Eyes Smeared With Blood And Tears He Could Not Wipe Away

"For since he himself was tempted in that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." (Hebrews 2:18)

"For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." (Hebrews 4:15)

"For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps" (1 Peter 2:21)

Christ's suffering accomplished many things, among them what's mentioned in the passages of scripture quoted above. One of the ways Christians should view suffering is in terms of how Christ suffered before us and how he suffered in ways like our suffering. His suffering is unlike ours in some ways, but also like ours in others. I wrote about these themes as they relate to the Garden of Gethsemane in a post earlier this year.

Richard Bauckham recently published a book about an experience he went through a few years ago involving a loss of his eyesight, the blurring of his vision. He wrote, "Later (perhaps on the bus home, I forget) I began to compose a poem based on the thought that the eyesight of Jesus, as he hung dying on the cross, would surely have become blurred, smeared with blood and tears that he could not wipe away." (The Blurred Cross [Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2024], 118) It's an aspect of Jesus' suffering that doesn't get much attention. Bauckham quotes the poem he wrote:

I think perhaps that when you hung in pain,
bearing the weight of all this sad world's wrong,
your vision blurred. Could you distinctly see
your mother and your friends?...
Through that blur of blood, that cloud of tears and sweat,
you look with love on all whose sight is dimmed.

Evidence That The Thief On The Cross Is Normal, Not An Exception To The Rule

One of the subjects that sometimes comes up in the context of Good Friday is the thief on the cross. Advocates of baptismal regeneration and other forms of justification through works often dismiss the thief as a soteriological exception to the rule.

Easter Resources 2026

Here's an overview of which evidence for Jesus' resurrection to focus on most. Steve Hays wrote a lengthier post on how to make a case for the resurrection.

Here are some of our posts on Easter topics, with many more available in our archives:

The Cumulative Case For A Christian Understanding Of Psalm 22

I want to put links to some of the relevant posts in our archives in one place:

Is Psalm 22 Messianic?
The Jewishness Of The Individual In Psalm 22
How Well The Psalm Aligns With Roman Crucifixion
How Verse 16 Should Be Rendered
The Individual In Psalm 22 Is Delivered From Death
The Events Of Psalm 22 Are Highly Influential Geographically And Chronologically
Is Psalm 22 too vague to have evidential value for Christianity?
How Well Psalm 22 Aligns With Other Old Testament Passages That Have Evidential Value For Christianity

Is Psalm 22 too vague?

One of the popular objections to Christian arguments for prophecy fulfillment is that the prophetic passages are too vague. Can Psalm 22 be dismissed that way?

Is Psalm 22 Messianic?

A common objection to Christian arguments for prophecy fulfillment is that the Old Testament passages don't identify themselves as Messianic. But they wouldn't have to in order to have evidential significance.

Prophecy fulfillment can have evidential value without the prophecy being Messianic, explicitly identifying itself as Messianic, or anything like that. The Messianic nature of a passage can be implicit rather than explicit. And a passage doesn't have to be Messianic to provide evidence for Christianity. Christians consider Jesus the Messiah, but there are many subcategories to the category of Messiah. A prophecy could refer to one of those subcategories without addressing the larger category. And, from a Christian perspective, Jesus is more than the Messiah. So, Messianic prophecy isn't all that's relevant.

With Psalm 22, what we have is a psalm that's attributed to David, but we don't know of anything in David's life that even comes close to fulfilling the passage, and the contents of the psalm are of such a nature that they're highly unlikely to have happened in David's life in some context that's not part of any of our extant records of his life. Then we have the fact that David is often assigned a lot of Messianic significance elsewhere in the Old Testament, such as being an ancestor of the Messiah. And the geographical and chronological influence of the figure in the psalm (verses 27-31) suggests a highly significant and influential individual. That doesn't require a Messianic understanding of the psalm, but a Messianic fulfillment helps make sense of those closing verses. It adds coherence to the psalm. Furthermore, we know that a later figure widely considered the Messiah, Jesus, died in a manner that aligns well with the psalm and was thought to have experienced a deliverance from that death (his resurrection). The themes of death and deliverance from it are prominent elsewhere in material Christians (and others) have argued is Messianic elsewhere in the Old Testament, and the psalm fits well with those passages (as discussed here, for example). For reasons like these, it makes sense to consider the passage Messianic, though implicitly rather than explicitly.

