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10 Reasons the Resurrection Really Happened
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Photo of the Shroud of Turin by Barrie M. Schwortz / AP.
Christianity hinges on whether Jesus rose from the grave on the third day. Jeffrey Hart goes back to re-examine evidence—from the Shroud of Turin to the location of the nails at the Crucifixion.
Did the resurrection really happen? The empirical evidence is better than you may think.
This is important because Christianity requires much more in the way of belief than Islam or Judaism does.
Judaism requires belief in one God, honoring the history of the people as established in scripture (with considerable support from archaeology), and the law, beginning with the Ten Commandments set forth by Moses. Leviticus elaborates on the law at great length, and forms of Judaism differ on how much of the law elaborated there is to be observed.
1 Corinthians 15 lays it on the line. “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
Christianity asks much more. It requires belief that Jesus was crucified, died, was entombed, and rose from the dead on the third day. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me...
And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith... Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than are all men.
That lays it on the line. “If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.”
A number of things can be said about this passage. Since Paul was executed in Rome about 65 A.D., this is the earliest testimony we have regarding the alleged resurrection. The four Gospels provide much more, notably Luke 24:32. Second, Paul seems to know that the claims about the resurrection are difficult to believe. He cites 500 witnesses, “most of whom are still living.” That is, empirical evidence exists about what Paul says, and if Paul is lying, this can be established. Incidentally, Arthur Darby Nock, our foremost Paul scholar, thinks Paul (then Saul) very likely heard Jesus speak at the synagogue in Tarsus long before Saul’s famous conversion on the road to Damascus (in today’s Syria).
That Jesus rose on the third day remains very hard to believe. Not least is the fact that a body dead for that length of time would decay considerably and would have to be fully reconstituted in order to appear alive. So let us follow the scholar Ian Wilson to Turin and there walk to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and there to the circular, black Royal Chapel designed by Guarino Guarini. There behind iron grills in a locked chamber is a linen cloth known as the Shroud of Turin.
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Jeffrey Hart is professor emeritus of English at Dartmouth College. He wrote for the National Review for more than three decades, where he was senior editor. He wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan while he was governor of California, and for Richard Nixon.
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Has anyone seen Jesus other than
on a piece of toast or in the shape of a cheeto,
or was that Mary on a potato chip?
Seriously, where has Jesus been
for the last 2000 years?
Is he waiting for a momentous occasion?
I saw Jesus in the frozen food aisle, standing next to Elvis.
So there.
Ridiculous.
Please tell me you are kidding me, please tell me no one with a thinking brain believes this god garbage, please tell me all people that in fact can think really understand that the whole god thing is nothing other then a power thing for a few holding hostage the mass's. Please tell me this god thing is nothing more then a way for people to get tax deductions & control the poor & stupid, please tell me everyone that can think is laughing now & has laughed in private over the whole god thing....
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I'm with ya brother.
If people could come back from the dead, there'd be a lot more evidence for it than a burned image on a shroud. Since nobody has ever come back from the dead, conveniently not breaking the known laws of science in a measurable way, we have to conclude that it hasn't happened. As for this shroud, I think the indubitable record of relic-hunters stands for itself, and there is a pound of nails and an ark of wood from the True Cross that backs me up.
As for "radioactivity attendant upon the resurrection", you say that Jesus got a second life, but also a half-life?
abracadabra, hocus pocus LOL
Christianity was a misunderstanding from the beginning, the Crucifixion. Jesus' execution was not a blood sacrifice, although that claim facilitated pagan conversions. His Crucifixion was the embodiment of loving one's enemies, of not resisting the calumny against Him. The essence of faith is not belief in a blood sacrifice, but belief in the power of love to triumph over hatred. Christianity, as practiced by Jesus, is the practice of love. Now, more than ever, it appears the only true Christian died on the cross.
I don't think the author understands what the term "empirical evidence" means. Here's a point-by-point response.
Your dubiously rigorous analysis begins and ends with two assumptions: that Jesus existed, and that the Shroud of Turin was wrapped around THAT person.
Problem is, neither of your assumptions can be tested for veracity, throwing into doubt any conclusions you make thereafter.
Christians and other faithful adherents really should stop trying to justify their beliefs with science or deductive logic. Your religions have little to do with either.
Although... we do appreciate the philosophical work of William of Occam.
Any successful forger knows that you need to start off with base material that dates from the time the artifact is supposed to come from. So, the pollen argument is moot. The only requisite here is that the forger was able to find a piece of linen from the correct time period. Researchers have also shown how the image on the cloth can be realistically replicated through using intensified sunlight (i.e., a magnifying glass). There are many plausible explanations for how the shroud could have been forged around the time of its discovery, none of which are refuted by the author's list here. I'm afraid this article is a bit of a bust.
All ten reasons relate to the Shroud? Where are the contemporary reports by non-believing Jews? Where are the original manuscripts of the Gospels? He didn't even bother to drag out and dust off the dubious medieval edits to Josephus.
What a pitiful attempt at apologetics.
The posts above mine pretend to reason, but they are insults dressed in reason.
Oh, some do reason, several were posted while I had the page open. I apologize to the sincere and reasonable of either side.
I REALLY HAVEN'T READ A LOT OF THE BIBLE, BUT MY MOM TOLD ME A LOT, I STRONGLY BELIEVE IN GOD
TAKe the caps off
You're either dead or alive. You can't be both. It's a well known historical fact that "relics" were manufactured during the middle ages. it was a business. Big bucks for a piece of the true cross or a vial of the tears of the Virgin Mary. The shroud is simply another fake relic that has been carbon dated to this period. Give it up. The resurrection story is nothing more than
self confirming mythology and not a little wishful thinking.
