Are there any extrabiblical accounts of the resurrection of Jesus?

[Archivist]

Something that has troubled me is I have never been able to find extra biblical accounts of Jesus resurrection. Why didn’t the 500 he appeared to write testimonies of his resurrection? Even if any of them were illiterate I’m sure a few of them must have been literate. Does anyone have any answers?

Without getting into exact percentages, we agree that at least some of the 500 would have been literate. But, the letters contained in the New Testament survive today because they were written to churches, then they were copied, then those copies were copied, then those copies were copied. We don't have the originals, we don't know how much the copies we have today might or might not differ from the originals. But a letter from one of the 500 would probably not have been given that same treatment as a letter from one of the apostles--the original of such a letter would most likely have turned to dust centuries ago without ever being copied. Even of the letters written by the apostles, we don't know how many survived. Paul himself references a letter he wrote to the church in Laodicea that apparently did not survive. Col 4:16: "And when this letter has been read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you also read the letter from Laodicea."

 

[klutedavid]

If ? Why ? The end of all things would have been much quicker, probably !
(social media is NOT , by nature, a good thing)

Social media would have recorded the chatter regarding the resurrection.

Social media is an information entity, in essence neither good or bad.

The end of days will occur when God decides it will. We cannot accelerate the timing of these events.

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

Social media is an information entity, in essence neither good or bad.

Jesus and Scripture say otherwise - society with all that it is is pernicious according to Scripture.... i.e. death dealing. quicksand. deadly. dragging down everyone, or trying to drag down everyone , with it. Doing everything it can to prevent anyone from finding salvation, from finding Jesus, from finding the truth.

 

[klutedavid]

Jesus and Scripture say otherwise - society with all that it is is pernicious according to Scripture.... i.e. death dealing. quicksand. deadly. dragging down everyone, or trying to drag down everyone , with it. Doing everything it can to prevent anyone from finding salvation, from finding Jesus, from finding the truth.

So we decide when the end of days will take place?

 

[yeshuaslavejeff]

So we decide when the end of days will take place?

How did you miss it ?

 

[Blade]

Josephus
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he ... wrought surprising feats.... He was the Christ. When Pilate ...condemned him to be crucified, those who had . . . come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared ... restored to life.... And the tribe of Christians ... has ... not disappeared.[17]

 

[devin553344]

Something that has troubled me is I have never been able to find extra biblical accounts of Jesus resurrection. Why didn’t the 500 he appeared to write testimonies of his resurrection? Even if any of them were illiterate I’m sure a few of them must have been literate. Does anyone have any answers?

The testimony is the new testament itself was accepted by the Romans. If anyone was lying it would have been discovered and the new testament ignored. But the new testament is here and everyone believes it that is Christian. And that's probably why.

 

[SoldierOfTheKing]

Another point: early Christianity's enemies, both Jewish and pagan, could have destroyed the church by producing Jesus body - but they couldn't.

 

[Vicomte13]

Something that has troubled me is I have never been able to find extra biblical accounts of Jesus resurrection. Why didn’t the 500 he appeared to write testimonies of his resurrection? Even if any of them were illiterate I’m sure a few of them must have been literate. Does anyone have any answers?

Yes, but you have to understand what you are looking at, and the forensic details are rather esoteric. The man whose image is on the Shroud of Turin got out of that cloth without smearing any blood, and leaving a 3D holographic negative, in Maillard Reactions, on both faces of the cloth. The image itself is a miracle, and the fact of it, and it’s details, demonstrate th supernatural directly. Granted, the burial cloth is mentioned in all four gospels and the gnostic gospel of Thomas Didymus also. The Shroud has always had a powerful effect on people, so it is mentioned in the Gospels, and described by Thomas, but it’s not really fleshed out. Through forensics, it testifies by itself to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

 

[Archivist]

Josephus
About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he ... wrought surprising feats.... He was the Christ. When Pilate ...condemned him to be crucified, those who had . . . come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared ... restored to life.... And the tribe of Christians ... has ... not disappeared.[17]

But Josephus wasn’t born until 37 CE. He wasn’t a witness to the resurrection.

 

[Ing Bee]

Something that has troubled me is I have never been able to find extra biblical accounts of Jesus resurrection. Why didn’t the 500 he appeared to write testimonies of his resurrection? Even if any of them were illiterate I’m sure a few of them must have been literate.

Hello-
Thanks for the discussion topic.

Here's my two bits:

• In agreement with others on the thread, we don't have much in the way of any preserved accounts from antiquity for any major figure. I believe that for Julius Caesar, the best extant sources were written several hundred years after he lived. Dan Wallace demonstrates the "embarrassment of riches" that is the New Testament manuscript collection versus any other work of antiquity. That should tell us something about the impetus regarding this "Good News" that compelled faithful preservation and reproduction of the scriptures.
  
  
• It's difficult for us to imagine a world without the printing press and mass media as well as a pre-scientific world. Many components that moderns and post-moderns assume as a given (e.g. how history is "done") were not concerns in the ancient world. (Side note: If you aren't already familiar with his scholarship, I recommend Mike Licona's excellent work discussing how Greco-Roman biographical practice is consistent with the supposed contradictions in the gospel accounts.)
  
  
• In Acts 1:21-22 when the Apostles are looking to replace Judas, the criteria for an apostle was that he had to have been present from John's Baptism to the ascension. It makes sense that the primary witnesses passed around and valued by the churches would be those that had this kind of authority, which may not have included all or most of the 500.
  