That's a secondary issue, though. The psalm doesn't have to be considered Messianic in order for Jesus' fulfillment of it to be evidentially valuable. Even if you identify the figure in the passage as a highly influential Jewish individual or whatever else other than calling him the Messiah, Jesus' alignment with the passage makes more sense as something supernatural than something natural. That's the primary issue, not whether the psalm should be categorized as Messianic.

The Closing Verses Of Psalm 22 Favor A Christian Interpretation Of The Psalm

One of the aspects of Psalm 22 that doesn't get enough attention is how the psalm ends. The individual in the passage is approaching death (verses 15 and 20-21), apparently at the hands of the enemies mentioned in the psalm, who are likened to animals. He asks for deliverance from those enemies, but says nothing of deliverance from some other manner of death, like an illness. And he is delivered. We're not told how he's delivered, but we're told that he is (verses 22-24). Verses 27-31 refer to the major significance of what's happened, how people across the world will hear about it and turn to God as a result of what's been accomplished. Those verses refer to widespread influence both geographically and chronologically.

That's happened on a large scale with Jesus. There have been widespread discussions of his execution in Christian and non-Christian sources from the first century onward.

By contrast, none of the many records we have of David's life describe anything even close to what Psalm 22 depicts. It seems unlikely, given what we know of David's life, that events such as those described in Psalm 22 happened to him. So, a fulfillment in David's life seems unlikely upfront, and it isn't referred to elsewhere in the oldest records we have of his life. An advocate of David's fulfillment of the passage could appeal to the psalm itself as evidence, but the widespread influence described in the closing verses of the psalm make more sense if they refer to something that would be discussed elsewhere as well.

The Christian understanding of the passage not only has the psalm itself recording the events, but also has the events being widely discussed from early on after the events, both geographically and chronologically, in contexts independent of Psalm 22. The closing verses of the psalm make more sense under the traditional Christian understanding.

Easter Resources 2025

For an overview of which evidence for Jesus' resurrection to focus on most, see my post here. Steve Hays wrote a lengthier post on how to make a case for the resurrection.

Here are some of the Easter issues we've addressed over the years, with many more in the archives:

The King Is Here, Dispensing Favors

"And after rebuking the other [thief on a cross], he [the repentant thief] says, 'Lord, remember me; for with Thee is my account. Heed not this man, for the eyes of his understanding are blinded; but remember me. I say not, remember my works, for of these I am afraid.'...Therefore also he justly heard the words, 'Be of good cheer'; not that thy deeds are worthy of good cheer; but that the King is here, dispensing favours. The request reached unto a distant time; but the grace was very speedy. 'Verily I say unto thee, This day shalt thou be with Me in Paradise; because today thou hast heard My voice, and hast not hardened thine heart. Very speedily I passed sentence upon Adam, very speedily I pardon thee. To him it was said, 'In the day wherein ye eat, ye shall surely die'; but thou today hast obeyed the faith, today is thy salvation. Adam by the Tree fell away; thou by the Tree art brought into Paradise.'...O mighty and ineffable grace! The faithful Abraham had not yet entered, but the robber enters! Moses and the Prophets had not yet entered, and the robber enters though a breaker of the law. Paul also wondered at this before thee, saying, 'Where sin abounded, there grace did much more abound'. They who had borne the heat of the day had not yet entered; and he of the eleventh hour entered. Let none murmur against the goodman of the house, for he says, 'Friend, I do thee no wrong; is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with Mine own? The robber has a will to work righteousness, but death prevents him; I wait not exclusively for the work, but faith also I accept. I am come who feed My sheep among the lilies, I am come to feed them in the gardens. I have found a sheep that was lost, but I lay it on My shoulders; for he believes, since he himself has said, 'I have gone astray like a lost sheep'; 'Lord, remember me when Thou comest in Thy kingdom.''" (Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 13:30-31)

