In summary, we have seen that ten lines of historical evidence combine to place the weight of the evidence solidly in favor of the historical fact that Jesus’ tomb was found empty on the Sunday after His crucifixion and burial. We have further seen that no natural hypothesis can furnish a plausible explanation of that fact. This alone would justify our accepting the resurrection as the simplest, most probable explanation of the fact of the empty tomb. But the case for the resurrection of Jesus does not rest on that fact alone: we have still to look at the evidence for the appearances of Jesus and the origin of the Christian faith. In the next chapter then, let us inquire what proof there is that after His death Jesus appeared alive to His disciples.
NOTES
1. Edward Lynn Bode, The First Easter Morning, Analecta Biblica 45 (Rome: Biblical Institute, 1970), p. 165.
2. That Paul is here quoting an early Christian saying has been proved by Joachim Jeremias, Die Abendmahlsworte Jesu, 4th ed. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1967), pp. 95-98, and is acknowledged by all New Testament scholars.
3. C. H. Dodd, The Apostolic Preaching and Its Developments, 3d ed. (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1967), p. 26.
4. Rudolf Bultmann, The History of the Synoptic Tradition, trans. John Marsh, 2d ed. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell), p. 274.
5. Vincent Taylor, The Gospel According to St. Mark, 2d ed. (London: Macmillan, 1966), p. 599.
6. Tosephta Sanhedrin 9.8-9; Mishnah Sanhedrin 6.5-7.
7. R. H. Smith, “The Tomb of Jesus,” Biblical Archaeologist 30 (1967): 87-88.
8. Raymond Brown, The Gospel According to John, Anchor Bible (Garden City: Doubleday, 1970), pp. 982-83.
9. Josephus Jewish War 5. 147, 259.
10. See also Mishnah Sanhedrin 6.6; B. Sanhedrin 46b Bar; and Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 4. 202.
11. Josephus Jewish War 4. 317.
12. Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 4. 264.
13. Josef Blinzler, “Die Grablegung Jesu in historischer Sicht,” in Resurrexit, ed. Édouard Dhanis (Rome: Editrice Libreria Vaticana, 1974), pp. 65-68.
14. Mishnah Rosh Ha-Shanah 1.8.
15. J Sot 19a.
16. B Kidd 82b.
17. Hans Freiherr von Campenhausen, Der Ablauf der Ostereriegnisse und das leere Grab, 3d rev. ed., Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften (Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1966), pp. 44-49.
18. Hans Grass, Ostergeschehen und Osterberichte, 4th ed. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1970), p. 178.
19. Ulrich Wilckens, Die Missionsreden der Apostelgeschichte, 3d ed., Wissenschaftliche Monographien zum Alten und Neuen Testament 5 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchner Verlag, 1974), p. 135.
20. See the excellent illustrated article by Kenneth Weaver, “The Mystery of the Shroud,” National Geographic (June 1980), pp. 730-52.
21. E. Earle Ellis, ed., The Gospel of Luke, New Century Bible (London: Nelson, 1966), p. 273.
22. Joachim Jeremias, New Testament Theology, trans. John Bowden, New Testament Library (London: SCM Press, 1971), p. 301.
23. See the discussion in Rudolf Pesch, Das Markusevangelium, 2 vols. Herders theologischer Kommentar zum Neuen Testament (Freiburg: Herder, 1976-77), 2: 519-20.
24. Ibid., 2:21, 364-77.
25. Bode, Easter, p. 161.
26. Brown, John, p. 980.
27. Bultmann, History, p. 309.
28. Brown, John, p. xcvi; see also p. 1128.
29. C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St. John, 2d ed. (London: SPCK, 1978), p. 117; agreeing is Brown, John, p. 1046.
30. Bode, Easter, pp. 162-63.
31. James D. G. Dunn, Jesus and the Spirit (London: SCM, 1975), p. 120.
32. D. H. Van Daalen, The Real Resurrection (London: Collins, 1972), p. 41.
33. Jacob Kremer, Die Osterevangelien—Geschichten um Geschichte (Stuttgart: Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1977), pp. 49-50.
34. Rudolf Schnackenburg, personal letter, September 21, 1979.
* Revised Standard Version.
4
The Appearances of Jesus
According to the New Testament, after His death Jesus appeared unmistakably alive to different groups and individuals on many and various occasions. The evidence for the appearances of Jesus may be summarized under four main headings.
THE FACT OF THE RESURRECTION APPEARANCES
1. The testimony of Paul demonstrates that the disciples saw appearances of Jesus. As noted in chapter 3, in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul quotes an old Christian saying and then lists witnesses to the appearances of Jesus after His resurrection:
He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred bethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. [1 Corinthians 15:5-8].
The connective words “then . . . then . . . then . . . last of all” show that the list of appearances is chronological in order. It is interesting that Paul does not mention the appearance of Jesus to the women, which is related in the gospels (Matthew 28:9-10; John 20:11-18). That is probably because women were not qualified to be legal witnesses, and therefore their presence in the list would not only be worthless, but even counterproductive. Paul’s concern is not to list all the appearances of Jesus, but the most important witnesses of the appearances. Let us briefly consider each appearance mentioned by Paul.
a) The appearance to Peter. First, he appeared to Cephas, which is Aramaic for Peter. It is very odd that this appearance to the chief disciple is not related in detail in the gospel stories. Nevertheless, virtually all New Testament critics acknowledge that the event really happened. For not only is this appearance mentioned in the very old saying from the early Christian fellowship in Jerusalem, but Paul himself, who personally visited and spoke with Peter, vouches for the accuracy of the saying by quoting it. In addition, the appearance is referred to by Luke in his gospeclass="underline" “They . . . found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them, saying, ‘The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon’” (Luke 24:33-34). According to Luke, the appearance to Peter took place after Peter had returned from the empty tomb and while he was alone. Luke apparently did not have a detailed story of this appearance, so rather than make up one (which, by the way, speaks for his honesty as a historian), he contents himself with this brief mention of the appearance to Simon Peter. Some scholars, drawing attention to the linguistic peculiarities of Luke’s statement, have even argued that this, too, is an old Christian saying that may be as old as that quoted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5.