Everything OR Nothing
The resurrection of Jesus is the climax of the Christian faith. Everything hinges on this one historical event. If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead then our faith is vain. The Apostle Paul admits this in the Bible: “…and if Christ has not been raised; then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.” (1 Cor 14:14). Paul is seemingly inviting people to examine for themselves the evidence for the resurrection. He wouldn’t have done this if he wasn’t 100% sure of it.
On the other hand, if Jesus did rise from the dead. Then he is truly the Son of God; he is the embodiment of Truth.
Courtesy of Good Free Photos from Unsplash.com
So let’s accept Paul’s invitation and explore one of the most convincing pieces of evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. I invite you (believer or not) to dive into the evidence I present. If you don’t like the evidence feel free to present evidence to the contrary, but don’t run from the evidence.
Diving Into 1 Cor. 15:3-9
The Apostle Paul wrote thirteen letters to nine early churches in cities around the Near East and the Mediterranean. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians is accepted by scholars as being the first letter Paul penned in 50 AD (27 years after Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension into Heaven). It is also widely accepted as the first book of the New Testament to be written.
Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians was written between 50-57AD. This piece of writing will be our first stop.
Asking the Right Questions
As a former skeptic and atheist I asked myself the following question that is echoed by the New Atheist movement: “How can Paul’s letter qualify as reliable evidence when 1) he wasn’t an original eyewitness of Jesus and 2) he was writing 27 years after Jesus walked the earth in which time could the stories about Jesus could have easily been mythologized?”
The Mind of Paul
I think this is a fair question. First, it’s important to keep in mind that just Paul happened to physically pen this letter sometime between 50-57 AD that does not mean that 1) recorded manuscripts did not exist prior to the letter OR 2) that Paul didn’t encounter people who were eyewitnesses of Jesus both before and after the alleged resurrection. Paul by training was a Pharisee. In other words he was the equivalent of a modern lawyer. He would have taken extreme care with recording evidence.
Paul also had an assistant named Titus, to whom Paul wrote one of the Biblical letters. Pharisees were well respected Rabbis who had scribes accompany them to record their teachings. Paul is no exception. Despite his conversion, Paul maintained the legal professionalism of a pharisee and continued to have an assistant, or scribe. We often have the tendency to think that first century people were unsophisticated, gullible thinkers and would accept the supernatural at the first sign of something extraordinary. The irony is that secular and religious scholars alike take the writings of antiquity very seriously. Not to mention that Christian principles lie at the foundation of Western civilization (I will dedicate an entire post to this in the future). Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens, along with a handful atheist scholars use the academic privileges that Christian principles have granted them (the university, freedom of speech, equality) to criticise Christianity itself. But I deviate.
So it is highly likely that Paul had records. Both firsthand records and secondary. In fact, let’s take a moment to examine one of these records that point to the early witnesses of the resurrected Jesus. I will quote 1 Corinthians 15:3-9 in its entirety below to ensure clarity when I am referring the passage. Need further insurance I don’t quote out of context? Grab a Bible for yourself and follow along. In 1 Corinthians Paul records a Christian creed that can be dated back within 1-2 years of Jesus resurrection:
“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures,and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters* at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.* Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
How do we know it’s an early creed and Paul is not making things up as he goes? Once again, great question.
1. The style of writing in the Greek changes immediately after the first line. “For I handed onto you…” has a consistent style with Paul’s letters. Moreover, Paul explicitly states that he is passing on what he has received.
2. The creed confirms all the events in Acts of the Apostles (written by Luke) and other Gospels.
A) The creed starts off by affirming that Christ’s crucifixion, death, and resurrection, which all the Gospels corroborate albeit in different detail (this is actually evidence that the Gospel writers didn’t collude, therefore increasing the validity of the four Gospels).
B) The creed continues to state that “he [Jesus] appeared to Cephas.” This is key to how early this creed was written. “Cephas” is the Aramaic translation of the name Peter. The creed of course is referring to the Apostle Peter. Paul never refers to Peter as “Cephas.” The only other way Paul will refer to Peter is “Simon” (the name he had prior to Jesus calling him). This suggests that the original creed was written in Aramaic. Aramaic was the language that Jesus would have spoken along with his apostles. By the time of Jesus, Greek started to make Aramaic nearly obsolete. By the time Paul penned his first letters Aramaic had become obsolete. Since the creed is Aramaic in origin it is highly likely that it was formulated within the original Christian community very close to the earthly life of Jesus. Some scholars place it within two years of the resurrected Jesus’ interaction with the disciples.
C) Then creed professes that Jesus appeared to “five-hundred brothers and sisters.” Some might say, “Hold on a minute. This appearance only appears in Paul’s letter. So it can’t be corroborated.” Does this make it lose its legitimacy? No. First, it is included in the earliest Christian source ever recorded. The closest to the life of Jesus (within 2 years). Second, look Paul writes after this statement: “…most of whom are still alive.” Once again Paul is encouraging readers to confirm the recorded events by seeking the testimonies of several hundred first hand witnesses. If Paul was making this up, he would be digging his own grave by making this statement.
From Unbelief to Belief
The final evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, at least with regards to the Apostle Paul, is Paul’s conversion.
“So what? People convert from one religion or belief system to another on a regular basis. Paul is just one of many,” you may be thinking. True. But as we take a closer look at Paul it quickly becomes clear that Paul is not an average Joe.
We already established that Paul was a Pharisee, a legal personnel. Pharisees were no-nonsense legal authorities, as we see in the Gospels when they engage Jesus with legal precision.
Paul also persecuted Christians . His livelihood depended on sending Christians to jail in Jerusalem. He was not a pleasant man. In Acts of the Apostles 9:1 he is described as “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” Yet in a brief encounter with the resurrected Jesus Paul is completely changed and becomes an advocate for Christianity. And not just any advocate. He endangered and eventually gave his own life for the sake of the Gospel. This can only happen one way: If the resurrected Jesus actually appeared to him. Paul confirms this appearance in the final verse in our scripture passage:
“Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
All the disciples with the exception of the Apostle John were were big skeptics. Remember, they abandoned Jesus at the crucial moment of his death. So how is it that these skeptics gave their life with no gain and everything to lose? The Apostle Thomas, who wouldn’t accept the resurrection until he witnessed the wounds on Jesus, traveled as far as India and founded the Marthoma Church in 52 AD, where he was killed. The Apostle James traveled all the way to northern Spain. Peter was crucified upside down in the place of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
The original eyewitness accounts of Jesus who at first were skeptics to downright persecutors of Christians who gave their life to share what they witnessed is abundant.
Question: What are some common arguments against the resurrection of Jesus that you have heard?
