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Thursday, March 19, 2020

Which Resurrection Evidence To Focus On

I've written elsewhere about the large number and variety of evidences we have for Jesus' resurrection. But it's often useful to narrow our focus, to present a more concise argument or to single out some lines of evidence to emphasize more than others.

A couple of areas I would recommend focusing on:

- Testimony from sources hostile to early Christianity. That can take two forms. You can cite individuals who were initially opposed to Christianity, but later became Christians. James and Paul are the two best ones to focus on, and the posts linked to their names explain some of the reasons why. Or you can cite sources who remained opposed to Christianity, yet corroborated one or more lines of evidence for the resurrection. See here regarding Jewish corroboration of the empty tomb and here concerning pagan corroboration, for example.

- Claims made by the early Christians that were difficult for them in some way. There's a lot that can be cited here. You'll have to choose which examples you want to focus on. Why did the early Christians claim that a resurrection had occurred, given how unexpected that was in ancient Jewish thought and given the alternatives available (a resuscitation, an apparition, a vision, etc.)? Why is the risen Jesus portrayed as having such an ordinary body, contrary to ancient Jewish expectation? Why are the early accounts so restrained? Why is the resurrected Jesus portrayed as retaining his crucifixion wounds? Why have a group of women discover the empty tomb while Jesus' male disciples are in a state of unbelief and fear? Why are female witnesses so prominent in Luke's gospel, yet so lacking in prominence in Acts? Etc.

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