Jesus' Resurrection–Is there historical evidence?

Christianity is not based on ideas, a moral system, or philosophy.  It is based on an event in history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

If Jesus did indeed rise from the dead after three days, then His claims are true (Romans 1:4):

“he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit…”

But, if the resurrection was a lie, a made up story, then Christianity crumbles.  Paul put it this way,

“And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.  And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave...”  (1 Corinthian 15:14-15, NLT)

So, is there solid historical evidence that Jesus rose from the dead?

Let’s look at the facts, and some of the theories that have tried to explain away the resurrection:

1. Maybe Jesus wasn't really dead (He revived, escaped the tomb, and snuck away)?

FACT: Jesus was dead.  There were many eyewitnesses including:

• • The disciples – who spent those three days in hiding

  • The Roman soldiers who crucified Him, certified his death to the Roman governor, then put the Roman seal on the tomb and guarded it.

  • Joseph of Arimathea in whose tomb Jesus was laid,

  • Nicodemus, a member of the ruling Jewish Sanhedrin who helped bury Him

  • The women who had followed and watched the burial

  • The Jewish priests and other leaders who mocked Jesus and later spoke of Jesus as “dead,” and demanded of the Governor that a Roman guard unit be put on the tomb.

  • Peter and all the disciples preached this fact publicly in Jerusalem just 40 days later.  There would have been many enemies to set the record straight if Jesus had not really been dead.

2.  Maybe The Disciples Stole the Body?

FACT:  The tomb was secure.

• The Roman guard unit usually consisted of 16 soldiers who took shifts round the clock.  They were the elite fighting force of the day.

• The penalty for a guard falling asleep on duty was death—of the entire unit!

• A two-ton stone was rolled against the entrance of the tomb.

• The Roman seal on the tomb prevented tampering and the penalty was death.  This also means they verified that Jesus was in the tomb and it was secure.

• The disciples could not have stolen the body.  They were in hiding, and were fishermen, accountants and the like.  They could not possibly have overpowered the Roman soldiers.  The guard unit (fearing execution because the seal was broken on their watch) went not to their own governor, but to the Jewish chief priests to report the miraculous events that happened.  The Priests asked them to say they fell asleep and promised, “if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble” (Matthew 28:14).

• Did the Jews or Romans "steal" the body for safekeeping?  If so, why didn't they just produce the body and say, "Not a resurrection.  We stole it.  Here is is."

So the theory that the disciples stole the body is not plausible.

3.  Maybe the tomb wasn't really empty?

Everyone in Jerusalem agreed that Jesus' tomb was empty:

• The women who had followed Jesus were the first to discover the empty tomb as they went to finish the burial rituals properly.  In fact, they had been wondering who would move the stone from the entrance for them.

• Peter and John ran to check it out after the women reported it to them

• The enemies of Jesus never once contradicted the empty tomb when the disciples began to preach the resurrection.  Had Jesus still been in the tomb, which was close by, they would have pointed it out and Christianity would have died in it’s infancy.  But they came up with the story of the guards falling asleep, which affirms the empty tomb. 

• The same is true had the women “gone to the wrong tomb” and were mistaken.  That would mean Peter and John went to the wrong tomb, then the Romans went to the wrong tomb, then the Jews went to the wrong tomb, then Joseph of Arimathea, who owned the tomb, went to the wrong tomb.

So the theory that the women went to the wrong tomb, and Jesus was still in it is busted.

4.  Maybe it was a hoax?  (But, the Disciples Were Willing to Die for It!)

If the disciples made up the resurrection, and knew it was a lie, why would they later die for it, refusing to say otherwise?  It would be one thing to pull off a hoax if they thought there was some upside to it.  But in the face of being executed for it, they would have quickly abandoned a hoax. 

So the hoax theory is not plausible.

5.  Maybe the Disciples Hallucinated?

• Did they experience mass hallucination of some sort?  Actually hallucinations don’t work that way.  They are always highly individualized, not everyone seeing the same thing at the same time.

• Jesus not only appeared to them in group settings, once with 500 people (1 Corinthians 15:6), He also asked them to touch Him and see that He wasn’t a ghost.  He even asked them to give him some food to eat to prove it.  That’s not seeing things!

• Jesus taught them over a 40-day period after His resurrection (Acts 1:3).  He didn’t appear in some mystical, “at a distance” way.

So the hallucination theory is not plausible.

6.  The Rise of Christianity.    Even more unlikely is that Christianity would have developed and flourished with the story of a resurrection as it’s centerpiece had it not happened, or if it were a hoax.  Why not just stick to Jesus’ moral teachings as a great prophet or rabbi?  No one would stone them for that.

We are left with only one plausible explanation.  Jesus rose from the dead!

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