Evidence Of How Psalm 22:16 Should Be Rendered

Michael Flowers has produced a series of videos on Psalm 22:16, in which he makes a lot of significant points about the passage. He's also published an article discussing thirteen proposed renderings of the passage and assessing their strengths and weaknesses. Notice how easily most of the proposed readings can be reconciled with crucifixion. The traditional Christian view involving digging, boring through, or piercing is supported by the earliest versions of Psalm 22 that we have. As Flowers notes, "In an article from 1897 Henri Lesêtre observed that although Justin Martyr quotes Ps 22 for his Jewish interlocutor Trypho and appeals to it as a proof-text for Christ’s crucifixion, he never pauses to consider Jewish objections to the Septuagint rendering of v. 17 [verse 16 in Christian Bibles]. Since Justin is aware of other Jewish objections to Septuagint renderings – as in Dial. 67 where the term παρθένος in Isa 7:14 is discussed at length – Lesêtre hypothesized that כארו was still the established reading in the mid-second century." Justin's comments are in section 97 of his Dialogue if you want to read what he wrote for yourself. Furthermore, multiple other details in the psalm suggest a crucifixion, one with Roman characteristics, as I've discussed elsewhere. The language Christians appeal to in Psalm 22:16 was circulating in versions of that psalm in antiquity and seems to have been circulating widely, including in pre-Christian sources. If that language was a textual corruption, then was it a mere coincidence that such unusual textual mistakes so favorable to Christianity entered the manuscript record and became so popular? If somebody is going to advocate that sort of view, we should note how often he appeals to such unusual alleged mere coincidences in other contexts as well, such as with regard to other details in Psalm 22 and in other contexts related to prophecy fulfillment (Jesus just happened to be raised in Nazareth in the region of Zebulun in line with Isaiah 9:1, the flogging in the Servant Song in Isaiah 50 just happens to line up with the common Roman practice of flogging an individual before crucifixion, the Romans just happened to destroy both Jerusalem and the temple in line with Daniel's Seventy Weeks prophecy, etc.). And if the alternative reading of Psalm 22:16 that's adopted is one like the popular Jewish rendering involving a lion doing something to the hands and feet, we should ask what's being accomplished by going with that sort of reading. Even though it wouldn't support a Christian understanding of the psalm as much as a traditional Christian version of the text would, it's still singling out the hands and feet in a significantly unusual way and can easily be reconciled with crucifixion.

The Price Paid For What We Enjoy

"Therefore, every good gift in this world and the next (including innumerable wonders to enjoy in nature) was purchased by Christ for us at the cost of his life. Therefore, every sight, every sound, every fragrance, every texture, every taste in this world that is not sin is meant to intensify our admiration and love for Jesus (as creator, sustainer, upholder, and redeemer) and move us to 'boast…in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ' (Gal. 6:14). The theater of wonders that we call the natural world is through Christ and for Christ." (John Piper, Providence [Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway, 2020], approximate Kindle location 3561)

The Difficulty Of Fulfilling The Predictions Relevant To Jesus' Death

I've written posts over the years about some of the problems with claiming that Jesus' life lined up with Daniel's Seventy Weeks prophecy by normal means, without anything supernatural involved. For example, the passage involves the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, which was done by the Romans, not by Jesus and the early Christians. You can read my previous posts for more about such issues, like here. What I want to focus on in this post is expanding on a point that I think I've only addressed more briefly in the past.

