How To Study The Bible

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The Resurrection of Jesus
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Import of the Resurrection

• D-B-R of Jesus differentiates Christianity from
  all other World Religions
• Our willingness to live crucified lives lives
  of hope in the midst of suffering is wholly
  dependent upon the veracity of the bodily
  resurrection of Jesus

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The Christian Life Depends on the Resurrection of
Jesus

• Jesus Resurrection

• Our Resurrection

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The Christian Life Depends on the Resurrection of
Jesus

• Jesus Resurrection

• Our Resurrection

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Rational Foundations of Faith

• There is much misunderstanding about faith.  It
  is commonly supposed to be a leap in the dark,
  totally incompatible with reason.  This is not
  so.  True faith is never unreasonable, because
  its object is always trustworthy.  When we human
  beings trust one another, the reasonableness of
  our trust depends on the relative trustworthiness
  of the people concerned.  But the Bible bears
  witness of Jesus Christ as absolutely
  trustworthy.  It tells us who he is and what he
  has done, and the evidence it supplies for his
  unique person and work is extremely compelling. 
  As we expose ourselves to the biblical witness to
  this Christ, and as we feel its impact --
  profound yet simple, varied yet unanimous -- God
  creates faith within us.  We receive the
  testimony.  We believe. Faith is not belief in
  spite of evidence but belief based on testimony.
• (John Stott)

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What We Can Do With Jesus
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C.S. Lewis

• I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the
  really foolish thing that people often say about
  Him Im ready to accept Jesus as a great moral
  teacher, but I dont accept His claim to be God.
  That is the one thing we must not say. A man who
  was merely a man and said the sort of things
  Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher! He
  would either be a lunatic on a level with the
  man who says he is a poached egg or else he
  would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your
  choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of
  God or else a madman or something worse. You can
  shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and
  kill Him as a demon or you can fall at His feet
  and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come
  with any patronising nonsense about His being a
  great human teacher. He has not left that open to
  us. He did not intend to.

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What We Can Do With Jesus

• Lord Liar Lunatic
• A Fourth Option Lewis did not address Declare
  that the Documents are Historically Unreliable

We know very little about Jesus. The first full
length account of his life was St. Marks gospel,
which was not written until about the year 70,
some forty years after his death. By that time,
historical facts had been overlaid with mythical
elements which expressed the meaning Jesus had
acquired for his followers. It is this meaning
that St. Mark primarily conveys rather than a
reliable straight forward portrayal. - Karen
Armstrong, A History of God
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The Approach to the Gospels

• Circular Reasoning of some Disciples

CLAIM Jesus is Son of God
Why Believe Them?
Why?
1. This reasoning a logical fallacy.
Jesus Apostles Say so!
Bible Tells Me
2. This is not the Holy Spirits approach.
Why Believe Bible?
How do you Know that?
Bible is Gods Word
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The Approach to the Gospels

• Are the accounts of Jesus, sufficiently reliable
  history?
• J.W. Montgomery We do not naively assume the
  inspiration or infallibility of the New
  Testament records, and then by circular reasoning
  attempt to prove what we have previously assumed.
  We regard the documents only as documents, and we
  treat them as we would any other historical
  materials.

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Our Approach to the Subject

• A two-stage argument
• Evaluate the gospels as we would any historical
  document
• We do not assume inspiration - thats what were
  trying to prove - begs the question
• Examine arguments for historical reliability
• Evaluate the testimony within those documents
  concerning Jesus

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• The Issue of Miracles - are they possible?
• Is it conceivable that there is a Creator God who
  exists above and beyond the natural, physical
  universe?
• Is it conceivable that such a God could, if
  desired, interfere with or suspend the ordinary
  course of nature (e.g., suspend gravity stop
  disease without medicine raise someone from the
  dead)? And, do this through a man?

Yes!
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The Historical Reliability of the New Testament
Documents

• The Gospel
• Accounts of Jesus

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Documentary Evidence
ANSWERING THE QUESTION How do we know what we
have today is what the disciples wrote
originally?

