17. Ehrman, How, 175-76. 18. Wright, Challenge, 147.; For more on ancient Jewish burial practices see Craig Evans, “Getting the Burial Traditions and Evidences Right,” in How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus’ Divine Nature—A Response to Bart Ehrman, ed. Michael F. Bird (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014), iBook. 19. C. S. Lewis, “What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?,” in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids: William B Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1970), 158. 20. Craig, 351.
DID JESUS RISE FROM THE DEAD?
END NOTES 21. Craig, 391. 22. Carrier, 15-16 paragraph. 23. Groothuis, 551.