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EASTER IS THE Christian celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The key written source for the resurrection claim is the New Testament, in particular the four Gospels and the letters of Paul.
Sceptics tend to deride these writings as fiction – but how credible are they in light of other historical sources?
While the New Testament makes use of figurative and symbolic language, it is also based on testimony of what historically occurred.
Many of the most important historical claims made in the New Testament are corroborated by non-Christian historical sources.
For example, Josephus, a Roman-Jewish historian, writing in around 93 AD, affirmed not only the existence of Jesus but the fact that he was a “wise man”, a “teacher” and a “doer of wonderful works”.
Josephus also makes mention of Jesus’ crucifixion and of the imprisonment and death of Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist.
The Roman magistrate Pliny the Younger wrote in around 112 AD that Christians “meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath … not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so.”
In around 116 AD, Tacitus, a Roman senator and historian, wrote about how Nero tortured Christians.
He further explained that “Christus” had “suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus”.
Written sources
Other interesting sources that mention Jesus include the Greek Lucian of Samosata (around 170 AD) and the Jewish Talmud (200 AD to 500 AD).
The New Testament contains the earliest written sources about Jesus.
Scholars disagree over precise timelines but it is likely that Paul’s authentic letters were written 20 to 25 years after Jesus’ death. The first Gospel appeared 35 years after Jesus’ death if not before.
This written tradition about Jesus was rooted in an earlier oral tradition. That oral testimony began during Jesus’ lifetime and was substantial – memory skill was highly prized among Jews of that era.
There is a consensus among historians that these documents provide us with knowledge of Jesus. One of the reasons for this is that the documents can be traced back to eyewitness reports of Jesus’ teachings and actions.
Another is that these writings would have circulated among communities where Jesus ministered.
Many eyewitnesses and relatives of eyewitnesses would still have been alive and would likely have heard of the documents so it would have been difficult for the writers to fabricate events, as any fabrications could easily have been exposed by contemporaries.
The most profound claim made by Paul in the Gospels is that after being crucified Jesus rose from the dead.
This proclamation originated in the immediate aftermath of Jesus’ death.
There are two interrelated components to the resurrection claim.
First, the tomb where Jesus was buried lay empty, and this is almost certainly true.
(a) Contemporary Jews accepted that the tomb was empty (according to Justin Martyr’s ‘Dialogue with Trypho’ and the Jewish ‘Toledot Yeshu’).
(b) The Gospels state that women discovered the empty tomb.
Since women’s testimony was viewed as suspect according to Jewish custom – if the story was fabricated, why would the fabricators attribute the discovery to women?
(c) If the tomb wasn’t empty then no one would have believed reports that Jesus had risen: the existence of the rotting body, which was easily verifiable, would disprove such reports.
It is also very unlikely that the body was stolen.
Rational motive
If enemies of the early Christians had stolen Jesus’ body they surely would have returned it once the Christians began claiming that Jesus had risen.
There is no rational motive for why Jesus’ followers would have risked their lives to steal his body. To their minds, Jesus had just been humiliated and killed for claiming to be the Son of God.
He was dead and gone, and his followers were in hiding and many were even denying they knew him. Why would they risk the same fate on behalf of a failed, humiliated prophet?
The second component is the resurrection appearances.
Various people, including women followers, the apostles, other named individuals and even crowds of people are reported to have witnessed the resurrected Jesus a short while after his death and on different occasions and in different circumstances after that.
These diverse witnesses were either telling the truth or lying. But why would they lie?
They would have known that claiming Jesus was risen would put them in danger of torture and death.
Indeed, there is evidence that Stephen, James, Peter and Paul were each martyred.
Very few people are willing to sacrifice their life for something they believe to be true. It is highly unlikely that a significant number of people, from a variety of backgrounds, would be willing to die for something they knew to be false.
Early Christians were widely known for their commitment to truth, and it seems that at the very least a significant number of people at the time believed that they had witnessed the resurrection.
Paul is an important source – before witnessing the risen Christ he actively persecuted Christians as a committed Jew.
But after experiencing the resurrection, he became the most convinced Christian of all.
Something happened that radically changed the lives of Jesus’ earliest followers and their persecutor, Paul. Something happened to make the tomb empty.
The resurrection explains all of these events in a consistent way, and it explains why Jesus’ earliest followers were willing to die for their faith: they knew it to be true because they themselves encountered the risen Christ.
That experience changed their lives and continues to change the lives of many to this day.
Dr Thomas Finegan is a lecturer in Theology at Mary Immaculate College.
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What is the point of commissioning these reports if the findings are not to be made public? Cover up for, protection of, and no one ever held accountable is always the outcome.
