Greetings, This is a common phrase that many hear: “Well, how come we don’t see miracles anymore?” Actually, they DO still happen, including people being raised from the dead. You just have to be privy to this information (the mainstream media is not going to report this information) and be in touch with these circles of people. I encourage people to take a look at the book by my friend Jim Rutz called “Megashift” in which he documents miraculous events such as healings, extraordinary “coincidences”, raising people from the dead, etc, in our modern day, even in the West!!! I’ve had my own share of experiences too that are “beyond” reasonable explanation. 

Hello John / visitors of this website

How can the fact that evidence of the authenticity of the New Testament is much better than the evidence of the authenticity of any other classical text have weight for believing in the virgin conception and the resurrection of Jesus?
We don’t have problems to believe stories about e.g. wars because these are things that still happen today, so that we can observe such things first-hand. Not quite the same goes for such miraculous things as virgin conception and resurrection, which I would say most (perhaps all) reasonable people alive today would not claim to have observed.
Thus, extraordinary events require extraordinary evidence; and on that account the evidence of Jesus’ virgin conception and resurrection (basically “only” historical evidence; at least that’s the evidence accessible to everybody) doesn’t seem to be so spectacular anymore. Thus, I don’t think one shouldn’t come up with this comparison (i.e. gospels vs. gallic wars).

What do you think?

Karl

Duncan,

I am not an expert but I have done quite a bit of reading on this topic. I just finished Tom Wright’s “The Resurrection of the Son of God” which I highly recommend if you interested. Now I haven’t found any discussion of any records stating that the tomb was not empty, in fact even the Jews of the time weren’t denying the claims of the early Christians. They were only trying to explain them away, e.g. the early opponents claimed that the disciples had stolen the body. Now this is early ENEMY attestation that the tomb was empty, also as Trav said the fact that women are the earliest witnesses is another strong argument. There are many other reasons why most NT scholars today think a strong argument can be made for the empty tomb. Also most scholars agree that 1 Corinthians 15 is a ‘creedal’ passage, or a passage that was passed to Paul in a set oral formula. Paul probably got this very early within 3-5 years. Not only that but he probably got it from James and Peter (I think) and it was probably already standard doctrine within months of the crucifixion. Another interesting fact (speaking of historical records refuting the claims of early Christians i.e. your early question about the tomb) is that early historical records never refuted Christian claims such as Jesus’ miracles, again they only explained them away, e.g. they claimed his miracles were by the power of Beelzebub. Even in the Jewish Talmud they call Jesus a magician which is not a flattering term, basically it means he did magic by the power of the devil. So I am assuming the historical sources the writers of the Talmud used had Jesus as some kind of miracle worker. If you’re interested in this area check out some prominent NT scholars such as N.T. Wright, James D.G. Dunn, Craig Blomberg, Craig Evans, Gary Habermas, Richard Bauckham etc.

p.s. I may not be 100% accurate on some of the things I said above, because they were just off the top of my head, although I’m pretty sure of them, so check out some of the author’s I listed.

-Anthony

Hi Duncan,

The gospel of Mark records the resurrection, and this was widely considered to be written around 70-75AD or so, making it approximately 40 years after the resurrection. That’s the general concensus, however I would point out that some scholars date it earlier, in the early 60’s.

The resurrection was first preached within 3 to 5 years after it’s alleged occurence. Paul records this in 1st Corinthians. Some scholars believe this could’ve occurred as early as 18 months to 2 years after the event, but the concensus is more like 3 to 5 years. Here’s a link to an article which sheds some light on the argument that the resurrection was reported very early, within a year or two:

http://blog.bible.org/primetimejesus/content/resurrection-probably-reported-same-year-it-happened

Regarding the empty tomb, the bible records the tomb as being empty, and there are some very good reasons to believe the biblical account, for example the presence of women as being the first persons to report the empty tomb. In the first century, the testimony of women was considered less trustworthy than that of a man, so it wouldn’t make sense to make up a story which involved women reporting such an important event. This is one of the arguments put forward, and one reason why the majority of New Testament Scholars and Historians agree that Jesus tomb was empty.

Regarding your other question about how fast Christianity spread, I’ve heard an estimate of 40% a year over the first few hundred years, although that was more referring to generally the first few centuries. It’s difficult to make estimates on the very early days, partly because of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, and the fact that Christians were being executed in the 60’s under Nero. So it’s difficult to put estimates on numbers of Christians in those days. Perhaps Rodney Starks the Rise of Christianity would be a good place to start.

Hope I’ve helped you find some of the answers you’re looking for,

Cheers

Trav

very interesting; very uplifting; thank you.

Questions: Inside the Bible or outside the Bible
As far as recorded history, what is the earliest dates for the record of the resurrection?  (how many yrs after the resurrection)
Is there any recorded history that the tomb of Jesus was NOT being empty?
As far as historical records are concerned, how early was the resurrection preached?
Is there any recorded evidence for how fast Christianity grew & spread lets say withing the first 10-15 yrs after the resurrection?