Notice that if Jesus was merely human and wanted to get himself crucified by the Romans to fulfill both Daniel 9:26 and Psalm 22, for example, he would only have partial control of the situation. You can provoke people to kill you by natural means. There wouldn't have to be anything supernatural involved. But you wouldn't have control over how other people would respond to the provocation, and there would be multiple contexts simultaneously in which you'd lack relevant control. You might get a response of mockery or pity, for example, rather than the relevant type of anger. You might get anger, but not enough of it to lead to your execution. Or you might get killed the wrong way. Too soon. Too late. In too humiliating a manner. The gospels illustrate that point. They refer to multiple occasions in which people attempted to do something like throw Jesus over a cliff or stone him. You don't even have to go to a Christian source, like the gospels. Look at what Josephus tells us about how one of Jesus' own siblings was put to death. Jesus could have met the same kind of death as his brother, James, and at the wrong time.

Jesus' fulfilling Psalm 22, Isaiah 50, and Daniel 9, for example, required the Romans, not fellow Christians, to do a series of things the right way. We need to keep in mind that this isn't just a matter of whether Jesus could by natural means try to get people to kill him. The situation is much more complicated than that. If he was merely human, he only had partial control over his fulfillment of the relevant prophecies. The degree to which the fulfillment depended on non-Christian sources was large and evidentially highly significant.

Was ever grief like mine?

If you haven't read George Herbert's poem The Sacrifice, I recommend reading it. There are more than 60 verses addressing different aspects of Jesus' suffering. Here are several of the verses, but I recommend reading the whole poem:

The Hope Cherished By The Nations

"And it is in Him, too, we already see the concluding expression of the prophecy fulfilled: 'In His name shall the nations hope.' [Isaiah 11:10, Romans 15:12] And by this fulfillment, which no one can deny, men are encouraged to believe in that which is most impudently denied. For who could have hoped for that which even those who do not yet believe in Christ now see fulfilled among us, and which is so undeniable that they can but gnash their teeth and pine away? Who, I say, could have hoped that the nations would hope in the name of Christ, when He was arrested, bound, scourged, mocked, crucified, when even the disciples themselves had lost the hope which they had begun to have in Him? The hope which was then entertained scarcely by the one thief on the cross, is now cherished by nations everywhere on the earth, who are marked with the sign of the cross on which He died that they may not die eternally." (Augustine, The City Of God, 20:30)

Easter Resources 2021

Last year, I wrote a short post about which evidence for Jesus' resurrection we should be most focused on. A few years ago, Steve Hays wrote a lengthier article about how to make a case for the resurrection. Those are a couple of places you could go to start the process of studying Easter issues.

And here are some examples of other relevant issues we've addressed over the years:

The Greatness Of The Gospel

How we view the gospel affects our relationship with God, our relationships with other people, our priorities, our objectives, the sense of urgency we have, and many other aspects of life. It should be a foundational motivating factor every day of our lives. It's important that we have a high view of the gospel and think about it often, deeply, and in a multifaceted way. Here are some examples of authors down through the centuries commenting on certain portions of the gospel:

Faith Alone
He Gives Himself
The Incarnation
Gethsemane
Put On Trial
The Cross
The Tomb
The Resurrection
The Defeat Of Satan
Imputed Righteousness
The Benefits Of The Gospel

"An idea has long possessed the public mind, that a religious man can scarcely be a wise man. It has been the custom to talk of infidels, atheists, and deists, as men of deep thought and comprehensive intellect; and to tremble for the Christian controversialist, as if he must surely fall by the hand of his enemy. But this is purely a mistake; for the gospel is the sum of wisdom; an epitome of knowledge; a treasure-house of truth; and a revelation of mysterious secrets. In it we see how justice and mercy may be married; here we behold inexorable law entirely satisfied, and sovereign love bearing away the sinner in triumph. Our meditation upon it enlarges the mind; and as it opens to our soul in successive flashes of glory, we stand astonished at the profound wisdom manifest in it. Ah, dear friends! if ye seek wisdom, ye shall see it displayed in all its greatness; not in the balancing of the clouds, nor the firmness of earth's foundations; not in the measured march of the armies of the sky, nor in the perpetual motions of the waves of the sea; not in vegetation with all its fairy forms of beauty; nor in the animal with its marvellous tissue of nerve, and vein, and sinew: nor even in man, that last and loftiest work of the Creator. But turn aside and see this great sight!—an incarnate God upon the cross; a substitute atoning for mortal guilt; a sacrifice satisfying the vengeance of Heaven, and delivering the rebellious sinner. Here is essential wisdom; enthroned, crowned, glorified. Admire, ye men of earth, if ye be not blind; and ye who glory in your learning bend your heads in reverence, and own that all your skill could not have devised a gospel at once so just to God, so safe to man." (Charles Spurgeon, The C.H. Spurgeon Collection [Albany, Oregon: AGES Software, 1998], The Park Street Pulpit, Vol. 1, pp. 113-14)

