Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?

1
Did Jesus Rise From the Dead?
2
An Important Principle
Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary
EvidenceOr We Can Reject Them As False!

• Extraordinary claim a claim that contradicts
  accepted physical laws or our common sense,
  everyday experiences of the world.

People typically think it is acceptable to
presume that an extraordinary claim is false
until strong evidence is presented in its favor.
3
Extraordinary Claims
Evidence
Compare These Statements
Needed?
I ate a hamburger.
Not Much
I ate an ostrich burger.
Some
I ate a unicorn burger!
A Lot!
The stronger the claim, the more evidence needed
in support of it.
4
Jesus Rose From the Dead--
An Extraordinary Claim
Without extraordinary amounts of evidence in its
favor, we are justified in rejecting this claim.
So
Is There Extraordinary Evidence for This Claim?
I Will Argue That There is NOT.
5
Eight Standard Arguments For the Resurrection

1. The Gospels Have Eyewitness Accounts of the
   Resurrected Jesus
2. 500 Witnesses Saw the Resurrected Jesus
3. Jesus Predicted He Would Be Resurrected
4. Early Attempts to Discredit the Resurrection
   Failed
5. The Empty Tomb Proves the Resurrection
6. Resurrection Accounts Lack Signs of Myth
7. The Apostles Would Not Have Died for a Lie
8. Nonbiblical Historians Confirm the Gospels

6
1 The Gospels Have Eyewitness Accounts of the
Resurrected Jesus?

• All the New Testament books were originally
  written in Greek.
• The authentic letters of Paul are the oldest
  books of the New Testament.
• The Gospels came later, probably building on oral
  traditions.

7
The Anonymity of the New Testament

• The Oxford Companion to the Bible states of the
  gospels that "their anonymity is a common
  characteristic" (pg. 259).
• In Who Wrote the New Testament? The Making of
  the Christian Myth, Burton Mack, Professor of the
  New Testament at the School of Theology at
  Claremont, writes "With the exception of seven
  letters by Paul and the Revelation to an
  otherwise unknown John, the writings selected for
  inclusion in the New Testament were not written
  by those whose names are attached to them.

8
The Gospels
Gospel comes from the Greek for good news
evangelion.
Gospel
Probable Time of Composition
Mark 65-75 C.E.
Luke/Acts 80-85 C.E.
Matthew 85-90 C.E.
John 100-150 C.E.
The four canonical Gospels are anonymous. They
were named in the 2nd century by Bishop Papias of
Hieropolis.
9
The Process of Naming the Gospels

• The 4th century Church father Eusebius, in his
  History of the Church, says that Papias was
  interested in church history and that Papias got
  his "notions by misinterpreting the apostolic
  accounts, and he "seems to have been a man of
  very small intelligence, to judge from his
  books.
• Papias assigned the names to the Gospels that we
  have today.

CE
10
How Were The Gospels Named?

• Of the Gospel of Mark, the Oxford Companion
  states "The ascription of the gospel of Mark
  goes back at least to Papias, Bishop of
  Hierapolis, who in about 130 CE reported that he
  had been told that it was written by Mark the
  interpreter of Peter.
• Who told this to Papias is not known.
• We cannot know if his source was reliable.
• Nor do we know if he ever heard otherwise.
• So, we have no reason to believe Papias was in a
  position to make a correct determination about
  Gospel authorship.

11
Was Papias Accurate?

• Eusebius adds "Mark, who had been Peters
  interpreter, wrote down carefully, but not in
  order, all that he remembered of the Lords
  sayings and doings. For he had not heard the Lord
  or been one of His followers, but later, as I
  said, one of Peters.
• So by the second century it was already thought
  that the author of the Gospel of Mark was not an
  eyewitness of Jesus.
• The works of Papias were written in his old age
  sometime between the years 115 and 140 CE.

12
Geographical Mistake in Mark

• Mark 731 Then he Jesus return from the region
  of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of
  Galilee.
• The Sea of Galilee is to the southeast of Tyre
  while Sidon is to the north of the city.
• As David Barr, Professor of Religion at Wright
  State University remarked "the itinerary
  sketched in 731 would be a little like going
  from New York to Washington, D.C. by way of
  Boston"!

