The Son Rises: The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus
by
William Lane Craig
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
All Scripture quotations, except those noted otherwise, are from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, and 1977 by The Lockman Foundation, and are used by permission.
Scripture quotations indicated “Phillips” are reprinted with permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. from The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition by J.B. Phillips, Translator. © J.B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. These quotations are also used with permission of Collins Publishers, London.
Selected lines are quoted from Archibald MacLeish, “The End of the World,” in New and Collected Poems, 1917-1976, copyright ©1976 by Archibald MacLeish, and are reprinted by permission of Houghton-Mifflin Company.
Quotations from an essay by Loren Eiseley are reprinted with permission from “The Cosmic Orphan,” Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th ed. Copyright 1974 by Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
The use of selected references from various versions of the Bible in this publication does not necessarily imply publisher endorsement of the versions in their entirety.
Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 West 8th Avenue, Suite 3
Eugene, Oregon 97401
The Son Rises
Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus
By Craig, William Lane
Copyright©1981 Craig, William Lane
ISBN: 1-57910-464-9
e-ISBN: 978-1-4982-7662-7
Publication date: September, 2000
Previously published by Moody Press, 1981.
To
Bill and Joan Hartseil
and
all the brothers and sisters
whose love and prayers
were our constant resource
throughout the course of this research
Moody Press, a ministry of the Moody Bible Institute, is designed for education, evangelization, and edification. If we may assist you in knowing more about Christ and the Christian life, please write us without obligation: Moody Press, c/o MLM, Chicago, Illinois 60610.
Contents
Preface
1. Death and Resurrection
2. Some Blind Alleys
3. The Empty Tomb
4. The Appearances of Jesus
5. The Origin of the Christian Faith
6. Finding Resurrection Life
PREFACE
This is a book for those who may believe in some kind of God or Supreme Being, but doubt whether He has revealed Himself to us in any decisive way.
I am of the firm conviction that God has revealed Himself in a decisive way in history, namely, in the resurrection of Jesus, and that there is solid historical evidence for that fact. This book summarizes that evidence. It is the result of two years of research at the Universität München, West Germany, and at Cambridge University, England, as a fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The Humboldt Foundation, funded by the West German government, is designed to bring scientists and other scholars to Germany to do research at German universities and laboratories. I am extremely grateful to the Humboldt Foundation for the generous grant that funded my research on the historical credibility of the resurrection of Jesus, and I praise God for providing me with this unique opportunity. I also wish to thank my wife, Jan, for her support during the course of the research and for her long hours of work in producing the typescript.
In this book, I attempt to summarize the results of my research in simple, concise terminology, easily understandable to the man on the street. At the same time, however, I have done my best to be thorough and accurate. It is not always easy to do both. A historical investigation of the resurrection of Jesus necessarily involves many very complex issues. The average reader, who has scarcely ever opened the New Testament, much less read it, will no doubt find certain concepts new and difficult to understand. I recommend, therefore, that you read the book slowly and think about it as you go along. I have deliberately avoided specialist terminology and sought to explain everything that might be new to the average reader. Anyone who wishes to pursue these issues more deeply should consult my forthcoming works: The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus and The Historicity of the Resurrection.
In considering the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, it is important to avoid giving the impression that the Christian faith is based on the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection. The Christian faith is based on the event of the resurrection. It is not based on the evidence for the resurrection. This distinction is crucial. The Christian faith stands or falls on the event of the resurrection. If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then Christianity is a myth, and we may as well forget it. But the Christian faith does not stand or fall on the evidence for the resurrection. There are many real events in history for which the historical evidence is slim or nonexistent (in fact, when you think about it, most events in history are of this character). But they did actually happen. We just have no way of proving that they happened. Thus, it is entirely conceivable that the resurrection of Jesus was a real event of history, but there is no way of proving this historically. I think that in fact the historical evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is good—remarkably good. But that evidence is not the basis of the Christian faith. Should the evidence be refuted somehow, the Christian faith would not be refuted. It would only mean that one could not prove historically that the Christian faith is true.
In point of fact we can know that Jesus rose from the dead wholly apart from a consideration of the historical evidence. The simplest Christian, who has neither the opportunity nor wherewithal to conduct a historical investigation of Jesus’ resurrection, can know with assurance that Jesus is risen because God’s Spirit bears unmistakable witness to him that it is so. And any non-Christian who is truly seeking to know the truth about God and life can also be sure that Jesus is risen because God’s Spirit will lead him to a personal relationship with the risen Lord. Thus, there are really two avenues to a knowledge of the fact of the resurrection: the avenue of the Spirit and the avenue of historical inquiry. The former provides a spiritual certainty of the resurrection, whereas the latter provides a rational certainty of the resurrection. Ideally these ought to coincide, the Spirit working through the rational power of the evidence and the evidence undergirding the witness of the Spirit. But even if the historical avenue proved inaccessible, the avenue of the Spirit to a knowledge of the resurrection would remain open and independent.
Thus no one is justified in rejecting the Christian faith simply because “the evidence isn’t good enough.” If the evidence for the resurrection is inadequate, then we cannot prove the resurrection to be an event of history. But God’s Spirit still furnishes the unmistakable conviction that the resurrection occurred and that Jesus lives today. Therefore, whatever the state of the evidence, we can be sure that the resurrection is an event of history. Ultimately then, we must come to grips, not with historical evidence, important as this may be, but with the living Lord Himself.