  
• Luke's gospel is explicitly a collection of eyewitness accounts. Since they are included in the canon they can't be "extra biblical", yet without them we wouldn't have Luke. It's kind of a catch 22, either you get Luke, affirmed and preserved by the churches, or you get a smattering of extra biblical accounts without provenance or the means/desire to preserve and protect them throughout the centuries.
  
  
• When Paul mentions the 500, most of whom were still alive (1 Cor. 15), the implication is that they are alive to tell, face-to-face, their testimony. (This is what Luke says he did in compiling his two books). Paul mentions no reading list. Personal, eyewitness testimony and proclamation was the main mode of sharing the gospel, not writing. This is clear from Acts which repeatedly underscores verbal proclamation, and even Paul's (written) epistles.
  
  
• Not all of Paul's writing was preserved. So not even all the letters of the Apostles were preserved, how much less would non-apostolic accounts be.
  
  
• The rapid conversion of thousands to Christianity, especially by non-witnesses, is accounted for by the fact that:
  a) the Holy Spirit was at work drawing people to the Son,
  b) the apostles performed many signs and wonders in His name as Jesus had said they would
  c) the evangelistic pattern of apostles was to the synagogues, connecting the Jewish scriptures to Jesus as the fulfillment.
  There's not a sense that literary proclamation was in view
  
  

 

[All4Christ]

But Josephus wasn’t born until 37 CE. He wasn’t a witness to the resurrection.

The OP asked for extra-biblical accounts of the resurrection, but didn’t specify that it needed to be first hand. Based on later posts, the OP is interested primarily in first hand but also is interested in extra-biblical accounts in general.

 

[Archivist]

The OP asked for extra-biblical accounts of the resurrection, but didn’t specify that it needed to be first hand. Based on later posts, the OP is interested primarily in first hand but also is interested in extra-biblical accounts in general.

Yes, I’ve been reading the thread so I am aware that the OP is primarily interested in firsthand accounts, hence my post. Josephus was early, but not firsthand.

 

[All4Christ]

Yes, I’ve been reading the thread so I am aware that the OP is primarily interested in firsthand accounts, hence my post. Josephus was early, but not firsthand.

Yes. My point is that the OP was open to hearing those non-firsthand accounts in addition to firsthand.

 

[Archivist]

Yes. My point is that the OP was open to hearing those non-firsthand accounts in addition to firsthand.

Yes, but the OP is primarily interested in firsthand accounts. My point was that Josephus is not a firsthand witness.

 

[buzuxi02]

Something that has troubled me is I have never been able to find extra biblical accounts of Jesus resurrection. Why didn’t the 500 he appeared to write testimonies of his resurrection? Even if any of them were illiterate I’m sure a few of them must have been literate. Does anyone have any answers?

There were plenty. Read Luke 1:1-2

 

[Archivist]

There were plenty. Read Luke 1:1-2

But Luke is writing as secondary source. He did not witness the resurrection. Further, Luke is Biblical not extra-Biblical.

 

[buzuxi02]

But Luke is a secondary source.

Luke 1:1 says that there are many handwritten accounts from witnesses and he is going to write one as well.

Papism a Christian of Asia Minor in 110 AD even mentions sayings of Christ that were written in the hebrew (aramaic) tongue by Matthew (not the gospel of matthew) and others have translated into their own tongue for their own communities.
After 70 AD most hebrew writings were destroyed in the war anything written by the Christian community of pre-70 AD would have ceased. This is why the Dead Sea scrolls are so important in Judaism, no jewish texts were known to exist before the destruction of the temple. Before the finding of the dead sea scrolls no jewish texts prior to 70 ad were known to exist.

 

[Archivist]

Luke 1:1 says that there are many handwritten accounts from witnesses and he is going to write one as well.

Papism a Christian of Asia Minor in 110 AD even mentions sayings of Christ that were written in the hebrew (aramaic) tongue by Matthew (not the gospel of matthew) and others have translated into their own tongue for their own communities.
After 70 AD most hebrew writings were destroyed in the war anything written by the Christian community of pre-70 AD would have ceased. This is why the Dead Sea scrolls are so important in Judaism, no jewish texts were known to exist before the destruction of the temple. Before the finding of the dead sea scrolls no jewish texts prior to 70 ad were known to exist.

Like is not extraBiblical. You have posted a theory that extraBiblical accounts once existed. If you read the thread you know that I agree that such accounts were probably out there at one time, but they no longer exist.

Again, Luke is a secondary source.

 

[aiki]

Something that has troubled me is I have never been able to find extra biblical accounts of Jesus resurrection. Why didn’t the 500 he appeared to write testimonies of his resurrection? Even if any of them were illiterate I’m sure a few of them must have been literate. Does anyone have any answers?

Well, be careful you aren't overlaying modern means of communication upon the past. Paper and pens (or pencils, even) didn't exist in New Testament times. There were no news media outlets, no magazine publishers, no internet. In Christ's time, papyrus was pretty hard to come by and the means and skill to write upon it equally as difficult to procure. Much of the news of the day spread by word of mouth and so, when public interest in some particular bit of news petered out, it disappeared entirely from view. Regional news tended to remain regional. Long journeys were not common for most people and so local news remained local. It required the sending of missionaries, specially purveyors of the Gospel (like Paul), to distant lands to spread the tale of Christ's life, death, and resurrection beyond the region of Galilee. It is no surprise, then, that apart from the accounts of the New Testament, very little mention is made of Christ in any other written communications of the time. In fact, it is, given the comparatively severe limits on communication and record-making in the time of Christ, quite remarkable that there are any extra-biblical references to Christ and his crucifixion at all.