Eyewitness
Scriptures
Concerning the Resurrection
of Jesus of Nazareth
The
cornerstone of the case for Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus of
Nazareth. Historically, without the resurrection, the conviction to follow,
witness for, and worship Jesus could not have been sustained in an environment
hostile to a new religion. While there are a number of apologetic devices that
can be used to establish the historicity of the resurrection, this site is
dedicated to listing and commenting on various eyewitness passages found in the
New Testament that can be used for that purpose. Eyewitness evidence has
provided the basis for most, if not all, historical facts in human experience.
There is no reason the resurrection of Jesus should be any different.
Specifically,
the goal of this site is to list and comment on New Testament eyewitness
passages as a source of evidence for a) someone [honestly] interested in the
resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and b) for the Christian seeking to more firmly
establish his/her conviction in the reality of the resurrection. Concerning
Christians, Jesus referred to the belief concerning himself in the explanation
of the parable of the sower found in Matthew 13:18-23 with parallel accounts in
Mark 4:14-20 and Luke 8:11-15. His point was that only those fully convinced of
his identity and facts concerning his life, death, and resurrection would be
committed enough to devote their lives to following him. Interestingly, Jesus
used various opportunities to jettison disciples not fully convinced of his
identity as the Son of God [God in the flesh] [cf. John 6:60-69, 8:30-59].
Probably, aside from his many miracles, the most convincing proof of his deity
was the resurrection. Being fully convinced of the resurrection is a major step
in understanding Jesus' identity as the Son of God. Knowing Jesus as the Son of
God thus provides the motivation for committing one's life to him [cf. The End Is Near!].
This site
does not deal with New Testament textual reliability. In fact, there is ample
evidence for believing the texts of the New Testament have been preserved
accurately throughout the centuries. For example, there is internal consistency
among the various books composed by different authors recounting the same
events [e.g. incidents recounted in the book of Acts and Paul's letters,
various of Jesus' statements found in the gospels are also quoted or
interpreted by Paul or the other apostles in their writings]. Also a Matthew
papyrus fragment dated to the 60s AD has been discovered. This means the gospel
content has been dated to the lifetime of the witnesses to Jesus' ministry,
thus discounting any possibility for the gospels to have been products of
mythological development. Nevertheless there is a simple way to establish the
historical reliability of the Bible [cf. Simple
Apologetics].
Passages
considered to be evidence for the resurrection are listed as links in the
scripture navigation bar. Each link expands to a page containing a comment as
to why that passage is included. The translation used is the King James Version.
Contact us at admin@eyewitness-scriptures.org