Martyz42: you are sad fool and I feel sorry for you.
To not believe as others do is perfectly reasonable.
To not show respect for what people clearly believe honestly and deeply is childish.
To show open contempt is as bad as the worst racist or sexist. Congratulations.
Racists and sexists are real... Fairy tales in a book are not.
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I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone who contends the shroud is real talk about this: Assuming that it's authentic and it's an impression/imprint/magically burned image of some kind caused by the effulgence of Christ's resurrection, it DOESN'T WORK!
We can see this with our own eyes: Take a piece of newspaper and wrap it around your head, at least as far as both ears. Have someone use a magic marker to make marks where your eyes, nose, mouth, and ears are. (They don't have to be artistically accurate, just the location.) You've now created your own model of the shroud of Turin and your face is roughly marked on the page, so lay it on the floor and admire. Ooops! Your ears are way the heck out to the side and it doesn't look attractively photographic at all--how did THAT happen? Gee, maybe someone forgot that when they created the shroud.
So, either the shroud of Turin was only an early photographic plate and it's a picture of a body, or there are still more things that have to be explained away as "miracles," or (novel thought here!) it's all a fraud designed to fool gullible peasants in any century who're grasping at straws to prove what they've been brought up to believe. Which seems the most likely to you?
I find Hart's argument unconvincing. So it's left the resurrection as it always was and should be: a matter of personal faith. Those that disagree that it occurred and do not believe are completely reasonable persons that I have no beef with, and unlike them, I will not ridicule their opinion.
If this appeared in a newspaper I was paying for through subscription, I would end my subscription today. What next, a story about flying saucers? How about cold fusion? That was for real, right?
Not all belief deserve equal respect. When one's belief leads to unreasonable hatred and hostility towards others who believe differently there is no reason why contempt isnt reasonable.
tolerance should never be shown to the intolerant.
previous post as a reply to wolverine1987's indignation.
"A startling fact: The image of the man on the Shroud turns out to be a photographic negative. When photographed it became a positive. Again, this seems to rule out an ancient forgery, that is, long before the invention of photography."
Actually, Clive Prince and Lynn Picknett, in their book The Turin Shroud: How Da Vinci Fooled History, argue exactly the opposite. They believe that Da Vinci had enough knowledge of chemistry to create a photographic image. Whether you agree with it or not, it's an interesting argument and certainly seems more logical than a piece of cloth surviving 2000 years with a body magically imprinted on it.
http://www.firstscience.com/home/perspectives/editorials/da-vinci-strike s-again_1791.html
The Turin Shroud did not appear in art until medieval / Renaissance times, so that certainly isn't evidence that the shroud was real- if it were, it would have appeared in earlier artwork. The forgery of relics was common in this era.
To: genoftheheart --- Well said.
To wolverine19887 --- Thank you.
To Martyz42 --- Let's just start with one single individual, keeping it simple so that you might be able to grasp it, and you explain to me what a moron he is. Take Dr. Francis S. Collins, a geneticist and Director of the Human Genome Project. Now explain to me exactly how stupid he is.
Let's start with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi , St. Claire, St. Francis De Sales, St. Catherine of Sienna , St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Theresa, St. Elizabeth, St. Elizabeth Seton, St. Therese of Lisieux , St. Maximilian Kolbe, and many, many other pillars of the Catholic Church.
Wolverine: in this country, we are free to believe whatever we like about an enormous number of things. I had a doctor once, many years ago, who actually believed in the "Hollow Earth" theory. (It's an interesting piece of Victoriana, honestly; look it up on Wikipedia.) But do I have anything but contempt for this belief? No. It didn't get in the way of him being a good doctor, interestingly, and it wasn't part of my relationship with him to be concerned about this... but I thought then and think today that he was an effing fool given the enormous suspension of physical laws and the refutation of huge parts of photographic evidence that there aren't, in fact, big holes at the North and South Poles (or anywhere else). I know that Dr. G actually believed all of this strongly, honestly, and deeply and probably always had. That still didn't make it anything but laughable. (There are still people--people with degrees!--who attribute global warming to a shift in the Earth's rotational axis as a result of the tsunami a few years ago. Well, it's all charming, I suppose, but they're completely FOS on this.)
So, no, I don't agree that an open contempt for someone's beliefs in an imaginary friend is nearly as bad a thing as you've presented. There are many sets of beliefs that are pretty idiotic.
genoftheheart, you should probably study the Bible before you make statements like that. Christianity is about love, but it is ultimately the sacrifice that saves us. You cannot seperate the Law and the New Testament, the same God wrote both.
I don't believe in the shroud of Turin. Furthermore, it is not anyone's job to argue anyone into believing in Jesus. It is kind of ridiculous to show someone an old cloth and expect them to believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came to earth to pay His price of death for sin so that we could spend eternity with Him in heaven. Christianity does not hinge on empirical evidence of any kind.
Once you believe, all evidence becomes subject to that belief.
If the actions attributed to God where attributed to a man, he would be considered cruel, mean-spirited, a bit sadistic, certainly a controller and subject to fits of anger. It is belief that makes these characteristics so easy to overlook in a God, believing instead that all is good and great.
Thank you.
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