Session 3 - Foundations for the Resurrection

In this session ,and the following session, we will look at the historical evidence for

the resurrection of Jesus Christ

Again keep in mind, if someone excludes the supernatural as a possibility in

explaining an event, they will never believe… no matter how much

evidence there is

One of the best evidences for the resurrection: The Eye Witnesses

In the Bible we are given examples of many individuals who witnessed the resurrection of

Christ and saw him after his death

Keep in mind, this is one point where we will not have any sources outside Christianity,

obviously if you witnessed the resurrection… you’d be a Christian

Some eye witness Testimonies are stronger than others

Historians use a number of common-sense principles in assessing how strong or weak an eyewitness testimony is, here are five:

1. Testimony attested to by multiple, independent witnesses is usually considered

stronger and more reliable than the testimony of one individual

2. Affirmation by a neutral or hostile source is usually considered stronger than affirmation from a friendly source, since bias in favor of

the person or position is absent

3. People usually don’t make up details regarding a story that would tend to weaken

their position

4. Eyewitness testimony is usually considered stronger than testimony heard

from a second (or third) hand source

5. An early testimony from very close to the event in question is usually considered

more reliable than one received years after the event

Keeping this in mind, we are going to move on to looking at the evidence that the

resurrection was a historical event

Using The Minimal Fact Approach

The Minimal Fact Approach to the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Presented by

Gary Habermas originally, widely used now.)

According to the limited fact method, there are five facts we can know about Jesus’ life that are best explained by the resurrection

Keep in mind what we said about sources, because we will source

each fact from history

Fact #1 – Jesus died by crucifixion

This historical fact is as solid as any other fact that you could know about the first

century or before

The support from Biblical sources for this point is overwhelming, the authors of the

New Testament (Paul, Luke, John, Matthew, Mark, etc) testify that Christ

died by crucifixion

If they were making up the story this would make any sense… crucifixion was a

dishonorable way to die in Roman society

If they got to choose the way Jesus died in the Bible just to get people to accept it, it would be much more attractive if he died

fighting for the Jews

There is no reason to lie about Jesus being crucified, therefore we can trust them

1 Corinthians 15:3-5: “For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and

that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures”

Paul quotes a very early creed that talks about Jesus dying (obviously by crucifixion)

However, if you decide you still want non-Christian sources, we have plenty of those:

JosephusTacitusLucian

Mara Bar-Serapion The Talmud

These five (non-Christian) sources all confirm the crucifixion of Jesus

Flavius Josephus (AD 37?-101?) Jewish Historian of his time:

“About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For

he . . . wrought surprising feats. . . . He was the Christ. When Pilate . . .condemned him to be

crucified, those who had . . . come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared . . . restored to life. . . .

And the tribe of Christians . . . has . . . not disappeared”

Lucian (circa 120-after 180) Greek writer"The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day the distinguished personage who introduced

their novel rites, and was crucified on that account

The Babylonian Talmud: On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days

before the execution took place, a herald . . . cried, "He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and

enticed Israel to apostasy."

MARA BAR-SERAPION (Post 70 A.D) "What advantage did the Athenians gain

from putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for

their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand.

What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King?

Tacitus (A.D. c.55-A.D. c.117, Roman historian) “Nero fastened the guilt . . . on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from

whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius

at the hands of . . . Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in

Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome. . . .”

Fact #2 – The Disciples Sincerely Believed He Rose from the Dead and Appeared to Them

This is the overwhelming belief of the New Testament writers such as Mathew,

Mark, Luke, John

We re not yet arguing that he did, we are only saying the evidence heavily supports

that the disciples thought he did

Their belief was so strong, that they were willing to die for the belief that they saw the

resurrected Christ

It I possible to die for a lie, but nobody dies for a known lie! If the disciples made it up,

they wouldn’t die for it. If they actually thought it though (true or false) they would

be willing to die for that belief

Matthew - killed by stabbing as ordered by King Hircanus

James, son of Alphaeous – Stoned and clubbed to death (Josephus)

James, brother of Jesus - thrown down from a height, stoned and then beaten to death at the hands of Ananias

(circa AD 66)

John - tortured by boiling oil, exiled to Patmos in AD 95

Mark - burned during Roman emperor Trajan's reign

Peter - crucified upside-down by the gardens of Nero on the Vatican hill circa AD 64

The Death and Martyrdom of Disciples

Andrew - crucified on an "X" shaped cross by Aegeas, governor of the Edessenes, around AD 80

Philip - stoned and crucified in Hierapolis, Phrygia

Simon - crucified in Egypt under Trajan's reign

Thomas - death by spear thrust in Calamina, India

Thaddaeous - killed by arrows

James, son of Zebedee - killed by sword in AD 44 by order of King Herod Agrippa I of Judea

