One of the apologetic issues that often comes up during the Easter season is what documents we have from eyewitnesses testifying to Jesus' resurrection. It's often claimed that some letters of Paul are all we have. Even if that were true, all of us frequently accept historical claims from historians, news reporters, and other sources who aren't eyewitnesses. Still, eyewitness accounts have some advantages, so it's worth asking what eyewitness documents we have affirming Jesus' resurrection.
Only an extremely tiny minority of critics of Jesus' resurrection, probably well under one percent, deny that we have any genuine letters of Paul. But if anybody is interested, I interacted with somebody who argued for that position several years ago. See the comments section of the thread here, for example. You can search this blog's archives for other posts on the subject.
The Petrine letters indirectly affirm Peter's status as an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ when they refer to Peter as an apostle (1 Peter 1:1, 2 Peter 1:1). An apostle had to be an eyewitness of the resurrected Christ (Acts 1:21-22, 1 Corinthians 9:1).
I've argued for John's authorship of the gospel attributed to him, like here. I've also addressed alternative proposals, such as authorship by Lazarus or another church leader named John.
On Matthew's authorship of the gospel attributed to him, see here, including the other articles linked within that post.
A few years ago, I put together a post linking many of our articles on issues related to the canon of scripture, including Biblical authorship. There's a lot of material there that's relevant to the authorship of one or more of the New Testament documents I've mentioned above.
Why not accept the eyewitness accounts of the Miracle of the Sun:
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miracle_of_the_Sun
Such as those which were reported a day later in the newspapers, O Século and Ordem?
Because.
DeleteHere's a series of posts I wrote about miracles a couple of years ago. Some of the posts in that series address miracles reported outside of Evangelicalism, such as Roman Catholic miracle claims. See here, for example. I've already addressed such issues, and I've said that I accept some Catholic miracle claims.
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