Now I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15:1-8 NRSV)
Allegedly, Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead after being executed by the Roman government. Twenty or so years after the death of Jesus, the Apostle Paul (with Sosthenes as his co-author) wrote the words above, saying that Jesus appeared to more than 500 men and women at one time after he resurrected. Most of these witnesses were still alive at the time of writing 1 Corinthians 15.
Question Evangelical apologists about the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus, and they will often quote 1 Corinthians 15:1-8. “Over five hundred witnesses saw the resurrected Jesus,” they claim. However, what evidence do Evangelicals have for this claim? Outside of this passage of Scripture, there’s no evidence for the claim that over five hundred people saw the post-resurrected Jesus. No, all we have is a singular author claiming more than five hundred witnesses saw Jesus. Not one historical record apart from Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 15 testifies to the five hundred witnesses claim.
We find another interesting passage in Matthew 27:
Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many.
According to this passage of Scripture, when Jesus died, the veil in the temple was torn from top to bottom, and scores of saints who were sleeping in their graves resurrected, walked through the streets of Jerusalem, appearing to many.
In 2003, our family moved to Yuma, Arizona, hoping the weather would be better for my health. Yuma had a static population that would double in the winter months when “snowbirds” arrived. So it was for Jerusalem in the first century. Its population would swell during Passover, upwards of 150,000 people. Yet, despite the large crowds, not one historian, biographer, or reporter wrote one word about any of the events mentioned in this post. No mention of the five hundred witnesses or one word written by them. No mention of dead people coming back to life and walking through Jerusalem.
Could these claims be true? Sure, but there’s no evidence that they are. Saying more than five hundred people witnessed the resurrected Christ is a wonderful claim, but such a fantastical event was not mentioned by contemporary writers one time outside of the Bible. The same goes for the ripped veil and the resurrected saints walking the streets of Jerusalem. Justification for these claims requires more than a few Bible verses. These supernatural events were so astounding that you would think someone in Jerusalem might have written them down. They didn’t, so all we are left with is this: The Bible says . . .
Bruce Gerencser, 68, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 47 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.
You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.
I know there are different translations of the verse but I’m always struck by the wording “most of whom are still alive but some have died”. Well call me naive but isn’t the wording “some are still alive” implicitly saying that some have died? Which brings to mind the funeral wording “in the sure and certain hope…”. If it’s a hope then it’s not certain. Yes, I’m aware of the countless explanations of these verses, and actually every single bible verse that isn’t entirely clear (😂), but it renders clearly the fact that the bible is a (set of) text(s) that belongs on the same shelf as Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales or Dante’s Divine Comedy (the latter ironically giving birth to our modern day version of hell). It’s impossible to understand without recourse to detailed study, an understanding of the times, and extensive knowledge of the original languages in which they were written.
I don’t remember many Easter sermons that included the alleged opening of the tombs and dead people walking around Jerusalem. I barely remembered it at all when I came across that claim during deconstruction.
What i do remember is what I was told as a child regarding the extraordinary miracles in Bible stories. I wondered why we don’t see people surviving walking into a fiery furnace, or anyone walking on water, or a disembodied hand writing on a wall, or a talking donkey. I was told that we have the Bible now so God talks to us through that rather than through extraordinary miracles. That seemed sketchy to me – you’d think God would want miracles captured on film.
Yeah, I don’t remember hearing about the “zombie apocalypse” on Easter either. And I’m a baptist preacher’s kid. In fact, the first time I remember it being discussed was as a freshman at a bible college I attended at 18. I distinctly remember everyone laughing at the idea of dead saints stumbling around Jerusalem, even the teacher kind of snickered. Like we all knew that it was fucking ridiculous. But….it’s IN the Bible! So it must be true.
I don’t remember many Easter sermons that included the alleged opening of the tombs and dead people walking around Jerusalem. I barely remembered it at all when I came across that claim during deconstruction.
What i do remember is what I was told as a child regarding the extraordinary miracles in Bible stories. I wondered why we don’t see people surviving walking into a fiery furnace, or anyone walking on water, or a disembodied hand writing on a wall, or a talking donkey. I was told that we have the Bible now so God talks to us through that rather than through extraordinary miracles. That seemed sketchy to me – you’d think God would want miracles captured on film.
We find another interesting passage in Matthew 27
I was not sure what to make of that when first introduced to Christianity. But when I came back to that passage at around age 17, it convinced me that it was mere story telling.
I’m not a big fan of Richard Carrier, but I do find his argument of the ‘500 witnesses’ actually being ‘on pentecost’ compelling. The Greek for ‘five hundred witnesses’ is : pentakosioi, while ‘on Pentecost’ is pentekoste. He argues that if one letter was miscopied, it could create a confusion that would be later ‘corrected’ by changing the ending. So one copying error and a later scribe trying to harmonize changed it from Pentecost to 500 witnesses – but if Acts was written after Paul wrote his letters, as scholars believe, then the fact the Acts mentions the appearance at the Pentecost, but does not mention how many people were there, makes an excellent case for the appearance on Pentecost being the most important detail. Also in terms of the narrative context of Paul’s letter, the fact that appearing to 500 is then followed by “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles” is interesting that there would have to have been 500 people plus his apostles, since the apostles are explicitly mentioned as seeing Jesus after the 500.
Makes me really appreciate how people who are clinging to certain English translations are at the mercy of the version of the documents in Greek that we have, as well as the translator and the historical translation of any passage.
That is an interesting bit of information, J.B.S. I wanted to add that uneducated, gullible, suggestible and/or malnourished people (the first disciples were all of these, being peasants) are not the most reliable interpreters of phenomena and reality. (Face of Jesus in a piece of toast, anyone?)
My Dad once flew to Egypt to try to document appearances at a Coptic church there. As he was setting up, the crowd below began reacting to something, as if the appearance was happening. He got his camera ready, but the apparition disappeared as he moved to the edge of the balcony. He later realized that sunlight was reflecting off of his watch onto the interior of the dome. So if someone is primed to believe, 500 people could witness a dot of light and call it an appearance. Then it’s just mythmaking and story telling before people thing that a physical form appeared that people could touch.
Or random splotches on toast looking like Western Jesus