Today is the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. A special celebratory service was held at Westminster Abbey today. It was the Bible, commissioned by a King, that made the Word of God available to all English-speaking people so that they were no longer reliant on translations by those who could read Latin. It allowed the common man to drink, as it were, straight from the bottle.
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Sun Worship: Crass, Paganistic Idolatry
“And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.” (Genesis 1:14-19 RSV)
Our Star
The sun is a medium-sized main sequence yellow star at the center of our solar system, about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from earth. Measuring about 865,000 miles (1,400,000 kilometers) in diameter, the sun could contain 1,300,000 earths. The sun is very big, very hot, and makes life possible on earth – BUT THE SUN IS’NT a god! God created the sun, and the over 200 billion other stars in the “Milky Way” galaxy, plus hundreds of billions of other galaxies throughout the universe. The sun was CREATED by the Creator.
A Pagan Favorite
Since the most ancient times, the sun has been a favorite “god” or god symbol of pagan people all around the world. The Babylonians (see Ancient Empires – Babylon), Persians (see Ancient Empires – Persia), Egyptians (see The Ancient Egyptians), Greeks (see Ancient Empires – Greece) and Romans (see Ancient Empires – Rome) all had their sun gods. The native peoples of North and South America widely practiced sun worship, as did their Asian ancestors. The Europeans too were deeply involved in sun worship, and many of their sun-god festivals were carried over when they professed conversion to Christianity. These can still be seen today in the Easter bonfire and sunrise services, and the Christmas burning of the Yule log.
Sun worship was also widely practiced by the people of the Middle East, and even the Israelites were sometimes corrupted by it:
“Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater ABOMINATIONS than these.” And he brought me into the inner court of the house of The Lord; and behold, at the door of the Temple of The Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of The Lord, and their faces toward the east, WORSHIPING the SUN”
ALL ancient Pagan Civilizations, bar NONE, who practiced such wanton IDOLATRY, SUN worship, and other forms of gross, crass Satanically inspired nonsense, came to UTTER RUINATION, at the hand of Almighty God, who warned against such ABOMINATIONS!
Myths and Misconceptions and the Slave Trade and Slavery
Slavery and World History
Myth: Slavery is a product of capitalism.
Fact: Slavery is older than the first human records.
Myth: Slavery is a product of Western Civilization.
Fact: Slavery is virtually a universal institution.
Myth: Slavery in the non-western world was a mild, benign, and non-economic institution.
Fact: Slaves were always subject to torture, sexual exploitation, and arbitrary death.
Myth: Slavery was an economically backward and inefficient institution.
Fact: Many of the most progressive societies in the world had slaves.
Myth: Slavery was always based on race.
Fact: Not until the 15th century was slavery associated primarily with people of African descent.
Enslavement and the Slave Trade
Myth: New World slaves came exclusively from West Africa.
Fact: Half of all New World slaves came from central Africa.
Myth: Europeans physically enslaved Africans or hired mercenaries who captured people for export or that African rulers were “Holocaust abettors” who were themselves to blame for the slave trade.
Fact: Europeans did engage in some slave raiding; the majority of people who were transported to the Americas were enslaved by Africans in Africa.
Myth: Many slaves were captured with nets.
Fact: There is no evidence that slaves were captured with nets; war was the most important source of enslavement.
Myth: Kidnapping was the usual means of enslavement.
Fact: War was the most important source of enslavement; it would be incorrect to reduce all of these wars to slave raids.
Myth: The Middle Passage stripped enslaved Africans of their cultural heritage and transformed them into docile, passive figures wholly receptive to the cultural inputs of their masters.
Fact: Slaves engaged in at least 250 shipboard rebellions.
Slavery in the Americas
Myth: Most slaves were imported into what is now the United States
Fact: Well over 90 percent of slaves from Africa were imported into the Caribbean and South America
Myth: Slavery played a marginal role in the history of the Americas
Fact: African slaves were the only remedy for the labor shortages that plagued Europe’s New World dominions.
Fact: Slave labor made it profitable to mine for precious metal and to harvest sugar, indigo, and tobacco; slaves taught whites how to raise such crops as rice and indigo.
Myth: Europeans arrived in the New World in far larger numbers than did Africans.
Fact: Before 1820, the number of Africans outstripped the combined total of European immigrants by a ratio of 3, 4, or 5 to 1.
Myth: The first slaves arrived in what is now the U.S. in 1619
Fact: Slaves arrived in Spanish Florida at least a century before 1619 and a recently uncovered census shows that blacks were present in Virginia before 1619.
Slave Culture
Myth: The slave trade permanently broke slaves’ bonds with Africa.
Fact: Slaves were able to draw upon their African cultural background and experiences and use them as a basis for life in the New World.
Myth: Plantation life with its harsh labor, unstable families, and high mortality, made it difficult for Africans to construct social ties
Fact: African nations persisted in America well into the 18th century and even the early 19th century.
Myth: Masters assigned names to slaves or slaves imitated masters’ systems of naming.
Fact: In fact, slaves were rarely named for owners. Naming patterns appear to have reflected African practices, such as the custom of giving children “day names” (after the day they were born) and “name-saking,” such as naming children after grandparents.
Myth: Slaveholders sought to deculturate slaves by forbidding African names and languages and obliterating African culture.
Fact: While deculturation was part of the “project” of slavery, in fact African music, dance, decoration, design, cuisine, and religion exerted a profound, ongoing influence on American culture.
Fact: Slaves adapted religious rites and perpetuated a rich tradition of folklore.
Economics of Slavery
Myth: Slavesholders lost money and were more interested in status than moneymaking; slaves did little productive work
Fact: Slaves worked longer days, more days, and more of their life
Myth: Slavery was incompatible with urban life and factory technology
Fact: Sugar mills were the first true factories in the world; slaves were widely used in cities and in various kinds of manufacturing and crafts.
Myth: Slaves engaged almost exclusively in unskilled brutish field labor.
Fact: Much of the labor performed by slaves required high skill levels and careful, painstaking effort.
Fact: Masters relied on slaves for skilled craftsmanship.
Religion
Myth: West and Central Africans received their first exposure to Christianity in the New World.
Fact: Catholic missionary activities began in the central African kingdom of Kongo half a century before Columbus’s voyages of discovery and Kongo converted to Catholicism in 1491. A sizeable community of African Christians developed around Portuguese settlement.
Myth: Priests and missionaries were primarily responsible for converting slaves to Christianity.
Fact: In Latin America, slaves were instructed not by European clergy but by African Christians, who spread a specifically African interpretation of Christianity.
Myth: Upon arrival in Latin America, slaves were given hasty instruction in a complex foreign religion in a language they could barely understand.
Fact: A certain number of slaves were baptized Christians and others were familiar with Christianity.
Myth: The Catholic Church did not tolerate the mixture of Catholicism with traditional African religions.
Fact: In Kongo and in Latin America, the Church did tolerate the mixture of Catholicism with African religions, allowing Africans to retain their old cosmology, understanding of the universe, and the place of gods and other divine beings in the universe.
Myth: Before the Civil War, the Southern churches were highly segregated.
Fact: In 1860, slave constituted about 26 percent of the Southern Baptist church membership.
Myth: Slave Christianity was essentially a “religion of docility.”
Fact: Christianity was dual edged and marked by millennialist possibilities; whites could not prevent black preachers from turning Christianity into a source of self-respect and faith in deliverance.
Resistance
Myth: Slaves were brainwashed and stunned into submission and rarely resisted slavery.
Fact: Resistance took a variety of forms ranging from day-to-day resistance, economic bargaining, running away and maroonage, and outright rebellions
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/slav_fact.cfm
@ Zoe | November 23, 2011 at 9:17 AM |
“The sun is a medium-sized main sequence yellow star at the center of our solar system, about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from earth. Measuring about 865,000 miles (1,400,000 kilometers) in diameter, the sun could contain 1,300,000 earths.”
Where in the bible can this information be found? Sounds like an extract from a scientific journal or National Geographic which you should not be reading since the only book of truth is your bible!
I never argued that the SUN created the Universe. My argument is that without the SUN life on earth would not exist; so, therefore, the SUN can be considered as Mankind’s god.
You are the one that is insinuating that the SUN created all the other billions of stars and galaxies.
But if you insist that the god in your bible created all of these and of course the SUN then you will have to accept that “he” could have created other life forms on other planets and we humans might not be his favourite. There could still be other adams and eves living in gardens on other planets in other galaxies who did not disobey him and ate (accepted) the fruit of knowledge (technology) of the go(o)d(s)!
Nnaki/Raelian, How dare you seek to incorporate YOUR Pagan, idolatrous worship of the ‘sun’ god, with the absolute TRUTH, of the LIGHT, of Almighty God, which TRANSCENDS, the physical light, of the sun HE* Created, with your amoral, relativism, anything goes, philosophical hogwash!
I John 1-7
“That which was from the BEGINNING, which we have HEARD, (Jesus Christ) which we have SEEN with our EYES* (Jesus Christ) which we have LOOKED upon (Jesus Christ), and our hands have handled, concerning the Word (Jesus Christ) of LIFE, the LIFE (Christ) was manifested, and we have SEEN, and bear WITNESS, ans declare to you that Eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested (revealed) to us, that which we have SEEN and HEARD (Jesus Christ), we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us and TRULY our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your JOY may be full. This IS* the message which we have HEARD (personally) from HIM* (Jesus Christ) and declare to you, that GOD IS* LIGHT* and in HIM is NO darkness at ALL. If we say that we have fellowship with HIM, and walk in DARKNESS (spiritually!) we lie and do not practice the TRUTH. But if we walk in the LIGHT* as He is in the LIGHT (spiritually) we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His SON* cleanses us from all sin.”
