HISTORICITY OF RESURRECTION James Dee's Commentary "Jesus is not risen" (3/24/05) reminds me of a dog barking at the ocean, as if his yelps will stop the tide! The questions posed by this 'visiting classics scholar' are centuries-old doubts that have been resolved repeatedly. Dee quotes a few radical theologians, whose theories have been rebuffed so often by the majority of biblical scholars that few today take them seriously. Without answering each of his innuendoes about the historicity of Jesus' resurrection, let me simply add: Historicity is based in part on the number of witnesses to an event and the veracity of those observers. The Apostle Paul invited skeptics in his day to talk to the numerous people who had seen the resurrected Jesus, including "more than 500" on one occasion (1 Corinthians 15:5-7). Historians note we have more credible evidence of the resurrection of Jesus than we do that the Battle of Bunker Hill was fought or that the Declaration of Independence was signed by the signatories. Those first witnesses changed overnight from cringing doubters fearful of arrest and execution to courageous testifiers willing to suffer torture and death rather than recant the resurrection. Yet the best witness of all were the Apostle's own words (1 Corinthians 15:7) that have been repeated millions of times by disciples of Jesus: "I talked with him this morning!" |