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By Stephen Mitchell
Drs Gary Habermas and Mike Licona have written a book titled The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. In that book they have listed for us four facts accepted by all reputable scholars, Christian and non-Christian. They added one more fact which almost all reputable scholars accept. These are:
1. Jesus died by crucifixion.
2. Jesus’ disciples believed that he rose and appeared to them.
3. The church persecutor Paul was suddenly changed.
4. The skeptic James, the brother of Jesus, was suddenly changed.
and the fifth:
5. The tomb was empty.
With these five facts one can reasonably defend the historicity of the Resurrection in encountering opposing theories. I will summarize some of their examples listed.
A legend theory: The story just grew and was embellished over time before they were put into writing.
How does one answer this? First, it was the Disciples themselves who told the story of the Resurrection. They showed their total belief in this by suffering and dieing for its truthfulness. Second, the persecutor Paul changed from a persecutor to one who taught, suffered and eventually died for its truthfulness by what, he wrote, was an encounter with the risen Jesus. Third, this can be applied to the skeptic James as well. Fourth, simply asserting that the story changed over time does not make it so. There must be evidence that this happened and there is none.
How about the claim that the Gospel stories of the Resurrection are just moral tales, not meant to be taken as history?
First, this claim cannot account for the empty tomb. Second, a fable or moral story would not have convinced the church persecutor Paul. Third, neither would they have convinced the skeptic James. Fourth, the way opponents responded shows that the early church understood the Resurrection to be an historical event. Fifth, the accounts themselves present the event as historical.
What about the claim of fraud: the Disciples stole the body or the witnesses went to the wrong tomb or maybe someone else stole the body?
First, the Disciples claimed to have seen and interacted with the risen Jesus. For this claim they willingly suffered and died. Second, a story about the Resurrection did not convince the persecutor Paul. He himself wrote that it took an encounter with the risen Lord to change him. Third, simply an empty tomb was not convincing by itself. Only the Disciple John was convinced by the empty tomb. The rest, according to the early records, were not convinced until they had seen and interacted with the risen Jesus. Fourth, the early records show that the location of the tomb was known and even the enemies of Jesus accepted that it was empty.
Habermas and Licona discuss many more objections, showing how the evidence supports the historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who has questions about its truthfulness or who struggles to defend it against the critics and unbelievers. Just remember that, for anyone to take the final step of belief in Jesus, the witness of the Scriptures themselves need to be implemented by the work of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.
We need, as the apostle Peter wrote, to “sanctify Christ as Lord in [our] hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks [us] to give an account for the hope that is in [us], yet with gentleness and reverence; and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which [we] are slandered, those who revile [our] good behavior in Christ will be put to shame” (1Peter 3:15-16).
Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2004)
By Stephen Mitchell
The fifth and final statement (see previous 3 posts) on the resurrection that almost all reputable scholars accept:
5. The empty tomb.
How do we know it was empty? There are three lines of evidence that Habermas and Licona present. These are: The Jerusalem factor, enemy attestation, and the testimony of women.
What is the Jerusalem Factor? It is the simple fact that Jerusalem is not only where Jesus was crucified and buried, it is also where His resurrection was first preached. Anyone could have simply walked outside the city to the tomb and verified it for themselves. Even though the public preaching did not come, as far as we know, until fifty days after His death, He still would have been recognizable. “First, in the arid climate of Jerusalem, a corpse’s hair, stature, and distinctive wounds would have been identifiable, even after fifty days. Second, regardless of the condition of his body, the enemies of Jesus would still have found benefit in producing the corpse. Even a barely recognizable corpse could have dissuaded some believers, possible weakening and ultimately toppling the entire movement. Since that was the goal, Jesus’ enemies had every reason to produce his body, regardless of its condition. It is true that, upon viewing the corpse, many Christians would have claimed that it was a hoax. Nevertheless, there still would have been a huge exodus of believers who would have lost confidence in Christianity upon seeing an occupied tomb and a decaying corpse” (Habermas and Licona, p. 70).