The apostle prefaces his epistle to believers in general, with evident testimonies to Christ, for promoting their happiness and joy. (1-4) The necessity of a life of holiness, in order to communion with God, is shown. (5-10)
Commentary on 1 John 1:1-4
(Read 1 John 1:1-4)
That essential Good, that uncreated Excellence, which had been from the beginning, from eternity, as equal with the Father, and which at length appeared in human nature for the salvation of sinners, was the great subject concerning which the apostle wrote to his brethren. The apostles had seen Him while they witnessed His wisdom and holiness, His miracles, and love and mercy, during some years, till they saw Him crucified for sinners, and afterwards risen from the dead. They touched Him, so as to have full proof of His resurrection. This Divine Person, the Word of life, the Word of God, appeared in human nature, that He might be the Author and Giver of eternal life to mankind, through the redemption of His blood, and the influence of His new-creating Spirit. The apostles declared what they had seen and heard, that believers might share their comforts and everlasting advantages. They had free access to God the Father. They had a happy experience of the truth in their souls, and showed its excellence in their lives. This communion of believers with the Father and the Son, is begun and kept up by the influences of the Holy Spirit. The benefits Christ bestows, are not like the scanty possessions of the world, causing jealousies in others; but the joy and happiness of communion with God is all-sufficient, so that any number may partake of it; and all who are warranted to say, that truly their fellowship is with the Father, will desire to lead others to partake of the same blessedness.
Commentary on 1 John 1:5-10
(Read 1 John 1:5-10)
A message from the Lord Jesus, the Word of life, the eternal Word, we should all gladly receive. The great God should be represented to this dark world, as pure and perfect LIGHT. As this is the nature of God, His doctrines and precepts must be such. And as His perfect happiness cannot be separated from His perfect holiness, so our happiness will be in proportion to our being made holy. To walk in darkness, is to live and act against religion. God holds no heavenly fellowship or intercourse with unholy souls. There is no truth in their profession; their practice shows its folly and falsehood. The eternal Life, the eternal Son, put on flesh and blood, and died to wash us from our sins in his own blood, and procures for us the sacred influences by which sin is to be subdued more and more, till it is quite done away. While the necessity of a holy walk is insisted upon, as the effect and evidence of the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, the opposite error of self-righteous pride is guarded against with equal care. All who walk near to God, in holiness and righteousness, are sensible that their best days and duties are mixed with sin. God has given testimony to the sinfulness of the world, by providing a sufficient, effectual Sacrifice for sin, needed in all ages; and the sinfulness of believers themselves is shown, by requiring them continually to confess their sins, and to apply by faith to the blood of that Sacrifice. Let us plead guilty before God, be humble, and willing to know the worst of our case. Let us honestly confess all our sins in their full extent, relying wholly on his mercy and truth through the righteousness of Christ, for a free and full forgiveness, and our deliverance from the power and practice of sin.
This absolute TRUTH, is the Only way to the One True and living God, IN* His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ; otherwise, we PERISH in oue SINS!
MLnuki,
The task of defining race is a highly subjective and therefore unscientific endeavour. So we can conclude that race is not clearly definable and is not a good term to use in describing variations among people. Perhaps a better description would be ‘the varieties of man , who are members of the same species’.
Explaining how the different ‘races’ came into being is one of the most challenging task for a Christian person, even if they have a sound knowledge of the WORD.
Many times when confronted by non beleivers, we compound the problem by offering false interpretations of the Bible , mixed with bogus evolutionary science.
The term race does not appear in the Bible. The Bible refers to differing peoples in terms such as family, tribe, people and nation. It groups people according to familial relationships and then into nationalities. An example of familial relationship is found in Genesis 10, where the genealogies listed are grouped by family. It should be noted that nowhere are the sons of Noah associated with race or color. An important passage on this matter is found in Genesis 10:5:
In Scripture there are several references to problems in which people with different racial backgrounds were involved. In each case the instruction is clear that God made no distinction between races regarding salvation or blessing. In Numbers 12:1-16, Miriam and Aaron openly criticized Moses for marrying the Ethiopian woman but the issue was jealousy over Moses’ leadership, and the criticism was over marrying a foreigner, any foreigner, and not because she was an Ethiopian (see Number 12:2). In Acts 13:1 we read of “Simeon that was called Niger” and “Lucius of Cyrene”. Simeon was also referred to by his Latin name “Niger” (“niger” translates as “black” in English). Lucius was from Cyrene (Cyrene was an ancient city in North Africa; ancient Cyrene is now a city with a different name in modern day Libya). Simeon and Lucius are therefore thought to be black men who had an active place in the church at Antioch. Their names and countries are the only CLUES given regarding their race. As we see here in Acts 13:1, and in other parts of the Bible, when God spoke of groups of people it was always in the context of their nationality and not their race.
I’ll ask a simple question, why are we able to transfuse blood from any one race to the other? Transfusions are given according to blood type A, B, AB or O, not according to race.
See the following classic passage in Romans 10:11-13:
“For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:11-13).
Both the Old and New Testaments show that God does not hold any significance as to race. God sees us as one people; as “man.” Physical characteristics are not a part of God’s evaluation of man “. . .for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (I Samuel l6:7). Race, as defined by Webster’s Dictionary, is not a Biblical term and nowhere can it be shown that physical characteristics of a people are a reason or a guide to distinguish one from another.
I have no idea if Noahs sons were black, green, Caucasian or Inuit.
Hope I have provided some clarity.
Ph.D | November 23, 2011 at 10:22 AM |
“Perhaps a better description would be ‘the varieties of man, who are members of the same species’.”
Thanks for your “erudite explanation” on the outward physical diversity that exists among your god’s creatures. This diversity is found also in other fauna and flora. Without this biological diversity Mother Nature would have little or nothing to do!
But since you seem to believe that Jesus is your god who came to Earth in the form of a man (Son of Man) to save mankind please tell us what “variety” of man did he (Jesus) take on while on Earth from Mary’s womb to the crucifixion?
@ MLnuki.
Very , very simple actually. We know one thing for sure, he was NOT CONCEIVED by an earthly father, but he did have one in Joseph, so we can speculate all we want, we will never have that answer. No one has EVER seen GOD (Moses??). His mother Mary was probably of the tribe of Judah , I don’t know , I never met the fair lady. What you are getting is complexion, right? Race?
When I meet him I will see for myself.
“We know one thing for sure, he was NOT CONCEIVED by an earthly father, but he did have one in Joseph, so we can speculate all we want, we will never have that answer. No one has EVER seen GOD (Moses??). His mother Mary was probably of the tribe of Judah , I don’t know , I never met the fair lady.”
“When I meet him I will see for myself.”
Ph.D have you had your medication today? If that were a non Christian speaking Christians would say they they are crazy and believe in the occult.
ac: ‘The immaculate conception generally known as “The Virgin Birth”.’
Wrong. If you don’t know the difference between the immaculate conception and the virgin birth, perhaps you should try to avoid talking about them.
As Dr. Blackett can attest, it’s never a good idea to talk about things of which one is obviously ignorant.
What Color Was Jesus?
While Jesus had a certain colour ‘skin’, it was not the colour of His skin that paid the sacrificial price for the Redemption of ALL mankind, but who He WAS! The Son of God, God of very God, God Incarnate!
Most pictures of Jesus depict Him as a white man. Recent events have revealed that some black churches declare Him to be a black man. It appears that many Christians want to make Jesus into their own image, believing they can better relate to Him and that He can better relate to them if He had the same skin color or was of the same race. To determine what color Jesus had we must first ask, why people in different geographic regions have different colored skin? We must ask, Is the skin color determined by the climate where people live or did God plan them to look that way?
There is one source that answers these questions which have puzzled mankind. It is the Book of Enoch. In it Enoch describes how God took him to heaven just as the Bible describes in Genesis 5:24. Enoch lived in the sixth generation from Adam and he describes how he was shown the historical events that would take place on earth. He was given three major visions and in the third vision we are told how the races came into being and how they settled on the earth according to God’s plan for them.
In this third vision Enoch describes the great flood and how Noah and his family were the only survivors on earth. In chapter 106 of the Book of Enoch he describes Noah as being born white as snow and red as a rose. He does not mention Noah’s wife but we can assume that she was black. We can assume this because Enoch describes Noah’s sons as, one white like Noah, another red as blood and the third black. Noah’s sons were named Shem, Japheth and Ham. The commentary in the New American Bible, as well as the Macmillan Bible Atlas, tell us that Shem settled in the middle-east region, which would include modern day Israel and the Arab countries. Japheth settled north toward the Caspian and Black seas and toward Spain,Turkey and Europe. Ham settled in Egypt and Africa.
These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations: and by these were the nations divided in the earth after the flood. (Genesis 10:32, KJV)
We can see that the races, who settled in geographic locations given to them by God, all came from these three sons. The color of their skins came from three basic colors as follows:
Red (And skin pigments of red) – This was Shem. From Shem came Abraham and the Hebrew nation as well as Jesus and all the middle-east and eastern nations.
Black (and dark skin pigments) – This was Ham. From Ham came the Egyptians and the African people.
White and (light skin pigments) – This was Japheth. From Japheth came the European nations.
When we see pictures of Jesus they usually show an attractive looking white man–but Jesus was neither! The Bible tells us this about Jesus:
He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face. He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isaiah 53:2-3, NASB)
So, now that we know the color of Jesus’ skin, does it make a difference? Now that we know that He was not attractive in appearance, can we still love Him? The beauty of Jesus was not in His physical appearance but in the Spirit that indwelled Him. He was made like this so that we would not worship Him as a man and so that we would make no graven image that would become an idol resembling ourselves. Jesus came to earth as a man to show us His Father; not what His Father looked like but who His Father was.
He told us this:
God is a Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth. (John 4:24, NASB)
Mr. Zoe: “What Color Was Jesus?”
