Although the historical facts concerning the existence of Jesus Christ are highly debatable, the controversial topic of whether or not Jesus was resurrected from the dead remains questionable and is still relevant in debates held today. Historians studying the New Testament must be mindful of the discrepancies many feel towards claiming the resurrection of Jesus as either true or false. For many, this topic hits a sensitive spot, because it causes one to think about evidence, explanation, and how the two intermingle.
In the Biblical accounts of the resurrection of Jesus, there are several facets of the explanation of Jesus’s death and rise from the dead that most historians can agree on. According to William Lane Craig in his debate with Bart Ehrman, there are four historical facts that must be explained by any adequate historical hypothesis. These four events are: Jesus’s burial, the discovery of the empty tomb, the post-mortem appearances, and the origin of the disciples belief in His resurrection. In the text though, there are at least five independent written accounts about the event of Jesus of Nazareth’s crucifixion, death, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven. According to Powell, criteria concerning the historicity of Jesus and other events that take place throughout the bible can be judged by analyzing: if there are multiple attestations or mentioning of the same event, if it is memorable in form or content, if the language or environment are distinct and clear, if an event reveals an embarrassing story, if there is enough dissimilarity or distinctiveness, if it is plausible, if it is coherent, and if it is congruent with that particular time’s world-view. The use of this criteria is shown through the Biblical accounts of Jesus’s death and resurrection present in the Gospels and also mentioned by Paul in I Corinthians. The accounts of Jesus’s resurrection given through the books of Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, and I Corinthians provide proof of multiple attestations. Although some of these attestations vary in description of certain details, such as: there being two men dressed in dazzling clothes awaiting the Marys in the tomb in Luke, chapter 24, verse 4, there are still many similarities shown. In the accounts provided in Mark, Matthew, and John, angels are present in white clothing, which could be represented through a sort of dazzle. Through the study of Craig, Ehrman, Wright, Borg, and the Bible, a gap between fully understanding the conception of Jesus dying, rising, and ascending into Heaven arises. Due to the nature of the argument, historians are only able to arrive at theories, leaving fact up to God.
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THE POLITICS OF KENDRA 