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It’s often forgotten that there’s another early Old World witness to the Resurrection of Christ, quite independent from the accounts given by the four gospels: some of the early verses of chapter fifteen in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. (Notice, for example, that it omits mention of the women at the tomb — and, indeed, of any women at all. Perhaps the omission can be explained by the fact that Paul was a Pharisee — effectively an ancient Jewish lawyer — and that women’s testimony was of little if any value in his world.)
The letter probably dates to between AD 53 and AD 57, which puts it well within twenty five years of the Resurrection, and possibly within twenty. Moreover, it claims to be discussing material that Paul had taught to the Corinthians earlier, and that he himself had received much earlier still. We’re getting fairly close, therefore, to the actual event.
Paul is actually calling, as he says, on still-living witnesses. There is little room here for creative, fact-free myth-building or for the very gradual emergence of folk-legends.
Posted from Richmond, Virginia
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