Historical Evidence for Jesus’

Resurrection

What success looks like…

Goal: Give Evidence for the ResurrectionHypothesis ResurrectionHypothesis = <Jesus rose from

the dead>. Evidence (for an Hypothesis) = def. Any

data which makes the hypothesis in question seem more likely than it would seem without that data. [Pi(H|E) > Pi(H)]

What success looks like…

Goal: Give Evidence for the ResurrectionHypothesis ResurrectionHypothesis = <Jesus rose

from the dead>. Evidence (for an Hypothesis) = def. Any

data which makes the hypothesis in question seem more likely than it would seem without that data. [Pi(H|E) > Pi(H)] E.g.:<1 Cor 15:3-5 report> Joe (the Agnostic): “Weak evidence”

Joe’s “Explanation Pie”

Joe’s “Explanation Pie”

Joe’s Pie: After “Lie” hypothesis is rejected??

Joe’s Pie: After “Lie” hypothesis is rejected

Alternative Busting: Level I(“Starter Kit”)

Lie Busting

Gary Habermas: “On the state of Resurrection studies today, I recently completed an overview of more than 1,400 sources on the resurrection of Jesus published since 1975. I studied and catalogued about 650 of these texts in English, German, and French. Some of the results of this study are certainly intriguing. For example, perhaps no fact is more widely recognized than that early Christian believers had real experiences that they thought were appearances of the risen Jesus. A critic may claim that what they saw were hallucinations or visions, but he does not deny that they actually experienced something”

Objection: “Argument from Authority!”

Wesley Salmon: It would be a sophomoric mistake to suppose that every appeal to authority is illegitimate, for the proper use of authority plays an indispensable role in the accumulation and application of knowledge. [Logic, Foundations of Philosophy Series (Prentice-Hall, 1963) 63.]

Harry Gensler: Appeal to authority – correct form: 1. X holds that A is true. 2. X is an authority on the subject. 3. The consensus of authorities agrees with X. 4. :. There’s a presumption that A is true.

Incorrect forms omit premise 2 or 3, or conclude that A must be true. [...] This conclusion means that we ought to believe A unless we have special evidence to the contrary. [Introduction to Logic, 2nd ed. (Routledge, 2010) 61.]

Blunting Incredulity

Historical/Academic Commentaries on the NT

More

Paul’s Missionary Journey’s

Alternative Busting: Level II(“Essentials Kit”)

Habermas’s 12 “Minimal Facts”

1. Jesus died by Roman crucifixion. 2. He was buried, most likely in a private tomb. 3. Soon afterward, the disciples were discouraged,

bereaved, and despondent, having lost hope. 4. Jesus’s tomb was found empty very soon

after his interment. (Habermas says: Technically not a minimal fact: ~70-75%)

5. The disciples had experiences that they believed were actual appearances of the risen Jesus.

6. Due to these experiences, the disciples’ lives were thoroughly transformed, even being willing to die for this belief.

Alternative Busting: Level III(“Essentials Kit”)

Simple Argument #1 for Empty Tomb

Jesus’ corpse would've wiped out Christianity.7. The proclamation of the resurrection took

place very early, at the beginning of church history.

8. The disciples’ public testimony and preaching of the resurrection took place in the city of Jerusalem, where Jesus had been crucified and buried shortly before.

9. The Gospel message centered on the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Gospels are “Greco-Roman Biographies”

The “accepted scholarly consensus”: R.T. France: Fifty years ago we were drilled in

the critical orthodoxy of the form-critical school which insisted that the gospels were not to be seen as biographies, but since then there has been a massive swing in scholarly opinion on this point, [The Gospel of Mark (Eerdmans, 2002) 5.]

Richard Burridge: [t]his biographical understanding of the gospel genre has been subsequently confirmed in similarly detailed work by Frickenschmidt (1997) and has now become the accepted scholarly consensus. [“Gospel as Genre,” in Evans (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus (Routledge Press, 2008), 234.]

