The Garden Tomb in Jerusalem (Wikimedia Commons public domain photo)
For the record: I don\u2019t actually believe that the Garden Tomb is the right place. But it\u2019s familiar, it will serve as a good illustration, and, anyhow, we don\u2019t know exactly where the right place is (though it\u2019s probably within a few hundred yards) and, so far as we know, have no photographs of it.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
An apologetic that is sometimes used, particularly by Evangelical Protestants (such as William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and Michael Licona), to defend the idea of the resurrection of Christ is what is often called \u201cthe four proven or minimal facts argument.\u201d \u00a0I base the following notes on the summary of that argument given at Robert Hutchinson,\u00a0Searching for Jesus: New Discoveries in the Quest for Jesus of Nazareth \u2014 and How They Confirm the Gospel Accounts<\/em> (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2015). \u00a0I\u2019m simply taking notes here, so I\u2019m not concerned to form what immediately follows into an argument. \u00a0That will come later, as part of a much larger case. \u00a0I observe, though, that Evangelical apologists like Gary Habermas currently favor a six- or seven-facts argument, not a four-facts defense.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
In essence, all these authors argue that certain facts about Jesus\u2019 final days can be established historically and that, when a reasonable person contemplates these facts without biases, the most plausible conclusion is that Jesus of Nazareth really did rise from the grave. \u00a0(235)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are the four basic facts:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fact 1: \u00a0After his crucifixion, Jesus was buried by Joseph of Arimathea in a tomb. \u00a0(235)<\/em><\/p>\nThe burial of Jesus is attested in all four Gospels and in the even earlier writings of Paul. \u00a0Accordingly, scholars regard the sources for these reports as extremely early \u2014 dating to within five to seven years of the crucifixion, if not earlier. \u00a0William Lane Craig thinks it extremely unlikely that the benevolence of Joseph of Arimathea, a Jewish aristocrat who was a member of the Sanhedrin, was a fictional Christian invention. \u00a0After all, he reasons, early Christians were notably hostile to Jewish leadership in Jerusalem, which they blamed for engineering Jesus\u2019 judicial murder. \u00a0Even John A. T. Robinson (1919-1983), a controversially liberal Anglican cleric who taught at Trinity College, Cambridge, acknowledged that the burial of Jesus in the tomb is \u201cone of the earliest and best-attested facts about Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fact 2: \u00a0On the Sunday after the crucifixion, Jesus\u2019 tomb was found empty by a group of his women followers. \u00a0(235)<\/em><\/p>\nThe emptiness of the tomb is mentioned by multiple independent sources. \u00a0William Lane Craig and others have contended in particular that the story of the women at the tomb is likely to be authentic because ancient Jews scarcely allowed women to serve as witnesses. \u00a0Thus, if the story were simply invented, it is difficult to imagine why women would have been given the starring role in it. \u00a0The New Testament scholar Ben Witherington III sees other elements in the story as potentially embarrassing: \u00a0Mary Magdalene, for instance, has a questionable past (Luke 8:2) and she herself suggests the possibility that Jesus\u2019 body may have been stolen from the tomb (Luke 20:2). \u00a0Under the so-called \u201ccriterion of embarrassment,\u201d he holds it to be very unlikely that the early Christian community would have invented fictional details that could serve to undermine its case.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fact 3: \u00a0On separate occasions and under diverse circumstances, different individuals and groups of people experienced appearances of Jesus alive from the dead. \u00a0(236)<\/em><\/p>\nThe very skeptical German New Testament critic Gerd L\u00fcdemann declares that \u201cIt may be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after Jesus\u2019 death in which Jesus appeared to them as the risen Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fact 4: \u00a0The original disciples suddenly and sincerely came to believe that Jesus was risen from the dead despite their having every predisposition to the contrary. \u00a0(236)<\/em><\/p>\nIn Jesus\u2019 day, Jews expected a conquering messiah who would liberate Israel. \u00a0Moreover, while they anticipated a general resurrection at the end of the world, they did not expect an individual resurrection prior to that time. \u00a0Accordingly, the conviction of Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection went directly against their preconceived notions. \u00a0As the Catholic New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson says, \u201csome sort of powerful, transformative experience is required to generate the sort of movement earliest Christianity was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the basis of such arguments, fortified by others, such folks as William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, Michael Licona, and, quite independently, N. T. Wright argue that the best explanation for the data is the idea that Jesus actually did rise from the dead.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, there are certain scholars who deny some of these claimed facts. \u00a0John Dominic Crossan, for instance, does not believe that Jesus was really buried in a rock-cut tomb. \u00a0Some deny that the tomb was really found empty. \u00a0(I\u2019ll eventually respond to these positions.) \u00a0And, yes, there are a very small number of mostly non-academics who maintain, against the vast consensus of both believing and unbelieving scholarly opinion, that Jesus never existed at all. \u00a0For present purposes, I\u2019ll ignore them.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 An apologetic that is sometimes used, particularly by Evangelical Protestants (such as William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, and Michael Licona), to defend the idea of the resurrection of Christ is what is often called \u201cthe four proven or minimal facts argument.\u201d \u00a0I base the following notes on the summary of that argument given […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[9868,9877,9856,1356,1363,9874,2851,9859,9880,9889,4507,1369,9892,9883,9865,9886,9862,1366,9871,4489,9895],"class_list":["post-84302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apologetic","tag-appearances","tag-argument","tag-christ","tag-easter","tag-empty","tag-empty-tomb","tag-four-fact","tag-gary-habermas","tag-gerd","tag-habermas","tag-jesus","tag-ludemann","tag-michael-licona","tag-minimal-facts","tag-n-t-wright","tag-proven-facts","tag-resurrection","tag-tomb","tag-william-lane-craig","tag-witherington"],"yoast_head":"\n
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