Is the Easter Story Legend or Myth? Part I

“For I delivered to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins..., was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared…”
(1 Corinthians 15:3-5)

For the remainder of my series on the case for the Christian claim that Jesus rose from the dead, I will include at the outset the paragraph italicized below.  I wish to begin today, however, by make three important clarifications.  First, the following “facts” really are conceded to be true by the harshest critics of the Gospels.  It follows then (secondly) that it is important to make a distinction between the acceptance of the data on the one hand, and belief in Jesus' actual resurrection on the other.  Many scholars who trust the facts themselves do not accept Easter as their conclusion.  Yet I argue that this situation strengthens the case for trusting the 12 facts themselves.  As I mentioned in my last posting of March 20, when atheist Peter Singer asserts, as he has in public, that there is no substantial set of facts to support Christian belief in this matter, he is simply betraying his ignorance of the state of New Testament studies.  Thirdly, one strategy used by historians (and scientists) to establish the authenticity of historical events is called “inference to the best explanation.”  This methodology does not rush to make “God” the explanation of circumstances we don’t fully understand.  It instead exhaustively analyzes the data, considers the entire range of potential explanations, discards those theories that are found deficient, and arrives at the best over-all explanation.  This final explanation avoids an ad hoc strategy involving special pleading, while searching for that answer which provides the greatest explanatory scope, and explanatory power in terms of the whole range of widely-acknowledged historical facts.

What, if any, are the facts?

New Testament scholar Dr. Gary Habermas has made a list of twelve historical facts that are conceded to be true by the majority of New Testament scholars, including even the harshest of critics, all of which point inescapably to the truth that Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day.  These facts include:  1) Jesus died by crucifixion.  2) He was buried.  3) His disciples despaired.  4) The tomb was discovered to be empty just a few days later.  5) The disciples became convinced that they experienced the risen Jesus.  6) They were transformed from doubters into bold proclaimers, who lived and died violently as martyrs for their convictions.  7)  Jesus’ resurrection was the central message of their preaching.  8) They proclaimed their message in Jerusalem where the facts of the matter could be investigated and easily overthrown if demonstrated to be false.  9) The church grew against all odds, without means of sword and against the disapproval of the hostile Roman government.  10) Their worship day moved from Saturday to Sunday.  11) James, Jesus’ skeptical brother was converted after seeing the risen Jesus.  12) And Saul the great enemy of Christianity was converted and became a most loyal disciple, at a high personal cost, all the way to his own violent death by beheading.

Using standard historical method, there are no solid grounds for explaining away any entryfrom the above list of historical facts.  In the blog that is about to follow, I will continue to make the very solid case that the claim of the New Testament about Jesus’ resurrection is historically true.  Suffice it to say that at this point, using inference to the best explanation concerning these facts, the notion that the Gospel accounts are legend is repudiated.  Every last fact on the list points to the historicity of Jesus coming back to life following his own death.  None of the above facts count against it.

Stay tuned.