One candidate for \u201cGolgotha,\u201d as seen from near to East Jerusalem\u2019s Garden Tomb and the Arab bus station there
(Wikimedia Commons public domain photograph)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of late, it is has become fashionable in certain circles \u2014 overwhelmingly not<\/em> among people, whether believers or not, in relevant academic fields or with relevant scholarly training \u2014 to claim that no actual historical Jesus ever existed.\u00a0 This is a topic that I have discussed and will discuss elsewhere but, for now, I\u2019ll let a statement from the eminent Princeton Theological Seminary biblical scholar and textual critic Bruce M. Metzger (1914-2007) suffice on the topic:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The early non-Christian testimonies concerning Jesus, though scanty, are sufficient to prove (even without taking into account the evidence contained in the New Testament) that he was a historical figure who lived in Palestine in the early years of the first century, and that he gathered a group of followers about himself, and that he was condemned to death under Pontius Pilate.\u00a0 Today no competent scholar denies the historicity of Jesus.\u00a0<\/strong> (Metzger, The Text of the New Testament<\/em>, 78)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some have sought to explain the claimed resurrection of Christ away by asserting that he hadn\u2019t really died.\u00a0 His \u201cresurrection,\u201d accordingly, was merely a natural resuscitation.\u00a0 However, given the descriptions of the tortures inflicted upon Jesus and given the nature of crucifixion, it seems quite implausible to say that he merely swooned or fell into a coma.\u00a0 The Romans were experts, professionals, at crucifixion; they knew how to guarantee that a victim of crucifixion had really died, and the gospel accounts indicate that they had done precisely that in the case of Jesus.\u00a0 Moreover, a weakened Jesus who had just barely survived the scourging and the cross would not have been able to force his way out of the tomb, let alone very persuasive as a triumphant victor over death.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of all the events in Jesus\u2019 life, more ancient sources specifically mention his death than any other single occurrence.\u00a0 Of the 45 ancient sources, 28 relate to this fact, often with details.\u00a0 Twelve of those sources are non-Christian, which exhibits an incredible amount of interest in this event.<\/strong>\u00a0 (Gary Habermas, The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ<\/em> [Joplin, MO: College Press, 2005], 252.)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Even the third- to sixth-century AD Babylonian Talmud, a classical Jewish source that is overtly hostile to Christianity, agrees (in a garbled account that nonetheless includes references to his miracle-working and to the day of the crucifixion) that Jesus died:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
It has been taught: On the eve of Passover they hanged Yeshu.\u00a0 And an announcer went out, in front of him, for forty days [saying]: \u201cHe is going to be stoned, because he practiced sorcery and enticed and led Israel astray.\u00a0 Anyone who knows anything in his favor, let him come and plead in his behalf.\u201d\u00a0 But, not having found anything in his favor, they hanged him on the eve of Passover.\u00a0<\/strong> (Sanhedrin 43a; compare t. Sanhedrin 10:11; y. Sanhedrin 7:12; Tg. Esther 7:9)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I offer here some additional quotations that will go into a much larger collection that I\u2019ve been amassing:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
When asked if there was any possible way that Jesus could have survived the cross, [Alexander] Metherell [a medical doctor] answered: \u201cAbsolutely not.\u00a0 Remember that he was already in hypovolemic shock from the massive blood loss even before the crucifixion started.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t possibly have faked his death, because you can\u2019t fake the inability to breathe for long.\u00a0 Besides, the spear thrust into his heart would have settled the issue once and for all.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 (Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ<\/em> [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998], 201)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It is ludicrous to suppose that after suffering a night of anxiety so extreme as to cause sweat of blood, no sleep, a lack of food or water, beatings, a scourging, the labor of carrying his own cross to Golgotha, a crucifixion during which he was nailed to a cross for hours and then pierced with a lance, and thereafter being wrapped in one hundred pounds of spices and placed in a cold tomb for the night, that Jesus could have lived.