Eyewitness Scriptures Introduction

The cornerstone of the case for Christianity is the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Historically, without the resurrection, the conviction to follow, witness for, and worship Jesus could not have been sustained in an environment hostile to a new religion. While there are a number of apologetic devices that can be used to establish the historicity of the resurrection, this site is dedicated to listing and commenting on various eyewitness passages found in the New Testament that can be used for that purpose. Eyewitness evidence has provided the basis for most, if not all, historical facts in human experience. There is no reason the resurrection of Jesus should be any different.

Specifically, the goal of this site is to list and comment on New Testament eyewitness passages as a source of evidence for a) someone [honestly] interested in the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and b) for the Christian seeking to more firmly establish his/her conviction in the reality of the resurrection. Concerning Christians, Jesus referred to the belief concerning himself in the explanation of the parable of the sower found in Matthew 13:18-23 with parallel accounts in Mark 4:14-20 and Luke 8:11-15. His point was that only those fully convinced of his identity and facts concerning his life, death, and resurrection would be committed enough to devote their lives to following him. Interestingly, Jesus used various opportunities to jettison disciples not fully convinced of his identity as the Son of God [God in the flesh] [cf. John 6:60-69, 8:30-59]. Probably, aside from his many miracles, the most convincing proof of his deity was the resurrection. Being fully convinced of the resurrection is a major step in understanding Jesus' identity as the Son of God. Knowing Jesus as the Son of God thus provides the motivation for committing one's life to him [cf. The End Is Near!].

This site does not deal with New Testament textual reliability. In fact, there is ample evidence for believing the texts of the New Testament have been preserved accurately throughout the centuries. For example, there is internal consistency among the various books composed by different authors recounting the same events [e.g. incidents recounted in the book of Acts and Paul's letters, various of Jesus' statements found in the gospels are also quoted or interpreted by Paul or the other apostles in their writings]. Also a Matthew papyrus fragment dated to the 60s AD has been discovered⁴. This means the gospel content has been dated to the lifetime of the witnesses to Jesus' ministry, thus discounting any possibility for the gospels to have been products of mythological development. Below are references that treat the subject of textual reliability.

Passages considered to be evidence for the resurrection are listed as links in the scripture navigation bar. Each link expands to a page containing a comment as to why that passage is included followed by the passage in up to four English translations of the New Testament. The four translations used are the New Living Translation, the New International Version, the New American Standard Bible, and the King James Version.

Online versions of the quoted Bible translations may be found at:

New Living Translation

New International Version

New American Standard

King James Version

References

Jesus Under Fire, Wilkins & Moreland, Chapt 3, "The Words of Jesus in the Gospels: Live, Jive, or Memorex?", Zondervan, 1995.
Reasonable Faith, Craig, Chapt 6, "The Historical Reliability of the New Testament", Crossway Books, 1994.
The Case for Christ, Strobel, "Part 1: Examining the Record", Zondervan, 1998.
The Jesus Papyrus, Thiede & D'Ancona, Galilee DoubleDay, 1996.
The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?, F. F. Bruce, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000.

Acknowledgements

3. Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

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