March 22, 2016
There
was an old television detective show known as Dragnet that I used to
watch in rerun as a child. The lead detective's name was Joe Friday.
He was a straight shooting, no nonsense, by-the-book cop. Whenever
he and his partner were interviewing a witness there would inevitably
come a point where they would start embellishing the story and
Detective Friday would have to interject with his iconic line, “Just
the facts, please.” With Easter fast approaching, the remembrance
of Jesus' resurrection is again upon us, and again the objections
will rise as to how unbelievable such an event is. In these
situations, I find it best to remember, Like Joe Friday, to stick to
“Just the facts.”
The
Minimal Facts Approach
Many
years ago, scholars Gary Habermas and Michael Licona set forth an
approach to defending the resurrection of Jesus Christ known as “The
Minimal Facts Approach.” They felt that, rather than get lost in
tangential rabbit trails, the best way to defend the reliability of
the resurrection was to identify those facts surrounding the event
that are “so strongly attested historically, that they are granted
by nearly every scholar who studies the subject, even the rather
skeptical ones.”1
In doing this, a case can be made for the reliability of the
resurrection without reliance on religious or even theological
claims. The greatest value of this approach is that if, given the
facts presented, Jesus' resurrection is not only plausible, but the
only sufficiently explanatory solution to the events surrounding the
birth of Christianity, then all other statements made by Christ,
supernatural and theological, must then be reassessed as true. Let's
take a look at the four minimal facts the authors have identified:
Jesus
Died by Crucifixion
By
the first century, the Roman government had all but perfected the art
of death by crucifixion. This form of corporal punishment was often
implemented against the lower class, slaves, soldiers, the violently
rebellious and the treasonous.2
This form of death was so horrendous that Cicero wrote of it as “the
most cruel and disgusting penalty.”3
It is a fact, attested to by no less than five non-biblical sources
that Jesus of Nazareth was executed by Roman crucifixion. Jewish
historian Flavius Josephus records that, “Pilate. . .had him
condemned to be crucified.”4
In speaking of Nero's punishment of Christians after the burning of
Rome, historian Tacitius wrote, “Nero . . . . inflicted the most
exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called
Christians. . . Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered
the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one
of our procurators, Pontius Pilate.”5
The
Greek satirist Lucian of Samasota, as a means of mocking Christians
also inadvertently affirmed the death of Jesus by crucifixion when he
wrote, “The Christians, you know, worship a man to this day – the
distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was
crucified on that account.”6
While not explicitly stating that He was crucified, Mara
Bar-Serapion affirmed in a letter that Jesus was killed.7
As does the Jewish Talmud, where it writes that, “on the eve of
Passover Yeshu was hanged.”8
Such is the evidence for the crucifixion and death of Jesus that
even the most skeptical of biblical scholars, John Dominic Crossan,
affirms that his crucifixion is as “sure as anything historical can
ever be.”9
The
Disciples Believed that Jesus Rose from the Dead
It's
often suggested that the disciples fabricated the resurrection story
for ulterior motives. Perhaps they wanted notoriety or wealth, or
simply desperately wanted their leader back and found such an
imaginative tale to be preferred to the truth of his death. This
sort of claim, while it might seem plausible on the surface, cannot
be maintained under the weight of the evidence. To begin with, they
claimed that they had seen the risen Jesus. While this might not
seem to be that impressive of a proof, it was a universal claim
among hundreds of believers, cohesive to its finest detail. The
corroboration of their claims is found in the writings of Paul, the
oral tradition of the early church and the written works of the early
church.
In
1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Paul wrote of the resurrection of Christ, then
in v.11, writes, “but that whether it was I or they, this (the
resurrection) is what we preach.” In so doing, Paul affirms that
the apostles that confirmed him, also taught the resurrection of
Jesus Christ. We read in Paul's letter to the Galatians that the
first apostles he dealt with were Peter and James, first hand
witnesses to the event in question. At this point it should be
stated that using the biblical text in this way is not suggesting
divine inspiration or inerrancy, but merely acknowledging the New
Testament as an ancient volume of literature consisting of 27
separate books and letters.10
Subsequently, found within these ancient documents are the traces of
creeds passed orally through the early church to retain foundational
doctrine prior to their being placed in writing. I have already written
on the creed found in 1 Corinthians here, but these early creeds can be dated to within a few years of
the crucifixion (a historical certainty) and speak of the belief that
Jesus resurrected. The Gospels themselves should not be ignored
either. Regardless of dating method, it is well accepted that the
four gospels were written within the first century. Each book
attests to the resurrection of Jesus, leaving us with four separate
accounts dated within seventy years of the crucifixion that represent
the disciples' claim that Jesus rose from the dead.
More
than just claiming that Jesus rose from the dead, the disciples
believed it. It has been
said that no one will willingly die for something they know to be a
lie. Those that might assert the disciples invented the resurrection
for fame or wealth need only investigate the manner in which each
died to see the error in such thinking. These men went from passive
followers of Jesus to bold proclaimers of a new divine kingdom,
willing to suffer and die rather than remain silent. Ignatius,
student of Polycarp, who was a student of the apostles, wrote that
having seen the risen Jesus, the disciples were so encouraged that,
“they also despised death” as had their Master.11
The testimony of the book of Acts and the writings of every church
father that followed the generation of the apostles is one of
willingness to suffer and die for the proclamation of the Gospel.