13
Marathon Swine?

• Mark 51 locates Gerasa next to the lake or Sea
  of Galilee.
• In Mark 513, Jesus has demons leave a man in
  Gerasa and enter a herd of pigs which then ran
  into the sea.
• However Gerasa is more than fifty kilometers to
  the southeast of the Sea of Galilee!
• As a Biblical scholars of Jesus Seminar remarked
  Gerasa is located approximately thirty miles to
  the southeast of the Sea of Galilee... Matthew
  relocates the demoniac to Gadara, which is only
  six miles from the lakeshore. Later scribes tried
  other remedies to accommodate the pigs.

14
Geography Mistake Again

• In Mark 10-11, Jesus travels from Jericho to
  Jerusalem via Bethphage and then Bethany.
• But Bethany is further away from Jerusalem than
  Bethphage.
• Theologian D.E. Nineham, comments The
  geographical details make an impression of
  awkwardness, especially as Bethphage and Bethany
  are given in reverse order to that in which
  travelers from Jericho would reach themand we
  must therefore assume that St Mark did not know
  the relative positions of the two villages on the
  Jericho road
• Matthew 21 changes the geography to correct it.

15
A Mistake in Customs

• Mark 1011-12 has Jesus say
• He Jesus answered, "Anyone who divorces his
  wife and marries another woman commits adultery
  against her. And if she divorces her husband and
  marries another man, she commits adultery."
• But according to Jewish Law a woman had no right
  to divorce her husband.
• These obvious mistakes could not have been made
  by a Palestinian Jew who was a traveling
  companion of Peter.

16
The Gospel of Luke

• Of Luke, The Oxford Companion to the Bible
  states the third gospel is anonymous, as are
  the other gospels.

The Gospel of Matthew
"It is commonly held that Matthew was written
about 85 or 90 C.E. by an unknown Christian who
was at home in a church located in Antioch of
Syria... (Ibid.)
17
The Literary Dependence

• Mark is the basis for two other gospels.
• The Gospels of Luke and Matthew contain the
  verses from Mark almost word-for-word.
• This shows that the authors of Luke and Matthew
  used Mark as a source.

18
Matthew and Luke, Apostles?

• Since it is clear that Mark was not written by an
  apostle, and since it is unlikely that an apostle
  would base his work on the anonymous writing of
  someone who was not himself a disciple, it is
  unlikely that the disciples Matthew or Luke
  authored the Gospels that bear their names.
• In addition, there are geographical and
  historical errors in Luke and historical errors
  in Matthew.

19
The Q Gospel

• Because there are some verses found in Luke and
  Matthew that are NOT in Mark, many scholars
  believe that there was a set of Jesus sayings
  used to supplement the material in Mark.
• They call this the Q Gospel, Q for the German
  word for source Quelle.

Why would apostles need to copy the writings of
someone else?
20
The Gospel of John

• The Gospel of John seems to have been written in
  at least 3 stages from 100-150 CE.
• Signs of editing and multiple authorship
• There are marked differences in style, such as
  between chapters 1 and 21.
• It is often repetitious. See 635-50 and 50-58
  and chapters 14 16.
• There are notorious sequential breaks in the
  narrative, as in 322 and 223, the end of
  chapter 5 and the start of chapter 6, and
  chapters 20 and 21.
• The gospel has conflicting theological views such
  as that of Jesus divinity.

21
The Gospel of John

• In The Encyclopedia Britannica, Gunther Bornkamm,
  Emeritus Professor of New Testament Studies at
  the Rupert Charles University of Heidelberg wrote
  regarding the gospel of John "The tradition in
  John shows that the gospel has reached an
  advanced theological state. Because a
  theological conception has been incorporated in
  the account to such an extent, this Gospel cannot
  be directly used as a historical source. It is
  also the latest of the Gospels, written about AD
  100" (Ibid.)

