Jon Topping – The Resurrection of Jesus, Part 1: Historical Evidence

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How the argument works 

Present historical evidence all relevant scholars agree upon

              Note = NOT accepting non-expert opinions. All “experts” agree on these facts.

Look at all possible explanations, and evaluate them

1. Does the explanation handle all the data?

2. Does the explanation commit a fallacy? (i.e. Flaw in logic and reasoning)

3. Does the explanation lead to ridiculous results and/or a conspiracy theory?

All naturalistic (non-supernatural) explanations fail quite badly.

The resurrection explains all the data, with no logical problems, or ridiculous conclusions.

Therefore, the resurrection is the best explanation of the agreed upon historical data.

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1. Jesus died by crucifixion.

Christian Sources: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, James, Jude, Paul.

              Non-biblical Christian sources: Epistle of Barnabas, Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus.

Non-Christian Sources: Tacitus, Josephus, Lucian of Samosata, Mara bar Serapion, Jewish Babylonian Talmud.

 

Tacitus, Annals (written 116ad)

“Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the
hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome.”

 

Alexamenos Graffito (created about 200ad)

Archeological evidence = Graffiti mocking Jesus. Written is “Alexamenos worships his God”, with Jesus on a cross with a donkey head. Very early archeological evidence that Jesus was crucified, and worshipped as God.

 

John Dominic Crossan: “Jesus’ death by crucifixion under Pontius Pilate is as sure as anything historical can ever be.”

 

 

2. Disciples strongly believed the resurrection (to the point of torture and martyrdom).

Christian Sources: Gospels, Acts, multiple epistles. Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Eusebius.

Non-Christian Sources: Tacitus, Pliny the Younger.

Liars make bad martyrs = No one dies for something they know is a lie. Therefore, they strongly believed.

Huge difference between those who “strongly believe” and the disciples, because the disciples were eyewitnesses of the events. If you saw everything happen, you would KNOW if it were true or false.

Gerd Lüdemann: “It may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus' death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.”

 

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3. Resurrection was taught very early after the crucifixion (likely less than 2 years after).

1 Corinthians 15:3-4
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

The wording (delivered to you, also received) is from Rabbinic tradition, showing it was a type of creed.

The creed states the foundations of Christianity = Death and resurrection of Christ for our sins.

This creed was already widespread and in use by the time of Paul’s conversion, 6 years after crucifixion.

Richard Carrier: “The evidence for this creed dating to the very origin of the religion is amply strong; and there is no reasonable basis for claiming otherwise.”

 

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4. Jesus’ brother, James, went from thinking Jesus was crazy, to converting, leading a church, and martyred.

What would it take for you to believe your sibling is the resurrected Son of God? Resurrection would do it!

James was a skeptic, then did believe, and we have an account in 1 Cor 15 that says he saw the risen Jesus.

Bible Sources: Mark 3; Mark 6; John 7; 1 Cor 15; Acts 15.

Christian sources: Eusebius, Church History, book 2, chapter 23 = Martyrdom of James

Non-Christian Source: Josephus, Antiquities 20.9.1 (written 93ad) = Martyrdom of James.

“So he [Ananus, the high priest] assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, and having accused them of breaking the law, he delivered them to be stoned.”

We even have a non-Christian historical record, from the same century, only a few decades after the events, that tells us Jesus’ own brother was a Christian, and was willing to be martyrdom for his faith in Jesus.

 

 

5. Paul went from persecuting the Church, to giving up everything in his conversion, and being martyred.

1 Cor 15:9; Gal 1:13; Acts 7:58 – 8:3 = Persecuted the Church. Acts 9:1-19 = Conversion.

Yes, this is the Bible, but scholars still recognize Paul’s writings, especially 1 Corinthians, as being legitimate to Paul, and an actual account of his experience. No scholar doubts his conversion.

Antony Flew: “The evidence of Paul is certainly important, and strong, precisely because he was a convert. He was not a prior believer, he was not an apostle, and the evidence that he hadn’t been previously a believer is about as clear as it could have been because he had been an active opponent. I think this has to be accepted as one of the most powerful bits of evidence that there is, precisely because he was converted by his vision.”

 

Paul’s beheading = Following Roman law (rather than burning)

Tertullian, Scorpiace 15:4 = Directly says Paul was beheaded.

Eusebius Ecclesiastical History 2.25.5 = Directly says Paul was beheaded.

 

 

6. Jesus’ tomb was found empty, and there was no body to present

Even the enemies admit empty tomb = They claimed the disciples stole the body, which implies it’s empty.

Enemies of Christianity admitting empty tomb = Matthew 28:13, Justin Martyr, and Tertullian.

If the tomb was not empty = Just show it! It would have destroyed Christianity before it started. They couldn’t.

There were many skeptics of Christianity, none even attempted to say the tomb wasn’t empty

 

Real way skeptics argue against the empty tomb = Crucifixion victims typically weren’t buried.

Part of crucifixion = Body is left up for everyone to see, “don’t defy Rome or you’re next”.

Problem = There were a few exceptions to this rule. It wasn’t a dogmatic rule.

              1 = If people asked for the body, it would usually be grant, except for extreme cases (treason).

                           Joseph of Arimathea asked for Jesus’ body to bury in his own tomb.

              2 = If it was a holiday, bodies would be granted burial.

                           It was Passover, a major Jewish holiday going back to Exodus.

              3 = Jews had a habit of burying bodies before nightfall.

                           Deuteronomy 21:22-23 = Body hanging on a tree? Bury before night, so no curse.

                                         Jews = Understood this to include crucifixion.

Flavius Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, 4.317 = Historical record from 1st century = Jews would bury crucifixion victims because of this.

John 19:31 = Confirms the Jews were following this with Jesus.

 

Jerusalem Factor = The events happened in a very public place, with lots of eye witnesses.

Jesus was killed, buried, resurrected, and proclaimed = All in the same place!

It would be nearly impossible to fool the very people who were present for the events.