tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post6975067156419654962..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: What makes the resurrection important?Ryanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-612317348530112552014-06-26T22:03:51.142-04:002014-06-26T22:03:51.142-04:00As I said at the outset, I don't object if som...As I said at the outset, I don't object if some apologists center their argument on the Resurrection–although that approach is sucking too much oxygen out of the room. My objection is when one apologetic strategy becomes a theological criterion for demoting other Biblical teachings or Scripture itself. stevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16547070544928321788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-28348362376217132422014-06-26T02:03:38.647-04:002014-06-26T02:03:38.647-04:00I think there are at least a few legitimate reason...I think there are at least a few legitimate reasons behind the resurrection-centric apologetic method(s). First, most people will accept the existence of God and the possibility of miracles, one need only get bogged down in that debate for a very small minority of the population. It makes sense to go straight for the kill - why this Jesus of Nazareth? We need to make functional deists into Christians in the vast majority of cases. S<br /><br />econd, the resurrection in particular and the NT record more broadly are far more "accessible" to us in the 21st century. I mean that on several levels - we can scrutinize that time in history more easily because the historical record is both closer and better. The mists of time shroud the ages of the patriarchs, Moses, and the pre-exilic kingdom of Israel in a way that is not true of the Judaism of 1st century Palestine under Roman rule. That is not to say that we know the ministry of Christ and the founding of the Church as directly as we know about the life and death of, say, Abraham Lincoln. It is just that the events of the NT are more ripe for the picking than the OT from an apologetic standpoint. And there are other pertinent issues (we understand Koine Greek better than OT Hebrew), and the textual integrity of the NT far surpasses the OT. We have an embarrassement of riches as far as NT manuscripts are concerned. For the OT we are forced to an unhealthy reliance on a single manuscript, the quite-late Leningrad codex for the Hebrew text. There is some help by supplementing with the LXX and Dead Sea Scrolls, but still nothing close to the NT manuscripts.David Gadboishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18375984671877016361noreply@blogger.com