<\/strong>\u00a0 (Pamela Binnings Ewen, Faith on Trial: An Attorney Analyzes the Evidence for the Death and Resurrection of Jesus<\/em> [Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1999], 164)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It surely seems significant that no ancient historical source, including those that were antagonistic to Christian claims, questions Jesus\u2019 death.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, when Jesus\u2019 disciples and friends came to mourn him at his tomb, they found it empty.\u00a0 Could they have been mistaken and gone to the wrong place?\u00a0 This seems extremely unlikely.\u00a0 His death had been notorious, recent, and very public.\u00a0 His burial had occurred only a day and a half earlier.\u00a0 Some of them had directly witnessed it.\u00a0 A detachment of guards had been placed at the tomb.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Perhaps his body had been stolen?\u00a0 That would have been very difficult for his friends to have pulled off, given the guard.\u00a0 Further, it\u2019s not clear what their motivation would have been.\u00a0 And why, in that case, would they have devoted the rest of their lives to preaching that he had been raised from the dead \u2014 and gone to their deaths as martyrs for that preaching?\u00a0 But it makes even less sense to presume that his enemies<\/em> stole the body.\u00a0 Why would they have wanted to encourage the belief that he had risen from the dead, thus seeming to vindicate his predictions that he would rise?\u00a0 And why, when they heard such claims, would they not have simply produced the body and proven the claims false?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Could the women really have gone to the wrong tomb?\u00a0 . . .\u00a0 It was only thirty-six hours since they had witnessed Jesus\u2019 burial in the tomb.\u00a0 It is not a long enough time for forgetting a most important fact.\u00a0 Moreover, this was no mass graveyard, but a distinctive tomb earmarked for Joseph of Arimathea. . . .\u00a0 Yet, even if . . . the women did in fact make this ghastly mistake, would not someone [e.g., perhaps the Pharisees or Christ\u2019s other disciples] soon have been able to correct them?<\/strong>\u00a0 (Peter Walker, The Weekend That Changed the World<\/em> [Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999], 57)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
The disciples\u2019 willingness to suffer and die for their beliefs indicates that they certainly regarded those beliefs as true.\u00a0 The case is strong that they did not willfully lie about the appearances of the risen Jesus.\u00a0 Liars make poor martyrs. . . .\u00a0 [Moreover,] roughly 75 percent of scholars on the subject accept the empty tomb as historical fact.<\/strong>\u00a0 (Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus<\/em> [Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2004], 59, 70.)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
All the strictly historical evidence we have is in favor of [the empty tomb], and those scholars who reject it ought to recognize that they do so on some other ground than that of scientific history.\u00a0<\/strong> (William Wand, Christianity: A Historical Religion?<\/em> [Valley Forge, PA: Judson, 1972], 93-94.)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
None of the earliest Christian writers, heretics, or opponents of the faith have even suggested that Jesus\u2019 body stayed there in the tomb, where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried it just after the Crucifixion.\u00a0 In fact, . . . even the religious authorities accepted the guards\u2019 reports that the tomb was empty.\u00a0 That\u2019s why they invented their story about the disciples\u2019 stealing the body.<\/strong>\u00a0 (William Proctor, The Resurrection Report<\/em> [Nashville: Broadman & Hudson, 1998], 180)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Of late, it is has become fashionable in certain circles \u2014 overwhelmingly not among people, whether believers or not, in relevant academic fields or with relevant scholarly training \u2014 to claim that no actual historical Jesus ever existed.\u00a0 This is a topic that I have discussed and will discuss elsewhere but, for now, […]<\/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":[19093,1356,5856,1104,19096,19099,9874,19105,1369,1366,9451,19102,9871],"class_list":["post-89114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-calvary","tag-christ","tag-dead","tag-death","tag-died","tag-dies","tag-empty","tag-grave","tag-jesus","tag-resurrection","tag-risen","tag-rising","tag-tomb"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Gordon's](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2015\/04\/450px-Garden_Tombs_Golgotha.jpg\")
<\/a>