The Historical Argument (VI)

In my last post, I began exploring the different possibilities for how we might explain the evidence that we have about the events surrounding the death of Jesus of Nazareth. Evaluating the various alternatives, I argued for the conclusions that:

• the crucifixion and burial really happened,
• the tomb really was found empty on the third day, and
• the reports of the resurrection appearances cannot reasonably be explained by invention, lie, hallucination, or mistake – leaving the alternative that Jesus really was alive following his crucifixion.

Now I will explore the remaining possibilities for what happened in those days, continuing from my last post.

Alternatives: The Fate of the Body

(5) Assume that there was a crucifixion thought to be of Jesus of Nazareth in the early first century in Judea. Then, either 5.1.1 or 5.1.2:

(5.1.1) After the crucifixion, the body thought to be of Jesus was not placed in a generally known location (where by generally known, I mean known to at least some of Jesus’ followers and at least some members of the Jerusalem community). (Unburied)

(5.1.2) After the crucifixion, said body was placed in a generally known location, in which case either 5.2.1 or 5.2.2:

(5.2.1) On the first day of the week following the crucifixion, the body was still where it had been buried. (Remained Buried)

(5.2.2) On the first day of the week following the crucifixion, the body was not still where it had been buried, in which case either 5.3.1 or 5.3.2:

(5.3.1) The body was alive (and so either moved under its own power or with assistance of someone or something else). (Alive Post-Crucifixion)

(5.3.2) The body was dead (and so someone or something else moved it), in which case either 5.4.1 or 5.4.2:

(5.4.1) The body was moved by supernatural forces or entities. (Supernatural Mischief)

(5.4.2) The body was moved by natural forces or entities, in which case either 5.5.1 or 5.5.2:

(5.5.1) Non-human natural forces or entities moved the body (animals, an earthquake, etc.). (Natural Forces)

(5.5.2) Humans moved the body, either 5.5.2.1, 5.5.2.2, or 5.5.2.3:

(5.5.2.1) Friends of Jesus moved the body. (Friendly Theft)

(5.5.2.2) Enemies of Jesus moved the body. (Hostile Theft)

(5.5.2.3) Neutral third-parties moved the body. (Third-Party Theft)

This set of alternatives is about what happened to the body that was crucified, in order to explain the reports of the empty tomb. I have phrased things to leave open the slight possibility (which I will consider with the next set of alternatives) that Jesus somehow escaped from the crucifixion, meaning, since a crucifixion definitely happened, that someone else was crucified in his place. But whether it was Jesus or just someone thought to be Jesus who was crucified, the body still needs to be accounted for.

The hypotheses that the body was not buried in a generally known location (may it was thrown in a common grave by the Roman soldiers, and nobody noticed where they had so disposed it), or that the body remained where it had been buried, fail to explain the evidence that we have for the historicity of the burial and empty tomb accounts. So we can reject them as already ruled out by the evidence:

(5.6) 5.1.1 and 5.2.1 are false.

The hypothesis that the body was alive leads to the more interesting question of how that happened, so I’ll just note for the next set of alternatives that the explanations for how the body could be alive also need to explain how the body got out of the tomb, if it was indeed placed there. For this set, the alternatives for how the dead body could have been removed from the tomb remain to be evaluated.

Natural Forces Hypothesis

The possibility that something like an earthquake or wild animals moved the body is made implausible by details of the burial account. Since we have good evidence for the historicity of the burial account, we can reasonably accept that Jesus (or the body thought to be Jesus) was placed in a tomb cut out of the rock, which was then sealed with a large stone rolled over the entrance. These details are corroborated by all the Gospel accounts.

But this means that wild animals could not have gotten into the tomb to move the body; any kind of wind or surge of water from a storm would not have affected it either, and an earthquake that successfully moved the body (maybe by burying it under a pile of broken rocks, or swallowing it into a crack in the earth) would have resulted in some level of destruction to the tomb as well.

But there is no evidence that the tomb was destroyed like this. And if it had been destroyed, the empty tomb accounts would have almost certainly reflected this. (That is, supposing a giant crack in the ground wouldn’t instead have produced the belief that God was confirming his curse against Jesus by taking his dead body right down to Sheol.)

The hypothesis that aliens moved the body would also fall under this alternative, but we can easily reject that possibility as implausible and ad-hoc. We have no good reason to think that aliens exist, or that it would be feasible for them to travel to our planet and so subtly interfere in human affairs even if they did exist, or that they would have any motive to do so if they could.

Thus, we can reject 5.5.1.

Theft Hypotheses

Theories that someone moved the body after it had been buried, which I’ve called “theft” hypotheses after the classic objection that the disciples stole the body, are similarly implausible in light of the evidence.

The possibility that the disciples stole the body is part of one of the oldest alternative explanations for the resurrection evidences: the conspiracy hypothesis. It requires that the disciples lied about the resurrection and the reason for the empty tomb, since one or more of them knew that the whole thing was false. (And if it was not all of them, it fails to explain the resurrection appearances as well.) So it faces all the weaknesses of the false testimony hypothesis that I discussed in my last post. In particular, it is entirely ad-hoc to suggest that the disciples had any motive to do this, and it is implausible that they would go on to willingly face suffering and death for the lie.

This hypothesis faces even further difficulty, of course, if Matthew’s account of the guard at the tomb is historical, for then the disciples would have needed both to get past the guard and to roll away the stone in order to move the body.

Similarly, enemies of Jesus would have had no motive to move his body after he was dead: by that point, he had been dealt with. As for neutral third-parties: if, for example, graverobbers had thought that a rich man was buried in the tomb instead of Jesus, they might have gone through the bother of rolling the stone away (assuming the guard didn’t pose a problem), but finding only the body of a crucified man, they would have just left it there.

Oh, here’s a novel suggestion! Graverobbers rolled the stone away on Friday night, found nothing of value and left the body there; then wild animals came and dragged the body away; then an earthquake rolled the stone back over the entrance; and then the guards didn’t bother to check if there was still a body there when they arrived Saturday morning. Oh, and them someone rolled the stone away again so that the women could discover the empty tomb on Sunday. And then, presumably, the disciples had coherent and detailed mass hallucinations which convinced them, not that they were seeing visions, but that Jesus had actually risen from the dead.

(That is what we call a fantastic, ad-hoc hypothesis.)