Easter Resources 2020

I've been posting a collection of Easter resources each year for about a decade:

2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019

There's an archive of our posts with the Easter label here. And you can search for posts with other labels by replacing the word Easter in the URL with another phrase (Resurrection, Empty Tomb, Cross, etc.). Keep clicking on Older Posts at the bottom of the screen to see more posts.

We've written some e-books that address Easter issues. See the e-books section of the sidebar to the right.

A few years ago, I posted a collection of articles on skeptical myths about the church fathers. Many of those articles address Easter issues.

Here are some examples of posts we've written on Easter subjects over the years:

Miracles On Video
Easter Prophecy Fulfillment
Resurrection Evidence Outside The New Testament
Early Non-Extant Documents On The Resurrection
Evidence For The Empty Tomb
Early Affirmation Of The Empty Tomb From Gentile Non-Christians
Jesus' Burial And Empty Tomb Outside The Gospels And Acts
Evidence For The Shroud Of Turin
Fifty Agreements Among The Resurrection Accounts
The Consistencies Among The Resurrection Accounts In 1 Corinthians 15, The Gospels, And Acts
The Restrained Nature Of The Resurrection Accounts
The Contrast Between The Prominence Of Female Witnesses In Luke And Their Lack Of Prominence In Acts
Alleged Errors And Contradictions In The Resurrection Accounts
Harmonizing The Resurrection Accounts
The Context In Which The Gospels Were Composed
How Early The Synoptics And Acts Were Written
The Authorship Of Matthew
The Authorship Of Mark
The Authorship Of Luke And Acts
The Authorship Of John
The Authorship Of The Pauline Letters (see the comments section)
The Historicity Of Acts
Easter Material Corroborated In The Letters Of Peter
Why It's Significant That The Earliest Sources Don't Narrate The Resurrection Appearance To James
Evidence That Saul Of Tarsus Saw Jesus Risen From The Dead
The Spiritual Body Of 1 Corinthians 15
Why Didn't The Risen Jesus Appear To More And Different People?
Why Doesn't Jesus Appear To Everybody?
Matthew 27:52-53
How The Apostles Died
How To Make A Case For The Resurrection
Independent, Converging Lines Of Evidence For Jesus' Resurrection
What If Alleged Miracles, Like Jesus' Resurrection, Were Caused By A Currently Unknown Natural Process?
Miracles In The Modern World
Reviews Of Debates On Jesus' Resurrection

