Resurrection Essay

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On March 27, 2016, many will gather to celebrate Easter. On this day, believers all around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is one of the foundational beliefs to the Christian faith. Without this belief, much of the Christian faith would collapse. Although there are many that believe in the resurrection of Jesus, there are also many who do not believe that the resurrection actually occurred. Both sides believe that they are right and have their own beliefs about the resurrection. This paper will look at three evidences for the resurrection: the burial, the empty tomb, and the postmortem appearances. The first evidence of the resurrection is the burial of Christ. Out of all of the evidences, Jesus’ burial in the …show more content…

Each of the independent sources mentioned earlier attest to the tomb being empty. The Markan account does not end with Christ’s burial. Instead, he continues his account with the women discovering the empty tomb. Mark 16 says that Jesus had risen “on the first day of the week.” This would be understood by those who kept the Hebrew calendar. The statement is a time indicator for when the tomb was discovered empty. This statement proves an early admission by Mark and that the empty tomb story is not some late-developing legend. Also, the empty tomb is suggested in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5 when Paul quotes the early Christian tradition. Directly after “he was buried,” Paul says “He was raised.” Paul does not explicitly say that the tomb was found empty, but it is implied by the order of the wording. “A comparison of the four-line formula with the Gospel narratives on the one hand and the sermons in Acts (2:29-32) on the other reveals that the third line is, in fact, a summary of the empty tomb narrative (365).” Paul’s “He has been raised” is mirrored with “He is …show more content…

After Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to the disciples and many others. In 1 Corinthians 15:5-8 Paul says that Jesus appeared to Peter, the Twelve, over five hundred brothers, James, the apostles, and lastly to himself. There are no stories in the Gospels about Jesus’s appearance to Peter, but Paul is quoting an early Christian tradition that originated in the Jerusalem church. Paul did spend some time with Peter, so he would have been able to hear Peter’s testimony. It is also mentioned in another Christian tradition found in Luke 24:34

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