22
Late Stories

• From Jesus to Christ The Origins of the New
  Testament Images of Jesus, by Paula Fredriksen
  "We must remember that forty to seventy years
  stand between the public career and death of
  Jesus of Nazareth and the probable dates of the
  composition of the gospels.

23
Not Eyewitness Accounts

• Given the anonymity of the Gospels, one cannot
  assign to them any eyewitness status or
  authority.
• They cannot serve as extraordinary evidence.

Anonymous testimony is not strong evidence.
24
A False Impression

• In Who Wrote the New Testament? The Making of
  the Christian Myth, Burton Mack writes "Over
  the course of the second and third centuries,
  centrist Christians were able to create the
  impression of a singular, monolinear history of
  the Christian church. They did so by carefully
  selecting, collecting, and arranging anonymous
  and pseudonymous writings assigned to figures at
  the beginning of the Christian time...

25
Burton Mack Contd

• This means that the impression modern readers
  have of the New Testament as a charter document
  for Christianity, a kind of constitution written
  in concert by a college or congress of apostles,
  is thoroughly understandable. That is exactly
  what the centrist Christians of the fourth
  century intendedIt is neither an authentic
  account of Christian beginnings nor an accurate
  rehearsal of the history of the empire church.
  Historians of religions would call it myth."

26

• How much reliability can be possessed by books
• Written by anonymously,
• Written by people who were not present at the
  events they describe,
• Written from oral traditions started anonymously,
• Written from oral traditions passed on by unknown
  persons,
• Rewritten time and time again,
• Copied from manuscripts which cannot be checked
  against any originals.

27
2 500 Witnesses Saw the Resurrected Jesus?

• In 1 Corinthians 153-8, Paul states
• For what I received I passed on to you as of
  first importance that Christappeared to more
  than five hundred of the brothers at the same
  time, most of whom are still living, though some
  have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James,
  then to all the apostles, and last of all he
  appeared to me also

28
What 500?

• Who are these 500? What are their names?
• How did they know it was Jesus they saw? Did they
  know?
• Where did this happen?
• Why is this not mentioned in any of the Gospels?
• Paul says he wasnt there. Who told Paul? How
  do we know his source is reliable?

Anonymous testimony is not strong evidence.
29
3 Jesus Predicted He Would Be Resurrected?

• Matthew 1240 For as Jonah was three days and
  three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the
  Son of Man will be three days and three nights in
  the heart of the earth.
• Mark 831 31He then began to teach them that
  the Son of Man must suffer many things and be
  rejected by the elders, chief priests and
  teachers of the law, and that he must be killed
  and after three days rise again.
• And many other Gospel verses.

30
But Why Believe These Accounts?

• The Gospels were written decades after the death
  of Jesus. It would be easy to have him say
  various things that he never said.
• More convincing would have been prophecies
  written long before the alleged resurrection.
• How do we know Jesus really said these things if
  they are anonymous stories written much later?

Anonymous testimony is not strong evidence.
31
4 Early Attempts to Discredit the Resurrection
Failed?

• Matthew 27 states that guards were posted at the
  tomb of Jesus so the disciples could not steal
  Jesus body.
• When Jesus was gone anyway, the chief priests
  bribed the guards to say they fell asleep and
  that Jesus disciples stole the body while they
  slept.
• So the soldiers took the money and did as they
  were instructed. And this story has been widely
  circulated among the Jews to this very day. (Mt.
  2815)

32
No Evidence of Such Attempts

• There are no Jewish sources of that time
  suggesting that the Jews conspired to discredit
  the resurrection story.
• Also, in Matthews own account, no guards were
  posted until the second day after Jesus burial.
  This is plenty of time to steal a body.
• It makes no sense that guards would report that
  they know who stole the body while they were
  asleep.
• And what was the punishment for sleeping on guard
  duty..?

33
5 The Empty Tomb Proves the Resurrection?

• What tomb?
• Current alleged tombs of Jesus are later
  inventions to attract the faithful.
• The earliest writer of Jesus resurrectionPauldo
  es not mention any empty tomb.
• We have only the Gospels as testimony.