After the 2019 Easter Resources post linked above, Steve Hays linked an article on astronomical evidence for the date of the crucifixion. Here's something I wrote about Jesus' fulfillment of the first three Servant Songs in Isaiah. Steve presented an argument for penal substitution based on the events surrounding Jesus' death. I wrote a post addressing the common claim that the guards at the tomb, people touching Jesus' resurrection body, and other such details in the resurrection accounts were fabricated in an attempt to make the resurrection seem more credible. Steve linked a video of Darrell Bock and Gary Habermas discussing the evidence for the resurrection and its implications. He also posted some Good Friday artwork and music (here, here, here, here, and here). And he posted a satirical video about the regulative principle of worship and Easter. I wrote about the significance of prophecy fulfillment in the context of Easter. Steve responded to a skeptic of the resurrection. His response addresses Paul's view of the resurrection, the empty tomb, and a lot of other issues. I wrote about how the gospels are corroborated in the letters of Peter. The post addresses the crucifixion, the empty tomb, whether the author of the letters claims to have been a resurrection witness, and other issues related to Easter. Steve wrote about the appearance of Jesus to Paul on the road to Damascus, the nature of the appearance and the evidence for it. Later, he posted some excerpts from a book about the resurrection of the Servant in Isaiah 52-53. In another post, he addressed the light motif in scripture and how it relates to resurrection. He later discussed the passages in John 20 that refer to Jesus appearing to people after the door where they were had been locked. He also wrote about the implications of idealism for Jesus' death and resurrection. I made some suggestions about how we should argue for prophecy fulfillment, such as by using the Servant Songs to argue for fulfillment in the modern world. Steve linked an article by Gary Habermas on how Jewish scholars have viewed Jesus' resurrection. I wrote about some connections between Easter and Christmas in Isaiah's Servant Songs. Steve posted about a recent book by Lydia McGrew, and he commented on some issues related to Easter in the process. He then commented on John 20 and whether and how the resurrected Jesus walked through walls. He also linked a video by Michael Brown about Matthew 27:52-53. I expanded on the theme of light in the gospels, in connection with Jesus seeing himself as the light of Isaiah's Servant Songs. Steve addressed some alleged contradictions among the gospel accounts about the women who went to Jesus' tomb and, in another post, the women at the cross. I wrote about video evidence for miracles, which is relevant to disputes over the possibility of miracles and what evidence we have for them. The post discusses some of the principles involved in evaluating miracle claims and the significance of video evidence, and I provide links to some online videos of miracles. Steve quoted Lydia McGrew on the earliest evidence for the resurrection. He also quoted her on the subject of harmonizing the resurrection accounts.

The Fruit Of Jesus' Cross And Resurrection

"For the noble things which publicans and fishermen were able to effect by the grace of God, these, philosophers, and rhetoricians, and tyrants, and in short the whole world, running ten thousand ways here and there, could not even form a notion of. For what did not the Cross introduce? The doctrine concerning the Immortality of the Soul; that concerning the Resurrection of the Body; that concerning the contempt of things present; that concerning the desire of things future. Yea, angels it hath made of men, and all, every where, practice self-denial, and show forth all kinds of fortitude." (John Chrysostom, Homilies On First Corinthians, 4:6)

"It is too small a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make you a light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth….If he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied" (Isaiah 49:6, 53:10-11)

Easter Prophecy Fulfillment

I wanted to put together a collection of links to some of our posts on the fulfillment of prophecies related to the Easter season. Since the fulfillment of these prophecies postdates our earliest Old Testament manuscripts, there's no need to argue for the traditional dating of the Old Testament books. But for those who are interested in that topic, you can find some of our posts on the subject linked here.

Here's something I wrote about Jesus' fulfillment of the first three Servant Songs in Isaiah. I also wrote a post on Facebook about Jesus' fulfillment of the fourth Servant Song, the Suffering Servant prophecy.

The opening of the Suffering Servant passage and some other passages in Isaiah and elsewhere refer to the impact the Servant and Israel would have on the Gentile world. Here's a post I wrote on the subject. And here's a post on how such passages give us modern evidence for the deity of Christ. I also discussed how we can use such prophecy fulfillments to argue from the common ground we have with skeptics.

Near the end of this post on the book of Daniel, there's some material on Jesus' fulfillment of the Seventy Weeks prophecy and some other predictions in Daniel.

Here's something about Psalm 22.

And here's something Steve Hays wrote about Psalm 16:10.

