Easter Resources 2023

For a starting point on Easter issues, see a short post I wrote about which evidence for Jesus' resurrection we should focus on the most. Steve Hays wrote a lengthier article suggesting how to make a case for the resurrection.

And here are some examples of other Easter issues we've addressed:

Evidence That The Risen Jesus Was Heard And Touched, Not Just Seen, Including In 1 Corinthians 15
The Evidence For The Resurrection Account In Matthew 28:9-10
Paul's Inner Experience In Galatians 1:16
Did the resurrection witnesses have an opportunity to recant?
Problems With A Hallucination Hypothesis
Were the resurrection appearances grief hallucinations?
Did Paul experience a guilt hallucination on the road to Damascus?
Evidence That Saul Of Tarsus Saw Jesus Risen From The Dead
The Resurrected Jesus Appeared To At Least Five Non-Christians, Probably More
Did the resurrection accounts develop in a suspicious way?
Miracles On Video
The Fifth Gospel
Evidence For The Shroud Of Turin
How do we know Jesus' resurrection wasn't a demonic miracle?
How much can we trust ancient Christian sources in light of their biases?
Early Non-Extant Documents On The Resurrection
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
Resurrection Evidence Outside The New Testament
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
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 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
What if alleged miracles, like Jesus' resurrection, were caused by a currently unknown natural process?
Reviews Of Debates On Jesus' Resurrection
Easter Prophecy Fulfillment

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

We've written some e-books that have material relevant to Easter. See the e-books section of the sidebar on the right side of the screen.

My articles on skeptical myths about the church fathers also have some material relevant to Easter.

Here are the Easter Resources posts from previous years:

2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022

After that 2022 post just linked, I discussed the potential reasoning behind Jesus' focus on Galilee (e.g., Mark 14:28) in the context of his resurrection. In another post, I discussed a few lines of evidence for the resurrection appearance in Matthew 28:9-10. I also wrote about how the gospels agree in portraying Jesus' resurrection body as having an ordinary appearance, in contrast to ancient Jewish expectation and in contrast to how Jesus and other figures are portrayed in other contexts, including by the same authors. My next post discussed evidence for the apostleship of Jude. There are some aspects of the New Testament's resurrection accounts that were difficult for the early Christians in some way, such as because of their embarrassing nature or how contrary they were to expectations. The material is less likely to have been fabricated accordingly. I quoted some comments from Augustine about how difficult some of that material was for Christians even in his day. Another post quoted some comments from Paul Williamson about how resurrection is implied by the trajectory of scripture, as early as the opening chapters of Genesis (contrary to the idea that later Israelites borrowed the concept from other cultures). I then addressed how many non-Christians Jesus appeared to after rising from the dead and whether he should have appeared to more non-Christians and more prominent ones. In the next post, I discussed how Jesus' resurrection relates to justification and baptism, responding to Tertullian's claim that the means of obtaining justification changed after Jesus' resurrection. I also posted some portions of a poem by George Herbert on the suffering of Jesus. Steve Hays had written about a reference to seeing light in the original text of Isaiah 53:11 and how it seems to imply the resurrection of the Suffering Servant. I expanded on that theme. Here's something I wrote about the idea that Paul's experience on the road to Damascus was a guilt hallucination. My next post addressed the common objection that the gospel resurrection accounts developed in a suspicious way, with Mark having the simplest material and John having the material that's most advanced. I also wrote about the claim that Jesus' resurrection appearance to Paul is referred to as something that occurred inwardly in Galatians 1:16. I responded to an objection to Jesus' appearing to biased believers after his resurrection. Another post was partly about how our concern for the physical welfare of other people should extend to the afterlife and the physical component it will have as a result of the resurrection. Mike Licona and Dale Allison discussed Jesus' resurrection on Sean McDowell's YouTube channel. A lot of significant issues came up in the process (Marian apparitions, non-Christian miracles, the appearance to more than 500 in 1 Corinthians 15:6, etc.). I wrote a response. I wrote a post about Jesus' relatives that includes some discussion of issues related to Jesus' resurrection, such as why Luke doesn't narrate the resurrection appearance to Jesus' brother James. I also posted a collection of resources on Isaiah 9, including material relevant to Easter. In another post, I discussed a cumulative case that can be made for the resurrection appearance in Matthew 28:9-10. After that, I linked a video by Michael Jones that addresses alleged parallels between Christianity and other belief systems, an objection that often comes up in the context of Easter. I also linked a video on Jesus' fulfillment of Psalm 22. Here's something on the evidence for the resurrection witnesses' willingness to suffer for their belief in the resurrection. And here's a post I wrote about whether the resurrection witnesses had an opportunity to recant in order to avoid suffering.