The other suggestion for a neutral third-party who might have moved the body is none other than Joseph of Arimathea. This theory postulates that Joseph did not actually care about Jesus, but only placed him in his family tomb because it was close by and time was short before the beginning of the Sabbath. But then he moved the body to a common graveyard later, since the criminal was unworthy to be buried in his tomb.

This hypothesis is fairly deficient. It ignores the evidence that we do have for Joseph’s motives, and postulates different motives for which we have no evidence. The time frame is difficult: since the women discovered the empty tomb early in the morning on Sunday, Joseph would have had to move the body as soon as he possibly could after the Sabbath for this explanation to work. If he despised having Jesus in his tomb so much that he took the earliest opportunity to move him, why bury him there in the first place? Did he also bury, and then move, the two criminals crucified with Jesus? This is all the more implausible since we have evidence that Jewish custom prohibited moving a body once it was buried.

But the greatest deficiency of this hypothesis is that it implies Joseph and his servants knew where the body of Jesus was located after it was moved. Which means that unless Joseph (and others who had helped him move the body) suddenly died before Pentecost, the disciples would not have been able to successfully preach the resurrection. Joseph, not a friend of Jesus in this scenario, would have simply corrected them by pointing out that he had moved the body. It doesn’t matter if the body was decomposed and unrecognizable by that point: it would have been the word of an influential member of society against the word of some country bumpkins.

So 5.5.2 is an implausible alternative as well.

Supernatural Mischief Hypothesis

Finally, we have to consider the possibility that some supernatural entity or force removed the dead body from the tomb (without actually raising that body from the dead). This faces the same difficulty as the theory that a supernatural power gave the disciples visions of Jesus: we have no reason to think that there are any supernatural powers who would have a motive to remove the body. If the power is not Yahweh, it is completely out of the blue. If the power is Yahweh, he either would have no reason to deceive the disciples (if Jesus was not who he said he was), or he would have no reason to skip the actual resurrection (if Jesus was who he said he was).

So there is really no reason to believe that 5.4.1 is true, and it seems unlikely in the absence of a coherent motive to attribute to the supposed supernatural entity.

Evaluation

Therefore, all of the alternatives aside from 5.3.1 are either highly implausible, or they fail to explain the evidence that we have for the empty tomb, or both. Assuming that the remaining alternative does not suffer from those defects, I think we can rationally claim:

(5.7) 5.4.1, 5.5.1, and 5.5.2 are false.

Which means that the man that was placed in the tomb was later found alive – and either had assistance leaving the tomb or was able to do so under his own power.

Alternatives: The Fate of Jesus

(6) Assume that there was a crucifixion thought to be of Jesus of Nazareth in the early first century in Judea. Then, either 6.1.1 or 6.1.2:

(6.1.1) On the first day of the week following the crucifixion, Jesus of Nazareth was dead. (Dead)

(6.1.2) On the first day of the week following the crucifixion, Jesus of Nazareth was alive, in which case either 6.2.1 or 6.2.2:

(6.2.1) Jesus had not been crucified (and so someone else had been crucified in his place). (Escape)

(6.2.2) Jesus had been crucified, in which case either 6.3.1 or 6.3.2:

(6.3.1) Jesus survived the crucifixion, either 6.3.1.1 or 6.3.1.2:

(6.3.1.1) He survived by somehow faking the crucifixion. (Fake Crucifixion)

(6.3.1.2) He survived by suffering the actual crucifixion but not dying. (Swoon)

(6.3.2) Jesus died from the crucifixion, in which case either 6.4.1 or 6.4.2:

(6.4.1) Jesus resurrected naturally. (Scientific Anomaly)

(6.4.2) Jesus resurrected supernaturally, in which case either 6.5.1 or 6.5.2:

(6.5.1) Some supernatural forces or entities other than Yahweh raised Jesus. (Supernatural Mischief)

(6.5.2) Yahweh raised Jesus. (Resurrection)

Normally, the hypothesis that Jesus was dead following the crucifixion would be by far the most plausible. The problem is that this leaves the resurrection appearances nearly inexplicable: as I’ve argued, all the other theories trying to explain the appearances (invention, false testimony, hallucination, mistake) are highly implausible and lack explanatory power. Unless the same is true of all the alternatives in which Jesus is found alive, it is rational (by inference to the best explanation) to claim:

(6.6) 6.1.1 is false.

Now I will explore the hypotheses in which Jesus is alive following the crucifixion.

Escape Hypothesis

Under this hypothesis Jesus somehow escaped from being crucified. But since a crucifixion did occur, this implies that someone else was crucified in his place. Barabbas is occasionally hypothesized as the actual victim, under the suggestion that Pilate or his soldiers got them confused. This, I believe, is quite improbable: it implies that Barabbas and Jesus looked similar enough to be easily confused, and that no one noticed that the wrong person had been released and the wrong person was being scourged and crucified.

(Admittedly the disfigurement from the pre-crucifixion abuse would have made recognizing Jesus more difficult – but don’t you think, even before it began, Barabbas would have been saying, “Wait! Pilate said to release me! I’m not Jesus, I’m the other guy!” And wouldn’t a brief examination have revealed the truth at that point?)

That is basically the best-case scenario for this hypothesis: any other version of it begins to look like a conspiracy theory where Pilate or some of the Roman soldiers carrying out the crucifixion happened to be secretly in league with Jesus, and helped him escape the crucifixion for inscrutable reasons. (Crucifying some poor random soul in the process.) And then it has to be the case that no one ever found out about what really happened.

Moreover, this hypothesis fails to fully explain the evidence. For the resurrection appearances, to completely convince the disciples, Jesus would have needed to fake the crucifixion wounds and pull off the miraculous aspects of the appearances – such as the ascension. (And if Jesus was a mere man and had successfully deceived his disciples of his resurrection, why didn’t he stay and become the political messiah the Jews were expecting?)

As for the empty tomb, the body of whoever was crucified and buried in Jesus’ place still had to be removed. This is a particularly salient difficulty with the escape hypothesis.

Thus, we can reject alternative 6.2.1 as implausible and explanatorily weak.

