No other event in history has been the object of as much scrutiny andcriticism as the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The resurrection of Christ isthe basis upon which all Christianity stands. If the resurrection neverhappened, then there would be no Christianity, as the Apostle Paul says in 1Corinthians 15:14, “And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is uselessand so is your faith. ” This is why opponents of the Christian faith have triedto attempt to discredit the Biblical account of the resurrection. Of the manytheories of the resurrection, the Biblical account is the only historicallyreliable and possible explanation of the resurrection. The historical reliability of the Bible is the first matter that needsto be discussed.
There are three criteria that the military historian C. Sanders lists as principles for documentary historical proof: thebibliographical test, internal evidence test, and the external evidence test(McDowell 43). The bibliographical test is the examination of text by thedocuments that have reached us. The reliability of the copies of the NewTestament is tested by the number of manuscripts (MSS) and the time intervalsbetween the time in which the piece of literature was written and our earliestcopy. There are more than 5,300 Greek manuscripts of the New Testament and10,000 Latin vulgate manuscripts, not to mention the other various translations. Totally there are around 24,000 total MSS for the New Testament.
The nextclosest document in respect to MSS is the “Illiad” by Homer, with 643manuscripts(McDowell 43). The textual reliability then continues with respect to the time intervalbetween the original and the first known manuscript. The shorter the interval,the more reliable the text is. Homer’s “Illiad” was written in 900 BC and theearliest copy was found in 400 BC.
This is compared to the New Testament thatwas written from 40-100 AD. The first known manuscript of the New Testamentwas found in 125 AD. This twenty-five year gap is very impressive as comparedto the Illiad’s five hundred year span (McDowell 45). This first test hasbasically shown that the text which people have in their possession isessentially the original text.
The second test is the internal evidence test. The internal evidencetest proves whether or not what was recorded is credible and to what extent. Dr. Louis Gottschalk, former professor of history at the University of Chicago,states the ability of the writer to tell the truth is helpful in determiningcredibility. The “ability to tell the truth” is related in two ways.
They arethe witness’s nearness chronologically and geographically (McDowell 51-52). TheNew Testament accounts were written by men who were eyewitnesses or related thestory from eyewitness accounts. Chronologically speaking, the Gospels were allwritten while people, other than Christians, who had been eyewitnesses to thelife of Christ were still alive. For the most part the non-Christianeyewitnesses were opponents of the faith. The resulting effect of this wouldbe the necessity for the disciples to relate the life of Christ accurately dueto the fact that any inaccuracies would have allowed opponents to discreditChristianity right from the beginning (McDowell 52-53). The third test to prove historical reliability is that of exteriorevidence.
Gottschalk defines external evidence as “conformity or agreement withother known historical or scientific facts. . . (McDowell 54).
” Other writers area great source of exterior evidence. The writings of historian Eusebius, andIraneous, Bishop of Lyons, have confirmed the writings of the Apostle John. These men did their historical writing between 130 and 180 AD. They researchedscrolls from the time of Christ. Archaeology also provides exterior evidence. Archaeologist Joseph Free states, “Archaeology has confirmed countless passageswhich have been rejected by critics as unhistorical and contradictory to knownfacts (McDowell 54).
” A wonderful example of this is found in Paul’s letter tothe Roman’s. In this letter he makes reference to the city treasurer, Erastus. A pavement fracture was found during the excavations of Corinth, in 1929, on itwas inscribed the words: “ERASTVS PRO:AED:P:STRAVIT (‘Erastus, curator ofpublicbuildings, laid this pavement at his own expense. ‘)(McDowell 110)”Archaeologist F. F.
Bruce states that this man and the man Paul refers to are onein the same (McDowell 110). These three tests when applied to the Bible show itas the most historically reliable text known to man, thus the events found uponthe pages of the Bible are actual historically proven events.In light of these facts there are still many theories other than that ofthe Biblical