Who is colluding with whom to keep truth hidden, and WHY.
Stop baptising your children into an organisation with the worst human rights record of the last 1,500 years.
@Orla Smith: what are your thoughts about the 207 people murdered in Sri Lanka. It’s just that its becoming very obvious daily that you have a distinctive lust for hatred for a particular people of a particular religion.
@Dathi O Nualláin: Apologies for cutting in but my own personal thoughts is that they deserve better than for their tragic deaths to be used by a Catholic church apologist as a ‘whataboutery’ deflection vehicle
@The Risen: ah look , you do that yourself, it’s a useful tactic to say someone else is doing it. Apologies for cutting across , yeah right.
@Dathi O Nualláin: Example please of me doing it?
@The Risen: maybe, instead of rising you might just lie down and give your bias & bile a rest.
@Liam Mernagh: Surely a devout Christian like yourself is not advising somebody to not rise on easter Sunday??
@The Risen: defending the states involvement with mother and baby Homes. One day soon all of the nonsense you guys spew out is going to come back and kick you hard. Everytime guaranteed the same bunch of unhappy lefties arrive in the Journal comments section to particular topics and never is would seem , to dawn in them that , they let their opinions know about a Christian religion and the Muslim faith. You dont hide anything, you think everyone is a stupid as you think they are. But most here know exactly what you think.
@Dathi O Nualláin: Post a single comment from me where I have ‘defended the states involvement in mother and baby homes’ or have the decency to withdraw your remark….
Off ya go ….
@Dathi O Nualláin: nice rant. You didn’t come across paranoid and crazy at all. I have an image of you doing push ups, shaving your head into a mohawk and talking to yourself I front of the mirror, “you talking to me?”.
@The Risen: The Risen
6m
Thu 3:12 PM
@Tim Oleary: Which period exactly in the history of the Irish state did the church not firmly have its jackboot on the neck of society?
I’ve a question when did this stop.
@mark d: if that’s the only way you can try to obtain credibility , good luck.
@Dathi O Nualláin: cheers
@Dathi O Nualláin: do you believe that shared responsibility between the State and the Catholic Church reduces culpability of the Church? Simple question.
@Orla Smith:Worst human rights record in the last 1,500 years. I’m not quite sure of that to be honest, one of the worst yes, but “the” worst, no.
@mark d: if that’s a hypothetical question , then my answer is no. But if it’s a shared responsibility they should both be prosecuted and those responsible imprisoned. What do you think? Same question only , do you think it reduces the culpability of the State?
@Orla Smith: gone very quiet, beginning to think you are still here under another avatar.
@Dathi O Nualláin: If that’s the best you can come up with you shouldn’t have bothered. It’s common knowledge the control the Catholic Church had over state apparatus. Difference between you and me is I blame atrocities carried out by the church on the church in the first instance, you point your fingers at everything else.
@Dathi O Nualláin: absolutely not. However, the difference between the state and the Catholic Church is that the state is answerable to the citizenry. The church is not. The church has had and still does have influence over the Irish state. We are talking about an organisation that has been responsible for the rape of children, selling babies, the enslavement and subjugation of women over the last 100 years in this country with minimal accountability. In fact, the church has yet to pay the money they owe to the survivors for sexual abuse. The state paid most the financial costs. This is why it’s important I call out the Catholic Church and argue against those who try to lessen their culpability through whataboutism.
@Dathi O Nualláin: whataboutery by a sad apologist does not justify either the disgusting action of the Catholic Church nor does it honour those poor people in Sri Lanka . Shame on you.
@Ian Phillip Creaner: that comment an obvious instance of back door hypocracy.
@mark d: you say the church still has influence of over the state, that doesn’t add up given the recent push for abortion and same sex marriage. If the Church is obligated to pay victims, they should. You waffling on about whataboutery are doing the same thing here. I think you are big time wrong about the states relationship with the church, it has changed but this relationship is about covering the backsides now. Dont you condemn/ acknowledge all of the similar abuses that take place outside the church? Or do you think it’s only exclusively a Catholic church thing. Aren’t secular atheists or anyone in between subject to scrutiny also. ?
@The Risen: Not so, you still are saying the state, is like an innocent observer. I say the church is responsible firstly for the abuses but the state ,even while they had knowledge of this did nothing. The thing about this is, is that the present state doesn’t want that kind of investigation, in case it turns up something that dont want made public knowledge. I want the truth. All of it , and I dont give a monkies who is involved, I want them exposed.