There is also the claim of Him being seen by more than five hundred during the first forty days following His death and resurrection. All any of them would have had to do is walk outside Jerusalem and look into His tomb. Since the persecutor Paul claimed that most of those were still alive and could be spoken to several years later, anyone could have checked on the story. With the evidence of so many today traveling to see the supposed empty tomb, I would imagine that very many of those during the first forty days did the same. The first century records make the claim that at least two of the men did so: Peter and John. It was a short run for those men to the tomb so anyone who could walk could go see for themselves.
What about the enemy attestation? “The empty tomb is attested not only by Christian sources. Jesus’ enemies admitted it as well, albeit indirectly. Hence, we are not employing an argument from silence. Rather than point to an occupied tomb, early critics accused Jesus’ disciples of stealing the body (Matt. 28:12-13)” (Habermas and Licona, p. 71).
The story was still being circulated more than a hundred years later. The Christian author, Justin Martyr, in his 2nd century writing Dialogue with Trypho, which is his record of a discussion he had with a Jewish man, noted “yet you not only have not repented, after you learned that He rose from the dead, but, as I said before, you have sent chosen and ordained men throughout all the world to proclaim that a godless and lawless heresy had sprung from one Jesus, a Galilæan deceiver, whom we crucified, but his disciples stole him by night from the tomb, where he was laid when unfastened from the cross, and now deceive men by asserting that he has risen from the dead and ascended to heaven” (Book 4, chapter 8, section 15).
The story that the Disciples stole Jesus’ body is an implicit admission that the tomb was empty.
What about the testimony of women? In all four first century Christian accounts of the resurrection, women were the first to the tomb and the first to give testimony that the tomb was empty. Why is this significant? In the first century Jewish culture, women were not considered reliable witnesses. Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, wrote, “But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex, nor let servants be admitted to give testimony on account of the ignobility of their soul.” The Talmud also noted, “Any evidence which a woman [gives] is not valid.” Having women be the primary witness was a huge mistake for that culture, unless, of course, it was true. But women would be going to the tomb since, in that culture, the women prepared the bodies for burial and Jesus was taken down right at sunset so they would not have been able to finish their work on Jesus’ body. They would, in fact, have been the first to the tomb. In other words, the accounts have the mark of historical validity. One does not make up stories and have as their primary witnesses a group of people whose witness would not be accepted. And Luke recorded that the Disciples reacted according to their culture of disdaining the witness of women. “Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles. But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them” (Luke 24:10-11). Even the Romans had a similar view of women as witnessed by the early second century Roman historian Suetonius in his work, The Twelve Caesars.
So it certainly seems to be a reasonable conclusion that the tomb was empty.
In the last post in this series I will look at the way Habermas and Licona show us how these four facts plus one will work together to defend the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus.
Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2004)
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews
By Stephen Mitchell
From Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona’s book, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, in the first post, I listed the four facts about the resurrection of Jesus that all reputable scholars accept plus one fact that most accept. In this post I will discuss the third and fourth facts. These are:
3. The church persecutor Paul was suddenly changed.
4. The skeptic James, brother of Jesus, was suddenly changed.
Saul of Tarsus, later known as the Apostle Paul, was a well-known persecutor of the followers of Jesus. Luke wrote of his persecution in Acts chapters 7, 8, & 9. Paul himself wrote of his former opposition in his letters. To the church in Corinth he wrote: “For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (15:9). To the church at Philippi he wrote that he was “a persecutor of the church” (3:6). To the churches in the region of Galatia he wrote: “For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it; and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions” (1:13-14).
So we have to ask, ‘What changed him?’ The event that changed his life was recorded by Luke in Acts 9. Then Paul described it in his defense before the Jews and his trials before the Roman governor and the Jewish king Agrippa, these in Acts 22 and 26.
What makes Paul different than most other conversions is that Paul knew what the Christians were teaching and still vehemently opposed them. According to Paul’s own testimony, it took a visible, personal encounter with the risen Jesus for him to completely change his attitude towards the Christian claim of a risen Jesus. Paul affirmed he had seen the actual risen Lord himself.
He wrote about this in his first letter to the church at Corinth, chapter 15, verses 3-8:
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also.” (italics added)
Paul was so convinced of what he had seen that he was willing to suffer greatly and even to die for this person he claimed to have seen alive. He detailed much of what he suffered in his second letter to the church at Corinth in the eleventh chapter.