Fake Crucifixion Hypothesis

I’ve sometimes seen the conjecture that Jesus was some kind of master street magician, as a way to explain his reported miracles, and this gets extended to the hypothesis that the crucifixion was his greatest trick. This is even more implausible than the escape hypothesis, since it basically guarantees that the Roman soldiers were in on the trick. Deceptions like that require preparation and controlled conditions, and can’t have people looking too closely in the wrong places. And this hypothesis faces all the same explanatory difficulties as the escape hypothesis, at least regarding the resurrection appearances. (Since this is already a conspiracy hypothesis involving Roman soldiers, we can at least grant that this hypothesis has sufficient explanatory power regarding the empty tomb, though it certainly is lacking in plausibility.)

So 6.3.1.1 is almost certainly false.

Swoon Hypothesis

This is the old theory that Jesus never died on the cross – he just passed out. And then he survived being stabbed with a spear, woke up inside a sealed tomb in agony with severe wounds, including injuries to his feet which would have made it almost impossible to walk. And then he still managed to escape the tomb, present himself disfigured and gasping before the disciples, and convince them, not that he had survived and was badly in need of medical attention, but that he was the glorious conqueror of death itself.

Basically, the hypothesis of surviving the crucifixion is ridiculous. It is just not a medical possibility. We have one account of someone surviving a crucifixion, and that is only because they were taken down prematurely and given the best medical attention available (and in the same account, two others who were also taken down and treated still died). The Roman soldiers could be relied upon to do their job correctly, and indeed, the crucifixion accounts record that Jesus was speared to verify that he was dead.

So the probability of survival is basically zero, and even if Jesus had survived, he wouldn’t have been able to get out of the tomb. And even if he had escaped the tomb, his appearance would not have elicited the disciples’ belief in a resurrection to immortality. If someone helped him leave the tomb and patched him up first, we have an ad-hoc conspiracy hypothesis on our hands.

And therefore, 6.3.1.2 is false as well.

Scientific Anomaly Hypothesis

This is the hypothesis that Jesus came back to life through purely natural causes. But dead men do not naturally come back to life – certainly not without intervention, given what we know about the laws of nature, and dubious even if we begin wildly speculating about Jesus having access to alien nanotechnology, or something. So we can reject 6.4.1 with ease.

Supernatural Mischief Hypothesis

The above alternatives exhaust the naturalistic explanations for the events surrounding the death of Jesus. Thus, we have to turn to supernatural explanations. This hypothesis, 6.5.1, is that Jesus was raised from the dead by some supernatural force or entity other than Yahweh, the God of Israel, with whom Jesus claimed a unique relationship.

The difficulty with this hypothesis, as we have already seen, is that it is ad-hoc. Since the only supernatural being in the religious context of this event is Yahweh, we have no reason to ascribe a motive for raising Jesus to any other purported entity. (Well, you could argue that Satan, Yahweh’s enemy, is part of the religious context as well: but there doesn’t seem to be any good motive for a being playing that role to raise Jesus, either.)

You could hypothesize that this is literally the work of a trickster deity, something like Loki. But in that case the supposed “trick” is not all that, well, tricksy. Instead of resulting in a great joke, it spawned a religion that millions of people believe provides the most coherent and comprehensive worldview for explaining reality, a religion that has benefited society in many ways. (See the series of episodes starting here on the Communio Sanctorum podcast for examples of how Christianity has been a positive influence on the world.) So it does not actually seem like something a trickster god would do.

At this point, it is relevant to note that in that culture and context, miracles were conceived of as signs, authenticating the message of the one who performed the miracle. (And in fact, miracles are commonly called “signs” in the New Testament.) They were thought of as indications of divine power, and divinities were beings that you wanted to listen to. In the Gospels, Jesus himself teaches that his miracles and resurrection authenticated his identity and message (Mark 2:1-12, Matthew 11:1-5, Matthew 12:38-42). The early Christians took the resurrection to do exactly that (Acts 17:31, for example).

Since this is the way that miracles were conceptualized, this is what Jesus’ resurrection would have communicated to the people in that context: that Jesus was who he said he was, and that the message he preached was true. It is pretty reasonable to suppose that any supernatural being in a position to perform the resurrection would have known that, and so would only have performed the resurrection if they wanted to affirm Jesus’ message.

Therefore, it really only makes sense for a supernatural power to raise Jesus from the dead if that power was affirming Jesus’ message, and therefore appropriating the identity that Jesus claimed a unique relationship with: the identity of Yahweh.

Evaluation

Given the evaluations of the above alternatives, I think it is quite reasonable to claim:

(6.7) 6.2.1, 6.3.1, 6.4.1, and 6.5.1 are false.

And this means that the historical evidence for the events surrounding the death of Jesus of Nazareth points, rather strongly, to the explanation that the God of Israel raised Jesus from the dead.

Now, this does not prove that conclusion. And that’s because I think premises 4.5 (which implies 6.6), 5.7, and 6.7 are rational to assert only if the final alternative 6.5.2 (which implies 4.4.2 and 5.3.1) has a sufficient combination of explanatory power and plausibility to outweigh the other options. (And that is because what I am doing here is essentially an abductive argument, not a deductive argument.)

Note: to a lesser extent, this is also true of premises 1.3 (which satisfies the condition on the first statement of the remaining syllogisms), 2.3 (which implies part of 5.6), and 3.5 (which implies 5.6); and that 6.5.2 is taken to also imply 1.2.2, 2.2.2, and 3.4.2. But I find those first three premises completely rational to assert in light of the historical evidence, no matter how we evaluate 6.5.2.

In my next post, I’ll argue that 6.5.2, the resurrection hypothesis, is reasonably plausible and has high explanatory power for the evidence, so that (given the failure of the alternatives) we are justified in believing it.

The Historical Argument (V)

In my last few posts, I have been exploring the evidence for the events surrounding the death of Jesus of Nazareth in the early first century of the common era. With this post, I want to explore how these facts can be explained. My goal here is to be logically comprehensive, so that I do not miss any possible explanations. (My method here is inspired by this essay from Andrew Loke.)

Towards that goal, I will divide the space of possibilities into a few mutually exclusive and exhaustive alternatives along six different (though somewhat interdependent) axes. Then I will look to the evidence to rule out various alternatives as highly improbable, based on their level of plausibility and power to explain the evidence, so that it is reasonable to believe that they are false. If successful, this will leave only one viable alternative in each category.

