1.8 The Resurrection

The whole of the Christian hope hangs on the resurrected Jesus. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15, "...if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is futile and your faith is empty." So if there's one thing the Bible needs to be really clear on it's the resurrection.

What happens when we put the resurrection narratives side by side? I tried this as an exercise to see if I could create a coherent account using all the sources, of which there are 6 by the way. There are the four gospels, plus the second (non-original) account in Mark 16:9-20 when it skips back to the beginning of the day and plays it again. The final written record, and earliest, is by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, particularly verse 5.

I put all these records into an excel spreadsheet using a column for each record and a verse in each cell. I could then put spaces into each column to nudge the verses of each record up and down relative to each other with the intention of lining up all the events into a coherent single narrative. I've tried this a few times and with the records in different columns but I just don't think they can realistically be made to conform with each other.

There are very few events that overlap. They all hold that:

• It was the first day of the week
• The stone had been rolled away
• They (some women but not sure who) entered the tomb

But there are significant differences that can't all be historic realities.There are many differences between the records but the parts I find particularly hard to integrate together are these:

• Did the women go and tell others or not tell anything to anyone
• After leaving the tomb did the women see the disciples or Jesus first
• Did Jesus first appear to Mary Magdalene at the tomb or to all the women after they left the tomb

These questions seem particularly hard to get a straight answer on when looking to harmonise all the accounts. I don't think they can be explained on the basis of different perspectives on the same events. They are better explained as different accounts. The gospels all have different stories to tell and we should respect that. For some Christians this approach isn't a problem.

For me this undermines the historicity of the resurrection and along with the other evidence I have looked into, including that on the remainder of this website I am no longer convinced that what the Bible tells us is reliable.

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