November 03, 2016

Podcast 56: Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus (Apologetics 7)

42 minutes

Apologetics 7: Evidence for the Resurrection

During this lecture, I played a video of William Lane Craig making a case for the historicity of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. What’s so brilliant about Craig’s approach is that he doesn’t assume the bible is true to make his case. He treats the Gospels and Paul’s letters as normal historical sources and uses the standard historiography of skeptics and atheists to establish this ancient miracle. He employs the minimal facts strategy, arguing that (1) the honorable burial, (2) the empty tomb, (3) the appearances, and (4) the resurrection belief are agreed to by critical scholars. Thus, the hypothesis, “God raised Jesus of Nazareth from the dead,” is the best historical explanation of facts.

If you would like to take this class for credit, please contact the Atlanta Bible College so you can register and do the necessary work for a grade.

Notes:

Four Historical Facts Agreed upon by Most Historical Jesus Scholars

1. Honorable Burial: Jesus was buried by Joseph Arimethea in a known grave

attested by very old tradition in 1 Cor 15

uses technical rabbinic terminology for tradition

formulaic

Paul received this within 5 years of his crucifixion

burial story is part of an old source used by Mark when he wrote

most of Mark is like pearls on a string, but once we get to the passion narrative it is smooth and chronological….which suggests that the passion narrative was from an actual written source

gospels don’t diverge until after the burial account

as a member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea is unlikely to be a Christian invention

strong resentment toward Jewish leadership responsible for the execution of Jesus so it is highly improbable that Christians would invent that a member of the very court that condemned Christ would be the one to give him an honorable burial

no competing burial story exists

no controversy over the issue

if it were false, we should expect to find some historical trace of what really happened

2. Empty Tomb: On Sunday after the crucifixion women found the empty tomb

empty tomb is in pre-Markan passion source

Mark’s source did not end with burial but with empty tomb

old tradition in 1 Cor 15 implies an empty tomb

“that he was buried and that he was raised” clearly implies an empty grave was left behind

apostolic preaching in the book of Acts

Mark’s story is simple and lacks signs of legendary embellishment

compare to Gospel of Peter (from 2nd half of 2nd century)…tomb is surrounded by Roman guard and by chief priests, Pharisees, and a huge crowd….suddenly during the night a voice rings out….three gigantic figures come out of the tomb with heads reaching to the sun….the cross comes out of the tomb and speaks

women’s testimony was less trustworthy than men counts in favor of the women’s role in the discovery of the empty tomb

Josephus says, “due to the levity and temerity of their sex, women should not be allowed to serve as legal witnesses in a court of law”

any later legendary account would have made male disciples like Peter and John to be the first to discover the empty tomb

earliest Jewish allegation that the disciples had stolen Jesus’ body presupposes that the body was in fact missing from the tomb

3. Appearances: on multiple occasions and under a variety of circumstances, individuals and groups of people experienced appearances of Jesus after his death

list of eyewitnesses quoted by Paul in 1 Cor 15

Paul actually knew these people

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By Sean P Finnegan

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