Anonymous testimony is not strong evidence.
34
6 Resurrection Accounts Lack Signs of Myth?

• Christian apologists often argue that Jesus
  resurrection could not be a myth because
• It appears too soon after Jesus death to have
  been fiction. Eyewitnesses would have corrected
  mythical accounts.
• Women were not considered credible. No one would
  create a story with women as witnesses, as we
  find in the resurrection story.
• The resurrection story has realistic detail.

35
Too Early to Be Myth?

• Legends develop over time.
• Paul never mentions an empty tomb. That seems to
  be a later invention.
• In the Gospels, the people at the empty tomb show
  signs of legendary development, from one man to
  two, to angels, etc.
• Eyewitnesses would have corrected mythical
  accounts? There are false reports today that are
  not corrected by living eyewitnesses.

36
Women as Witnesses? It Worked.

• Who would create a story with women as witnesses?
  No one would believe women?
• The fact that people DID believe the resurrection
  accounts shows that people WERE willing to
  believe a story that had women as eyewitnesses.
• The notion that no one would believe a story with
  female witnesses is clearly false.

37
Too Real to Be Myth?

• In John 21, Jesus has his disciples throw nets in
  a certain place, and they catch 153 fish. A
  similar fish story is told of Pythagoras hundreds
  of years earlier, and 153 is a Pythagorean
  triangle number.
• The disciples discovering Jesus clothes in the
  tomb is similar to scene from Charitons story
  Chaireas and Callirhoe.
• These and many other literary parallels and
  motifs undermine the sense of historical accuracy.

38
Fictional Character

• The supposed tomb belonged to Joseph of
  Arimathea. No one has been able to identify
  such a place.
• This Joseph is on Jesus side, and is said to be
  on the Council (Mk. 1543), yet why is there no
  prior mention of this important follower of
  Jesus? And no later mention?
• Many scholars conclude that he is a literary
  device who exists just to get Jesus in a tomb.

39
Myths Often Grow Over Time

• The last 12 verses of the gospel of Mark are
  known to have been added much later than the
  writing of the rest of the gospel of Mark. These
  verses are absent in early copies of this gospel.
  
• These later verses contain the only
  post-resurrection appearances of Jesus in Mark.
  So it is interesting that the earliest supposed
  biography of Jesus life contains no report of
  any eyewitnesses who saw a resurrected Jesus.
• The Oxford Companion to the Bible agrees "Mark,
  generally regarded as the earliest gospel,
  originally contained no appearance stories.

40
The Gospels Are Contradictory

• Farrell Till, a former minister who became an
  atheist by reading the Bible, has become an
  expert on Bible contradictions.
• If the resurrection accounts are hopelessly
  contradictory, this undermines their credibility.
• Here is Tills list (in his own words) of the top
  five new Testament contradictions regarding the
  Gospel accounts of the resurrection.

41
Where Was The Stone?

• Matthew has the women seeing an angel descend and
  roll away the stone (282), but Mark, Luke, and
  John had the women (or Mary) finding the stone
  already rolled away when they (she) arrived (Mk.
  164 Lk. 242 Jn. 201).

42
Oh, Joy! The Body is Stolen!?

• Mary Magdalene was with the women who heard the
  angel(s) say that Jesus had risen (Matt. 286
  Mk. 166 Lk. 246-10) and apparently understood
  what was meant, because she and the women ran
  from the tomb "with great joy" to tell the other
  disciples (Matt. 286), yet according to John
  when she found the disciples, she said that she
  thought the body had been stolen (202).
• Why did she run from the tomb "with great joy" if
  she thought that Jesus's body had been stolen?

43
Darkest After the Dawn?

• Matthew, Mark, and Luke have the women going to
  the tomb at some point in time that is variously
  described as when it "began to dawn" (Matt.
  281), "when the sun was risen" (Mk. 162), or
  "at early dawn" (Lk. 241), but John has Mary M
  arriving at the tomb "while it was yet dark"
  (201).
• I can't see how it could be "yet dark" during any
  of the stages of daylight that Matthew, Mark, and
  Luke described.

