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Part 5
All New Testament scholars agree that, contrary to popular
belief, the New Testament Gospels (the biographies of Jesus)
were written and circulated within Jesus’ generation, during the
lifetime of His contemporaries; many scholars argue persuasively
that some of the Gospels were written as early as the 50s A.D.
From the time of Jesus’ death in A.D. 30, this eliminates any
significant time for legend to have accumulated — it would
be without precedent anywhere in history for a myth to have
grown up that fast.
There is no doubt today among scholars[] that all of the
relevant historical facts surrounding the death and resurrection
of Jesus are true; what is in question is how to explain
them. If someone reaches the verdict that Jesus did not rise
from the dead, then that is fair enough. But they must offer
an alternative explanation that is plausible given all of the facts.
However, to date, every alternative explanation to the
resurrection of Jesus has failed to provide a plausible account
of all the facts of the case, and therefore have all been universally
rejected by contemporary scholarship.
To conclude that Jesus did not rise from the dead by
maintaining there is not enough evidence to reach a firm conclusion
is at odds with the pattern of archaeological discovery
during the last century. If the past teaches us anything, it is surely that whenever the evidence from archaeology is unmistakable,
it tends always to reinforce the accuracy of the events
recorded in the New Testament. The excessive skepticism
shown toward the New Testament events has been progressively
discredited. More and more, archaeological finds are
affirming the historical accuracy of the Bible. It is thus inconsistent
to presume that some future discovery will provide a
plausible alternative explanation to the resurrection of Jesus
— archaeology has repeatedly shown just the opposite.
Today, the simplest and only known explanation that can
flawlessly explain every relevant fact is that Jesus, like it or not,
really did physically rise from the dead. Extraordinarily, there
is no historical or scientific[] reason to reject this conclusion.
As a result, many of the world’s greatest lawyers, after
studying the subject (including those who had initially set
out to disprove it), have come to the remarkable conclusion
that the resurrection of Jesus is a genuine historical fact.
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