• Time Interval Between the Original Autographs and
  the Earliest Manuscripts
• The Number of manuscripts
• The agreement of existing manuscripts

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Time Interval Number
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Manuscript Agreement
There exists less than 1/1000 of variance among
the manuscripts. - Westcott and Hort, Greek
Text of the New Testament
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Manuscript Agreement

• There are more variations among our manuscripts
  than there are words in the New Testament.
  (p.90)
• Bart Ehrman
• Elsewhere he states that the number of variants
  is as high as 400,000. (p. 89)

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Daniel Wallace, http//www.bible.org/page.php?page
_id4000
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Manuscript Agreement
We can have great confidence in the fidelity
with which this material has come down to us,
especially compared with any other ancient
literary work. - Bruce Metzger, Former
Professor emeritus of Princeton Theological
Seminary at Princeton University, quoted in The
Case for Christ, Lee Strobel
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Manuscript Agreement
To be skeptical of the New Testament books is
to allow all of classical antiquity to slip into
obscurity. - John Warwick Montgomery, Where is
History Going?
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Three Tests of Reliability
1) Ability Test Were authors able to preserve
a reliable history? 2) Character Test Is
there reason to doubt the authors integrity?
3) Corroboration Test Do external sources
confirm or validate the historical information?
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Reliability Tests

• 1) Ability Test Were authors able to preserve
  a reliable history?
• Oral Culture strong memorization skills
• Rabbis had memorized entire Old Testament
• Oral folklore studies in 20th century showed
  great memorization skills e.g., Yugoslavian
  folk-singers had memorized epic stories of up to
  100,000 words in length (Albert Lord, The Singer
  of Tales)
• 90 of Jesus sayings were in figures or styles
  common to Hebrew poetry more easily memorized.
• Elementary education for boys until age 12 was
  widely practiced in Israel in 1st century.
• Oral traditions were flexible freedom to vary
  paraphrase (obvious from the 3 Synoptics).

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Reliability Tests

• 1) Ability Test Were authors able to preserve
  a reliable history?
• Oral Culture strong memorization skills
• Correctives intervention of living witnesses
  and community of believers.
• Dating Often hear - these records (gospel
  accounts) were 40-50 years after the events

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What about Dates?

• Dating of gospels in dispute. Good reason for
  earlier dates than liberal critics.
• Resurrection testimony in 1 Cor. 153-5 - an
  early Christian creed (memorized).
• Paul shared this with Corinthians on his first
  visit (probably w/in 10-15 years of Christs
  death).
• This creed existed earlier (within 5-7 years
  after the death of Christ, this was being
  communicated by Christians)
• The early existence of the Christian movement,
  its rapid growth, is inexplicable without the
  resurrection testimonies -

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Reliability Tests

• 1) Ability Test Were authors able to preserve
  a reliable history?
• Oral Culture strong memorization skills
• Correctives intervention of living witnesses
  and community of believers.
• Dating Often hear - these records (gospel
  accounts) were 40-50 years after the events
• Authors Matthew (tax-collector) Luke
  (physician) Mark (with Peter) John (eyewitness)

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Authors Ability

• Matthew
• Matthew must have been familiar with a great
  variety of forms of fraud, imposture, cunning,
  and deception, and must have become habitually
  distrustful, scrutinizing, and cautious and, of
  course, much less likely to have been deceived in
  regard to many of the facts in our Lords
  ministry, extraordinary as they were, which fell
  under his observation. (Simon Greenleaf,
  Testimony of the Evangelists)

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Authors Ability

• Luke
• If Lukes Gospel were to be regarded only as the
  work of a contemporary historian, it would be
  entitled to our confidence. But it is more than
  this. It is the result of careful inquiry and
  examination, made by a person of science,
  intelligence and education, concerning subjects
  which he was perfectly competent to investigate,
  and as to many of which he was peculiarly
  skilled. (Greenleaf)

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Reliability Tests

• 2) Character Test
• Reported teachings that called for as exacting a
  level of integrity as any.
• Blatantly honest about their own failings.