Easter Resources 2017

Each year, I post a collection of Easter resources. Here are the previous years' posts:

2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016

And here are some representative examples of the issues we've addressed:

Independent, Converging Lines Of Evidence For Jesus' Resurrection
Resurrection Evidence Outside The New Testament
Evidence For The Shroud Of Turin
The 1982 Carbon Dating Of The Shroud Of Turin
The Authorship Of Matthew
The Authorship Of Mark
The Authorship Of Luke And Acts
The Authorship Of John
The Authorship Of The Pauline Letters (see the comments section)
Evidence For The Empty Tomb
Why It's Significant That The Earliest Sources Don't Narrate The Resurrection Appearance To James
Evidence That Saul Of Tarsus Saw Jesus Risen From The Dead
The Spiritual Body Of 1 Corinthians 15
Why Didn't The Risen Jesus Appear To More And Different People?
Matthew 27:52-3
How The Apostles Died
Miracles In The Modern World
Reviews Of Debates On Jesus' Resurrection

We've written some e-books, which are linked on the sidebar on the right side of the screen, and they address some Easter issues.

After the 2016 post on Easter resources linked above, Steve Hays wrote some responses to Bart Ehrman, here, here, and here, which address the resurrection and other topics. And here and here are some posts Steve wrote in response to Ehrman concerning the harmonization of the crucifixion accounts. Steve also addressed how skeptics miscalculate the probability of the resurrection. And here's a response he wrote to Richard Carrier on the argument that the resurrection witnesses wouldn't have died for a lie. A lot of issues came up in the thread, including whether the resurrection witnesses died for a noble lie and whether they had an opportunity to recant before being executed. I put together a collection of links to our material on Matthew's authorship of the first gospel. Steve wrote about the hypothesis that Jesus had a twin brother who was mistakenly thought to be Jesus risen from the dead. And here's another post he wrote on the subject. He also discussed whether the resurrection is extraordinary in the way critics often suggest. And he wrote about whether the resurrection and other miracles are antecedently improbable. I linked a post I wrote on Facebook about how the Suffering Servant prophecy is evidence for Christianity. Steve wrote about animals and the afterlife. And here's something I wrote about Jesus' fulfillment of Psalm 22. I also reviewed a debate between Sean McDowell and Ken Humphreys on the martyrdom of the apostles. Steve wrote about Psalm 16:10 and Jesus' resurrection. He later wrote about how John Goldingay became more appreciative of the resurrection of the body through watching the suffering of his wife. Steve also addressed the implications Gordon Clark's views have for the resurrection. And he linked an article on the relationship between the historicity of Adam and the historicity of Jesus' resurrection. He also linked an article by Edwin Yamauchi about whether the early Christians' belief in Jesus' resurrection was rooted in myth, hallucination, or history. And he discussed what Paul says about the afterlife in 1 Thessalonians 4 and how a Christian view of the afterlife contrasts with non-Christian views. In another post, he addressed the claim that any naturalistic explanation for the evidence pertaining to Jesus' resurrection is preferable to a supernatural explanation. And here's a post Steve wrote about skeptical attempts to dismiss the resurrection appearances as hallucinations and their appeal to Marian apparitions. He also discussed Andy Stanley's views on Jesus' resurrection and the Bible. After that, he addressed objections to a Christian view of the final state. Here's something he wrote in response to Dale Allison on the continuity between the body that dies and the one that rises. He also replied to George Mavrodes on the probability of Jesus' resurrection. In another post, he discussed how Biblical descriptions of the afterlife could be reconciled with incorporeal existence. He also responded to some misgivings Peter Enns expressed about the resurrection of Christ. And he addressed some of the principles involved in judging the consistency of the resurrection accounts. I wrote a series of posts on how the gospels compare to other ancient biographies. Steve wrote about Muhammad's alleged splitting of the moon and how it compares to Christian miracles, such as the darkness at the crucifixion. He also wrote about how God relates to us in the events commemorated at Eastertime. I wrote about how the fulfillment of Isaiah's Suffering Servant passage and other Old Testament prophecies provides modern evidence for Jesus' deity. I also updated my post on the 1982 carbon dating of the Shroud of Turin. Steve reviewed a debate on the resurrection between Mike Licona and Matt Dillahunty here and here. He also contrasted Biblical miracles, like the resurrection of Christ, to miracles of a less purposeful nature.