Alternatives: The Crucifixion

(1) Either 1.1.1 or 1.1.2:

(1.1.1) There were no eyewitness reports of a crucifixion thought to be of Jesus of Nazareth in the early first century in Judea. In this case, the records that we have of such an event are later inventions. (Crucifixion Invention)

(1.1.2) There were eyewitness reports of such a crucifixion, in which case either 1.2.1 or 1.2.2:

(1.2.1) All such reports were lies or the result of unveridical experiences. (Crucifixion Mass Delusion)

(1.2.2) There was at least one genuine, veridical eyewitness report of a crucifixion thought to be of Jesus of Nazareth in the early first century in Judea – in which case there was such a crucifixion. (Historical Crucifixion)

The evidence that I cited earlier – multiple early sources for the crucifixion, the implausibility of it being an invention because of the great shame associated with crucifixion, the lack of any evidence for an original “mythical” version of Christianity – is sufficient to make 1.1.1 almost certainly false. And at the same time, it would strain credulity far beyond the breaking point to assume that the entire population of Jerusalem at the time ended up deceived or deluded into thinking that a certain crucifixion happened when it did not. (The crucifixion is supposed to be a public spectacle, and it occurred at Passover, a highly memorable occasion. It would have been witnessed by hundreds, if not thousands of people.) So 1.2.1 is also highly implausible.

Therefore, it is entirely rational to assert:

(1.3) 1.1.1 and 1.2.1 are false.

Which means that we can conclude that the crucifixion of Jesus was a historical event.

Alternatives: The Burial

(2) Assume that there was a crucifixion thought to be of Jesus of Nazareth in the early first century in Judea. Then, either 2.1.1 or 2.1.2:

(2.1.1) There were no eyewitness reports of the burial of the body thought to be of Jesus of Nazareth following his crucifixion. In this case, the records that we have of such an event are later inventions. (Burial Invention)

(2.1.2) There were eyewitness reports of such a burial, in which case either 2.2.1 or 2.2.2:

(2.2.1) All such reports were lies or the result of unveridical experiences. (Burial Delusion)

(2.2.2) There was at least one genuine, veridical eyewitness report of the burial of the man thought to be Jesus of Nazareth following his crucifixion – in which case there was such a burial. (Historical Burial)

Again, the evidence that I reviewed earlier – multiple early sources for the burial, the implausibility that certain details of the account (Joseph of Arimathea) would be invented, the lack of any report to the contrary – is sufficient to make it extremely likely that 2.1.1 is false. And it is even more unbelievable that all the original accounts of the burial were deluded – how would that have even happened? – making it extremely likely that 2.2.1 is false as well.

Therefore, we can assert:

(2.3) 2.1.1 and 2.2.1 are false.

Which means that the burial of Jesus is also a historical event.

Alternatives: The Empty Tomb

(3) Assume that there was a crucifixion thought to be of Jesus of Nazareth in the early first century in Judea. Then, either 3.1.1 or 3.1.2:

(3.1.1) There were no eyewitness reports of the discovery of the empty tomb on the first day of the week following the crucifixion. In this case, the records that we have of such a discovery are later inventions. (Empty Tomb Invention)

(3.1.2) There were eyewitness reports of such a discovery, in which case either 3.2.1 or 3.2.2:

(3.2.1) All such reports were lies. (Empty Tomb False Testimony)

(3.2.2) At least one such report was genuine, in which case 3.3.1 or 3.3.2:

(3.3.1) All such genuine reports were the result of intra-mental experiences. (Empty Tomb Hallucination)

(3.3.2) At least one such report was the result of an extra-mental experience, in which case either 3.4.1 or 3.4.2:

(3.4.1) No such extra-mental experiences correctly identified the tomb as empty. (Empty Tomb Mistaken)

(3.4.2) At least one such experience correctly identified the tomb as empty – in which case the body thought to be of Jesus was buried following the crucifixion, but did not remain where it was buried. (Historical Empty Tomb)

The evidence for the historicity of the empty tomb account – the dependence of the origin of Christianity on the empty tomb, the early well-established sources for the empty tomb account, the testimony of the women, and the Jewish polemic against the resurrection – gives us strong reason to reject 3.1.1.

The other non-traditional alternatives, 3.2.1, 3.3.1, and 3.4.1, are also fairly easy to dismiss. If the original reports of the empty tomb were lies, or if they were the result of hallucinations or mistakes (for example, the women went to the wrong tomb early in the morning), it would have been easy enough to go and check the tomb to see if those claims were true (which is exactly what the Gospels show the disciples doing). In which case, unless the tomb really was empty, the whole story would have immediately fallen apart.

In order for these alternatives viable, the location of the burial cannot be known, which means that the historicity of the burial account has to be denied. But, as we’ve seen, there is strong evidence for the burial account. And even if that is granted, these alternatives still lack explanatory power. Without the possibility of verification, it is far more likely that the lie would have been found out, or the hallucination or mistake would have been quickly recognized for what it was, than it is that the story would have gotten off the ground.

On top of that, these alternatives are intrinsically implausible: there would have been no motive to lie about the empty tomb, the chance of hallucinating it is miniscule (especially considering that it was a group of women who discovered it, not an individual), and the probability of going to the wrong tomb or having some other kind of mix-up is still relatively small.

So we can very reasonably claim:

(3.5) 3.1.1, 3.2.1, 3.3.1, and 3.4.1 are false.

From which we can conclude that Jesus’ body (or at the very least, the body that was thought to be Jesus) was entombed following the crucifixion, but didn’t stay there.

Alternatives: The Resurrection Appearances

(4) Assume that there was a crucifixion thought to be of Jesus of Nazareth in the early first century in Judea. Then, either 4.1.1 or 4.1.2:

(4.1.1) There were no eyewitness reports of resurrection appearances following the crucifixion. In this case, the records that we have of such appearances are later inventions. (Invention)

(4.1.2) There were eyewitness reports of such appearances, in which case either 4.2.1 or 4.2.2:

(4.2.1) All such reports were lies. (False Testimony)

(4.2.2) At least one such report was genuine, in which case 4.3.1 or 4.3.2:

(4.3.1) All such genuine reports were the result of intra-mental experiences, either 4.3.1.1 or 4.3.1.2:

(4.3.1.1) Naturally occurring intra-mental experiences. (Hallucinations)

(4.3.1.2) Supernaturally occurring intra-mental experiences. (Supernatural Visions)

(4.3.2) At least one such report was the result of an extra-mental experience, in which case either 4.4.1 or 4.4.2:

(4.4.1) No such extra-mental experiences correctly identified Jesus as alive following the crucifixion. (Mistaken Identity)

(4.4.2) At least one such experience correctly identified Jesus alive following the crucifixion. (Alive Post-Crucifixion)

Invention Hypothesis

The evidence that I have gathered for the historicity of the resurrection appearances – the testimony of Paul, oral and written tradition from the early Christian movement, and the very origin of the belief in the resurrection – strongly disfavours the alternative 4.1.1. But there is some more we can say on that subject.

