Did Jesus really rise from the dead?

What the Bible says

The New Testament says that Jesus truly died, that he was raised on the third day, and that he appeared to many people. The earliest testimony is not in the Gospels but in a letter of Paul. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul says he is passing on what he himself "received."

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve.

1 Cor 15:3-5

Many scholars think this passage is not Paul's own composition but a summary of faith already repeated in the church before he wrote. Paul probably learned it in Jerusalem within a few years of the crucifixion. That matters. It suggests the resurrection was not a legend that swelled over generations but the message from the start. Paul goes on to say that Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people at once, "most of whom are still living" (1 Cor 15:6). Readers could still go and ask them.

The Gospels add the empty tomb. Mark tells how women went to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week and found the stone rolled away.

He has risen! He is not here! See the place where they put Him.

Mark 16:6

Notice the first witnesses. In that society a woman's testimony is often said to have carried little weight, and an inventor of tales would hardly have chosen them. Luke also admits that the apostles did not believe the women at first: "their words seemed like nonsense to them" (Luke 24:11).

Then come the appearances. When the terrified disciples thought they were seeing a ghost, Jesus answered.

Look at My hands and My feet. It is I Myself. Touch Me and see — for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.

Luke 24:39

John tells of Thomas, who was absent that first evening and said, "Unless I see the nail marks in His hands… I will never believe" (John 20:25). Eight days later Jesus came and called him to look and touch. Thomas's short answer is one of the greatest confessions made to Jesus in the Gospels.

Thomas replied, “My Lord and my God!”

John 20:28

Paul says plainly why this matters.

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is your faith.

1 Cor 15:14

Christian faith stands or falls with the resurrection. Without it Christianity might be a beautiful teaching, but, as Paul says, "you are still in your sins" (1 Cor 15:17).

The church's witness

The church confessed this from the beginning. The Apostles' Creed says Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead The Apostles' Creed. The Nicene Creed repeats it, adding "according to the Scriptures" The Nicene Creed.

The Fathers insisted that the risen body was real, not a vision. Gregory explains: "His body after His resurrection was the same in nature as before, but different in glory" Gregory. Augustine explains why the wounds remained.

He might, had He pleased, have wiped all spot and trace of wound from His glorified body; but He had reasons for retaining them. He showed them to Thomas, who would not believe except he saw and touched

Augustine

Chrysostom does not scold Thomas but sees the Lord's kindness to him: "Consider the mercy of the Lord" Chrysostom. The risen Christ does not turn away a doubter. He goes to find him.

Matthew Henry says what the resurrection promises us: "All that are by faith united to Christ, are by his resurrection assured of their own" Matthew Henry.

In the original languages

The New Testament word for resurrection is anastasis (ἀνάστασις). It means a "standing up again," the picture of one who has fallen rising to his feet. It does not mean that a spirit escapes the body and survives. Many Greeks were comfortable with an immortal soul, but a dead body rising struck them as strange. When Paul spoke of it in Athens, some began to mock him (Acts 17:32).

The other word is the verb egeiro (ἐγείρω), "to raise." In 1 Corinthians 15:4 Paul says Christ "was raised." The verb is in the perfect tense and is usually read as passive: God did the raising, and the result still stands. The resurrection is a declaration about someone who is alive now.

Common objections

"The disciples stole the body." This is the oldest objection. Matthew reports that the chief priests gave the soldiers money and told them to say, "His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep" (Matt 28:13). He adds that this account "has been circulated among the Jews to this very day." If Matthew's report is right, even the opponents' story assumed an empty tomb. The objection is not weak. Grieving followers could have moved a body. But then the disciples knew the resurrection was false and still preached it, even to the point of persecution and death. People will die for what they believe is true. They rarely die for what they know they made up. Nor does it explain the appearances Paul reports to James and to himself (1 Cor 15:7-8), men who were not among the faithful.

"Jesus did not really die." Some suggest he fainted on the cross and revived in the tomb. But Roman crucifixion was designed to kill, the soldiers judged that he "was already dead," and a spear brought out "blood and water" (John 19:33-34). A half-dead man needing nursing would hardly have persuaded anyone that he had conquered death. Few historians of any belief hold this view today.

"The disciples hallucinated." This is a serious objection. Bereaved people really do report seeing or hearing the one they lost, and in intense grief a group's expectations can spread a vision. But such experiences are usually private and comforting, and it is rare for many people to see the same thing at once. A hallucination also leaves the tomb unexplained. And the witnesses were not expecting a resurrection. They include James, who had not believed in his brother (John 7:5), and Paul, who was persecuting the church (Acts 9:3-5). This does not prove the theory wrong. But it needs several assumptions piled on one another to cover all the facts at once.

"It is a late legend, and the Gospels disagree." The Gospels were written decades after the events, and they do differ in details. They give different numbers of women, and one angel or two. The early church knew this, and Augustine wrote a study to harmonise them Augustine, The Harmony of the Gospels. Some see in this a sign of independent witnesses. Others see a weakness. But the core is the same: the tomb was empty, and Jesus appeared. And legends usually need more time to grow, while the proclamation of the resurrection survives as a creed from the first years. Finally, for someone who is already sure that the dead do not rise, no evidence may seem enough. But if God exists, there is no ground for saying beforehand that such a thing is impossible. We can follow the evidence with an open mind.

Going further

The resurrection is an invitation before it is a puzzle. Thomas believed after he saw, but Jesus said, "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29). Evidence opens the door to faith. It does not force it. If you are not yet convinced, that is all right. The Lord received even Thomas's doubts.

You might ask yourself some questions. If the resurrection is true, how would that change the way I see death and guilt? Is my difficulty with the resurrection caused by the evidence, or by the assumption that "such things do not happen"? Have I ever come to Jesus, as Thomas did, with an honest question?

To read further, see Who is Jesus? and Why did Jesus have to die?.