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The Resurrection Disputed

The document discusses evidence for and objections to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It presents the traditional view that Jesus was resurrected bodily from the dead, as well as alternative explanations. The key evidence provided includes: 1) The empty tomb, which is attested in multiple early sources and would have been known to opponents, making the resurrection claim impossible without an empty tomb. 2) Postmortem appearances of Jesus reported by Paul and the Gospels to many witnesses, including women and groups of over 500 people. 3) The origin of the disciples' belief in the resurrection in the absence of prior theological influences, as resurrection meant bodily resurrection in Judaism.

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35 views

The Resurrection Disputed

The document discusses evidence for and objections to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It presents the traditional view that Jesus was resurrected bodily from the dead, as well as alternative explanations. The key evidence provided includes: 1) The empty tomb, which is attested in multiple early sources and would have been known to opponents, making the resurrection claim impossible without an empty tomb. 2) Postmortem appearances of Jesus reported by Paul and the Gospels to many witnesses, including women and groups of over 500 people. 3) The origin of the disciples' belief in the resurrection in the absence of prior theological influences, as resurrection meant bodily resurrection in Judaism.

Uploaded by

tlyons1188
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Resurrection Disputed

The Resurrection

The amount of scholarly discussion of the resurrection of Jesus far surpasses the quantity devoted to any other miracle in the Bible (Craig L. Blomberg) The earliest Christians saw Jesuss resurrection as both the vindication of his personal claims and the harbinger of our own resurrection to eternal life. If Jesus rose from the dead, then his claims are vindicated and our Christian hope is sure; if Jesus did not rise, our faith is futile and we fall back into despair. How credible, then, is the New Testament witness to the resurrection of Jesus? (William Lane Craig)

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Traditional Alternatives to the Resurrection Account


Jesus never fully died, revived in tomb, escaped, & appeared to disciples Jesus body stolen Followers of Jesus went to wrong tomb Resurrection witnesses experienced mass hallucination. Such exlanations require more faith for one to believe in them than does the supernatural explanation that Jesus did in fact rise bodily from the grave (Blomberg).

Modern Denials of the Resurrection Account


1. Account resembles myths of contemporary ancient religions 2. Mark, assumed earliest (i.e., most accurate) Gospel account, never includes actual account of Jesus resurrection 3. Plethora of contradictions in 4 Gospels = unbelievability of Resurrection

tomb story appearances women

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Modern Objections Explored


1. Account resembles myths of contemporary ancient religions: The Believers Response:

Modern Alternatives to the Resurrection Account


2. Mark, assumed earliest (i.e., most accurate) Gospel account, never includes actual account of Jesus resurrection:

Gnostic redeemer myth Parallels to Mithraism

No parallels of Christianity to ancient religions & their cycle (seasonal) of planting/harvest, human reproduction, etc. Uniqueness of bodily resurrection

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Modern Alternatives to the Resurrection Account


3. Plethora of contradictions in 4 Gospels = unbelievability of Resurrection Response to several key alleged contradictions: angels or men? Galilee or Jerusalem? women at the tomb

Inconsistencies of Mark 16:1-8


The surface inconsistencies between Mark 16:1-8 and its parallels, of which so much is made by those eager to see the accounts as careless ction, is in fact a strong point in favour of their early character. The later we imagine them being written up, let alone edited, the more likely it would be that inconsistencies would be ironed out. The stories exhibit, as has been said repeatedly over the last hundred years or more, exactly that surface tension which we associate, not with tales artfully told by people eager to sustain a ction and therefore anxious to make everything look right, but with the hurried, puzzled accounts of those who have seen with their own eyes something which took them horribly by surprise and with which they have not yet fully comes to terms.
N.T. Wright, Resurrection of the Son of God

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Bodily or Spiritual Resurrection?


4 Major Viewpoints: 1. mere graphic presentations of conviction that the cause of Jesus was not dead 2. extraordinary, subjective visions for those prepared to receive them 3. objective resurrection, but one that dees description & linked to believers in Jesus
(unbeliever would not have seen/heard what occurred)

http://www.cegway.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/caravaggio-thomas.jpg

4. Jesus resurrected from the grave in bodily form

Bodily or Spiritual Resurrection?


Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Grounds for Bodily Resurrection


William Lane Craig: (1) evidence of empty tombthe tomb of Jesus was found empty by a group of his women followers on the rst day of the week following his crucixion,

(2) postmortem appearances-

various individuals and groups thereafter experienced on different occasions and under varying circumstances appearances of Jesus alive, and

(3)the rst disciples came


sincerely to believe in Jesus resurrection in the absence of sufcient antecedent [earlier] historical inuences from either Judaism or pagan religions.

http://extremecatholic.blogspot.com/images/resurrection.jpg

Grounds for Bodily/Miraculous Resurrection


Friday, August 19, 2011 Friday, August 19, 2011

Evidence of Empty Tomb


I. Historical reliability of Jesus burial A. multiple attestation in early, independent sources B. Joseph of Arimathea unlikely a fabrication
http://st-takla.org/Pix/Jesus-Christ-our-Lord-n-Savior/24-After-Easter/www-St-Takla-org___Jesus-After-Resurrection-02.jpg

Evidence of Empty Tomb


Friday, August 19, 2011 Friday, August 19, 2011

Evidence of Empty Tomb


II. Historical reliability of Jesus burial as evidence for empty tomb A. assuming story of burial correct, then, people know its whereabouts = tomb empty when disciples preach risen Christ!

The disciples could not have believed in Jesus resurrection if his corpse still lay in the tomb. It would have been wholly un-Jewish. . . to believe that a man was raised from the dead when his body was still in the grave, [because resurrection] always meant physical, bodily resurrection [for Jews]
William Lane Craig

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Evidence of Empty Tomb


II. Historical reliability of Jesus burial as evidence for empty tomb A. assuming story of burial correct, then, people know its whereabouts = tomb empty when disciples preach risen Christ B. OR ELSE: if disciples preached resurrection of Jesus while His body still dead in the tomb, nobody would have believed them

One of the most remarkable facts about the early Christian belief in Jesus resurrection was that it ourished in the very city where Jesus had been publicly crucied. So long as the people of Jerusalem thought that Jesus body was in the tomb, few would have been prepared to believe such nonsense as that Jesus had been raised from the dead.
William Lane Craig

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Evidence of Empty Tomb


II. Historical reliability of Jesus burial as evidence for empty tomb A. assuming story of burial correct, then, people know its whereabouts = tomb empty when disciples preach risen Christ B. OR ELSE: if disciples preached resurrection of Jesus while His body still dead in the tomb, nobody would have believed them C. Jewish authorities would have exposed contrived story of resurrection (assuming historicity of burial)

Evidence of Empty Tomb


III. Multiple, independent attestation of empty tomb A. Matthew, Luke, John, (and Mark); B. 1 Cor 15:3-5

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Evidence of Empty Tomb


IV. State of the Dead
A. The idea that a man could be buried and then raised from the dead while his body still remained in the grave is a peculiarly modern notion. For rst-century Jews there would have been no question but that the tomb of Jesus would have been empty.

Evidence of Empty Tomb


V. Discovery of tomb by women A. women not credible witnesses B. low rung of society

The fact that women, whose testimony was deemed worthless, were the chief witnesses to the fact of the empty tomb can only be plausibly explained if, like it or not, they actually were the discoverers of the empty tomb (Craig).

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Evidence of Empty Tomb


VI.No veneration of tomb

It is extremely difcult to object to the empty tomb on historical grounds; those who deny it do so on the basis of theological or philosophical assumptions (D.H. Van Daalen). In a bibliographical survey of over 2,200 publications on the resurrection in English, French, and German since 1975, Habermas [apologeticist] found that 75 percent of scholars accepted the historicity of the discovery of Jesus empty tomb (William Lane Craig).

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Postmortem Evidence
I. Pauls list of eyewitnesses

http://st-takla.org/Pix/Jesus-Christ-our-Lord-n-Savior/24-After-Easter/www-St-Takla-org___Jesus-After-Resurrection-02.jpg

Evidence for Postmortem Appearances of Jesus


Friday, August 19, 2011 Friday, August 19, 2011

1 Cor 15:3-8
3 For I delivered to you rst of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve. 6 After that He was seen by over ve hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. 8 Then last of all He was seen by me also, as by one born out of due time.

This is a truly remarkable claim. We have here an indisputably authentic letter of a man personally acquainted with the rst disciples, and he reports that they actually saw Jesus alive after his death. More than that, he says that he himself also saw an appearance of Jesus.
William Lane Craig

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

Postmortem Evidence
I. Pauls list of eyewitnesses II. Multiple, independent attestation in Gospels Peter Twelve women Disciples in Galilee

Friday, August 19, 2011

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