All the evidence points to the belief in Jesus’ resurrection appearing very early: it is attested in the creed preserved in 1 Corinthians 15, dated to within five years after the crucifixion. This can only be explained if it is something that was believed by the original disciples of Jesus, since they were certainly still around at that time.

But the original disciples were Jews, and so were not disposed towards the idea of the resurrection that they claimed for Jesus: which was not just a return to mortal life, but a resurrection to glory and immortality. Jews only believed that such a resurrection would occur to the righteous followers of God at the end of history. We can see this in the way that Jesus’ followers reacted to some of his statements:

• When Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, Martha believed Jesus was talking about Lazarus’ end times resurrection. (John 11:23-24)
• When Jesus predicted his own death and resurrection, his disciples ask about something that was thought of as an eschatological event – Elijah coming to announce the Day of Yahweh, from a prophecy of Isaiah. (Mark 9:9-11)

There was no belief in Judaism of the messiah’s death and resurrection, nor was there any belief linking the general resurrection of believers in the end times to the specific resurrection of the messiah in the middle of history. So the disciples did not get the idea of Jesus’ resurrection from Judaism.

And they did not get this idea from pagan myths, either, despite the kind of claims made by Jesus mythicists. There are no actual parallels to the resurrection of Jesus in pagan mythology – the supposed parallels are so weak, it is really laughable – and there is no plausible influence from pagan mythology onto the ideas of early first century Jews, anyways. (William Lane Craig mentions that scholars have actually come to doubt that there are any myths of dying and rising gods!)

So the invention hypothesis can be rejected. The origin of Christianity cannot be explained without the disciples claiming to have seen Jesus resurrected.

False Testimony Hypothesis

This is the hypothesis that the disciples lied about witnessing the risen Jesus. This is literally a conspiracy theory, and so is highly ad-hoc. It has to postulate motives and ideas for the disciples for which there is absolutely no evidence, in contradiction to the most plausible frame of mind that they would have been in following Jesus’ crucifixion: one of dejection and defeat, or even fear.

In real life conspiracies like this are highly unstable. It just takes one member of the conspiracy to desist and admit to the lie, and the whole thing falls apart. But that never happened in this case: we have no evidence that anyone who claimed to witness the resurrection ever recanted that claim. (And there were as many as 500 such witnesses, according to the apostle Paul.) Given the historical evidence, we cannot reasonably deny that the disciples genuinely believed in the resurrection: they staked their very lives on this claim, and their lives were radically transformed.

There is a difference between willing to die for an ideology, and being willing to die to attest to an empirical fact. (I think that line comes from Tim and Lydia McGrew’s article on the resurrection from The Blackwell Companion to Natural Theology.) The disciples were not just convinced of an ideology, though even if that were the case, how they became convinced of that ideology would have to be explained. All the evidence indicates they were convinced that they had personally witnessed Jesus resurrected.

So the false testimony hypothesis is really implausible. The disciples had no reason to think that they had anything to gain by lying and inventing the resurrection – Jesus had just been crucified! Continuing to promote him as the messiah and the Son of God could only have gotten them in trouble with the authorities who had killed him. It is completely fantastic to suggest that the idea of such a conspiracy would have occurred to them, or that they would have been successful in carrying it out.

So we can dismiss 4.2.1 as the explanation for the resurrection appearances.

Hallucination Hypothesis

The hypothesis that the belief in the resurrection was the result of hallucinations among the disciples is also extremely implausible.

There is no evidence that the disciples were in a frame of mind susceptible to hallucinations. Hypotheses, for example, that Peter and Paul were both wracked with guilt (Peter for having denied Christ, Paul because of inability to perfectly keep the Mosaic law) depend on controversial psychological theories in the vein of Freud and Jung. It is not really possible to conduct that kind of psychoanalysis on historical figures, anyways.

The least incredible hallucination hypotheses suggest that the experiences of the disciples were all like the experience of the apostle Paul, rather than the physical, bodily appearances described in the Gospel accounts. But that really fails to explain the belief in the resurrection and the origin of those bodily appearance narratives. What the disciples were most likely to believe from such visions, given the background of their Jewish beliefs, was that Jesus’ spirit had been assumed into heaven rather than being physically raised from the dead. Only definite experiences that Jesus had a real, solid body would have convinced them of the resurrection.

The resurrection appearances are unprecedented, not comparable to any kind of hallucinatory experience: comprised of convincing experiences of physicality, coherent appearances to groups, occurring on multiple occasions over a 40 day period in time, and happening not just to Jesus’ followers but to unbelievers as well. Nothing else parallels them.

Some skeptics have appealed to examples of bereavement visions, where a grieving person hallucinates the deceased loved one that they are grieving over. But almost universally (except in cases of mental illness, which we have no indication of for any of the disciples, much less all of them) the bereaved do not come to believe from such visions that the deceased person has come back to life. Rather, they recognize the hallucination for what it is.

So the hypothesis that belief in the resurrection originated from hallucinations is really so improbable that we could probably be justified in calling it a miracle if that is what actually occurred – that is, we are rationally justified in asserting that such a thing is just too improbable to occur naturalistically.

Supernatural Visions Hypothesis

Which takes us to the corresponding theory that such visions of Jesus occurred supernaturally: some supernatural power caused the disciples to have these experiences intra-mentally. If the power behind this event is not Yahweh, the God of Israel, this hypothesis is entirely ad-hoc: no other supernatural being is part of the religious context in this event, and we have no reason to think that other supernatural beings would have a motive to give the disciples these visions, if they existed. And the hypothesis is entirely improbable if the power is Yahweh, who would either have no reason to inflict the disciples with such a deception (if Jesus was not who he said he was) or no reason to skip the actual resurrection (if Jesus was who he said he was).

