Resurrection Of Jesus Christ Essay Research

Resurrection Of Jesus Christ Essay, Research Paper

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

No other event in history has been the object of as much scrutiny and

criticism as the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The resurrection of Christ is

the basis upon which all Christianity stands. If the resurrection never

happened, then there would be no Christianity, as the Apostle Paul says in 1

Corinthians 15:14, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless

and so is your faith.” This is why opponents of the Christian faith have tried

to attempt to discredit the Biblical account of the resurrection. Of the many

theories of the resurrection, the Biblical account is the only historically

reliable and possible explanation of the resurrection.

The historical reliability of the Bible is the first matter that needs

to be discussed. There are three criteria that the military historian C.

Sanders lists as principles for documentary historical proof: the

bibliographical test, internal evidence test, and the external evidence test

(McDowell 43). The bibliographical test is the examination of text by the

documents that have reached us. The reliability of the copies of the New

Testament is tested by the number of manuscripts (MSS) and the time intervals

between the time in which the piece of literature was written and our earliest

copy. There are more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and

10,000 Latin vulgate manuscripts, not to mention the other various translations.

Totally there are around 24,000 total MSS for the New Testament. The next

closest document in respect to MSS is the “Illiad” by Homer, with 643

manuscripts(McDowell 43).

The textual reliability then continues with respect to the time interval

between the original and the first known manuscript. The shorter the interval,

the more reliable the text is. Homer’s “Illiad” was written in 900 BC and the

earliest copy was found in 400 BC. This is compared to the New Testament that

was written from 40-100 AD. The first known manuscript of the New Testament

was found in 125 AD. This twenty-five year gap is very impressive as compared

to the Illiad’s five hundred year span (McDowell 45). This first test has

basically shown that the text which people have in their possession is

essentially the original text.

The second test is the internal evidence test. The internal evidence

test proves whether or not what was recorded is credible and to what extent. Dr.

Louis Gottschalk, former professor of history at the University of Chicago,

states the ability of the writer to tell the truth is helpful in determining

credibility. The “ability to tell the truth” is related in two ways. They are

the witness’s nearness chronologically and geographically (McDowell 51-52). The

New Testament accounts were written by men who were eyewitnesses or related the

story from eyewitness accounts. Chronologically speaking, the Gospels were all

written while people, other than Christians, who had been eyewitnesses to the

life of Christ were still alive. For the most part the non-Christian

eyewitnesses were opponents of the faith. The resulting effect of this would

be the necessity for the disciples to relate the life of Christ accurately due

to the fact that any inaccuracies would have allowed opponents to discredit

Christianity right from the beginning (McDowell 52-53).

The third test to prove historical reliability is that of exterior

evidence. Gottschalk defines external evidence as “conformity or agreement with

other known historical or scientific facts…(McDowell 54).” Other writers are

a great source of exterior evidence. The writings of historian Eusebius, and

Iraneous, Bishop of Lyons, have confirmed the writings of the Apostle John.

These men did their historical writing between 130 and 180 AD. They researched

scrolls from the time of Christ. Archaeology also provides exterior evidence.

Archaeologist Joseph Free states, “Archaeology has confirmed countless passages

which have been rejected by critics as unhistorical and contradictory to known

facts (McDowell 54).” A wonderful example of this is found in Paul’s letter to

the Roman’s. In this letter he makes reference to the city treasurer, Erastus.

A pavement fracture was found during the excavations of Corinth, in 1929, on it

was inscribed the words: “ERASTVS PRO:AED:P:STRAVIT (’Erastus, curator ofpublic

buildings, laid this pavement at his own expense.’)(McDowell 110)”

Archaeologist F.F. Bruce states that this man and the man Paul refers to are one

in the same (McDowell 110). These three tests when applied to the Bible show it

as the most historically reliable text known to man, thus the events found upon

the pages of the Bible are actual historically proven events.

In light of these facts there are still many theories other than that of

the Biblical account. Thr

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