He was the same colour as all the other Jews of his generation in the Judea of his time—green with a hint of blue. I thought everyone already knew this.
Mr. Emmanuel Cohen is incorrect. The Essene fragments from Qumran clearly demonstrate that Jesus was blue with a hint of green, not green with a hint of blue. It was common at the time for short Jews with a messiah complex to be close to turquoise.
I SAW IT WITH MY OWN EYES
Eyewitness
The writers of the New Testament either wrote as eyewitnesses of the events they described or recorded eyewitness firsthand accounts of the events.
II Peter 1:16
“For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our LORD Jesus Christ, but we were EYEWITNESSES of His majesty”.
They certainly knew the difference between myth, legend and reality. A professor of a world literature class in which I was speaking asked the question, “What do you think of Greek mythology”? I answered with another question, “Do you mean, were the events of the life of Jesus, the resurrection, virgin birth, etc., just myth?” He said, “Yes”. I replied that there is one obvious difference between these things applied to Christ and these things applied to Greek mythology that is usually overlooked. The similar events, such as the resurrection, etc, of Greek mythology were not applied to real, flesh and blood individuals, but rather to mythological characters. But, when it comes to Christianity, these events are attached to a person the writers knew in time-space dimension history, the historic Jesus of Nazareth whom they knew personally.
The professor replied, “You’re right, I never realized that before”.
S. Estborn in Gripped by Christ explains further the above. He relates that Anath Nath “studied both the Bible and the Shastras. Two biblical themes in particular deeply engaged his mind: first, the reality of the Incarnation, and second, the Atonement for human sin. These doctrines he sought to harmonize with Hindu Scriptures. He found parallel to Christ’s self-sacrifice in Prajapati, the Vedic creator-god. He saw, too, a vital difference. Whereas the Vedic Prajapati is a mythical symbol, which has been applied to several figures, Jesus of Nazareth is a historic person. ‘Jesus is the true Prajapati’, he said, ‘the true Saviour of the world.’ ” 6/43
J. B. Phillips, cited by Blaiklock, states, “I have read, in Greek and Latin, scores of myths but I did not find the slightest flavour of myth here. Most people who know their Greek and Latin, whatever their attitude to the New Testament narratives, would agree with him…
“A myth may be defined as ‘a pre-scientific and imaginative attempt to explain some phenomenon, real or supposed, which excites the curiosity of the mythmaker, or perhaps more accurately as an effort to reach a feeling of satisfaction in place of bewilderment concerning such phenomena. It often appeals to the emotions rather than the reason, and indeed, in its most typical forms, seems to date from an age when rational explanations were not called for.’ ” 3/47
I must take issue with my revered colleague Dr. Zurer. While it is true that the Essene fragments suggest that “turquoise” was the preferred colour for putative messiahs in first-century Judea, more recent archeological findings at Qumran indicate that all those in the Maccabee line (of which Jesus was surely part) favoured the more natural “olive” skin. Plus the big nose, of course.
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS
Chapter 20
A student at the University of Uruguay said to me, “Professor McDowell, why can’t you refute Christianity?”
I answered, “For a very simple reason-the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
After more than 700 hours of studying this subject and thoroughly investigating its foundation, I came to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is either one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon people, or it is the most important fact of history.
The resurrection issue takes the question, “Is Christianity valid?” out of the realm of philosophy and makes it a question of history. Does Christianity have a historically acceptable basis? Is sufficient evidence available to warrant belief in the resurrection?
Obvious Observations
In my attempt to refute Christianity, I made five acute observations of the resurrection that I previously had been totally unaware of.
OBSERVATION #1-Testimony of History
Before my research, I had never realized there was so much positive historical, literary and legal testimony supporting its validity.
ROMAN HISTORY SCHOLAR
Professor Thomas Arnold, for fourteen years the headmaster of Rugby, author of the three-volume History of Rome, and holder of the chair of modern history at Oxford, was well acquainted with the value of evidence in determining historical facts.
This great scholar said,
I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead. 3/324
TEXTUAL CRITIC
Brooke Foss Wescott, English scholar, said, “Taking all the evidence together, it is not too much to say that there is no historic incident better or more variously supported than the resurrection of Christ.” 82/4-6
PROFESSOR OF ANCIENT HISTORY
Dr. Paul L. Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University, concluded that, “If all the evidence is weighed carefully and fairly, it is indeed justifiable, according to the canons of historical research, to conclude that the tomb in which Jesus was buried was actually empty on the morning of the first Easter. And no shred of evidence has yet been discovered in literary sources, epigraphy or archaeology that would disprove this statement.” 56/A-10
CHIEF JUSTICE
Lord Caldecote, Lord Chief Justice of England, has written:
My faith began with and was grounded on what I thought was revealed in the Bible. When, particularly, I came to the New Testament, the Gospels and other writings of the men who had been friends of Jesus Christ seemed to me to make an overwhelming case, merely as a matter of strict evidence, for the fact therein stated … The same approach to the cardinal test of the claims of Jesus Christ, namely, His resurrection, has led me, as often as I have tried to examine the evidence, to believe it as fact beyond dispute.
LEGAL AUTHORITY
One man who was highly skilled at dealing with evidence was Dr. Simon Greenleaf. He was the famous Royall Professor of Law at Harvard University and succeeded Justice Joseph Story as the Dane Professor of Law in the same university. The rise of Harvard Law School to its eminent position among the legal schools of the United States is to be ascribed to the efforts of these two men. Greenleaf produced his famous three-volume work, A Treatise on the Law of Evidence, which still is considered one of the greatest single authorities on this subject in the entire literature of legal procedure.
Greenleaf examined the value of the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ to ascertain the truth. He applied the principles contained in his three-volume treatise on evidence. His findings were recorded in his book, An Examination of the Testimony of the Four Evangelists by the Rules of Evidence Administered in the Courts of Justice.
Greenleaf came to the conclusion that, according to the laws of legal evidence used in courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history.
RATIONALISTIC LAWYER
Dr. Frank Morrison, a lawyer who had been brought up in a rationalistic environment, had come to the opinion that the resurrection was nothing but a fairy-tale happy ending which spoiled the matchless story of Jesus. He felt that he owed it to himself, and to others, to write a book that would present the truth about Jesus and dispel the myth of the resurrection.
Upon studying the facts, however, he, too, came to a different conclusion. The sheer weight of the evidence compelled him to conclude that Jesus actually did rise from the dead. Morrison wrote his book-but not the one he had planned. It is titled, Who Moved the Stone? The first chapter, very significantly, is called, “The Book That Refused to Be Written.”
LITERARY GENIUS
The literary scholar, C. S. Lewis, former professor of Medieval and Renaissance literature at Cambridge University, when writing about his conversion to Christianity, indicated that he had believed Christians “to be wrong.”
The last thing Lewis wanted was to embrace Christianity. However, “Early in 1926 the hardest boiled of all atheists I ever knew sat in my room on the other side of the fire and remarked that the evidence for the historicity of the Gospels was really surprisingly good. ‘Rum thing,’ he went on. ‘All that stuff of Frazer’s about the Dying God. Rum thing. It almost looks as if it had really happened once.’
“To understand the shattering impact of it, you would need to know the man (who has certainly never since shown any interest in Christianity). If he, the cynic of cynics, the toughest of the toughs, were not -as I would still have put it -‘safe,’ where could I turn? Was there then no escape?”
After evaluating the basis and evidence for Christianity, Lewis concluded that in other religions there was “no such historical claim as in Christianity.” His knowledge of literature forced him to treat the Gospel record as a trustworthy account. “I was by now too experienced in literary criticism to regard the Gospels as myth.”
Finally, contrary to his strong stand against Christianity, Professor Lewis had to make an intelligent decision:
You must picture me alone in that room in Magdelen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 1 gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. 52/211, 215, 223
OBSERVATION #2-Resurrection Foretold
Christ actually predicted He would rise on the third day. His claims are substantiated throughout the four Gospels. When Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, “We are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered to death. They will deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him. And on the third day He will be raised up” (Matthew 16:21; Mark 8:31; Luke 9:22).
Mark points out in his Gospel that “He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, and the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31).
My revered colleague Dr. Isaacs is right to correct Dr. Zurer, whose research on first-century Judea is second to none. Much as I have long admired Dr. Zurer’s superb work, I must point out that recent excavations in both Jerusalem and Nazareth prove (conclusively, in my view) that Jesus had “olive” skin and a big nose. The question that still perturbs all biblical scholars is: Was Jesus Bald?
John confirms this when he writes: “Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews therefore said, ‘It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and will You raise it up in three days?’ But He was speaking of the temple of His body” (John 2:19-21).
OBSERVATION #3-Basis of Christianity
The historical fact of the resurrection is the very basis for the truth of Christianity. To put it simply, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and Christianity stand or fall together. One cannot be true without the other.
The apostle Paul emphasized this point when he wrote:
But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; your faith also is in vain. Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless (1 Corinthians 15:13-17).
OBSERVATION #4-Intelligent Faith
My fourth observation on Christianity was quite an eye-opener. The more I studied the historical/biblical Christian faith the more I realized it was an “intelligent faith.” When an individual in the Scriptures was called upon to exercise faith, it was to be that intelligent faith. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth [not ignore it] and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
A lawyer asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment?”
Jesus replied, ” [To] love the Lord your God with all your heart … and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).
Never is an individual called upon to commit intellectual suicide in trusting Christ as Savior and Lord. Instead, a believer is instructed to be ready always to give an answer (an intelligent one) as to why he believes (1 Peter 3:15).
In his work, I Believe in the Resurrection, Dr. George Eldon Ladd observes that faith does not mean a leap in the dark, an irrational credulity, a believing against evidences and against reason. It means believing in the light of historical facts, consistent with evidences, on the basis of witnesses.
