Scientific and historical critical challenges to the resurrection Flashcards
What is the significance of Mark 16:1-8
Mark ends with this passage. It mentions how Jesus rose again and promises that JC will appear to the disciples again in Galilee as had been promised. This is crucial because the oldest account of the resurrection actually doesn’t involve any post resurrection appearances by JC or an ascension
There is a later part of Mark 16 but this is now generally viewed to have been added centuries later
What key text did Ian Wilson write
Jesus: The Evidence
What key text did Frank Morison write
‘Who Moved the Stone?’
What was Morison best known for
His Christian apologetics. This has made him much better liked among conservative Christians than Wilson even though Morison and Wilson often make the same naturalistic challenges to examples of miracles in the Bible
What does ‘Who Moved the Stone’ do?
The book addresses the issues with the empty tomb, offering a defence of the resurrection on the basis of a lack of convincing alternative historical explanations for the events surrounding it
How are the gospels different in terms of their accounts of the resurrection
Easy to note the differences in the resurrection accounts of the Gs. Apart from the basic outline of the disciples finding the empty tomb, there is little consensus for what happened next
This does not necessarily mean Jesus’ resurrection was false
Describe the differences between the synoptics in their account
All have the central symbol of the empty tomb being found after the Sabbath. However, in each gospel different figures discover the empty tomb, meaning even this idea is controversial
Matthew has the women being addressed by an angel instead of the young man in Mark and they flee in joy instead of fear and are suddenly met by JC himself
What could be the cause of these differences
Perhaps the author of Matthew found the Marcan ending too ambiguous and wanted to stress the certainty and importance of the resurrection appearances
We could perhaps account for the differences by using RC to determine the motives of each of the evangelists in editing their Gs
Describe the empty tomb in John
Jesus meets Mary and tells her that he will be ascending and to tell the others
Timeline and series of events very different to the Synoptics
Uncertain what sources the author used to compose this account
The lateness of the composition of John implies that by this point the symbol and story of the empty tomb was well established in Christian communities
How do the Pauline epistles challenge the historicity of the resurrection
It is unusual that this symbol doesn’t appear in any of the Pauline epistles, as this was the earlies account of Jesus. Some have claimed that this is evidence that Mark invented the story, knowing that pre-existing Jewish beliefs about bodily resurrection meant that audiences would understand the lack of a body meant that Jesus had been resurrected
What does the fact that the Pauline epistles do not mention the empty tomb perhaps suggest
The lack of feature in the epistles may suggest that the resurrection was an accepted part of Christian tradition, with the empty tomb simply being a narrative reinforcement of this event. This would mean that the empty tomb is used as evidence to show the resurrection occurred, not as a theological foundation for the resurrection
Explain the idea that Jesus’ body was taken by someone else
This is perhaps a more rational explanation as to why the disciples found an empty tomb. Potentially a variety of suspects who could have performed such an act. Perhaps the Roman authorities took it to prevent any further religious or political conflict occuring around his remains. Maybe one of the disciples took it to another resting place and a misunderstanding occurred, meaning the other believed he was resurrected. Both of these rational explanation align with our scientific understand of the world more than the idea of a resurrection
Explain the hallucination hypothesis
The same is true for the resurrection appearances. If there was a misunderstanding surrounding the empty tomb, it is easy to imagine how in the grief and fervour after JC’s death the disciples hallucinated or lied about the resurrection appearances. Perhaps mass hysteria and a strong desire for him to return led to an escalating series of visions that ramped up the theological importance of the empty tomb. Similar events have occured before in history
Most scholars aren’t interested in the veracity of the empty tomb accounts. What are they interested in instead?
More interested in undertanding how the evangelists wrote their accounts, what sources they used and how their accounts reflected the demands of their communities at the time
What was Wilson trying to do in Who Moved the Stone
Morison attempts an intellectual examination of the historical events surrounding the resurrection. Initially he did not intend to defend the resurrection, bur rather critique the idea. As his research progressed he became more and more convinced by the evidence to the point that he saw it as a real historical fact
What is the traditional Christian view on the resurrection
The traditional Christian view is that it was a miracle, with the empty tomb and later appearances signifying how Jesus really did rise from the dead. While this is the traditional view it is also the most controversial as it requires believing something that goes against our natural scientific instinct
How do enlightenment thinkers such as Hume challenge this view
Hume makes the arguement that the unreliability of testimony, especially from past cultures and societies, means that on balance it will always be more rational to believe that the laws of nature have not been broken. This arguement came against the back of the enlightenment where people began to promote trusting reason over religious dogma. Enlightenment thinkers started to question the assumption that Jesus was resurrected and looked upon the Gs with fresh eyes. They eventually drew the conclusion that scientifically and historically the resurrection could not have been verified. According to Hume the empty tomb and some testimonials from what he called ‘barbarian nations’ was not enough to suggest that God had intervened on Earth to break the laws of nature. According to them belief in the resurrection is always going to require a leap of faith
How does Morison try and counter this
This is the view that Morison is fighting back against. His works attempt to show that there is a rational case for the resurrection, with it being the best possible explanation for the empty tomb when we look at the alternatives. If we adopt a purely scientific view, then Morison has to prove beyond reasonable doubt that there are no better alternative explanations. He does not have to prove that the resurrection definetely happened, just that it is a better explanation for the historical sources than the alternative. However, the alternative explanations are hard to rule out, especially when it comes to questioning the testimony and experience of other humans
Explain the idea of the resurrection as fiction
The idea that the resurrection is just fiction also has a set of requirements it must fulfil in order to be true. We have to consider what events might have reasonably transpired such that the disciples mistook the empty tomb to be a sign of resurrection, when the body might simply have been taken for example. In this sense the resurrection is only a fiction in the sense that there was a series of errors that led to the disciples falsely attributing a resurrection narrative towards events that had a perfectly reasonable alternative explanation
How do the gospels contain a counter to this within themselves
What stands in the way of these views is that in the accounts of the empty tomb the evangelists often take pains to pre-empt and counter these alternative explanations. They understand that simply finding an empty tomb was not sufficient evidence for resurrection. For example, the author of Matthew includes a line about the Jewish authorities paying the guards to lie about Jesus body being stolen. This suggests that the belief that the resurrection was a fictional event was already present among early Judeo-Christian circles, with followers of Jesus having to specifically spell out why Jesus’ body could not have been moved
What is the main issue with the idea of the gospel as fiction
While there may have motivations for the Roman or Jewish authorities or the disciples to move the body, supporters of the idea of the gospel as fiction have the issue of why no one later discovered the body at the place where it had been taken
Explain the idea that it was a hoax by the disciples
Another arguement that the resurrection was fiction suggests that the disciples and others lied about the empty tomb and the resurrection appearances. Followers of Jesus colluded to pretend he had been resurrected following the humiliation of his crucifixion.
Counter this idea
However, such a conspiracy is hard to imagine. A lot of people would have had to have been involved and they would have still had to have removed his body. Furthermore, why would the disciples have been willing to die for something they knew was a lie. These flaws mean that people who make the arguement that the resurrection is fiction instead focus on what could have caused the disciples to mistake the empty tomb to be a resurrection, rather than this idea. Such arguements may be popular but they are not taken seriosuly academically
Explain Celsus idea that the resurrection story was just a myth
This idea was pit forward by the Greek critic Celsus, who often reserved a great deal or ire for early Christian communities. Said that it was a myth propounded by early Christians who couldn’t face that fact that there leader wasn’t truly the Son of God. In developing this story, they made the mistake of drawing too heavily on Jewish prophecy and myths, in particular the suffering servant in Isaiah