Are the Resurrection Accounts Credible?

[Imprecise Interrupt]

The Resurrection of Jesus is often put forward as the proof of the legitimacy of Christianity. It is typically stated that there are multiple attestations of the event, thereby rendering it believable. It is the credibility of these several attestations that I intend to call into question. Please note that I am not rejecting ipso facto the idea of a dead body coming back to life. This was supposed to be a miracle, after all. Neither am I concerned with trivialities such as how many women went to the tomb. It is the credibility of the several accounts, and therefore the alleged fact of the resurrection, that I find lacking, for reasons other than simply the issue of a resurrection from the dead taking place.

The question for debate is therefore: Are the scriptural accounts of the resurrection of Jesus credible evidence that the resurrection took place?

[Imprecise Interrupt]

[Replying to post 129 by Imprecise Interrupt]

You may have pointed it out but in the absence of the text actually saying any of that there is no reason why I or anyone should believe you. Matthew most certainly does not state the eleven travelled to Galilee before having seen the rise Christ. Luke does not state Jesus never appeared in Galilee and your speculations and suppositions do not appear in the gospel text.

JW

Jesus has been resurrected on Sunday morning and this is the evening of that day. I quoted so much to be sure you understand that point. In Luke, Jesus told them not to leave Jerusalem until they receive the Holy Spirit and that happens on Pentecost after Jesus ascends.

• Luke 24
  36 As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, Peace to you! 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38 And he said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat? 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate before them.
  
  44 Then he said to them, These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.
  
  Acts 1
  3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.
  
  4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
  
  6 So when they had come together, they asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 7 He said to them, It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.

If you do not know the scriptures, do not try to lecture me on what they say or mean.

[JehovahsWitness]

Does Luke say the Apostles never left Jerusalem in the peroid between the resurrection and Christs Ascention, contradicting the other gospel acconnts?

ANSWER No, Luke at no time says the Apostles did not leave Jerusalem. Jesus did give an instruction to "stay in the city until you are clothed with power" but this is linked with his promise of the holy spirit.The implication being, that that when it was time for that promise to be kept, it would indeed be in Jerusalem that the Apostles were to wait for it. The question then is: Was one week after his resurrection the moment for that promise to be kept? If not, were they free to leave in the interim? In harmony with the other gospels, the anwers is yes they could.

To illustrate: After an examination doctor confirms his patient is indeed pregnant. He explains "I am arranging for you to have a midwife to help with the delivery, "You must stay in bed until she arrives". Is the woman going to go home and tell her husbands my doctor has just told me to stay in bed for 9 months? Or is the instruction relative to the period indicated ?

While one could read Jesus instruction to never leave the city, a more reasonable reading is that he wanted them to remain in Jerusalem when the time came for the promise to be fulfilled.

Supporting the implication that Jesus never meant to prohibit leaving Jerusalem in the interim, is the fact that Jesus original directive was for his Apostles, to meet him in Galilee. Indeed it was only their refusal to believe the women's message to that effect, was Jesus obliged to first appear to them in and around Jerusalem.

In any case whether the instruction was meant as a prohibition of any movement outside the city or directives to expect/wait for the holy spirit only in Jerusalem, the fact of the matter is that it was an instruction. There is little doubt the were obedient but there is no reason they had to take it as a blanket prohibition in the absolute. They may well have understood the instruction as outlined above and left the city returning in time for the festival of Pentecost a month or so after the initial instruction.

NOTE The introduction to the book of Acts 1:4,5 may well be referring to the same occassion recorded at Luke 24:49



JW



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[Imprecise Interrupt]

[Replying to post 132 by JehovahsWitness]

So the Apostles disobeyed Jesus and went to Galilee? Seriously?

And why did they do this? Jesus was with them in Jerusalem.