44
Not Too Spicy

• Luke 2354-55 states that "the women," later
  identified as Mary M, Joanna, and Mary the mother
  of James (2410), followed Joseph of Arimathea
  and saw where and "how the body was laid" and
  then returned home, "prepared spices and
  ointments," and then rested on the sabbath
  "according to the commandment."
• So according to Luke, the women prepared spices
  and ointments BEFORE the sabbath, yet Mark says
  that "when the sabbath was past," the women
  bought spices "that they might come and anoint
  him" (161).
• If they followed Joseph and saw how the body was
  laid, they had seen Joseph of Arimathea prepare
  the body with "about a hundred pounds of myrrh
  and aloes (Jn. 1938-39). Did they think 100
  pounds weren't be enough?

45
And Thomas Makes Eleven

• Luke said that Jesus appeared to "the eleven"
  after he vanished from the presence of the two
  disciples in Emmaus (2433-43). This appearance
  happened on the night Jesus was resurrected,
  during which he urged the disciples to examine
  his wounds (v39) and then ate a meal with the
  disciples (v42), so it has to be the same
  meeting that John said Jesus made to the apostles
  on "the evening of that day," (2019), during
  which Jesus showed the disciples his wounds
  (v20).
• The contradiction lies in the fact that Luke said
  that this appearance was made to the eleven,
  whereas John said that Thomas wasn't there when
  Jesus appeared to the apostles on that night
  (v24). If Thomas wasn't there, then Jesus
  couldn't have appeared to "the eleven."

46
The Easter Challenge 1,000 REWARD!

• Tell us exactly what happened on the first Easter
  and win 1,000! Read
• Matthew 28
• Mark 16
• Luke 24
• John 20 21
• Acts 13-12
• 1 Corinthians 153-8
• Then, without omitting a single detail from these
  accounts, write one consistent narrative?with
  scriptural citations?of the events from the
  Resurrection to the Ascension of Jesus Christ.
• If you can do this, you can win 1,000.

Send your entry to the Fayetteville Freethinkers.
47
7 The Apostles Would Not Have Died for a Lie?

• Where is the evidence they died for a lie?
• No reliable extrabiblical evidence shows that
  they were martyred.
• In fact, there is an abundance of stories of the
  same apostle dying in numerous places, often with
  magical elements added to the story.
• The apostles were each martyred too many times
  for the stories to be credible.

48
Die For Falsehoods?

• People die for false ideologies and false beliefs
  in general on a regular basis.
• Followers of Rev. Jim Jones and David Koresh
  thought that these men were God incarnate, and
  they died for that belief. Does their martyrdom
  prove them correct?

49
8 Nonbiblical Historians Confirm the Gospels

• Apologists often claim that historians apart from
  the Gospels confirm New Testament claims. Thus
  one should believe the New Testament, including
  the resurrection.
• A typical list of such historians includes
• Tacitus, Lucian, Josephus, Suetonius, Pliny the
  Younger, Tertullian, Thallus, Phlegon, and Justin
  Martyr.

50
No Contemporary, Nonbiblical Sources Confirm
Claims About Jesus

• Tacitus, Lucian, Josephus, Suetonius, Pliny the
  Younger, Tertullian, and Justin Martyr all lived
  after the death of Jesus and merely reported what
  they had heard.
• Passing on hearsay from anonymous sources is not
  good evidence.

Anonymous testimony is not strong evidence.
51
Magic Darkness or Just an Eclipse?

• Thallus and Phlegon are mentioned as writers who
  attested that an eclipse occurred, and the
  synoptic Gospels state that darkness came over
  the whole land when Jesus died. But their
  writings no longer exist. We only have fragments
  quoted by others.
• And there is no way to determine if the darkness
  they spoke of happened on the day Jesus died or
  if they were just eclipses, as they reported. We
  dont know what day Jesus died.