What is significant about the change in Jesus’ brother, the skeptic James? It is recorded that Jesus had four brothers, more than one sister, and that James was one of his brothers. Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote of James, “Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned” (Antiquities of the Jews, book 20, chapter 9).
The Gospel writers record that none of Jesus’ brothers believed in him. Mark actually recorded that his family thought Jesus had gone insane. Read what Mark wrote in chapter 3:
“And He came home, and the crowd *gathered again, to such an extent that they could not even eat a meal. When His own people heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, ‘He has lost His senses.’ … Then His mother and His brothers *arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him.”
John also wrote, in chapter 7, that “not even His brothers were believing in Him.”
Yet James, in spite of his early skepticism about his brother, became the leader of the Jerusalem church and had an excellent reputation among the Jews. He was even popularly called James the Just. What changed him.
Paul recorded that for us in the first letter he wrote to the church at Corinth, chapter 15. Go back and reread the quote above of what Paul wrote, “then He appeared to James.” Again, as for Paul so as for James. For both it is recorded that they were transformed from doubters to believers and followers by seeing the risen Jesus. Not from others’ testimony, but from a personal experience of the risen Jesus.
I will look at the fifth and final fact in the next post and then put it all together.
Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2004)
Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (electronic edition)
By Stephen Mitchell
In the first post I listed five statements, four of which are accepted by all reputable scholars, and the fifth by most. Then I listed the evidence for the first, that Jesus died by crucifixion. In this post I will look at the evidence for statement 2.
The second statement, “Jesus’ disciples believed that He rose and appeared to them,” is supported by the Disciples’ subsequent behavior. This is demonstrated in two ways, by their teaching and by their acceptance of suffering and death as a result of their teaching and evangelizing.
How do we know the Disciples actually taught this? Habermas and Licona list three ways to demonstrate this. They are 1) the Apostle Paul’s testimony, 2) the oral tradition of the early church, and 3) the written works of the early church. Paul noted, in his first letter to the church at Corinth, chapter 15, that he had had passed on to him the teaching that Jesus had died and risen again on the third day. Then he wrote, in verses 9-11, that both he and the apostles taught this. Since the widely accepted date of this letter is around A.D. 55, this constitutes an early testimony to the teaching of the disciples on the resurrection. But this passage also demonstrates an early oral tradition of the church. Verses 3-5 have been generally recognized as a creed of the early church. As such, Paul wrote that he had “received” it; i.e. it had been passed down to him. This would have been much earlier than the A.D. 55 date of the letter. Most likely it would have been within five years of the resurrection itself or, at most, within 20 years. The early sermons of the church recorded in Acts also show that the resurrection was a regular part of the teaching / preaching ministry of the Disciples. Also, the Gospels themselves, written within living memory of the life of Jesus, record His resurrection. As Paul noted in the letter quoted above, there were many still living who could corroborate or deny the truthfulness of the record. One only had to go ask them.
Then there are the written records of the early students of the original Disciples. Clement of Alexandria wrote a letter about A.D. 95 to the same church at Corinth as had Paul. He wrote that both Peter and Paul belonged to his generation. Irenaeus wrote in the second century A.D. that Clement had known the apostles and had heard them speak. Clement wrote of the Disciples, in section 42, “Having therefore received a charge, and having been fully assured through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and confirmed in the word of God with full assurance of the Holy Ghost, they went forth with the glad tidings that the kingdom of God should come.” Polycarp, who died a martyr at the age of 86 in about A.D. 160, was a student of the Apostle John according to Irenaeus. In Polycarp’s letter to the church in Philippi, written about A.D. 110, he wrote of the Disciples, “For they loved not the present world, but Him that died for our sakes and was raised by God for us.” So the early students of the Disciples taught the same thing the Disciples taught: that Jesus had risen from the dead.