OBSERVATION #5-Historical Criteria
The resurrection of Christ must be examined by the same criteria as is any other past event in history. The faith of the early church was founded on experiences in the factual realm. For example, the followers of Christ said He showed Himself alive to them by “many convincing proofs” (Acts 1:3). Luke used the word tekmerion. That connotes a “demonstrable proof.”
It became apparent to me that my research would have to include the historical criteria for truth if I were to discover what really happened that first Easter.
Sufficient Evidence Needed
Wolfhart Pannenberg is a professor of systematic theology at the University of Munich, Germany. He has been concerned primarily with questions of the relationship between faith and history. This brilliant scholar says, “Whether the resurrection of Jesus took place or not is an historical question, and … at this point is inescapable. And so the question has to be decided on the level of historical argument.”
The evidence must be approached with an honest, fair view of history and the investigation must not be prejudiced by preconceived notions or conclusions. There is a compelling need to let the evidence speak for itself. Historian Ronald Sider writes about the need for objectivity in historical research:
What does the critical historian do when his evidence points very strongly to the reality of an event, which contradicts his expectations and goes against the naturalistic view of reality? I submit that he must follow his critically analyzed sources. It is unscientific to begin with the philosophical presupposition that miracles cannot occur. Unless we avoid such one-sided presuppositions, historical interpretation becomes mere propaganda. We have a right to demand good evidence for an alleged event, which we have not experienced, but we dare not judge reality by our limited experience. And I would suggest that we have good evidence for the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
Proper Approach
The Erlangen historian Ethelbert Stauffer gives further suggestions on how to approach history:
What do we (as historians) do when we experience surprises which run counter to all our expectations, perhaps all our convictions and even our period’s whole understanding of truth? We say as one great historian used to say in such instances: “It is surely possible.” And why not? For the critical historian nothing is impossible. 72/17
Historian Philip Schaff adds to the above: “The purpose of the historian is not to construct a history from preconceived notions and to adjust it to his own liking, but to reproduce it from the best evidences and to let it speak for itself.”
The ultimate test historically concerning the resurrection is whether the purported facts are supported by the evidence.
Note
Much of what folows is based on the eye witness reports recorded in the Gospel narratives of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John. For evidence concerning the reliability of this material, see Section I: The Bible and Its Reliability of this book. For further evidence of the reliability of the resurrection reports in the New Testament, see, He Walked Among Us, pp. 278-90. The points covered there are the early origination of the reports, including evidence that
1 Corinthians 15:3-8 originated within three years of the death and resurrection of Jesus.Security Precautions
SECURITY PRECAUTION #1-The Trial
Jesus was brought for trial before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. All available evidence shows Pilate to have been an extremely cruel and merciless despot. Philo records that he was responsible “for countless atrocities and numerous executions without any previous trial.”
Six Trials
One needs to realize that Jesus Christ went through six distinct trials. One was before Annas, the high priest (John 18:13), another was before Caiaphas (Matthew 26:57), the third before the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:59), the fourth before Pilate (Matthew 27:2), the fifth before Herod (Luke 23:7), and the sixth was back before Pilate (Luke 23:11-25). There were three Jewish trials and three Roman trials.
The Jewish legal system was made up of two different Sanhedrins. One Sanhedrin was composed of 23 members who tried cases involving capital punishment. 86/335 The other Sanhedrin of 71 could serve as a trial court for cases involving the head of state, the high priest, or for offenses against the state or the Temple. The Sanhedrin of 71 could not try a case involving capital punishment. It was probably the Sanhedrin of 23 that tried Jesus.
One was located in every major city in Judea.
Finally after three Jewish trials and three Roman trials, the Jewish authorities, in conjunction with the Roman authorities, delivered Jesus to be crucified (Matthew 27:26).
Various “security precautions” were taken to make sure that when Jesus was dead He would remain dead and buried.
SECURITY PRECAUTION #2-Death by Crucifixion
Alexander the Great introduced crucifixion into the Mediterranean world-mainly Egypt and Carthage. From all indications, the Romans learned the practice from the Carthaginians.
To Miller:
Stop with this chinese and indian skin texture thing; you are sounding like the white folks who dare never to believe that black poeple are the SAME as them. Check out chromosome 15 of the human line; even if you are blue and human it is the same in every one of us. Even Professor Diop indicate that much of the skin color or morphological differences in man are environmentally influenced.
Even in races or tribes that are found existing in isolation (that is away from modern man’s influence) have a system of morality or right or wrong based on the tenets of thew Ten Commandments in the Bible. Choose which ever you want in those societies the individual is not allowed to steal, rape, kill, unfair those who are socially weak or violate young virgins at his or her will. Yet modern man continues to find various means to put a gulf between themselves and these principles for living.
My former tutor, Professor Dov Templebaum, is too kind to Dr. Zurer. And he asks a question settled long ago. Those of us who have spent recent years getting dusty in the digs of Sumeria have long supported Sam Isaacs’s proposition that Jesus was bald. The main question is: did Jesus fart?
A Cruel Death
Death by crucifixion developed into one of the world’s most disgraceful and cruel methods of torture. Cicero called it “the most cruel and hideous of tortures.” 15/64 Will Durant wrote that “even the Romans … pitied the victims.” 21/572
Flavius Josephus, the Jewish historian, who was an advisor to Titus during the siege of Jerusalem, had observed many crucifixions and called them “the most wretched deaths.”
The Custom of Whipping
After the verdict of crucifixion was pronounced by the court, it was customary to tie the accused to a post at the tribunal. The criminal was stripped of his clothes, then severely whipped by the lictors or scourgers.
The whip, known as a flagrum, had a sturdy handle to which were attached long leather thongs of varying lengths. Sharp, jagged pieces of bone and lead were woven into them. The Jews were limited by their law to 40 lashes.
The Pharisees, with their emphasis on strict adherence to the law, would limit their lashes to 39, so that if they miscounted they would not break their law. The Romans had no such limitations. Out of disgust or anger, the Romans could totally ignore the Jewish limitation, and probably did so in the case of Jesus.
A Medical Perspective
Dr. C. Truman Davis, a medical doctor who has meticulously studied crucifixion from a medical perspective, describes the effects of the Roman flagrum used in whipping:
The heavy whip is brought down with full force again and again across [a persons] shoulders, back and legs. At first the heavy thongs cut through the skin only. Then, as the blows continue, they cut deeper into the subcutaneous tissues, producing first an oozing of blood from the capillaries and veins of the skin, and finally spurting arterial bleeding from vessels in the underlying muscles. The small balls of lead first produce large, deep bruises, which are broken open by subsequent blows. Finally the skin of the back is hanging in long ribbons and the entire area is an unrecognizable mass of torn, bleeding tissue. When it is determined by the centurion in charge that the prisoner is near death, the beating is finally stopped.
Eusebius, a third-century historian, confirms Dr. Davis’s description when he writes: “The sufferer’s veins were laid bare, and the very muscles, sinews, and bowels of the victim were open to exposure.”
A Crown of Thorns
After placing the crown of thorns on Christ’s head, they began to mock Him saying, “Hail, the King of the Jews.” They also spit on Him and beat Him with a rod. Then they led Him away to be crucified.
The Crossbar Burden
A man condemned to be crucified had to carry his own crossbar from prison to the place of his execution.
Dr. Pierre Barbet points out that “they began to use a long piece of wood, which was used for barring doors and was called the patibulum (from patere, to be open).” The patibulum weighed approximately 110 pounds and was strapped to the victim’s shoulders.
Crucifixion With Nails
Upon reaching the execution site, the condemned person was nailed or bound by ropes to the cross. Many have questioned the historical accuracy of the nailing of the hands and feet. The reason for this skepticism is that there has been almost zero evidence of it in history.
Dr. J. W. Hewitt, in his Harvard Theological Review article entitled, “The Use of Nails in the Crucifixion,” said, “To sum up, there is astonishingly little evidence that the feet of a crucified person were ever pierced by nails.” 39/29-45 He went on to say that the victim’s hands and feet were bound by ropes to the cross.
For years Dr. Hewitt’s statement was quoted as the final word. The conclusion, therefore, was that the New Testament account of Christ being nailed to the cross was false and misleading. Crucifixion by use of nails was considered legendary. It was believed that nails would have ripped the flesh and could not have supported a body on the cross.
A Dead Man Speaks
Then, a revolutionary archaeological discovery was made in June 1968. Archeologist V. Tzaferis, under the direction of the Israeli Department of Antiquities and Museums, discovered four cave-tombs at the site of Gav’at ha-mivtar (Ras el-Masaref) just north of Jerusalem near Mt. Scopus.
In Ossuary 4 of Tomb I, inscribed with the name Yohanan Ben Ha’galgal, were found the bones of an adult male and of a child. A large 7-inch spike had been driven through the heel bone, and both legs had been fractured. Haas reported: “Both the heel bones were found transfixed by a large iron nail. The shins were found intentionally broken. Death caused by crucifixion.” 34/39
The bones in Ossuary 4 confirm another passage in the New Testament:
The soldiers therefore came, and broke the legs of the first man, and of the man who was crucified with Him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs (John 19:32,33).
Purpose for Breaking the Legs
To understand why the legs were broken, one must study the means of execution. The soldiers would feel for the depression at the front of the wrist, then drive the heavy wrought-iron spike through at that point. Next, the legs were placed together and a large nail was driven through them. The knees were left moderately flexed, and a seat (known as a sedecula) was attached to the cross for the buttocks of the victim.
Dr. Truman Davis, the M.D. whom I quoted before, describes what happens to the human body after a short time of exposure on the cross:
As the arms fatigue, great waves of cramps sweep over the muscles, knotting them in deep, relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push Himself upward. Hanging by His arms, the pectoral muscles are paralyzed and the intercostal muscles are unable to act. Air can be drawn into the lungs, but cannot be exhaled. Jesus fights to raise Himself in order to get even one short breath. Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the bloodstream and the cramps partially subside. Spasmodically, He is able to push Himself upward to exhale and bring in the life-giving oxygen.