Therefore, I believe we are rationally justified in rejecting alternative 4.3.1 in both its forms.

Mistaken Identity Hypothesis

Finally, we can also rule out alternative 4.4.1, the hypothesis that the disciples came to believe in the resurrection because they mistook someone else for Jesus.

On it’s own, this theory is about as ad-hoc and implausible as they come: it postulates that someone decided to pretend to be Jesus, who was hated by the Jewish elites and had just been crucified by the Roman authorities, in order to deceive the disciples into thinking that Jesus had been raised from the dead (or that they accomplished this accidentally, and then didn’t bother to correct the disciples’ mistake). The motivation for doing such a thing is completely inscrutable – once again, there was no expectation in Judaism of a resurrected messiah, so it is anachronistic to suggest that this would have been a natural idea.

Furthermore, in order to actually convince the disciples, this person would have had to be very similar to Jesus in appearance – some skeptics have hypothesized a twin brother! – would have had to fake the crucifixion wounds, and would have had to somehow perform the miraculous aspects of the resurrection appearances, not to mention the ascension!

(The fact that corrective lenses did not exist back then, so that poor eyesight was more common, does not in my estimation increase the plausibility of the mistaken identity hypothesis. Not everyone needs corrective lenses, even back then; it’s highly likely that at least some of the disciples would have been able to tell whether it was Jesus or not.)

So the plausibility and explanatory power of this alternative are extremely low. The best bet for this hypothesis (and for all the naturalistic explanations of the resurrection appearances, really) is that some combination of factors was at play.

Combination

What if some of the disciples had experiences of mistaken identity, maybe some of them had hallucinations, and these things brought about the belief in the resurrection and were eventually embellished into the resurrection appearances that we have in the Gospel accounts? A combination of factors like this is probably the best naturalistic explanation for the origin of Christianity, in my opinion. It is not without its problems, however.

• The required confluence of multiple factors like this quickly becomes improbable, especially considering that the empty tomb still needs to be explained.
• There is no good evidence for the hypothesized embellishment of the accounts. (To really establish this point I would need to go into more detail on the historical reliability of the Gospels, which I unfortunately don’t have time to do here.)
• Any proposed combination of events that is not highly improbable seems to me that it would not be powerful enough to produce the conviction in the resurrection that the disciples had.

So this hypothesis (which, given the way I’ve structured the alternatives, falls under 4.4.1 as long as some element of mistaken identity is present) still does not have that much plausibility, for me.

Evaluation

Given the above evaluations, one can propose:

(4.5) 4.1.1, 4.2.1, 4.3.1, and 4.4.1 are false.

And therefore we can conclude the remaining alternative – that Jesus was alive following his crucifixion – is true. I believe this is rational to affirm as long as said alternative has sufficient explanatory power for the evidence, relative to the other options (sufficient to overcome any intrinsic implausibility that it might have).

As incredible as it seems, that is what I believe is the case. I’ll continue exploring my reasons why in the next post.

The Historical Argument (IV)

The evidence that I have been exploring in the last few posts is strong enough, I believe, that we can be reasonably certain of these historical facts:

• Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and buried in a tomb.
• His tomb was found empty on the third day following his crucifixion.
• Afterwards, people witnessed appearances they held to be of Jesus resurrected.
• Among those who witnessed such appearances were Paul and James, neither of them very friendly to Jesus or his movement prior to having those experiences.
• His disciples came to firmly believe in his resurrection, and thus, the Christian faith began.

In this post, I want to explore some of the context in which these events occurred.

Jesus’ Self-Conception

In addition to accepting that Jesus existed and that he was crucified, many contemporary scholars agree on the following sketch of Jesus’ life:

• He began his ministry after being baptized by John the Baptist.
• He gathered followers and ministered in the region of Galilee and Judea.
• He spoke about the imminent arrival of the Kingdom of God, and preached a radical moral ethic of loving even one’s enemies. Sometimes he taught using parables.
• He was recognized as a miracle worker and an exorcist (something which is attested by all of the Gospel sources).

But one of the most interesting things about Jesus is how he thought of himself. He claimed to have a unique relationship to Yahweh, the God of Israel, worshipped by the Jews as the only true God and the creator of all things – such that his claims were perceived as blasphemy by the Jewish religious authorities. The Gospel accounts and the apostolic sermons in Acts all agree that Jesus’ death, by crucifixion at the hands of the Romans, was instigated by the Jewish religious elites because of his radical claims, and his actions in line with these claims.

This is best illustrated in Mark 14:61-64, where Jesus, after having been arrested by the temple police, is interrogated by the high priest. The high priest asks him if he is the Messiah and the Son of God. And Jesus responds:

“I am. And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of God and coming on the clouds of heaven.” – Jesus of Nazareth

With this short response, Jesus claimed:

• To be the long-awaited messiah of Israel.
• To be the Son of God.
• To be the Son of Man.
• That he would even be seated at the right hand of God.

And at this, the high priest immediately declared that Jesus committed blasphemy and deserved death. Both the claim to be the Son of God and to be the Son of Man would have been perceived as blasphemous, as I will look at further momentarily. But the claim to be seated at God’s right hand – to share God’s throne, symbolizing the authority of God himself – is understood by scholars such as N.T. Wright, Craig Evans, and Darrell Bock as being the most audacious claim here.

The synoptic Gospels all narrate this event, and it provides a clear and coherent explanation for Jesus’ death: incensed by this blasphemy, the Jewish religious elites prompted the Roman authority, Pontius Pilate, to have Jesus crucified. (The alternative explanation that is sometimes offered, that the Romans took the initiative to execute Jesus, is not substantiated by ancient sources and lacks motivation: it does not seem like Jesus was that much of a threat to Roman rule during his lifetime.) So we can reasonably take this event as historical.

Son of God

To see further what Jesus meant by his claim to be the Son of God, we can look at Mark 13:32. The majority of scholars accept this saying of Jesus as historical, since it is unlikely to have been invented by early Christians: in it, Jesus admits to not knowing the time of his eschatological return, something that is hard to square with the belief in the divinity of Jesus.