Bartholomew - beaten, flayed alive, crucified upside down, then beheaded

Peter and Paul died under emperor Nero

The creed that we quoted earlier from 1 Cor. 15:3-7 shows that it was a foundational

belief that Christ rose from the dead

We also have apostolic fathers who date back to the ministry time of Jesus Christ,

such as Clement of Rome and Polycarp who (while we are not told are eyewitnesses) had

direct contact with those who were, and record that it was their sincere belief

Fact #3 – The conversion of Paul

Saul, better known as Paul, started off as a persecutor of the earliest Christians

We first here about Saul/Paul at the execution of Stephen

“He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once tried

to destroy.” Galatians 1:23

1 Corinthians 15:9: ”For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted

the church of God.”

Paul starts off in the world of Christianity as being the enemy, one who is fighting against

the church and hates the church

We have his conversion story recorded for us in the book of Acts:

Acts 9:1-6: “Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord,

went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so

that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring

them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light

shone around him from heaven…

…Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you

persecuting Me?” And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” So he, trembling

and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”

Why else would Paul convert?

Why would Paul go on to die for this faith if he didn’t actually believe that he had seen the resurrected Christ?

His death is recorded and spoken of by many early writers (Clement of Rome, Polycarp, etc) why did this educated,

sophisticated man suddenly convert to the persecuted faith?

Fast #4 – The Conversion of the Skeptic James

How would you feel if people said your brother was God? Probably wouldn’t be on

that bandwagon right?

We have archeological evidence to confirm that James is the brother of Jesus

(his tomb was found)

The Bible says that James was not a believer during the time of Christ

ministry here on earth

Before his conversion, we have evidence from another historian (Hegesippus) that James was a devout Jew who followed

the Jewish laws

John 7:5: “For even His brothers did not believe in Him.”

But after Jesus dies, James converts and becomes the head at the Church in

Jerusalem… Why?

What would suddenly change the mind of a skeptic brother? Why would he suddenly believe in Jesus after his death (if there

wasn't a resurrection)

James dies for his belief according to Josephus

Flavius Josephus mentions James, the brother of Jesus - Antiquities, Book 20, ch. 9. "Festus was now dead, and Albinus was but upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedrim of judges, and brought before them the

brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his

companions]; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned: but as for those who

seemed the most equitable of the citizens, and such as were the most uneasy at the breach of the laws,

they disliked what was done."

Fact #5 – The empty tomb

There is great historical evidence and reasons why we can be sure that the

tomb was empty

We have three evidences that the tomb was empty:

The Jerusalem FactorEnemy Attestation

Attestation of Women

The Jerusalem Factor

The resurrection was first proclaimed in Jerusalem, and it would have been

impossible to get off the ground as a religion if they could have gone down to

the tomb and seen the body

No one bothers writing against the Christians saying “We still have the body”

which shows they didn’t

No matter how you want to interpret the evidence, the fact remains that historically

the tomb was empty

Matthew 28:12-13: “When they had assembled with the elders and consulted

together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, 13 saying, “Tell them, ‘His

disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’”

Enemy Attestation

It is not a direct quote from an enemy, but easy to infer from the record:

The testimony of women

Often people do not understand the importance of this point

In that culture the testimony of women was considered worthless… listen to some

quotes from the times:

“Sooner let the words of the Law be burnt than delivered to women.

(Talmud, Sotah 19a)

“But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and

boldness of their sex, nor let servants be admitted to give testimony on account of

the ignobility of their souls; since it is probable that they may not speak truth, either our of hope of gain,

or fear of punishment.” (Josephus, Antiquities 4.8.15)

“Any evidence which a women [gives[ is not valid (to offer), also they are not

valid to offer. This is equivalent to saying that one who is Rabbinically accounted a robber is

qualified to give the same evidence as a women.”

(Talmud, Rosh Hashannah)

Why is this such great evidence that the tomb was empty like the Bible says?

If it wasn’t, and the disciples were trying to deceive everyone into thinking that it was, why would they use women as their initial

witnesses in their accounts?

If you want to convince a society you’d use men as your witness… but they chose

women (because they were recording what actually happened, not making it up.)

Fact #1 – Jesus died by crucifixion

Fact #2 – The Disciples Sincerely Believed He Rose from the Dead and Appeared to Them

Fact #3 – The conversion of Paul

Fast #4 – The Conversion of the Skeptic James

Fact #5 – The empty tomb

The Five Historical Facts

What is the best explanation for these five facts that we have from history?

Acts 4:33: ”And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection

of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.”

What we know from history lines up with what we are told in the Bible

Memory Verse: Acts 4:33: ”And with great power the

apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was

upon them all.”