After a while, orthostatic collapse through insufficient blood circulating to the brain and heart would follow. The only way the victim could avoid this was to push up by his feet so the blood could be returned to some degree of circulation in the upper part of his body.
When the authorities wanted to hasten death or terminate the torture, the victim’s legs were broken below the knees with a club. This prevented him from pushing himself upward to relieve the tension on the pectoral or chest muscles. Either rapid suffocation or coronary insufficiency followed. In the case of Christ, the legs of the two thieves crucified with Him were broken, but Christ’s were not because the executioners observed He already was dead.
Spilling of Blood and Water
One of the executioners thrust a spear into Christ’s side, and, as recorded in John 19:34, “Immediately there came out blood and water.”
Davis relates that there was “an escape of watery fluid from the sac surrounding the heart. We, therefore, have rather conclusive post-mortem. Evidence that [Christ] died, not the usual crucifixion death by suffocation, but of heart failure due to shock and constriction of the heart by fluid in the pericardium.” 181186
A Job Well Done
Pilate required certification of Christ’s death before the body could be turned over to Joseph of Arimathea. 21/573 He consented to Christ’s being removed from the cross only after four executioners had certified His death.
The efficiency of execution by crucifixion was quite well-known in the time of Christ. Dr. Paul L. Maier, professor of ancient history at Western Michigan University, writes,
True, there is a recorded instance of a victim being taken down from a cross and surviving. The Jewish historian Josephus, who had gone over to the Roman side in the rebellion of A.D. 66, discovered three of his friends being crucified. He asked the Roman general Titus to reprieve them, and they were immediately removed from their crosses.
Still, two of the three died anyway, even though they apparently had been crucified only a short time. In Jesus’ case, however, there were the additional complications of scourging and exhaustion, to say nothing of the great spear thrust that pierced His rib cage and probably ruptured His pericardium. Romans were grimly efficient about crucifixions:
To the professors:
I detect an attempt here to reduce Christ to the realms of mankind with a heavy dose of mockery. If historically it is established that he was a man and God at the same time. What biological function would have stopped him from farting or going bald? What genetic trait would have stopped him from expressing his mother and her relatives genotypes and phenotypes. So Mr. Ash he did fart as you also continue to fart. Maybe King Agrippa had a point when he suggested that too much learning had made Paul mad. It seems that too much of it has made these professors kinky and homophobic.
@ Tommy nTinker “BELL”
Maybe you ought to refer to the dictionary for the meanings of “Immaculate” and Conception”
My former pupil, David Ash, criticizes me and snidely suggests that I have been inactive in archeological digs in Sumeria during recent years. I concede that I have been less active than in earlier years, but David knows better than most that I have spent a long time tending to Rosie, who has been afflicted by Pick’s disease.
I have at least spent enough time in the digs to learn (something that David clearly failed to learn) that Jesus did fart. The Essene fragments are inconclusive but the other Qumran parchments indicate strongly that Jesus had something like a “fart wrangler”—that is, somebody who followed him around and captured his farts in some kind of bag, for posterity.
Where are those bags now, full of Jesus’s farts? That’s the real question.
@Zoe | November 23, 2011 at 4:36 PM |
“Red (And skin pigments of red) – This was Shem. From Shem came Abraham and the Hebrew nation as well as Jesus and all the middle-east and eastern nations.
Black (and dark skin pigments) – This was Ham. From Ham came the Egyptians and the African people.
White and (light skin pigments) – This was Japheth. From Japheth came the European nations.”
But I want to ask you why you failed to indentify the branch of Noah’s ancestral tree that bore the fruit of the Chinese, Japanese and ethnic groupings of Mongoloid extract. We can assume those from the Indus valley can be considered, according to your assessment, descendants of Japheth
I notice you are now referring to the Book of Enoch! This is good and indicative of a growing flexibility and eagerness to expand your theological learning horizon. I will not mention your earlier dismissal of the same non KJV source for early Judean mythology and legend!
Now that you are prepared to take your first toddler’s steps outside your biblical playpen I suppose you can take a peep inside the cupboard and shed some light on the mythical character called Melchizedek.
SECURITY PRECAUTION #3-Solid Rock Tomb
The body of Christ was placed in a new tomb, hewn out of a solid rock, in a private burial area. Jewish tombs usually had an entrance 4-112 to 5 feet high.
SECURITY PRECAUTION #4-Jewish Burial
The New Testament is very clear that the burial of Christ followed the customs of the Jews.
In preparing a body for burial, the Jews would place it on a stone table in the burial chamber. The body first would be washed with warm water.
It was the custom, as verified in the New Testament, to prepare the corpse (after cleansing) with various types of aromatic spices.
In the case of Christ’s burial, 75 pounds of spices were used. One might regard this as substantial, but it was no great amount for a leader. For example, Gamaliel, grandson of the distinguished Jewish scholar Hillel, also was a contemporary of Jesus. Saul of Tarsus studied under him. When Gameliel died, 86 pounds of spices were used in his burial. Josephus, the Jewish historian, records that when Herod died, it required 500 servants to carry the spices for his body. 43 So the 75 pounds for Jesus was not at all unusual.
After all the members of the body were straightened, the corpse was clothed in grave vestments made out of white linen. There could not be the slightest ornamentation or stain on the cloth. 5/261 The grave linens were sewn together by women. No knots were permitted. For some this was to indicate that the mind of the dead was “disentangled of the cares of this life” 5/261-to others, it indicated the continuity of the soul through eternity. No individual could be buried in fewer than three separate garments.
At this point, the aromatic spices, composed of a fragrant wood pounded into a dust known as aloes, were mixed with a gummy substance known as myrrh. Starting at the feet, they would wrap to the armpits, put the arms down, then wrap to the neck. A separate piece was wrapped around the head. I would estimate an encasement weighing a total of between 92 and 95 pounds. John Chrysostom, in the fourth century A.D., commented that “the myrrh used was a drug which adheres so closely to the body that the graveclothes could not easily be removed.”
SECURITY PRECAUTION #5-Very Large Stone
Matthew records in his writings that a large stone was rolled against the front of the tomb (Matthew 27:60). Mark said the stone was extremely large (Mark 16:1-4). In today’s language, he would have said, “Wow! Get a loada’ that rock!”
Just how large was that “Wow, get a loada’ that rock” stone?
In the Mark 16:4 portion of the Bezae manuscripts in the Cambridge Library in England, a parenthetical statement was found that adds, “And when He was laid there, he (Joseph) put against the tomb a stone which 20 men could not roll away.”
The significance of this statement is realized when one considers the rules for transcribing manuscripts. It was the custom that if a copier was emphasizing his own interpretation, he would write his thought in the margin and not include it within the text. One might conclude, therefore, that the insert in the text was copied from a text even closer to the time of Christ, perhaps, a first-century manuscript. The phrase, then, could have been recorded by an eyewitness who was impressed with the enormity of the stone, which was rolled against Jesus’ sepulcher.
One and a Half to Two Tons
After my lecture at Georgia Tech, two engineering professors went on a tour of Israel with other Georgia Tech faculty members. They remembered the comments I had made about the large size of the stone. So, being engineers, they considered the type of stone used in the time of Christ and calculated the size needed to roll against a 4-1/2 to 5-foot doorway.
Later, they wrote me a letter containing all the technical terms, but they put their conclusions in simple language on the back of it.
They said a stone of that size would have to have had a minimum weight of 1-1/2 to 2 tons. No wonder Matthew and Mark said the stone was extremely large.
One might ask, “If the stone were that big, how did Joseph move it into position in the first place?” He simply gave it a push and let gravity do the rest. It had been held in place with a wedge as it sat in a groove or trench that sloped down to the front of the tomb. When the wedge was removed, the heavy circular rock just rolled into position.
SECURITY PRECAUTION #6-Roman Security
Jewish officials panicked, because thousands were turning to Christ. To avoid a political problem, it was to the advantage of both the Romans and the Jews to make sure Jesus was put away for good.
So the chief priests and Pharisees gathered together and said to Pilate, “Sir, we remember that when He was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I am to rise again.’ Therefore, give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, lest the disciples come and steal Him away and say to the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last deception will be worse than the first” (Matthew 27:63).
Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.” And so “they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone” (verse 65).
Some people would argue that Pilate said, “Look, you have your Temple police. You take your Temple police, and go make it secure.”
The Temple Police
Now, if you want to say it’s a Temple guard, you need to realize who made up that guard. It consisted of a group of 10 Levites who were placed on duty at different places at the Temple. The total number of men on duty was 270. This represented 27 units of 10 each. The military discipline of the Temple guard was quite good. In fact, at night, if the captain approached a guard member who was asleep, he was beaten and burned with his own clothes. A member of the guard also was forbidden to sit down or lean against something when he was on duty.
A Roman Guard
However, I am convinced it was the Roman guard that was placed at the grave of Christ to secure it.
A. T. Robertson, noted Greek scholar, says this phrase is in the present imperative and can refer only to a Roman guard, and not the Temple police. According to him, Pilate literally said, “Have a guard.”
Robertson adds that the Latin form koustodia occurs as far back as the Oxyrhynchus papyrus in reference to the Roman guard. The Jews knew Pilate wanted to keep the peace, so they were sure he’d give them what they wanted.
What was the Roman guard?
A Roman “custodian” did a lot more than care for a building. The word “custodian” represented the guard unit of the Roman Legion. This unit was probably one of the greatest offensive and defensive fighting machines ever conceived.