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Reliability Tests

• 3) Corroboration Test Outside sources?
• Within 100 to 150 years after the birth of
  Christ, approximately eighteen non-Christian,
  extra-biblical sources from secular history
  mention more than one hundred facts, beliefs, and
  teachings from the life of Christ including
  miracles, the Resurrection, and his claims to be
  deity. (Dr. Gary Habermas)

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Reliability Tests

• 3) Corroboration Test Outside sources?
• Josephus About this time there lived Jesus, a
  wise man For he was one who wrought surprising
  feats and was a teacher He won over many Jews
  and many of the Greeks When Pilate, upon
  hearing him accused by men of the highest
  standing among us, had condemned him to be
  crucified, those who had in the first place come
  to love him did not give up their affection for
  him And the tribe of Christians, so called
  after him, has still to this day not
  disappeared.
• (quoted in F.F. Bruce The New Testament
  Documents)

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Reliability Tests

• 3) Corroboration Test Outside sources?
• Tacitus Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted
  the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for
  their abominations, called Christians by the
  populace. Christus, from whom the name had its
  origin, suffered extreme penalty during the reign
  of Tiberius at the hands of one of our
  procurators, Pontius Pilate, and a most
  mischievous superstition broke out not only in
  Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in
  Rome.
• (quoted in F.F. Bruce The New Testament
  Documents)

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Reliability Tests

• 3) Corroboration Test Outside sources?
• Compare Tacitus to Luke Now in the fifteenth
  year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when
  Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod
  was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip
  was tetrarch of the region of Iturea and
  Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of
  Abilene, in the high priesthood of Annas and
  Caiaphas, the word of God came to John, the son
  of Zacharias, in the wilderness (Luke 31-2).

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Three Tests of Reliability
1) Ability Test Were authors able to preserve
a reliable history? 2) Character Test Is
there reason to doubt the authors integrity?
3) Corroboration Test Do external sources
confirm or validate the historical information?
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Our Approach to the Subject

• A two-stage argument
• Evaluate the gospels as we would any historical
  document
• We do not assume inspiration - thats what were
  trying to prove - begs the question
• Examine arguments for historical reliability
• Evaluate the testimony within those documents
  concerning Jesus

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Resurrection three critical aspects

• Death Evidence
• Burial Empty Tomb Evidence
• Resurrection Evidence

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Evidence for Jesus Death

• All four gospels testify to His crucifixion,
  burial resurrection (Mt. 2735 Mk. 1524-25
  Luke 2333 Jn. 1917ff).
• John 1931-37 Johns unique testimony
• Romans were experts at crucifixions (performed
  tens of thousands).

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Evidence for Jesus Death

• External Corroboration
• Tacitus Christus, from whom the name had its
  origin, suffered extreme penalty during the reign
  of Tiberius at the hands of one of our
  procurators, Pontius Pilate
• Lucian of Samosata (2nd Century) The
  Christians, you know, worship a man to this day
  the distinguished personage who introduced their
  novel rites, and was crucified on that account.

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Evidence for Jesus Death

• External Corroboration
• Josephus When Pilate, upon hearing him accused
  by men of the highest standing among us, had
  condemned him to be crucified.
• Mara Bar-Serapion Or, what advantage came to
  the Jews by the murder of their Wise King, seeing
  from that very time their kingdom was driven away
  from them.
• The Talmud On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was
  hanged.

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Credibility of the Burial Story and the Empty
Tomb

• If the tomb were not empty
• Christianity could not have flourished when it
  did
• The disciples would not have courageously taught
  about Jesus as the Messiah
• The Jews could easily have snuffed out the
  movement by showing the body was still in the
  tomb.
• Earliest Jewish polemic suggests that they
  themselves accepted the empty tomb (Mt.
  2811-15). They argued that the disciples stole
  the body.

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Credibility of the Burial Story and the Empty
Tomb

• Women as witnesses in antiquity
• Josephus But let not the testimony of women be
  admitted, on account of the levity and boldness
  of their sex since it is probable that they may
  not speak truth, either out of hope of gain, or
  fear of punishment.
• Talmud Any evidence which a woman gives is 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 woman.

