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Does the Bible provide
extraordinary
evidence for Jesus' Resurrection?
If you read the paper on
extraordinary claims require extraordinary
evidence, then you read the concluding points about the validity
and weaknesses of the position and addressing four major points:
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Will their presuppositions allow unbiased examination of the
evidence?
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What would qualify extraordinary evidence?
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What criteria is used to determine what is extraordinary
evidence?
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Is the criteria for extraordinary evidence
reasonable?
Nevertheless, does the Bible actually provide extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims? I believe so.
But, instead of providing a list of various claims and evidences, I
want to focus on the most important one in the Bible: Christ's
resurrection.
Basically, does the extraordinary claim that Jesus rose
from the dead have any extraordinary evidence to back it up?
But, since this is a subject of history, we cannot apply the methods
of experimentation and repetition to see if it happened. We
don't have any film. All we have is the evidence presented in
the Bible, a document of history. Like the extraordinary
Alexander the Great who conquered the known world by the age of 33,
the resurrection of Jesus is also a historic event.
Following is a chart that categorizes some Biblical facts into two
categories. I admit this is a bit subjective, but I think that
my analysis is sound. Afterwards, I will briefly comment
on each one.
|
Extraordinary
claim: Jesus physically rose from the dead |
|
Extraordinary
evidence |
Not so
extraordinary evidence |
| 1. Textual
reliability of the ancient document |
5. Accounts written by eyewitnesses |
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2. Retention of crucifixion wounds post event |
6. No counter historic information |
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3. Post death appearances to many people |
7. Jesus'
body is gone from the tomb |
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4. Prophetic fulfillment |
8. Changed lives |
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Textual
reliability of the ancient document
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The New Testament documents are 99.5% textually pure. This is
indeed an extraordinary fact since all
other ancient documents do not even approach this level of
accuracy.
-
Retention of crucifixion wounds post event
- This would indeed be an extraordinary
evidence of a resurrection to see the actual holes in
Jesus' hands and side after he had died on the
cross.
- John 20:27, "Then He *said to Thomas,
"Reach here your finger,
and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it
into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing."
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Post death appearances to many people
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It is indeed extraordinary to have
someone who has died in public at an execution to
appear to many people afterwards.
- John 20:26, "And after eight days
again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them.
Jesus *came, the doors having been shut, and stood in
their midst, and said,
"Peace be with you."
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Prophetic fulfillment
- Fulfilling
prophecies made hundreds of
years earlier about Jesus birth, death, crucifixion,
and resurrection is indeed extraordinary.
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Accounts written by eyewitnesses
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It is perfectly ordinary to have people write about
what they saw. History is full of such accounts.
- No counter historic
information
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There is no contradictory historical information
concerning Jesus' resurrection. This doesn't
prove anything, but when the gospels were written,
people contemporary to the described events (Jews,
Romans, etc.), could have easily written something
refuting or correcting the resurrection account.
No such writings exist. This isn't extraordinary, but
it is important.
- Jesus
body is gone from the tomb
It is not extraordinary for a body to disappear from a
tomb if we realize that it could have been stolen.
We can see
that there is sufficient reasons to believe that the Bible does indeed
provide extraordinary evidence for an extraordinary claim; namely, the
resurrection of Jesus.
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