One helpful source for understanding the importance of the Roman guard is Flavius Vegitius Renatus. His friends called him Vegitius. A military historian, he lived several hundred years after the time of Christ when the Roman army started to deteriorate in its discipline. He wrote a manual to the Roman Emperor Valentinian to encourage him to instill the methods of offensive and defensive warfare used by the Romans during the time of Christ. Called The Military Institutes of the Romans, it is a classic today.
Vegitius wanted to see the Roman armies restored to the efficiency and might, which characterized them at the time of Christ. These armies were great because they were highly disciplined. He wrote, “Victory in war does not depend entirely upon numbers or mere courage; only skill and discipline will insure it. We find that the Romans owed … the conquest of the world to no other cause than continual military training, exact observation of discipline in their camps and unwearied cultivation of the other arts of war.”
There are two other excellent sources. At Indiana University, Dr. George Currie did his doctoral dissertation on the Roman custodian, and Dr. Smith edited a dictionary entitled, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
To Prof. Templebaum:
I would want to wish your Rosie better health. However, I am sure the many scoffers and fart wranglers on this blog are gleefully delighted and well pleased with your level of contribution so far.
And now the resurrection. THE only MAN and person on this earth that after three days walk out of the grave but then again he was conceived of the HOLY GHOST, Not even Hollywood could have written such a script. OH i forgot Lazarus he too came back from the dead!
Before i forget Jesus ascended into heaven. oh boy and the story gets more complex. HE is coming out of the clouds some time.But when! No one knows! do not forget that all the dead who believed in JESUS would arise from the grave.
My former tutor Dov Templebaum criticizes me for criticizing him. Is this the way of a scholar?
Of course I knew of Rosie’s illness. Dov and Rosie treated me like a son. I loved them both and love them still. But if we are to have a dispute in a public space, perhaps this is the time for me to mention that Rosie once touched me inappropriately. I will say no more than that.
Professor Templebaum’s notion of a “fart wrangler” for Jesus is laughable. There is no evidence for it. Admittedly, the archeology seems to show that we have found a bit of Jesus’s toupee, but anything else is pure speculation.
The Force of the Roman Guard
These and other sources point out that the Roman guard was not a one-, two-, or three-man force. Supercilious pictures of the tomb of Jesus Christ show one or two men standing around with wooden spears and mini-skirts. That’s really laughable.
A Roman guard unit was a 4- to 16-man security force. Each man was trained to protect six feet of ground. The 16 men in a square of 4 on each side were supposed to be able to protect 36 yards against an entire battalion and hold it.
Normally what they did was this: 4 men were placed immediately in front of what they were to protect. The other 12 were asleep in a semi-circle in front of them with their heads pointing in. To steal what these guards were protecting, thieves would first have to walk over those who were asleep. Every four hours, another unit of 4 was awakened, and those who had been awake went to sleep. They would rotate this way around the clock.
Historian Dr. Paul Maier. writes, “Peter would be guarded by four squads of four men each when imprisoned by Herod Agrippa (Acts 12), so sixteen would be a minimum number expected outside a prison. Guards in ancient times always slept in shifts, so it would have been virtually impossible for a raiding party to have stepped over all their sleeping faces” without waking them.
High Priest Offers Bribe
Even Matthew records that it was a multi-man force when he wrote that “some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened” (Matthew 28:11).
A critic at this point might say, “See, they came to the high priest. It shows that they were the Temple guard.” The context is clear, however, that they came to the high priest because he had influence with the Roman authority and because it was the only possible way to save their necks. The high priest tried to bribe them (which would have been a mockery if they had been Temple police). He gave them money and told them what to tell the people. When the news reached Pilate, the high priest said he would keep them from being killed. Normally, they would receive the death penalty, because the story was to be that they had fallen asleep while guarding the tomb.
It is significant that the governor had to be satisfied, because I have not been able to find any account in history- secular, Jewish or Christian -indicating that the Roman governor had anything at all to do with the Temple police.
Even if the guard at the tomb had been made up of Temple police, the security would have been no less thorough.
A Fighting Machine
T. G. Tucker, in his book, Life in the Roman World of Nero and St. Paul describes one of these Roman guards:
Over his breast, and with flaps over the shoulders, he will wear a corset of leather covered with hoop-like layers, or maybe scales, of iron or bronze. On his head will be a plain pot-like helmet, or skull-cap, of iron.
In his right hand he will carry the famous Roman pike. This is a stout weapon, over 6 feet in length, consisting of a sharp iron head fixed in a wooden shaft, and the soldier may either charge with it as a bayonet, or he may hurl it like a javelin and then fight at close quarters with his sword.
On the left arm is a shield, which may be of various shapes. The shield is not only carried by means of a handle, but may be supported by a belt over the right shoulder. In order to be out of the way of the shield, the sword -a thrusting rather than a slashing weapon, approaching 3 feet in length- is hung at the right side by a belt passing over the left shoulder …. On the left side, the soldier wears a dagger at his girdle.
Polybius, the Greek historian of the second century B.C., records that, in addition to all this,the men are adorned with a crown made of feathers and with three upright feathers, either purple or black, about a foot and a half high; when they add these on the head along with the other arms, the man appears twice as big as he really is, and his appearance is striking and terrifying to the enemy.
The men of the lowest property classes also wear a bronze plate, 8 inches square, which they place in front of their chests and call the heart guard; this completes their armanment. But those worth more than 10,000 drachmae, instead of wearing the heart guard, along with the rest of their equipment, wear a coat of mail.
SECURITY PRECAUTION #7- Roman Seal
Mathew records that along with the guard they set a “seal on the stone” (Mathew 27:66). A.T. Robertson says this could be placed on the stone only in the presence of the Roman guards who were left in charge. Vegitius indicates the same thing. The purpose of this procedure was to prevent anyone from tampering with the grave’s contents.
After the guard inspected the tomb and rolled the stone in place, a cord was stretched across the rock. This was fastened at either end with sealing clay. Finally, the clay packs were stamped with the official signet of the Roman governor.
A parallel to this is seen in Daniel: “And a stone was brought and laid over the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet ring and with the signet rings of his nobles, so that nothing might be changed in regard to Daniel” (Daniel 6:17).
Purpose of the Seal
Henry Sumner Maine, member of the Supreme Council of India, formerly regius professor of the civil law at the University of Cambidge, speaking on the legal authority attached to a Roman seal, said, “Seals in antiquity were actually considered as a mode of authentication.”
To authenticate something simple means to prove that it is real or genuine. So this seal on Jesus’ tomb was a public testimony that Jesus’ body was actually there. In addition, because the seal was Roman, it verified the fact that His body was protected from vandals by nothing less than the power and authority of the Roman Empire.
Anyone trying to move the stone from the tomb’s entrance would have broken the seal and thus incurred the wrath of Roman law and power.
Grave Robbers Warned
In Nazareth, a marble slab was discovered with a very interesting inscription – a warning to grave robbers. It was written in Greek and says, “Ordinance of Caesar. It is my pleasure that graves and tombs remain perpetually undisturbed for those who have made them for the cult of their ancestors or children or members of their house. If, however, anyone charges that another has either demolished them, or has in any other way extracted the buried, or has maliciously transferred them to other places in order to wrong them, or has displaced the sealing or other stones, against such a one I order that a trial be instituted, as in respect of the gods, so in regard to the cult of mortals. For it shall be much more obligatory to honor the buried. Let it be absolutely forbidden for anyone to disturb them. In case of violation I desire that the offender be sentenced to capital punishment on charge of violation of sepulcher.”
Maier observes, “All previous Roman edicts concerning grave violation set only a large fine, and one wonders what presumed serious infraction could have led the Roman government to stiffen the penalty precisely in Palestine and to erect a notice regarding it specifically in Nazareth or the vicinity.” 54/118-19 It well could be a response to the commotion caused by Christ’s resurrection.
Facts to Be Reckoned With
Now, something happened. Something happened almost two thousand years ago that changed the course of history from B.C. (Before Christ) to A.D. (the Latin Anno Domini – the year of our Lord).
That “something” was so dramatic it completely changed eleven men’s lives, so that all but one died a martyr’s death.
That something was an empty tomb! An empty tomb that a 15-minute walk from the center of Jerusalem would have confirmed or disproved.
Even after the two thousand years since that time, mankind hasn’t forgotten the empty tomb nor the resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ.
If you wish to rationalize away the events surrounding Christ and His resurrection, you must deal with certain imponderables. In fact, you might say that both the Jews and the Romans outwitted themselves when they took so many precautions to make sure Jesus was dead and remained in the grave. These “security precautions” -taken with the trial, crucifixion, burial, entombment, sealing and the guarding of Christ’s tomb -make it very difficult for critics to defend their position that Christ did not rise from the dead!
@lemuel | November 23, 2011 at 5:51 PM |
“To Miller:
Stop with this chinese and indian skin texture thing; you are sounding like the white folks who dare never to believe that black poeple are the SAME as them.”
Lemuel, what do you mean here, man?
All I am doing is performing an intellectual vivisection of the bull that Zoe is putting forward regarding the biblical source of modern man.? Do you want me to accept like some stupid black people what is contained in the book of Genesis as an explanation for the variety in ethnicity found among humans? You can if you want to! But my intelligence tells me that what is posited by Zoe and you is a load of inconsistent mythological folly that does make biological or scientific sense.
I am not dealing with racial or ethnic variations among humans from a sociological, political or racial supremacy point of view. If you read my threads you would realize I don’t give a damn about religious or racial bigotry. I believe in variety and its acceptance thereof (live and let live)!
I am simply arguing that from anthropological and biological perspectives the mythological Noah’s three sons could not be the direct ancestors of varied modern human beings given a geological time span of less than 13,000 years (I use that figure to entice you!).
ac: ‘Maybe you ought to refer to the dictionary for the meanings of “Immaculate” and Conception”.’
Er, right. OK. Er, excellent!