@Dathi O Nualláin: that’s a straw man argument. The Catholic Church does still have influence over the state as it has control of most of the schools. Education is the key to control. Most of the population from the age of 5 are taught religious education, primarily the catholic faith. Mixing religion with traditional education gives the appearance of equivalence between religious teaching and core subjects. This maintains the church influence of society. In effect it is conditioning people to be Catholic, this is further reinforced by the traditions and customs such as communion and confirmation, once again is down through a lot of schools. You accuse me of whataboutary yet there was none in my previous comment……
@Dathi O Nualláin: ……You then follow up your rebuttal by saying what about those outside of the catholic faith….you lost all credibility there.
@Dathi O Nualláin: re your claim that recent results in the referendum have shown the church does not have influence, this is another argument that holds little water. People in Ireland have never had so much access to contrary points of views in the history of the state. This has led to a softening of public view. The church still has a lot of influence in this country.
@Dathi O Nualláin: I absolutely agree with you on your point that all involved must be exposed. But as I stated earlier, the state is accountable to the citizens but the church is only accountable to itself. This is why it’s important to remove their ability to influence society with the level of power that they have.
@The Risen: Who told you what I am or am not, or are you making your usual erroneous assumptions.
As for rising on Easter Sunday, you can and I’m sure you have pleased yourself and as far as It bothers me, you don’t have to worry.
@mark d: i dont really mind what you think. Itsa very obvious trait of thise who are not christians to avoid looking at thenselves when the tricky questions are asked. Even being silent when asked a question
@Dathi O Nualláin: for example? Your observations of non Christians has to be the greatest example of projection I have ever seen! I have never seen a strident Christian challenge their beliefs. I have literally never seen that.
Simple, leak the report to the media ( I’m sure they kept a copy) job done!
A great little country for cover-up in any part of life.
More like protecting the Judical political class that is complicit in all that is was rotten
@Willie Bill Bryan: I’d guess it’s a wide net that covers many many people in powerful positions. The nuns may have been wearing the jackboots, but the involvement of church officials, civil servants, the medical profession, the judicary and the political office holders is too discomforting for them to reveal.
It’s beyond disgusting what these people have done.
Hitler would have been proud of them and their carry, how dare these people claim to be religious servants and preach to others.
I was reading today that a Fianna fail politician wants the money being earmarked to exhume the children’s bodies in Tuam for forensic examination to instead be used to tackle homelessness.
Stinks of a cover-up.
@The Risen: I told you that days ago, that the state was responsible also. It’s a rabbit hole. A big one.
@Dathi O Nualláin: Would you like to acknowledge that they are covering up the actions of the Catholic church in the first instance?
@The Risen: if you mean the state absolutely the state and church are covering.
Zappone refuses to publish it because it shows all of her lies.
- no babies in septic tank
- no evidence of babies sold to America
- nuns buried babies in underground crypts because the council refused to do their job
Zappone should be sacked but as usual no one will be held to account because they used the lies to whip people up into a frenzy about the church.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/people-staying-silent-on-what-happened-at-tuam-zappone-says-1.3863241?mode=amp
@Red Hen: You’re mixing up 2 completely different Reports.
@Red Hen: change your meds. These ones are note working
@Paul J. Redmond: Fair enough Paul, and thanks for pointing that out.
However my point remains. If this report pointed all of that out and the only headline that was printed was that Zappone thinks people are still hiding something then can you imagine what damning information is in the report that she won’t publish?
That woman is on a witch hunt.
We paid for this investigation with our tax money, it should be published. Survivors need acknowledgement of what they have been through, because I know that there was abuse. The institutes that did their job also need acknowledgment. I suspect that like the report I referenced that there were many failings by the government pointed out in the report and that’s why we’ll never see it.
@Ian Phillip Creaner: at least my comments are on point and legible!
Personal attacks are your fall back position when you don’t have anything intelligent to add to a conversation.
Why is everything about religion. It should be about the treatment of people, whoever they are. People shouldn’t be blown up. Children shouldn’t have died because their mothers weren’t married. Abuse is abuse no matter what
@June Grimes: has anybody any problem with what happens to aborted babies
The count recently went up to 9050 in the ‘Septic Tank’, are people still making it all up.!! Wait until all the lost burial plots are excavated, Oh!! But not it seems even the graves are empty, why’?? Because the poor innocent little children were given to Hospitals for Medical Research.!!
This is a blight on Ireland. Truth will out, but too late for justice to be served.
Cover up? What a surprise…. The Nazis feigned ignorance also.
Zapping a bad egg
I had four misscarrigies in the late 60 th, after reading your report, I wonder did they also go for research?. As I would like to have buried them, but then the doctors were gods.these baby’s were in jars in the sluice room in St finbarr Cork,
have your say