Are Competing Resurrection Narratives Plausible

The entire Christian belief system is dependent upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ because it confirmed His deity as the Son of God, openly established the victory over sin with the accompanying death penalty, and guaranteed a resurrection to eternal life for all believers.

1 Corinthians 15:14 declares, “if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain”. As one might expect, there have been numerous attempts to disprove the factuality of the event and nullify it’s power. The three most prominent arguments advanced by skeptics are the swoon theory, the conspiracy theory, and the hallucination theory. Virtually no scholar disputes the recorded eyewitness accounts that “Pilate took Jesus and scourged Him” (John 19:1); the Roman soldiers “crucified Him” (Matthew 27:35); Joseph of Arimathaea laid the body in “his own new tomb which he had hewn out of rock, and he rolled a great stone to the door” (Matthew 27:60); the Roman guards “went and made the sepulcher sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch” (Matthew 27:66); the disciples “found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher, they entered in and did not find the body” (Luke 24:2-3); and that Jesus “was seen by Cephas, then of then twelve, after that He was seen by more than 500 brethren at once” (1 Corinthians 15:5-6). Subsequently, the attempts to discredit the resurrection involve proposing different explanations for the existing facts.

The swoon theory asserts that Christ did not actually die, He only lost consciousness (swooned). Therefore, He was buried alive and somehow the cool, damp air of the tomb healed and revived Him after three days. Although Jesus did not have access to desperately needed medical care or nourishment, He supposedly managed to loosen the tightly wrapped burial clothing, move in total darkness to locate the massive stone that sealed the sepulcher, roll it away with wrists previously pierced, without the guards noticing, and then walk away on feet previously pierced. The most obvious issue with the swoon theory is that it greatly underestimates the severe injuries sustained by Jesus Christ. There is no possible way that He could have survived crucifixion because the Roman procedures totally eliminated that possibility. It was sometimes necessary for the executioners to break the legs of those who were crucified to hasten the death by asphyxiation because it prevented them from lifting up with their legs to get a breath. “But when they came to Jesus and saw that He was dead already, they did not break His legs, but one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side and at once there came out blood and water” (John 19:33-34), which confirmed His death because it showed that the lungs had already collapsed and filled with fluid. Furthermore, a staggering half-dead man could have never moved the great stone placed at the door and overpowered the Roman guards who would have fought to protect their own lives. Roman law dictated the death penalty for any soldier who allowed a capital prisoner to escape.

The conspiracy theory suggests that Christ’s disciples simply stole the body and completely fabricated the resurrection story. The whole premise actually finds it’s origin with the Jewish leadership of the time who made efforts to circulate the deception and told the Roman guards, "say you, His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we slept, and if this comes to the governor’s ears we will persuade him and secure you” (Matthew 28:13-14). Conspiracies have a tendency to collapse when numerous people are involved, but the historical record reveals no proof that any disciple denied the event, even in the face of impending death. A conspiracy would certainly have been uncovered by those who were opposed to the resurrection because they had the power and the resources to expose any fraud. Also, the psychological state of the followers at the time was one of fear and confusion because their master had just been crucified. They were more concerned with protecting themselves from a similar fate. They were in no condition to subdue the skilled Roman soldiers standing guard at the tomb, and it’s unreasonable to propose that they were able to accomplish the task of rolling away the large stone quietly while the highly disciplined guards slept. The idea that the soldiers could have been bribed by the disciples is not conceivable either because they would have paid with their lives. Moreover, lies are always told for some kind of selfish reason, but there was no possible motive for the followers to propagate such a lie because there was no advantage. They were actually hated, persecuted, imprisoned, and tortured to death. The believers could not have proclaimed the resurrection in such a temporal and geographic proximity to the event with numerous eyewitnesses if it wasn’t true. It would have been nearly impossible to cultivate any belief in the resurrection with the presence of so much opposition and within only a few weeks of the crucifixion.

The hallucination theory proposes that all who witnessed Jesus in His resurrected body only imagined doing so. According to psychiatric principles, hallucinations are subjective because they derive from the subconscious and remain linked to particular past experiences. Secondly, they are normally only experienced by those who are paranoid, schizophrenic, or under the influence of psychotropic drugs. However, Christ appeared to many different types of people at multiple times who were clearly psychologically stable and it definitely was not part of any past experiences because their perspectives completely changed. Those who were unbelieving would have even been challenged to consult the eyewitnesses who were still alive. Additionally, hallucinations happen once and only last for a brief moment, but Jesus was seen repeatedly as He "showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days” (Acts 1:3). The disciples didn’t expect to see the risen Lord and didn’t even believe it at first, so He had to tell them, “behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, handle me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me have” (Luke 24:39). The hallucination theory is untenable because it cannot explain the physical nature of the appearances experienced by so many and it doesn’t even address the fact of an empty tomb.

Finally, no competing version logically resolves the transformation that took place in the lives of the disciples after the resurrection. They evolved from simple followers who were afraid to even admit their association with Jesus at the time of His crucifixion to boldly preaching the gospel regardless of the consequences. All but one of the disciples were oppressed and martyred for evangelizing and none renounced their revelation. They were willing to give their lives because the post-resurrection appearances thoroughly convinced them that Jesus Christ was the Savior and divine conqueror of death. It’s generally accepted that the narrative which explains the most evidence is most likely to true, and the account that proclaims the resurrection is the only one that gives an explanation for all the evidence.

“That which we have seen and heard we declare unto you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ”

1 John 1:3