In this verse, Jesus utilizes an ascending scale of claims. No man knows the time of his return; not even the angels know; not even the Son knows: only the Father knows. So here Jesus claims to be the Son, and calls God his Father, and places the Son above humans and angels and just below the Father in this series. There is a clear implication that the Son is someone greater than angels.

In Mark 14:36, Jesus refers to God as “Abba,” a personal, familiar title for one’s father. Moreover, we can look at Matthew 11:27, which contains a saying found in both Matthew and Luke but not in Mark; indicating it comes from an early source independent of Mark. In it, Jesus claims unique and exclusive knowledge of and access to God. Therefore, we have multiple sources indicating that Jesus referred to himself as the Son of God, and claimed a highly unique relationship with God.

Son of Man

As for Jesus’ claim to be the Son of Man: this is actually Jesus’ preferred title for himself, as it is attested by all Gospel sources. The Gospel writers were highly unlikely to have invented Jesus’ pervasive use of the title, since outside of the Gospels and one instance in Acts, Jesus is never called the Son of Man in the early Christian writings preserved in the New Testament. And the Jews never referred to Jesus in this way. So his use of this title for himself is almost certainly historical.

The reason this title is significant is that, in Mark 14:61-64, it very clearly alludes to a figure from a prophetic vision in the Old Testament. In the book named after him, Daniel says:

“I saw, in the night, visions, and behold: with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and tongues should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away; and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” – Daniel 7:13-14

This figure in the prophetic vision is called “one like a son of man,” is described as coming on the clouds of heaven, and receives authority from God over all the earth. The phrase “coming on the clouds” is only ever used of Yahweh himself elsewhere in the Old Testament, and therefore has strong connotations of divinity.

In Jewish literature produced in the Second Temple period, such as in 1 Enoch and 4 Ezra, this Son of Man is illuminated further as a figure who shares God’s throne and accepts worship (a prerogative belonging only to God, in Jewish thinking). In fact, there was great speculation about who this divine “second power in heaven” could be. (Was it Melchizedek? The archangel Michael? The special Angel of Yahweh who appears in various places in the Old Testament?) In calling himself the Son of Man, Jesus made claim to being that second power: the right hand of God himself.

In light of the above, we have good evidence that Jesus thought of himself as uniquely related to God, and we can add that to the list of historical facts at the beginning of this post.

Now that we have assembled said historical facts, we have to account for them. In order to have a coherent and comprehensive worldview, we need to find out how these facts are to be explained. That is what I will begin to do next.

The Historical Argument (III)

In my last post, I explored some of the specific evidence for the facts that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified, that he was buried, and that on the first day of the week following his crucifixion, his tomb was found empty.

What happened after that is where it gets really interesting.

The Resurrection Appearances

We have a number of sources indicating that after Jesus died, his disciples claimed to have seen him alive again, risen from the dead. And not only did they make this claim, but they truly appear to have believed it. They were transformed from men who fearfully denied and abandoned their master at his arrest, to men who fearlessly preached his resurrection in the face of opposition and even the threat of death. This evidence indicates that the disciples really had experiences that they took to be appearances of Jesus resurrected.

Writing a letter to the Corinthian church about 20 years after Jesus’ crucifixion, the apostle Paul lists a number of individuals and groups who experienced resurrection appearances (this list can be found in 1 Corinthians 15). It is almost universally accepted as historical by scholars that Paul knew at least some of the original disciples personally, as this is attested by Paul himself, by the book of Acts, and by other Christian writers in the first and early second centuries. So Paul is certainly in a position to accurately report what the disciples claimed.

What he reports is that he received the following teaching in the form of a creed:

“That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures;

That he was buried;

That he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures;

And that he appeared to Cephas, and to the Twelve.” – 1 Corinthians 15:3-5

Historians generally date this creed to within five years following the Jesus’ death, understanding Paul as saying that he received this teaching from the apostles (including Peter, also called by his Aramaic name, Cephas) when he visited them three years following his conversion, a meeting which he recounts in his letter to the Galatians. Paul affirms that this is what the apostles were saying: that Jesus had appeared to them after being raised from the dead.

Paul adds several other resurrection appearances that he knew of to this creed: an appearance to over 500 of Jesus’ disciples at one time (speculated by some to be the appearance recorded in Matthew 28:16-17, though only the twelve are mentioned there); an appearance to James, the brother of Jesus; an appearance to all of the apostles (which apparently included more than just the twelve closest disciples, see for example Acts 1:21-22); and last of all an appearance to Paul himself. Paul explicitly notes that many of those who had seen Jesus after his resurrection were still alive at the time when he wrote his letter to the Corinthians, and the intent of this comment is obvious: the witnesses were still available to be questioned.

The Gospel accounts of the resurrection appearances provide multiple independent attestation to the fact that the disciples had such experiences. There are independent accounts in Matthew, Luke and Acts, and John; and a resurrection appearance is hinted at in the empty tomb account in Mark (and some scholars believe that the original ending of Mark has been lost, so it may have recounted the foreshadowed appearance). Moreover, the apostolic sermons in Acts reference the resurrection, and they are held by most historians to be summaries of what was preached by the apostles themselves, or at least by the early Christians generally.

Finally, we have the writings of the early church fathers who succeeded the apostles in leading the church. Clement and Polycarp, who are reported to have personally known and learned from the apostles Peter and John, respectively, also affirm that the original disciples reported resurrection appearances.

So we have a wealth of evidence from the earliest oral and written tradition of the Christian church that the disciples claimed to have seen Jesus raised from the dead. But we also have historical evidence that they genuinely believed these claims: their lives were transformed by these experiences. The Gospels report that the disciples abandoned Jesus at his arrest. Peter denied ever having known him. It is unlikely that the Gospel writers invented these shameful, embarrassing accounts of the disciples’ weakness, so we have reason to believe did in fact respond to Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion in this fearful manner.

Yet in only a short while, these same men willingly exposed themselves to the risk of persecution, and even martyrdom, to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ – and they were willing to suffer these things not for some vague religious hope, but for maintaining their testimonies of having personally seen their risen Lord. Gary Habermas and Mike Licona, in their book The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, list seven ancient sources attesting to the disciples’ willingness to suffer for what they proclaimed: the book of Acts, Clement, Polycarp, Ignatius, Dionysius of Corinth, Tertullian, and Origen. (All these sources are from approximately the first 200 years following the crucifixion.)

