Did Jesus Really Rise From The Dead?: The Best Case For & Against Over 100 Claims (Debate Guides)
The arguments that carry the resurrection case, and the arguments against it, 100 of them plus the reliability case beneath them, stated at full strength by both sides and scored. The free sample contains the whole method and the verdict on all 100 claims, so read it before you decide.
The empty tomb. The five hundred witnesses. The women who found the tomb first. The creed too early for legend. No one dies for a lie. The conversion of Paul. The stolen body, the swoon, the hallucinations. The Shroud. Over 100 claims, and the skeptical theories are graded with exactly the same severity as the Christian ones: one of them fails badly enough that the book tells you not to lean on it.
One test, applied every time: what is the earliest evidence behind the argument, and what exactly does it attest? Does the step from those facts to a risen body follow, or is it supplied? And would the same reasoning, applied with the same generosity to another faith's claim, prove that claim too? No hostility to miracles is assumed and none is needed. The entries grant everything the record supports and watch where the grants end.
That watching is the heart of the book. Three different things get called "the resurrection" the belief (the first Christians proclaimed Jesus risen, as certain as anything in ancient history), the experiences (people sincerely perceived him after his death, well evidenced and granted throughout), and the event (a body left a tomb because God raised it). Nearly every argument draws its force from the first two. Nearly every verdict turns on whether anything carries the weight across to the third. When experiences become meetings, when the early date of a creed is cited as if it dated the miracle, when sincerity unto death is offered as proof of what was believed, the upgrade is the argument, and the entries show you where it happened.
Each of the 100 entries, plus twelve bonus entries on the reliability arguments underneath the whole case, runs the same seven blocks: CLAIM, PRO at full strength with its concessions, CON with the weak objections discarded and every defense answered by name, FALLBACK & LIMITS, NOT CLAIMED, THE QUESTION the dispute turns on, and a VERDICT: from a fixed set of ten for the numbered entries, case by case for the twelve bonus entries. Twenty-one entries are granted, with their limits stated. Nineteen find the sources in conflict and the harmony supplied rather than found. Every one is traceable to chapter and verse or to a source you can check.
Why this book exists
Sincere, well-read Christians have disagreed about these texts for centuries, and many of the lines between denominations run through exactly these passages. So the text has not settled its own meaning for the people who read it most closely, which does not mean it has none; it means a reading has to earn its place. Too much of the apologetics shelf argues to win and leaves out the strongest counter-evidence; too much of the skeptical shelf does the same facing the other way. This is the book I wanted and couldn't find: both cases made the way their ablest defenders would make them, with the result stated honestly either way.
It will not tell you what to believe. It is a tool for arguing either side, and for finding out which parts of a case survive the strongest version of the opposition. Public-domain World English Bible (WEBU) text throughout. Companion to Did Jesus Really Fulfill Prophecy? and the full-length Fact-Checking 100 Prophetic Claims.
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