Argument #2 for Empty Tomb

Step 1. Mark: “Mary discovered empty tomb!”Step 2. It wasn’t a lie.

People normally aren’t lying. Objection: They wanted empty tomb

apologetics! A) Christians camped on appearance evidence. B) <Mk-”MarySaw!”> was inept apologetics

Women!?Reserved/Not opportunist

Excurses: Gospel Reliability

Pre-Gospel Christianity (AD 30-50)

"8. The disciples’ public testimony and preaching of the resurrection took place in the city of Jerusalem, where Jesus had been crucified and buried shortly before.”

“Jesus Tradition?”

Traditions: Special customs, beliefs, sayings, songs, and stories which a community collectively identifies with, preserves as authoritative, and inherits, being passed down orally from one generation to the next.

E.P. Sanders & Margaret Davies: “[e]veryone accepts oral transmission at the early stages of the gospel tradition.”

(Side note: Tradition Reliability)

Gregory Boyd & Paul Eddy:* A most significant expression of this historical awareness is that it is frequently the case in predominantly oral settings that, within the context of the performance arena, the audience shares in the responsibility of accurately preserving the essential historical remembrances. That is, if an oral performer misrepresents the tradition—sometimes in even relatively minor ways-the audience frequently corrects him in the midst of the performance. Hence, while the performer is entrusted with expressing and creatively adapting traditional oral material to each new setting, the collective memory of the community stands as a counterbalancing authority over each specific performance and over each individual tradent. This means that in most oral communities there are checks and balances that ensure that the substance of historically oriented oral tradition is not distorted or lost. [...] This quality of faithfulness to the tradition is vastly more important when one is dealing with what the community perceives to be historically rooted narrative, as opposed to entertainment-oriented folktales-a point almost systematically overlooked in many studies of the nature and reliability of oral tradition. […] If the early church was typical of predominantly oral cultures-and we have no reason to think it was not-then the community itself had a stake and responsibility in preserving the essential elements of the original oral history.

Christians Actively Preserved Jesus-Tradition

Mark was to be read out loud

Maurice Casey: It [Mk] would be read aloud at Christian meetings by someone who knew the story better than most people, and who would explain anything like this which the less knowledgeable members of the audience did not know, an unavoidable feature of some church meetings. Moreover, it was already known in the ancient period that Mark's gospel was not written down in order, which indeed it was not. [...] [t]he stage direction 'let the reader understand' refers to the situation when Mark's gospel would be read at Christian meetings, and the person who read it out would explain what it meant, including the reference back to Dan. 9.27 and to Caligulas threat to put his statue in the Temple of Jerusalem,

Traditions were lionized

Robert Stein: Such traditions were to be 'held' on to (I Cor. 15:1-2, 2 Thess. 2: 15); life was to be lived 'in accord‘ with the tradition (2 Thess, 3:6; Phil 4:9) [...] This incredible emphasis on tradition explains why early Christianity stressed the importance of "teachers" (e.g., Acts 13: 1; Rom. 12;7; I Cor. 12:28 29; Eph. 4:11; Heb. 5:12; James 3:1; Didache 15:1-2). In a predominantly oral community such as the early church, the primary function of these teachers would have been to faithfully transmit the oral traditions

2 Thes 2:15 -- stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught

Rom 16:17 -- Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.

Motive to preserve: Model for Christian Living

Pre-Gospel James Dunn: Paul uses the language of tradition

most often when talking about his converts' conduct and moral responsibilities (I Cor. 7.10; 9.14; 11.2 ; Phil. 4.9; Col. 2.6; I Thess. 4.1 ; II Thess. 2.15; 3.6). One of the most striking features of this ethical tradition is that it seems to draw its force very largely (perhaps even entirely) from the life of Jesus, that is, from the Jesus-tradition, both his words (I Cor. 7.10-Matt. 5.32.; I Cor. 9.14-Luke 10.7) and his conduct (Rom. 6.17; I Cor. 11.1; II Cor. 10.1; Phil. 2.5; Col. 2.6; Eph. 4.20). […]