IF the Gospel writers were making up this story,
they never would have included women as the
earliest witnesses to the empty tomb
resurrection.
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The Resurrection Evidence

• Eyewitness Testimony
• A physical, bodily resurrection (not a ghost or
  spirit - which many Jews would have believed)
• Luke 2436-43
• 1 Cor. 153-8 earliest written account of the
  resurrection witnesses (cf. 1 Cor. 91)
• Cephas (Peter) Twelve 500 James Apostles
  Paul

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The Resurrection Evidence

• Gospel Witnesses
• Mary Magdalene (John 2010ff)
• Other women (Mt. 288ff)
• Cleopas and another (Lk. 2413-32)
• Eleven disciples others (Lk. 2433ff)
• 10 apostles (John 2019ff)
• Thomas other apostles (Jn. 2026-30)
• Seven apostles (John 211ff)
• Disciples (Mt. 2816-20)
• Apostles others before his ascension. (Lk.
  2450-52 Acts 14-9)

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The Resurrection Evidence

• Acts Eyewitnesses
• Twelve references to Jesus resurrection in Acts
  1-5
• Demonstrating the resurrection as the foundation
  of testimony conversion.
• (cf. Acts 224, 31-32 315 1041 1331)

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The Resurrection Evidence

• Willingness to Suffer for Testimony
• They had nothing to gain except criticism,
  ostracism, and martyrdom. They certainly had
  nothing to win financially. If anything this
  would have provided pressure to keep quiet, to
  deny Jesus, to downplay him, even to forget they
  ever met him yet because of their integrity,
  they proclaimed what they saw, even when it meant
  suffering and death (Craig Blomberg)
• People dont suffer die for what they know to
  be a lie (e.g., Acts 540-42 1 Cor. 49-13).

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The Resurrection Evidence

• Eyewitness Testimony
• Physical Resurrection
• 153-8 earliest written account of the
  resurrection witnesses (cf. 1 Cor. 91)
• Gospels Acts Witnesses (willingness to suffer
  for what they knew to be true or false).
• Circumstantial Evidence

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The Resurrection Evidence

• Circumstantial Evidence
• Change in disciples fear depression to courage
  joy
• Mark 1450 - and they all left him and fled
• John 2019 - the doors were shut where the
  disciples were for fear of the Jews
• ..
• Acts 236 - to Jews on day of Pentecost This
  Jesus, whom you crucified, God has made both Lord
  and Christ.

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The Resurrection Evidence

• Circumstantial Evidence
• Conversion of skeptics
• Paul (Enemy Acts 81-3 91 Phil. 33-8)
• suffered (1 Cor. 4 2 Cor. 11).
• Performed miracles as testimony (2 Cor. 12).
• Change? Resurrection (Acts 9, 22, 26 1 Cor.
  158)
• James, brother of Jesus (skeptic Mk. 321
  63-4 Jn. 75)
• Turned teacher leader (Acts 1518-19).
• Martyred (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 209)

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The Resurrection Evidence

• Josephus account of James death
• Ananus high priest brought before them a
  man named James, the brother of Jesus, who was
  called the Christ, and certain others. He accused
  them of having transgressed the law and delivered
  them up to be stoned
• (Antiquities of the Jews, book 20, chapter 9)

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The Resurrection Evidence

• Circumstantial Evidence
• Conversion of skeptics
• Paul (Enemy Acts 81-3 91 Phil. 33-8)
• suffered (1 Cor. 4 2 Cor. 11).
• Performed miracles as testimony (2 Cor. 12).
• Change? Resurrection (Acts 9, 22, 26 1 Cor.
  158)
• James, brother of Jesus
• Skeptic (Mark 321 63-4 Jn. 75) turned
  teacher leader (Acts 1518-19).
• Martyred (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews,
  209)
• What changed him? Resurrection (1 Cor. 157)

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The Resurrection Evidence

• Circumstantial Evidence
• Conversion of thousands of Jews
• Social structures (essential to their family,
  identity and nationality) relinquished
• Animal Sacrifices (day of atonement)
• Law of Moses (as authoritative rule)
• Sabbath (founded in Creation)
• Synagogue (center of Jewish culture esp.
  Diaspora)
• Accepting Jesus as God in flesh (against
  perceptions)
• Nature of Messiah (Crucified versus political
  rebel against Rome)

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The Resurrection Evidence

• Circumstantial Evidence
• Change in Disciples
• Conversion of Skeptics
• Conversion of thousands of Jews

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THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS

• Rests on sound historical evidence
• HISTORICAL RELIABILITY OF DOCUMENTS
• DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
• TESTS OF RELIABILITY
• TESTIMONY WITHIN THESE DOCUMENTS
• DEATH / EMPTY TOMB / RESURRECTION
• CREDIBLE EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY
• CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE

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