So, that the disciples of Jesus were willing to suffer for their testimony is a very well-attested historical fact, and this is only reasonably explained by their genuine belief in this testimony. But that makes it almost completely certain that they really did have experiences which they took to be of the resurrected Jesus.

The Nature of the Appearances

It is important to remark on the nature of the resurrection appearances that the disciples experienced. First, they not only occurred to individuals, but also to groups of people. In fact, most of the reported experiences were to groups. There are multiple accounts of Jesus appearing to his twelve closest disciples; there is the appearance to the two disciples on the road the Emmaus, there is the reported appearance to the 500, and we have Jesus’ ascension witnessed by a group of disciples.

Second, the appearances occurred to all kinds of people. Jesus is reported to have appeared to both men and women, to his closest disciples and to those less central among his followers, and even to those skeptical or even downright hostile towards him (Thomas, his brother James, the persecutor Paul).

Third, the appearances were bodily and physical appearances. (With the one exception of the appearance to Paul, which occurred after Jesus’ ascension. Paul’s experience, however, does not undermine the bodily nature of the other appearances, for reasons explained in this link.) The Gospel accounts are unanimous on this, as are the writings of the early church fathers. Jesus demonstrated to his disciples that he was not some mere spirit, but that he had been raised with a physical body, capable of eating and drinking, capable of being touched, still bearing the wounds of the crucifixion. This point we can also reasonably take to be historical: if none of the experiences of the original disciples appeared to be physical in this way, it is inexplicable how all of the accounts of their experiences could have been corrupted by this fabrication in such a short time.

Note that the early creed cited above, along with the Jewish concept of resurrection as involving the physical body, supports the physicality of the appearances. It says that Jesus was buried and that he was raised: the reference to the burial would be irrelevant if the original disciples believed that the resurrection appearances were merely spiritual. Moreover, Paul’s doctrine of the resurrection is physical, and he links this to the resurrection of Christ (see for example Philippians 3:21).

Fourth, it is interesting to note that the belief in the resurrection of Jesus peculiarly arose among those who had no predisposition towards such a belief at all. The Jews had no conception of a messiah who would die shamefully on a cross: on the contrary, they believed such a death was a sure sign that the person had been cursed by God. They had no conception of a resurrection to eternal life in the middle of history, instead of occurring at the end of time. When other messianic claimants failed, their followers had simply dispersed. And yet, from the earliest times following his crucifixion, the disciples of Jesus came to believe that he had been raised from the dead and exalted by God.

The Conversion of Paul

The post-mortem appearances of Jesus are made particularly interesting by the fact that they were not only experienced by those who followed Jesus prior to his crucifixion – we also have at least two reports of Jesus appearing to someone who did not follow him during his earthly life. The most dramatic of these is the appearance to Saul of Tarsus, also known as Paul.

Paul changed from being a devout adherent to Judaism who zealously persecuted the early Christian movement, into a fervent member of that same movement. He went from believing that Jesus of Nazareth was a blasphemer and cursed by God, to believing that Jesus really was the Son of God and Israel’s Messiah – preaching what he once condemned as heresy. This radical conversion is attributed to an experience of the resurrected Jesus.

We have Paul’s own testimony of his conversion recounted in 1 Corinthians 15:9-10, Galatians 1:12-16, and Philippians 3:6-7. Early church fathers such as Clement, Polycarp, and Ignatius quote these letters, attribute them to Paul, and attest to his accuracy, so we have reason to take these accounts as historical. There is a hint that there was a story of Paul’s conversion circulating in the early church in Galatians 1:22-23. And the book of Acts attests to his conversion in multiple passages.

Furthermore, we have multiple early sources indicating that Paul was willing to suffer persecution and death for his testimony and for his belief in Jesus, just as the original disciples were – showing that his conversion was genuine. This is reported by Paul himself, the book of Acts, Clement, Polycarp, Tertullian, Dionysus of Corinth, and Origen.

Both Paul and the books of Acts attribute Paul’s conversion to a resurrection appearance, which occurred when he was still an enemy of the Christian movement. Paul’s conversion is significant: it occurred not because Paul was drawn to the message of Christianity, but because Paul experienced something that he took to an appearance of the risen Jesus. Which means that Jesus’ resurrection was testified to by both friend and foe.

The Conversion of James

James, the brother of Jesus, became the leader of the church in Jerusalem in the first decade or so after his brother’s death. With James, as with Paul, we have a report of a resurrection appearance leading to the conversion of someone who was not a follower of Jesus during his earthly life.

The Gospels report that Jesus had a brother named James, and James is referenced by the Jewish historian Josephus in his account of James’ martyrdom. James was reportedly a pious Jew, maintaining Jewish customs and the respect of the Jewish community even after his conversion, and he became known as James the Just in Christian tradition.

We have the following evidence that James converted to Christianity on the basis of a personal appearance from Jesus:

• The Gospels hint that Jesus’ brothers did not follow him or believe in his claims during his earthly ministry. (Matthew 13:55-57, Mark 3:21, 3:31-35, 6:3-4, John 7:3-5)
• This makes sense: as a pious Jew, James very probably would have resented his older brother’s audacious claims of being the Son of God.
• But Acts reports that Jesus’ brothers were with the disciples at Pentecost. (Acts 1:14)
• Early Christian tradition reported by Paul held that Jesus appeared to James following his resurrection. (1 Corinthians 15:3-7)
• James is identified as a leader in the early church in Jerusalem. (Acts 15:12-21, Galatians 1:19)
• That James’ belief in the resurrection was genuine is demonstrated by the fact that he became a martyr because of them. His martyrdom is attested by Josephus and in Christian tradition (reported by the fourth-century church historian Eusebius).

These references show that there are multiple early sources for James’ conversion, and given the report of the appearance to James (passed down by Paul) we can be reasonably certain that such an experience was the cause for his conversion.

Given all the above, we have good historical evidence that following Jesus’ death, a number of people, (including Jesus’ closest disciples as well as Paul and James) had experiences which they took to be appearances of Jesus raised from the dead – and that these experiences were powerful enough to convince them that the resurrection had indeed occurred.

In my next post, I will explore the evidence for one further historical fact that provides important context for the events surrounding Jesus’ death and post-mortem appearances. Then I will begin to look into how these facts might be explained.