Dunn continued…

[…] It would appear then that Paul is able at these points to draw on quite an extensive tradition about Jesus, and to assume that his converts were also familiar with it - a conclusion which is probably confirmed by the amount of Jesus' teaching

which Paul seems (consciously) to echo, particularly in the sections of his letters devoted to ethical teaching (e.g. Rom. 12.14; 13-9; 16.19; I Cor. 9.4; 13.2 ; Gal. 5.14; Phil. 4.6; I Thess. 5.2, 13, 15). This suggests in turn that the traditions which Paul passed on when he first established a new church (I Cor. 11.2; II Thess. 2.15; 3.6) included a fair amount of tradition about Jesus, though whether in fragmentary form or already gathered in various topical collections we cannot say.”

1 Cor 11:25 Luke 22:19-20

For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood

And when He had taken some bread and given thanks, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 20 And in the same way He took the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood.

Luke & Paul

More motive to preserve:

(a) Their self-identity was wrapped up in Jesus.(b) Jesus was Christianity's “founder”.(c) Jesus-biographies were written.

Lk 1:1 - “Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; 4 so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.”

(Side Note: Tradition Reliability)

Richard Swinburne:* I made the point earlier that the other Gospel writers belonged to churches founded and visited by representatives of more central churches, themselves founded or authorized indirectly by the apostles. They were founded and reinvigorated by a stream of oral tradition. Gospels were written to flesh out the tradition, and to ensure that, with the course of time, it did not get misreported. But they were not the primary vehicles of its transmission in the first fifty years. No one founded a church as a result of having bought a copy of St Mark's Gospel from the local bookstore and being impressed by its message!

“Protective anonymity” in Mark: #1

Mk 14:3-9 -- While He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head. […][Jesus said] Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”

Richard Bauckham: The solution to this anomaly in Mark's text is […] "protective anonymity." At the time when this tradition took shape in this form in the early Jerusalem church, this woman would have been in danger were she identified as having been complicit in Jesus' politically subversive claim to messianic kingship. Her danger was perhaps even greater than that of the man who attacked the servant of the high priest, for it was she who had anointed Jesus as Messiah.

“Protective anonymity” in Mark: #2

Mk 14:46-47 -- They laid hands on Him and seized Him. 47 But one of those who stood by drew his sword, and struck the slave of the high priest and cut off his ear.

Gerd Theissen: "as long as members of the squad which arrested Jesus were still alive, it was inopportune to give the names of the two followers of Jesus who had resisted arrest."

Back to: Argument #2 for Empty Tomb

Mark Allan Powell: “[t]he dominant [view now is] that the passion narratives are early and based on eyewitness testimony.”

<MaryWitnessed> was overtly falsifiable; Mary was right there in the Jerusalem church! Nigel Watson:* “What did Mary [et. al.], have

to say about it, when rumours began to circulate in the early church that they had found the tomb of Jesus empty on the morning after the Sabbath?” [Same: For their loved ones]

The witnesses were there (Part 1)

Vincent Taylor: If the Form-Critics are right, the disciples must have been translated to heaven immediately after the Resurrection.; [Jerusalm Christians] did not go into permanent retreat; for at least a generation they moved among the young Palestinian communities, and through preaching and fellowship their recollections were at the disposal of those who sought information.

Birger Gerhardsson: Obviously they [Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James/Joses, and Salome] were mentioned originally as witnesses to whom the curious listener might turn and interrogate.

The witnesses were there (Part 2)

Richard Bauckham: [i]n the period up to the writing of the Gospels, Gospel traditions were connected with named and known eyewitnesses, people who had heard the teaching of Jesus from his lips and had committed it to memory, people who had witnessed the events of his ministry, death and resurrection and themselves had formulated the stories about these that they told. These eyewitnesses did not merely set going a process of oral transmission that soon went its own way without reference to them. They remained throughout their lifetimes the sources and […] authoritative guarantors of the stories they continued to tell.