Chapter 7:

The Unrivaled Resurrection
What do some of the world's greatest lawyers say about the event that changed history from BC to AD?

Footnotes

[1] See “Simon Greenleaf,” A&E’s Biography.com, http://www.biography.com

[2] Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. 4 (New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1928–1936).

[2b] In the printed version of this book there is a statement about Greenleaf's conversion as a response to his students questioning him at Harvard. However further evidence since the time of publication indicates that Greenleaf's conversion to Christianity may have in fact occurred prior to teaching at Harvard and prior to being questioned by students. Regardless, the point remains that Greenleaf concluded "it was impossible the Apostles could have persisted in affirming the truths they had narrated, had not Jesus Christ actually risen from the dead."

[3] Excerpt derived from an essay in A View of the Evidences of Christianity, William Paley (Philadelphia, PA: Thomas Dobson, 1794).

[4] For example, see “Diocletian,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http:// members.eb.com/bol/topic?artcl=30521&seq_nbr=1&page=p&isctn=4.

[5] “Saint Nicholas,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http:// members.eb.com/bol/topic?xref=11608

[6] A.N. Sherwin-White, Roman Society and Roman Law in the New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963), p. 107. The idea that the New Testament writers borrowed important beliefs and practices from a number of ancient pagan mystery religions, though still propagated by some philosophers and educators, has been virtually entirely given up today by informed New Testament scholars for many reasons. (For a detailed discussion, see the article Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions? by Ronald Nash, Christian Research Journal, Winter 1994, http:// www.equip.org/free/DB109.htm.) Note that, whatever the case, the New Testament account of the death and resurrection of a human being as an actual historical event at a particular point and place in history has absolutely no parallel in any pagan religion or cult.

[7] For instance, the writers record numerous statements about Jesus’ words and life that are difficult to explain, and initially appear counterproductive to the purpose of the story. Some examples include Jesus’ seeming denial of being good (Mark 10:18), His display of anger (Matt. 21:12), and the unbelief of His own family (John 7:5).

[8] This is evident in such rabbinic expressions as “Sooner let the words of the law be burnt than delivered to women” and “Happy is he whose children are male, but woe to him whose children are female.”

[9] Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, “Caesar and Christ,” Vol. 3 (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1944).

[10] C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (London: G. Blis, 1955).

[11] See “Non-Christian Sources,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http:/ /members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=109559&sctn=2.

[12] Frank Morison, Who Moved the Stone? (New York, NY: Barnes & Noble, 1958), p. 116.

[13] D.H. Van Daalen, The Real Resurrection (London: Collins, 1972), p. 41.

[14] Jacob Kremer, Die Osterevangelien — Geschichten um Geschichte (Stuttgart: Verlag Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1977), p. 49–50.

[15] A combination of biblical and non-biblical historical sources say that almost all of the Apostles became Christian martyrs, while only a few conflicting accounts say that some of the Apostles died naturally. Scholars are generally in agreement, therefore, that as a historical fact most of the Apostles did become martyrs. More information on this topic can be found in the Encyclopedia Britannica. For a sample, see “Martyr,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http://members.eb.com/bol/ topic?eu=52459&sctn=2

[16] The Encyclopedia Britannica acknowledges that “serious persecution of Christians first arose” before Paul’s conversion, which dates to only a few years after Jesus’ death. (“Saint Paul,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http://members.eb.com/bol/topic?artcl=108605&seq_nbr=1&page =n&isctn=2)

[17] “Contemporary Scholarship and the Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ,” article by William Lane Craig, http:// www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth22.html

[18] Morison, Who Moved the Stone?

[19] Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998).

[20] Archaeological discoveries have corroborated this procedure.

[21] “Crucifixion,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http:// members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=28494&sctn=1

[22] “On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ,” Journal of the American Medical Association, March 21, 1986. Furthermore, D.F. Strauss noted long ago, “It is impossible that a being who had stolen half-dead out of the sepulchre, who crept about weak and ill, wanting medical treatment, who required bandaging, strengthening, and indulgence, and who still at last yielded to his sufferings, could have given to the disciples the impression that he was a conqueror over death and the grave, the Prince of Life: an impression which lay at the bottom of their future ministry.” David Friedrich Strauss, New Life of Jesus (London: Edinburgh, Williams and Norgate, 1865).

[23] “Corinthians,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http:// members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=26726&sctn=1

[24] “Saint Paul,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http://members.eb.com/ bol/topic?artcl=108605&seq_nbr=1&page=n&isctn=2.

