Christian apologists often cite three types of evidence for the Resurrection: Jesus’ empty tomb, the testimony in the Bible, and the behaviour of the disciples before and after they encountered the risen Christ. I have written a three-part blog post that critically examines each of these arguments in turn.
PART ONE – WAS THERE AN EMPTY TOMB?
In this post, I ask whether there was a tomb at all, a question that divides scholars and to which we have no definitive answer. It is possible that Jesus was buried in a tomb, but it is also possible that his body was left to rot on the cross and then thrown into a common grave. I summarise the biblical narratives and offer fifteen different explanations for the story of the empty tomb, most of which, I suggest, are far more plausible than the idea that Jesus died, was buried, came back to life and left his tomb.
Click here to read Part One.
PART TWO – HOW RELIABLE IS THE STORY OF THE RESURRECTION?
My first point is that most scholars agree that, whatever Christian apologists may claim, we have no eyewitness accounts of the Resurrection. The Bible’s only first-hand description of an encounter with Jesus is Paul’s very brief mention of his own experience in 1 Corinthians.
I then analyse the different descriptions of the Resurrection in the New Testament. They are something of a mess, with different versions of who, when and where. But this doesn’t obscure the fact that, very soon after the crucifixion, some of Jesus’ closest followers came to believe that they had encountered him alive again.
I look at the language used in the Bible and at other important experiences of God, Jesus, angels or a deep connection with the cosmos, both inside and outside the Christian tradition.
These events are very real to those who experience them, and they need to be explained. I suggest that the best explanation is psychological rather than cosmic, and the most likely cause is some kind of hallucination, amplified and exaggerated during the decades between the actual events and the writing of the gospels.
Click here to read Part Two.
PART THREE – ARE THE ACTIONS OF THE DISCIPLES EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION?
The gospels paint a credible picture of the disciples devastated, distraught and utterly discombobulated by the crucifixion of Jesus. And yet, after the Resurrection, they regained their nerve and went on to brave persecution and death to spread their message. Christian apologists often argue that the only explanation is that they had indeed been visited by the risen Christ. Would they have given their lives for a lie?
There is another, simpler explanation, to be found in Leon Festinger’s theory of cognitive dissonance, as expounded in his book When Prophecy Fails, which details a real case study of an apocalyptic sect’s reaction to the failure of the world as we know it to end.
I show how Festinger’s thesis can be applied to the disciples after the crucifixion, examining as I do so the question of whether Jesus really predicted his own death and whether it is really true that all of the disciples ended up as Christian martyrs. There is no real evidence that they did.
Click here to read Part Three
Paul Clark 