@TOMMY TINKER”bell
You are welcome!
Now explain the Resuurection! you might need to lokk up the word” Ressurection” carry on smartly!
ac: ‘”Maybe you ought to refer to the dictionary for the meanings of “Immaculate” and Conception”.’
O tempora o mores! Oh, morons.
Let’s look at the morons.Let’s watch them play.
Consider these seven facts:
FACT #1-Broken Roman Seal
The first obvious fact was the breaking of the seal that stood for the power and authority of the Roman Empire. The consequences of breaking the seal were severe. The FBI and CIA of the Roman Empire were called into action to find the man or men responsible. When they were apprehended, it meant automatic execution by crucifixion upside down. Your guts ran into your throat. So people feared the breaking of the seal. Even the disciples displayed signs of cowardice, and hid themselves.
FACT #2-The Empty Tomb
Another obvious fact after the resurrection was the empty tomb. The disciples of Christ did not go off to Athens or Rome to preach Christ raised from the dead; they went right back to the city of Jerusalem where, if what they were teaching were false, their message would have been disproved. The resurrection could not have been maintained for a moment in Jerusalem if the tomb had not been empty.
Dr. Paul Maier says,
Where did Christianity first begin? To this the answer must be: “Only one spot on earth -the city of Jerusalem.” But this is the very last place it could have started if Jesus’ tomb remained occupied, since anyone producing a dead Jesus would have driven a wooden stake through the heart of an incipient Christianity inflamed by His supposed resurrection.
What happened in Jerusalem seven weeks after the first Easter could have taken place only if Jesus’ body were somehow missing from Joseph’s tomb, for otherwise the Temple establishment, in its embroglio with the Apostles, would simply have aborted the movement by making a brief trip over to the sepulcher of Joseph of Arimathea and unveiling exhibit A. They did not do this, because they knew the tomb was empty. Their official explanation for it – that the disciples had stolen the body – was an admission that the sepulcher was indeed vacant.
There are both Jewish and Roman sources and traditions that acknowledge an empty tomb. These sources range from the Jewish historian Josephus to a compilation of fifth-century Jewish writings called the Toledoth Jeshu. Maier calls this “positive evidence from a hostile source, which is the strongest kind of historical evidence. In essence, this means that if a source admits a fact decidedly not in its favor, then that fact is genuine.” 55/5
Gamaliel, who was a member of the Sanhedrin, put forth the suggestion that the Christian movement was of God (Acts 5:34-42); he could not have done this if the tomb had been occupied, or if the Sanhedrin had known the whereabouts of Christ’s body.
Even Justin Martyr in his Dialogue With Trypho relates that the Jerusalem authorities sent special representatives throughout the Mediterranean world to counteract the story of the empty tomb with the explanation that His followers stole the body. Why would the Jewish authorities bribe the Roman guard and propagate the “stolen body” explanation if the tomb was occupied? Historian Ron Sider concluded that: “If the Christians and their Jewish opponents both agreed that the tomb was empty, we have little choice but to accept the empty tomb as an historical fact.”
FACT #3-Large Stone Moved
On that Sunday morning, the first thing that impressed the people who approached the tomb was the unusual position of that 1-1/2- to 2-ton stone that had been lodged in front of the doorway. All the Gospel writers mentioned the removal of the large stone.
Up an Incline
For example, in Matthew 27, it is said that a “large stone was rolled against the entrance of the tomb.” Here the Greek word used for roll is kulio, meaning “to roll.” Mark used the same root word kulio. However, in Mark 16, he added a preposition to explain the position of the stone after the resurrection.
In Greek, as in English, to change the direction of a verb or to intensify it, you add a preposition. He added the preposition ana, which means “up or upward.” So, anakulio can mean “to roll something up a slope or an incline.” For Mark, then, to have used that verb, there would have had to be a slope or an incline coming down to the front of that tomb.
Away From
In fact, that stone was so far “up a slope” that Luke used the same root word kulio, but added a different preposition, apo. Apo can mean, according to the Greek lexicons, “a separation from,” in the sense of “a distance from.” Apokulio, then, means to roll one object away from another object in a sense of “separation” or “distance from it.” Now, they saw the stone moved away in a sense of distance from “what”?
Let’s go back to Mark 16. On Sunday morning, the women were coming to the tomb.
You might say, “Wait a minute! Why were those women coming to the tomb Sunday mornings?” One reason was to anoint the body over the graveclothes with a mixture of spices and perfume. Another might ask, “Why would they come since the Roman security unit was there guarding the grave?”
That’s quite simple. The guard did not examine the body and secure the sepulcher until Saturday afternoon. On Friday afternoon the women had watched as the body was prepared in a private burial area. They lived in the suburb of Bethany and therefore were not aware of the Roman and Jewish actions about putting extra security at the place of Christ’s burial.
Let’s go back to Mark 16 again.
The women are saying, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?” Here, they used the Greek word for entrance. That’s logical, isn’t it? But, when they got there they said, “Who rolled the stone away from …?” and here they changed the Greek word for “the entrance” to the word used for the entire massive sepulcher. Apokulio, then, means “away from” in the sense of at a “distance from the entire massive sepulcher.”
Picked Up and Carried
In fact, the stone was in such a position up a slope away from the entire massive sepulcher that John (chapter 20) used a different Greek verb, airo, which (according to the Arndt and Gingrish Lexicon) means, “to pick something up and carry it away.”
Now, I ask you, if the disciples had wanted to come in, tiptoe around the sleeping guards, then roll the stone over and steal the body, why would they have moved a 1-1/2- to 2-ton stone up a slope away from the entire massive sepulcher to such a position that it looked like someone had picked it up and carried it away? Those soldiers would have had to be deaf not to have heard that stone being moved.
FACT #4-Roman Guard Goes AWOL
The Roman guard fled. They left their place of responsibility. This has to be explained away because the military discipline of the Romans was exceptionally good. Justin, in his Digest #49, mentions all offenses which required the penalty of death: a scout remaining with the enemy (-3.4), desertion (-3.11; -5.1-3), losing or disposing of one’s arms (-3.130), disobedience in war time (-3.15), going over the wall or rampart (-3.17), starting a mutiny (-3.19), refusing to protect an officer or deserting one’s post (-3.22), a drafted man hiding from service (-4.2), murder (-4.5), laying hands on a superior or insult to a general (-6.1), leading flight when the example would influence others (-6.3), betraying plans to the enemy (-6.4; -7), wounding a fellow soldier with a sword (-6.6), disabling self or attempting suicide without reasonable excuse (-6.7), leaving the night watch (-10.1), breaking the centurion’s staff or striking him when being punished (-13.4), escaping guard house (-13.5), and disturbing the peace (-16.1). To the above, one can add “falling asleep.” If it was not apparent which soldier had failed in duty, then lots were drawn to see who would be punished with death for the guard unit’s failure.
Fear of Punishment
One way a guard was put to death was by being stripped of his clothes, then burned alive in a fire started with the garments. The entire unit certainly would not have fallen asleep with that threat hanging over their heads. The history of Roman discipline and security testifies to the fact that if the tomb had not been empty the soldiers never would have left their position, nor would they have gone to the high priest. The fear of the wrath of their superiors and the possibility of the death penalty meant they paid close attention to the most minute details of their job. Dr. George Curie, who studied carefully the military discipline of the Romans, wrote that fear of punishment “produced flawless attention to duty, especially in the night watches.” 16/41-43
Dr. Bill White is in charge of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem. His responsibilities have caused him to study quite extensively the resurrection and the events following the first Easter. White makes several critical observations about the Jewish authorities bribing the Roman guard:
If the stone were simply rolled to one side of the tomb, as would be necessary to enter it, then they might be justified in accusing the men of sleeping at their posts, and in punishing them severely. If the men protested that the earthquake broke the seal and that the stone rolled back under the vibration, they would still be liable to punishment for behavior, which might be labeled cowardice.
But these responsibilities do not meet the case. There was some undeniable evidence, which made it impossible for the chief priests to bring any charge against the guard. The Jewish authorities must have visited the scene, examined the stone, and recognized its position as making it humanly impossible for their men to have permitted its removal. No twist of human ingenuity could provide an adequate answer or scapegoat and so they were forced to bribe the guard and seek to hush things up.
FACT #5-Graveclothes Tell a Tale
In a literal sense, the tomb was not actually empty. Instead, an amazing phenomenon occurred. After visiting the grave and seeing the stone rolled away, the women ran back and told the disciples. Then Peter and John took off running. John outran Peter, and upon arriving at the tomb he did not enter. Instead, he leaned over and looked in and saw something so startling that he immediately believed.
He looked over to the place where the body of Jesus had lain. There were graveclothes, in the form of a body, slightly caved in and empty -like the empty chrysalis of a caterpillar’s cocoon. That was enough to make a believer out of anybody! He never did get over it!
The first thing that stuck in the minds of the disciples was not the empty tomb -but the empty graveclothes, undisturbed in their form and position.
FACT #6-Appearances of Christ Confirmed
On several occasions, Christ appeared alive after the cataclysmic events of that first Easter.
A Principle to Remember
When studying an event in history, it is important to investigate whether enough people who were participants or eyewitnesses to the event were alive when the facts about the event were published. This is helpful to validate the accuracy of the published report. If the number is substantial, the event can be fairly well established. For instance, if we all witness a murder, and in a week the police report turns out to be composed of fabricated lies, we as eyewitnesses can refute it.
In other words, when a book is written about an event, the accuracy of its contents can be validated if enough people are alive at the time it is published who have been either eyewitnesses of, or participants in, the events recorded.
Several very important factors often are overlooked when investigating Christ’s post-resurrection appearances to individuals. The first is the large number of witnesses of Christ after that first Sunday morning.