How do we know the Disciples actually believed what they taught? Though many people throughout history have suffered and died for a lie, people do not suffer or die for what they know is a lie. J. Warner Wallace, in his book Cold Case Christianity, on page 110, noted, “In my experience as a detective, I have investigated many conspiracies and multiple-suspect crimes. While successful conspiracies are the popular subject of many movies and novels, I’ve come to learn that they are (in reality) very difficult to pull off.” (p. 110) After listing several reasons why they are difficult and why it would have been extremely difficult for the Disciples to have conspired to lie about Jesus’ resurrection, he continued,
“Successful conspiracies are unpressured conspiracies. The apostles, on the other hand, were aggressively persecuted as they were scattered from Italy to India. According to the records and accounts of the local communities, each of them suffered unimaginable physical duress and died a martyr’s death. Ancient writers recorded that Peter was crucified upside down in Rome, James was killed with the sword in Jerusalem, and Thomas was murdered by a mob in Mylapore. Each story of martyrdom is more gruesome than the prior as we examine the list of apostolic deaths. This pressure was far greater than the fear of state prison faced by Charlie and Vic, yet none of the Twelve recanted their claims related to the resurrection. Not one. I can’t imagine a less favorable set of circumstances for a successful conspiracy than those that the twelve apostles faced. Multiply the problem by ten to account for the 120 disciples in the upper room (Acts 1: 15), or by forty to account for the five hundred eyewitnesses described by Paul (1 Cor. 15: 6), and the odds seem even more prohibitive. None of these eyewitnesses ever recanted, none was ever trotted out by the enemies of Christianity in an effort to expose the Christian ‘lie.’” (pp. 113-114)
That the Disciples taught that Jesus was raised from the dead and appeared to them and then subsequently accepted suffering and death without recanting that teaching shows that “Jesus’ disciples believed that He rose and appeared to them.”
Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2004)
J. Warner Wallace, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook, 2013)
By Stephen Mitchell
Christians hold holy a Book different from all other ‘religious holy’ books. It is a Book about God and His workings in, on, and through history. As such, it is a ‘boots-on-the-ground’ type of book. We Christians call this Book, the Bible. In this Book the people, places, and events are presented as historical and should be open to verification archeologically and textually through other ancient records. As archeologist Stephen Collins stated, “If the history isn’t true, if the realities of the events and the world presented to us on the pages of the Bible didn’t actually occur, then where in the world do we get off trying to believe and place our lives on the invisible stuff?”
The greatest ‘invisible’ event presented in those pages is the resurrection of Jesus. On this event, presented as a historical reality, hinges all of the Christian Faith and the veracity of the Bible. As the Apostle Paul wrote:
“Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.” 1Corinthians 15:12-17
So, can the resurrection of Jesus be shown to be an actual historical event? We think so. In their book, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, Dr’s Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona list for us four evidences for the resurrection that virtually all reputable scholars, Christian and non-Christian, accept as true and one additional evidence that most, but not all, accept. These are:
1. Jesus died by crucifixion.
2. Jesus’ disciples believed that he rose and appeared to them.
3. The church persecutor Paul was suddenly changed.
4. The skeptic James, the brother of Jesus, was suddenly changed.
and the fifth:
5. The tomb was empty.
With these five facts, every reasoned objection to the historical resurrection can be answered.
For example, some have objected that Jesus never actually died on the cross, either because He never existed, or He simply passed out and was taken down by those who thought He was dead. As to Jesus’ existence, since one must exist before one can die, there were 9 ancient non-Christians authors who wrote about Jesus within 150 years of His death. There were only 5 ancient authors, including Julius Caesar himself, who wrote about Julius Caesar within 150 years of his death. No reasonable person should deny that Julius Caesar existed and no reasonable person should deny that Jesus existed. Of those ancient authors, Tacitus, Lucian of Samosata, and Josephus each state that Jesus was crucified. Mara Bar-Serapion wrote that he was executed.
Now, the Romans were experts in crucifixion and the nature of death by crucifixion is such that whether or not a person is dead is visibly obvious. A crucified person must shove up on their nailed feet / ankles in order to breathe. If they are not shoving up on the nail through their feet / ankles then they die very quickly through asphyxiation. Thus there can be no question of mistaking passing out for death. Jesus could not have ‘passed out’ and lived. He was either obviously alive or obviously dead. Since the ancient testimony is that he died by crucifixion, the first fact is confirmed, Jesus did exist and did die by crucifixion.
We will look at the second fact in the next post.
Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2004)