The
Enemy of the Church, Paul and the Skeptic, James were Suddenly
Changed
Saul
of Tarsus, better known as the apostle Paul, was known as a
persecutor of the first church.12 The
record of his conversion is found in the book of Acts chapter 9, but
the question must be asked, “What could have caused a Jewish zealot
to abandon his lifelong faith overnight and become the most devout
apostle of the very faith he was attempting to destroy?” The
historian Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, and Paul testify that it
was because he believed he
had seen the risen Jesus. While many change religions on the basis
of hearing the message of the faith, Paul's conversion was not from
secondary sources but a primary source witness of the living Christ.
James,
the brother of Jesus, was also known as a skeptic of the Christian
faith. The Gospels record that Jesus had at least four brothers as
well as sisters, and that they doubted him.13
Josephus also records that James was the brother of Jesus in his
Antiquities.14
He was recorded as being a pious Jew both in Scripture and by the
historian Hegeseppius, who wrote, “He was holy from his mother's
womb; and he drank no wine nor strong drink, nor did he eat flesh. .
. . And he was in the habit of entering alone into the temple, and
was frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the
people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel. . .”15
This devout Jew and skeptic of Jesus, subsequent to the event of the
resurrection, is found leading the Jerusalem church and willing to
suffer a martyr's death for the Christian faith.16
Paul records in 1 Cor. 15:7 that this complete change in the Lord's
brother was a direct result of his seeing the risen Christ. Again,
the question must be asked, “If not this, then what could account
for such a change?”
The
Empty Tomb
The
rule of embarrassment, as it relates to historical inquiry, teaches
that evidence that shines unfavorable light upon the subject in
question should be considered of high value, as it is unlikely to be
an embellishment. The gospels record that the first people to
discover the empty tomb were women.18
As per Habermas and Licona, this would be an odd invention, since in
both Jewish and Roman cultures, woman were lowly esteemed and their
testimony was regarded as questionable and certainly not as credible
as a man's.19
Consider the words of the Talmud: “Any evidence which a woman
gives is not valid, also they are not valid to offer. This is
equivalent to saying that one who is Rabbinically accounted a robber
is qualified to give the same evidence as a woman.”20
Given the low view of women within the culture, their attestation of
the risen Jesus renders it highly acceptable within historical
inquiry.
Conclusion
Given
these minimal facts, it can be deduced that 1. Jesus died by
crucifixion, 2. Three days after his death, his disciples believed he
had risen from the dead, 3. Shortly after his death even an ardent
skeptic of the faith and an avowed enemy to Christianity became
converted instantly and testified of the faith even to martyrdom, and
4. There was an empty tomb where Jesus body had been laid. While
this does not prove the resurrection of Christ in the sense that some
might demand proof (i.e. photographic evidence) it demonstrates the
reliability of the claim. Alternative theories abound which
try to explain the evidence by naturalistic means, but none can
account for all these facts.
Some
might suggest that Jesus didn't die on the cross, but given the
nature of Roman crucifixion, the flogging which preceded the cross
and the spear thrust into his heart, this is hardly credible.21
The suggestion that the disciples stole the body and hid it, still
does not account for the conversion of Paul or James, nor the
willingness of every apostle and many of their followers to
become martyrs for the faith. Some have offered a form of
hallucination as a theory, but modern psychology proves that
hallucinations are private, individual experiences, not repeatable in
large groups.22
When faced with the evidence and the inadequacy of alternative
possibilities, I'm often reminded of the infamous
quote from Sherlock
Holmes, “Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no
matter how improbable, must be the truth.” It is not an easy
thing, to believe that a man could rise from the dead, but in the
case of Jesus, there is nothing other that could account for the
events that followed. And if Jesus rose from the dead, then He was
who He claimed to be, and if He was who He claimed to be, then a
decision must be made on how we receive Him.
1Gary
R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection
of Jesus, (Grand Rapids: Kregel
Publications, 2004), 44.
2Gerald
S. Sloyan, The Crucifixion of Jesus: History, Myth, Faith
(Minneapolis: Fortress, 1995), 18.
3M.
Tullius Cicero, Against Verres,
2.5.165.
5Tacitus,
Annals, 15.44.
6Lucian
of Samasota, The Death of Peregrine, 11-13.
7A.
Roberts, J. Donaldson, and A.C. Coxe, eds and trans. The
Anti-Nicene Fathers: Translations of the Wiritngs of the Fathers
Down to A.D. 325, (Oak Harbor,
Or.: Logos Research System, 1997).
8Talmud,
Sanhedrin 43a.
9John
Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography,
(San Francisco: HarperCollins, 1991), 145.
10Gary
R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona, The Case for the Resurrection,
51.
11Ignatius,
To the Smyrnaeans, 3:4
12Acts
9:1; 1 Cor. 15:9-10; Gal. 1:12-16,22-23; Phil. 3:6-7.
13Matt.
13:55-56; John 7:3-5.
14Flaviuus
Josephus, Antiquities,
20:200.
15Hegeseppius,
as recorded by Eusebius in Ecclesiastical History, 2.23.
16Acts.
15:12-21; Gal. 1:19.
17Habermas
and Licona, Resurrection,
70.
18Matt.
28:1-8; Mark 16:1-8; Lk. 24:1-12; John 20:1-2.
19Ibid.,
72.
20Talmud,
Rosh Hashannah, 1.8.
21William
D. Edwards, Wesley J. Gabel, and Floyd E. Hosmer, “On the Physical
Death of Jesus Christ,” Journal of the American Medical
Association, 255.11, (21 March
1986)
22Habermas
and Licona, Resurrection,
107.
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