Fifty Hours of Eyewitnesses
One of the earliest records of Christ’s appearing after the resurrection is by Paul (I Corinthians 15). The apostle appeals to his audience’s knowledge of the fact that Christ had been seen by more than five hundred people at one time. Paul reminds them that the majority of these people were still alive and could be questioned.
@TOMMY TINKER “Bell:
Pardon the interruption but to be correct before you go dashing off to meet Mr webster . my input is subject to correction on the word”resurrection”
AC…are you talking about Star Trek the movie? LOLLL
ac: ‘you might need to lokk up the word” Ressurection”.’
I looked up the word “ressurection”. I looked up the word “lokk”.
Neither seem to exist. Can you help?
PS. Lol. And Lol. It’s always incredibly funny when cretins actually write “LOL”, don’t you think?
Dr. Ewin M. Yamauchi, associate professor of history at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, emphasizes:
What gives a special authority to the list [of witnesses] as historical evidence is the reference to most of the five hundred brethren being still alive. St. Paul says in effect, “If you do not believe me, you can ask them.”
Let’s take the more than five hundred witnesses who saw Jesus alive after His death and burial and place them in a courtroom. Do you realize that if each of these five hundred people were to testify only six minutes each, including cross-examination, you would have an amazing fifty hours of firsthand eyewitness testimony? Add to this the testimony of many other eyewitnesses and you could well have the largest and most lopsided trial in history.
Variety of People
The second factor often overlooked is the variety of locations and people involved in Jesus’ appearances.
Professor Merrill C. Tenney of Wheaton College writes:
It is noteworthy that these appearances are not stereotyped. No two of them are exactly alike. The appearance to Mary Magdalene occurred in early morning; that to the travelers to Emmaus in the afternoon; and to the apostles in the evening, probably after dark. He appeared to Mary in the open air. Mary was alone when she saw Him; the disciples were together in a group; and Paul records that on one occasion He appeared to more than five hundred at one time (1 Corinthians 15:6).
The reactions also were varied. Mary was overwhelmed with emotion; the disciples were frightened; Thomas was obstinately incredulous when told of the Lord’s resurrection, but worshiped Him when He manifested Himself. Each occasion had its own peculiar atmosphere and characteristics, and revealed some different quality of the risen Lord.
In no way can anyone say His appearances were stereotyped.
Hostile Viewers
A third factor very crucial to interpreting Christ’s appearance is that He also appeared to those who were hostile or unconvinced. Over and over again I have read or heard people comment that Jesus was seen alive after His death and burial only by His friends and followers. Using this argument, they attempt to water down the overwhelming impact of the eyewitness accounts -but this line of reasoning is so pathetic it hardly deserves comment.
No author or informed individual would regard Saul of Tarsus to have been a follower of Christ. The facts show the exact opposite. He despised Christ and persecuted Christ’s followers (Acts 8:1; 9:1,2; Philippians 3:5,6). For Paul it was a life-shattering experience when Christ appeared to him (Acts 9:3-6). Although Paul was not at the time a disciple, he later became one of the greatest witnesses for the truth of the resurrection.
No one acquainted with the facts can accurately say that Jesus appeared to just “an insignificant few.”
FACT #7-Women Saw Him First
Another authenticating feature of the resurrection narrative is that the first appearances of the risen Christ were not to His disciples, but rather to women-to Mary Magdalene and the other women. This must have been an embarrassment to the apostles, Christ’s inner circle. They were likely quite jealous.
According to Jewish principles of legal evidence women were invalid witnesses. They did not have a right to give testimony in a court of law.
Unreliable Testimony
Dr. Maier accurately observes that since the testimony of a woman was deemed unreliable, the “initial reaction of the Eleven was understandably one of suspicion and disbelief. Again, if the resurrection accounts had been manufactured … women would never have been included in the story, at least, not as first witnesses.”
It Changed Their Lives
The changed lives of those early Christian believers is one of the most telling testimonies to the fact of the resurrection. We must ask ourselves: What motivated them to go everywhere proclaiming the message of the risen Christ?
Had there been visible benefits accruing to them from their efforts such as prestige, wealth or increased social status-we might logically account for their actions. As a reward, however, for their wholehearted and total allegiance to this “risen Christ,” these early Christians were beaten, stoned to death, thrown to the lions, tortured, crucified and subjected to every conceivable method of stopping them from talking. Yet they were the most peaceful of men, who physically forced their beliefs on no one. Rather they laid down their very lives as the ultimate proof of their complete confidence in the truth of their message.
Those Hardest to Convince
There was the skeptical family of Jesus (John 7:1-5). His brothers did not believe in Him. They were embarrassed to hear their brother say to the people, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by Me,” and “I am the vine, you are the branches,” and “I’m the shepherd, you are the sheep” (John 14:6; 15:5; 10:11). What would you do if your brother did that?
There was James, His brother. He was found in the company of the Pharisees. James and his brothers mocked Jesus.
However, after Jesus went to that degrading death on the cross, disgracing the family, and was buried, where do we find those hardest to convince -His own family?
We find them in the upper room with the disciples waiting for the Holy Spirit to be sent (Acts 1:13,14). Now, since they mocked Him while He was alive, what happened in a matter of a few days to turn their lives upside down?
James became a leader in the early church and wrote an epistle stating, “I James, a bond-servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ [his brother]. . ” (James 1). Eventually, for the cause of Christ, James died a martyr’s death -he was stoned.
What happened?
The best explanation I know is recorded by Paul: “Then He appeared to James” (I Corinthians 15:7).
His Cowardly Followers
What about the fearful disciples of Jesus? When the authorities captured Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, “all the disciples left Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56; Mark 14:50). During Christ’s trial, Peter went out and denied Him three times (John 18:15-27; Mark 14:66-72). After Christ was crucified, the fearful disciples hid themselves in an upper room and locked the doors (John 20:19). But something happened within days to totally change this group of cowardly followers into a bold band of enthusiasts who faced martyrdom without fear or hesitation. Peter, who had denied Jesus, was imprisoned for his persistency in preaching a “risen Christ” and later was himself crucified upside down.
What happened? The most logical explanation is that the resurrected Jesus “appeared to Cephas [Peter] … then to all the Apostles” (1 Corinthians 15:5-7).
A Jewish Fanatic Converted
And how about Paul, the religious persecutor of the Christians? This Jewish fanatic so hated the followers of Christ that he obtained special permission to go to other cities and incarcerate Christ’s disciples. He ravaged the church (Acts 8:1-3; 9:1,2; 22:3-5).
But something happened to this persecutor. He turned from an antagonist to a protagonist of Jesus. He was transformed from a murderer to a Christian missionary. He changed from a bitter interrogator of Christians to one of the greatest propagators of the Christian faith.
The irony is that Paul began to confound the Jewish authorities “by proving Jesus is the Christ,” the Son of God (Acts 9:22). He was eventually killed for his devotion to Christ.
What happened? This historical explanation is Paul’s statement that Jesus “appeared to me also” (1 Corinthians 15:8; Acts 9:3-22).
It would be very difficult to explain the transformation of these men if the resurrection were not true. Professor Robert Grant says: “The origin of Christianity is almost incomprehensible unless such an event took place.” 32/302
A Resurrection Explains All the Facts
Harvard law professor Simon Greenleaf, a man who lectured for years on how to break down testimony and determine whether or not a witness is lying, concludes:
It was therefore impossible that they could have persisted in affirming the truths they have narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead, and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.
The annals of military warfare afford scarcely an example of the like heroic constancy, patience, and unflinching courage. They had every possible motive to review carefully the grounds of their faith, and the evidences of the great facts and truths they asserted.
A believer in Jesus Christ today can have the complete confidence, as did those first Christians, that his faith is based not on myth or legend but on the solid historical fact of the empty tomb and the risen Christ.
Nnaki/Raelian, wrote:
“Lemuel, what do you mean here, man?
All I am doing is performing an intellectual vivisection of the bull that Zoe is putting forward regarding the biblical source of modern man.? Do you want me to accept like some stupid black people what is contained in the book of Genesis as an explanation for the variety in ethnicity found among humans? You can if you want to! But my intelligence tells me that what is posited by Zoe and you is a load of inconsistent mythological folly that does make biological or scientific sense.”
“I am not dealing with racial or ethnic variations among humans from a sociological, political or racial supremacy point of view. If you read my threads you would realize I don’t give a damn about religious or racial bigotry. I believe in variety and its acceptance thereof (live and let live)!
I am simply arguing that from anthropological and biological perspectives the mythological Noah’s three sons could not be the direct ancestors of varied modern human beings given a geological time span of less than 13,000 years (I use that figure to entice you!).”
Nnaki/Raelian, Man, your ignorance re this matter is simply beyond descrption! You want some anthropological and biological perspectives re Noah’s three sons; even going back to Adam and Eve?
Standby Nnaki/Raelian, I’ll beam you down some scientific evidence!
Is any account taken of the fact that biblical events occurred and were initially recorded in an unsophisticated time, compared to the present, and in a language other than English? Is it likely, therefore, that many of those events might have been misinterpreted by the individuals that initially recorded such events or mistranslated by those individuals that subsequently did translation?
@ Zoe | November 23, 2011 at 7:58 PM |
“Standby Nnaki/Raelian, I’ll beam you down some scientific evidence!”
First things first! Before you beam down any evidence please address the query that was posed regarding the anthropological connection between one of Noah’s sons and the ethnic groups of Mongoloid ancestry.
Please! Pretty, please!
Note that most living animals have a basic makeup – eyes, ears, nose, mouth, arms/wings, feet, etc. In fact, if you blank your mind and focus on an animal, such as a frog, you could almost picture a vastly deformed human being. The basic similarities are so striking that you could almost rationalize evolution, over millions/billions of years, where varied surroundings influenced the varying characteristics that we now observe.
The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.