[25] “Pauline letters,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http:// members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=119715&sctn=1; also “Saint Paul,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http://members.eb.com/bol/ topic?artcl=108605&seq_nbr=1&page=n&isctn=2

[26] D.E. Nineham et al., Historicity and Chronology in the New Testament, “The Empty Tomb and the Resurrection,” (London: SPCK, 1965), p. 125.

[27] See “Martyr,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http:// members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=52459&sctn=2.

[28] “Ancient Rome,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http:// members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=109199&sctn=6. Although the movement “spread with relative slowness” in the first and second centuries, in the face of persecution its growth rate was surprisingly high for so revolutionary a doctrine.

[29] Moreover, as discussed earlier, the fact that the first appearances of Jesus were not to the Apostles, but instead to women, tends to indicate further authenticity that the alleged appearances were real events of some kind. As C.F.D. Moule comments, “It is difficult to explain how a story that grew up late and took shape merely in accord with the supposed demands of apologetic came to be framed in terms almost exclusively of women witnesses, who, as such, were notoriously invalid witnesses according to Jewish principles of evidence.” C.F.D. Moule, editor, The Significance of the Message of the Resurrection for Faith in Jesus Christ (London: S.C.M. Press, 1968), p. 9.

[30] Norman Perrin, The Resurrection According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1974), p. 80.

[31] “Contemporary Scholarship and the Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ,” article by William Lane Craig, http:// www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth22.html

[32] E. Earle Ellis, The Gospel of Luke (London: Nelson, 1966), p. 273.

[33] For a deeper discussion of this, see Craig, “Contemporary Scholarship and the Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

[34] Ibid.

[35] “Hallucination,” Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http:// members.eb.com/bol/topic?eu=119400&sctn=11

[36] C.S. Lewis, Miracles: A Preliminary Study (New York, NY: Macmillan Co., 1947). Incidentally, it should also be noted that, as is the case with the women witnesses, had these narratives (of the Apostles’ failure to recognize Jesus) been fabricated or mythological, it is unlikely the writers would have included them, since such embarrassing statements would probably pose grave difficulties to the rise of Christianity.

[37] Craig, “Contemporary Scholarship and the Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

[38] Ibid.

[39] Keith M. Parsons, “Uncovering the Other Side of the Debate,” Philo, vol. 2, no. 1, http://secularhumanism.org/library/philo/parsons_2_1.html

[40] Clark Pinnock, “The Tombstone That Trembled,” Christianity Today, April 12, 1968, p. 8 .

[41] See Stephen Hawking, The Illustrated A Brief History of Time (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1996), p. 67. Note: In Hawking’s alternative “no boundary” proposal (which is a highly controversial model rejected even by some of Hawking’s own colleagues, namely Roger Penrose), the notion that the universe has neither beginning nor end is something that exists in mathematical terms only using imaginary numbers and does not correspond to reality, as Hawking himself admits: “Only if we could picture the universe in terms of imaginary time would there be no [beginning]. . . . When one goes back to the real time in which we live, however . . . the universe has a beginning” (p. 179). Hawking confesses, “I don’t demand that a theory correspond to reality because I don’t know what it is. . . . I take the positivist viewpoint that a physical theory is just a mathematical model and that it is meaningless to ask whether it corresponds to reality.” But he does acknowledge that even according to his model, the universe, in fact, did begin to exist, though he attributes its existence to absolute nothingness: “[The universe] would quite literally be created out of nothing: not just out of the vacuum, but out of absolutely nothing at all, because there is nothing outside the universe.” Stephen Hawking and Roger Penrose, The Nature of Space and Time (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 121; 3-4; 85. For a brief treatment of Hawking’s no boundary proposal, see Craig, “The Ultimate Question of Origins,” http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/ docs/ultimatequestion.html#text47

[42] Hawking, The Illustrated A Brief History of Time, p. 181.

[43] Ibid., p. 163.

[44] This excerpt is derived from Bill Wilson, The Best of Josh McDowell (Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 1993).

[45] Tom Anderson, And the Truth Shall Set You Free, independent publication; http://www.anderson-law-firm.com/tta/tta-index.htm.

[46] Lee Strobel, The Case for Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 2000).

[47] Anderson, And the Truth Shall Set You Free.

[48] Simon Greenleaf, The Testimony of the Evangelists (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1995). Originally published: New York, NY: J.C. & Co., 1874.

[49] 49 The Guinness Book of World Records, 1991 edition (New York, NY: Facts on File, 1991), p. 547.

[50] Strobel, The Case for Christ. For a far deeper analysis of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, see Michael J. Wilkins and J.P. Moreland, general editors, Jesus Under Fire (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995).

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