… 5and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; 7then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles …
Wouldn’t it be great if we had video recordings of the resurrection taking place, in HD resolution—rather than a written record of supposed eyewitness testimonies? After all, couldn’t the written records have been altered after all these years, with errors introduced by scribes over 1,500 years of copying, and then the myriad of translations for which we are dependent on scholars who sometimes disagree about the correct translations or which ancient manuscript copies to use? Wouldn’t video be so much easier to believe?
Actually no! Video can easily be tampered with also (commonly called “Photoshopping”), so that even a video often cannot be used in a court of law unless there is expert analysis to prove its integrity— and even then the evidence often remains inconclusive. The reality is one of historical method. Aside from personal experience, the most valid form of proof is eyewitness testimony. The integrity of the current copies of the record of the disciples’ testimonies is the scholarly study of “textual criticism,” which has demonstrated over the years the accuracy of what we now hold in our hands as the Bible. On the testimony of the early believers all of Christian apologetics about the historical resurrection rests.
The fact is that there were a great number of witnesses who saw the resurrected Christ! That He died was never in question: the soldiers made sure of that. Again, weak arguments have asserted that the cool, moist tomb revived Jesus from a near-death experience, or His disciples stole His body and someone masqueraded as a risen Christ, or they all had a common hallucination. None of these hold up to close scrutiny. Many have addressed these issues (such as Josh McDowell in his updated Evidence that Demands a Verdict.)
Paul simply presents the evidence to the Corinthians, who themselves had not seen the Lord being crucified or resurrected. Peter saw Christ resurrected, as did the twelve (Matthias replacing Judas in Acts 1:26). Then five hundred saw Him after the resurrection, and “most” of those were still alive at the time of writing. His appearance to James is most likely a reference to Jesus’ half-brother, a doubter of Jesus who ultimately became a believer who carried a lot of weight in the church at Jerusalem. This is a formidable bevy of testimonies.
Lord, I praise You for all those first responders of faith. I want to carry on with my own testimony of experiencing the risen Christ in my life.
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