52
The Slaughter of the Innocents

• Matthew 216 says Herod, king of Judea, ordered
  killed all the male children in the region of
  Bethlehem that were two years old or younger.
• Ancient historians, both those who later
  chronicled Herods abuses of power and those who
  lived in Judea when this was supposed to have
  occurred, say nothing of such a massacre, and
  they would certainly have called attention to
  such an event. This incident is not even
  mentioned anywhere else in the New Testament.
• Scholars agree that such an event did not happen.
  Gospel writers did invent stories.

53
Invasion of the Zombie Saints!

• Matthew 2752-53 states that when Jesus died the
  graves of many of the saints opened, and they
  rose. Then when Jesus rose the saints went into
  town and were seen by many people.
• Historians such as Philo-Judaeus, who lived in
  Jerusalem at the time, know nothing about Jesus
  or any other resurrections. Who would have
  failed to mention a crowd of dead saints come to
  life?

54
The Formation of the NT Canon

• 367 CEThe Festal letter by Athanasius of
  Alexandria, at the request of the Pope, has the
  first list of currently accepted 27 NT books.
• 405 CEthe Pope accepts the canon and ratifies it.

55
All Atonement Theories Fail

• An atonement theory is a proposed theological
  explanation of the mission of Jesus.
• The New Testament explains that Jesus preached,
  was crucified, died, and rose again, but the
  point of these events is never explained.
• Why would God kill his son to make sins go away?
  God had already drowned the world and ordered
  scapegoats used to get rid of sin.
• If those things didnt work, why did God command
  them? If they worked, why the need for Jesus?

If the story makes no sense, this undermines its
credibility.
56
Given the Lack of Any Compelling Evidence, We May
Justifiably Reject the Claim that Jesus Rose From
the Dead

• Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary
  EvidenceOr We Can Reject Them As False!

"Jesus Rose From the Dead" is an extraordinary
claim.
57
Many Scholars Reject a Literal Resurrection

• since the Crucifixion was conducted by Roman
  soldiers,... Jesus' body was most likely left on
  the Cross or tossed into a shallow grave to be
  eaten by scavenger dogs, crows or other wild
  beasts. As for Jesus' family and followers,
  depicted in the Bible as conducting a decent
  burial of the body according to Jewish law, "as
  far as I can see, they ran," Crossan says. "They
  lost their nerve, though not their faith."
  --TIME, 4/10/95, pg. 70, Robert W. Funk and John
  Dominic Crossan.

58
Scholars Say The Resurrection is Not Historical

• If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed
  except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions
  included in the Gospels, then Christianity is
  doomed. For that view of resurrection is not
  believable, and if that is all there is, then
  Christianity, which depends upon the truth and
  authenticity of Jesus resurrection, also is not
  believable. If that were the requirement of
  belief as a Christian, then I would sadly leave
  my house of faith. WITH ME IN THAT EXODUS FROM
  THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, HOWEVER, WOULD BE EVERY
  RANKING NEW TESTAMENT SCHOLAR IN THE WORLD--
  Catholic and Protestant alike
• --Bishop John Shelby Spong, Resurrection Myth or
  Reality?

59
A Literary Form

• "The gospel stories about Easter are not
  historical accounts but religious myths. I say
  this not at all out of disrespect for Christian
  faith or for the doctrines that it holds. Rather,
  I mean to indicate the general literary form of
  the Easter accounts. They are myths and legends
  and it is absurd to take them literally and to
  create a chronology of preternatural events that
  supposedly occurred in Jerusalem and Galilee
  during the weeks after Jesus had died."
• --Thomas Sheehan of the Religious Studies
  Department at Stanford. The First Coming How
  the Kingdom of God Became Christianity.

60
The Standard Arguments For the Resurrection Are
Inconclusive

1. The Gospels Have Eyewitness Accounts of the
   Resurrected Jesus
2. 500 Witnesses Saw the Resurrected Jesus
3. Jesus Predicted He Would Be Resurrected
4. Early Attempts to Discredit the Resurrection
   Failed
5. The Empty Tomb Proves the Resurrection
6. Resurrection Accounts Lack Signs of Myth
7. The Apostles Would Not Have Died for a Lie
8. Nonbiblical Historians Confirm the Gospels