Hebrews 11:1 (ESV)
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
So, I take it that there’s something else in First Corinthians that somehow proves that Jesus rose from the dead, right?
I wish. First Corinthians only gives us one piece of the puzzle, but it’s an important one. In the beginning of Chapter 15, Paul says something specific.
For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,and that He was seen by Cephas, then by the twelve.After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, then by all the apostles. — 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 (NKJV)
This is important because by Paul naming names, he disproves one possibility that seems to me to be quite reasonable—that no one actually saw the risen Jesus; everyone thought that everyone else saw Him. In other words, there was a widespread rumor that He rose, but no one could say that they were one of the lucky ones who actually saw him.
I call this “The Emperor’s New Clothes scenario,” as it mirrors what everyone was thinking at the end of that tale. Everyone thought that everyone else saw the emperor’s clothes, but they just didn’t.
That’s quite plausible; rumors can do amazing things to people.
Exactly, but this passage nails down two specific people, both well known to Paul, who saw the risen Jesus. They relayed their first-hand experience to Paul, and he mentioned it in First Corinthians.
Also, the chronology of who saw him is more specific than you’d get out of a wild rumor. This passage nails down who saw Him and when they saw Him in a way that rules out the Emperor’s New Clothes Scenario.
One letter from a guy named Paul is a pretty thin reed to use to support this whole enterprise. If all this happened, why don’t any non-Christian documents mention any of it?
Well, some non-Christian documents do. That’s why you’ve already heard of Nero. You don’t learn Christian history just from the Bible; you learn some of it in high school history class.
For example, Josephus records the martyrdom of James in Antiquities XX 9:1 (200).
Festus was now dead, and Albinius was put upon the road; so he assembled the sanhedron of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others, [or, some of his companions]; and when they had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned;
Here we see, as with the stoning of Stephen, Jewish persecution of Christians. But that was small potatoes compared to the Roman persecution. The stuff we learned in high school was pretty gross. The Romans, especially Nero, were brutal, even sadistic in their persecution and suppression of Christianity.
Yeah, tough stuff. That much I’ll give you.
But here’s the great plot twist—and if ironic plot twists can glorify God, this one certainly qualifies—Nero’s suppression of Christianity backfired. It certified the very faith he sought to destroy. Without sadistic monsters like Nero, the evidence that Jesus rose from the dead would be incomplete. We need the persecution to establish the sincerity of the first Christians. That’s step one.
It’s one thing to say something casually; it’s quite another to insist on it at the point of a sword. The first Christians weren’t kidding around.
Okay, but there are plenty of alternatives—a bunch of possible ways that He didn’t die.
Yes, and the only way to treat this is to just exhaustively walk through all of them and see how they fail. Since the claim is that Jesus rose after being crucified, we need to start by studying crucifixion.
I know something about that. Crucifixion basically means torture; it’s the root word for “excruciating.” The Romans used it, with great effectiveness, to maintain order.
It worked too. Their civilization flourished, and crucifixion played no small part in “making the trains run on time.”
Ha, ha. One Italian dictatorship is just like another, I suppose.
One of my favorite Monty Python skits portrays this—in their comical style. I hesitate to show it, as it’s anything but respectful of Christianity (or anything else) but here goes.
And on that note, we’ll continue this dreadful topic tomorrow.
