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<\/a><\/p>\nIt perhaps escaped your attention but scholars have identified a creedal testimony to the atoning death and resurrection of Jesus that is dated within five years, possibly just months,<\/em> after it happened.<\/p>\n Justin Bass, New Testament Professor at the Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary, writes about this for the Gospel Coalition<\/a> and in Christianity Today.<\/a>\u00a0 He has also written a book on the subject that has just been released:\u00a0\u00a0The Bedrock of Christianity:\u00a0 The Unalterable Facts of Jesus\u2019 Death and Resurrection<\/a>.<\/p>\n The text has been right under our nose.\u00a0 It\u2019s something St. Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 15: 3-7:<\/p>\n For\u00a0I delivered to you<\/strong> as of first importance what I also received<\/strong>: that Christ died\u00a0for our sins\u00a0in accordance with the Scriptures,<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>that he was buried, that he was raised\u00a0on the third day\u00a0in accordance with the Scriptures,<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>and that\u00a0he appeared to Cephas, then\u00a0to the twelve.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>Then he appeared to\u00a0James, then\u00a0to all the apostles.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Around the turn of the 21st century, New Testament scholars began studying these words.\u00a0 They realized that they were not being presented as thoughts from the Apostle.\u00a0 Rather, Paul says that he \u201creceived\u201d them and then \u201cdelivered\u201d them.\u00a0 Researchers then determined that the language of the passage does not accord with Paul\u2019s usual style of writing, neither in this letter to the Corinthians nor his other epistles.\u00a0 They concluded that this passage is a statement that the convert Paul was taught and that he then passed on.<\/p>\n Paul\u2019s first epistle to the Corinthians<\/a> has been reliably dated 53-54 A.D., and he is believed to have established the church in the Greek city-state of Corinth in 50 A.D.\u00a0 The scholars studying the creedal testimony estimate that it would have been composed at least a decade before that date, which would put it in the 40s.\u00a0 But it might have been even earlier.\u00a0\u00a0Paul\u2019s conversion<\/a> is said to have occurred between 31-36 A.D.\u00a0 Historians believe that Jesus died in 30 or 33 A.D.<\/a><\/p>\n Dr. Bass says that the average date given for the text by various scholars is 5 years after the death of Christ<\/em>.\u00a0 At least one scholar, though, argues that it was written just a few months<\/em> afterwards.<\/p>\n Furthermore, Dr. Bass says that this view and dating of the text is now the scholarly consensus, agreed to by virtually all scholars,<\/a> including liberal higher critics, agnostics, and atheists.\u00a0 One of the latter says that\u00a0this discovery is \u201cone of the great achievements of recent New Testament scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n This is significant in itself.\u00a0 The early \u201chigher critics\u201d of the 19th and 20th century posited very late dates for the books of the Bible, then maintained that Christian doctrines evolved over time.\u00a0 In line with modernist rationalism and liberal theology, they said that the miracles described in the Gospels and the theological content of the different books in the New Testament were creations of the church, which drew from a long oral tradition and which invented teachings to respond to their historical situation.<\/p>\n But textual scholarship, using far more sophisticated methodology and further discoveries of ancient texts, has since shown that the New Testament documents were written far earlier than the pioneering higher critics assumed.\u00a0 There was not much time for an oral tradition, much less the evolution of doctrine.<\/p>\n So what does this text, described as \u201cthe earliest evidence for Christianity<\/a>\u201d tell us?<\/p>\n First of all, it is about eyewitnesses<\/em> to the resurrection of Christ.\u00a0 Some have said that the resurrection was merely a story made up by a group of women, or a subjective vision of Peter, or a mass hallucination, or an inner conviction of the disciples that Jesus was with them. This text emphasizes that Jesus was raised from the dead\u00a0 \u201cin accordance with the Scriptures\u201d\u2013as an article of faith, as predicted in the Old Testament\u2013and that this resurrection is an objective fact attested to by numerous witnesses over a period of time.<\/p>\n This text even goes beyond the testimony of the four Gospels, which concentrate on Jesus\u2019 appearances to His immediate circle of the apostles and other disciples. He also appeared to \u201cmore than five hundred brothers at one time,\u201d along with a detail supporting its\u00a0contemporaneity to the event, \u201cmost of whom are still alive.\u201d\u00a0 After that, the text seems to refer to some later appearances to James, an early leader of the church, and \u201cthen to all the apostles,\u201d which must refer to more than just \u201cthe twelve,\u201d including apparently James and the Apostle Paul, who adds his name to the company:\u00a0 \u201c<\/span>Last of all, as to one untimely born,\u00a0he appeared also to me.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>For\u00a0I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because\u00a0I persecuted the church of God\u201d<\/span>\u00a0(1 Corinthians 15:8-9).<\/p>\n Also, as creedal statement, this text affirms \u201cthat Christ died\u00a0for our sins\u00a0in accordance with the Scriptures.<\/span>\u201d Again, as with His resurrection, the Old Testament Scriptures are described as the theological authority, showing the church at its very earliest state relying on the Word of God.\u00a0 And what that Word teaches is that Christ\u2019s death was sacrificial and atoning.\u00a0 This was no later invention of the church imposed on the sad end of a great moral teacher, nor was such a belief created as is sometimes said by the Apostle Paul.\u00a0 Instead, what we see here is the church from its very beginning confessing the gospel of salvation through the work of Christ on the cross, \u201cthe article upon which the church stands or falls.\u201d<\/p>\n As if this were not enough, this text is not all that Paul \u201creceived\u201d and \u201cdelivered.\u201d\u00a0 He uses\u00a0the same language for other things, which also must mean they too originate from a similarly early date.\u00a0 Dr. Bass summarizes them<\/a>:<\/p>\n When Paul planted the church in Corinth, he\u00a0delivered<\/em>\u00a0certain traditions to the Corinthians that further illumined the gospel (cf.\u00a01 Cor. 11:2<\/a>) he himself had\u00a0received<\/em>. These included some teachings and stories about Jesus (1 Cor. 7:10; 9:14; 11:1<\/a>;\u00a02 Cor. 10:1<\/a>), the account of the Lord\u2019s Supper (1 Cor. 11:23\u201326<\/a>), hymns (1 Cor. 8:6<\/a>;\u00a02 Cor. 8:9<\/a>), and this creedal tradition on Jesus\u2019s death, burial, resurrection, and appearances (1 Cor. 15:3\u20137<\/a>).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Thus, the church evidently, in its earliest state, from the very beginning, was worshipping:\u00a0 singing hymns, preaching about Jesus, confessing their faith, and receiving the sacrament.\u00a0 As the church continues to do today.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n