{"id":1218,"date":"2018-08-18T09:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-08-18T09:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=1218"},"modified":"2018-09-16T19:36:43","modified_gmt":"2018-09-16T19:36:43","slug":"what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"What do sceptical scholars think about appearances of Jesus?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/caravaggio.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-1241\" src=\"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/caravaggio-300x184.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"271\" height=\"166\" \/><\/a>The Gospels report that the disciples, disappointed and dismayed after the crucifixion and death of their mentor, <strong>had visions of Jesus Himself<\/strong>, who showed them the resurrection from the dead. This fact upset and convinced them, so much as to be ready for martyrdom rather than deny what they had seen. But <strong>what is true about this?<\/strong> Critics explain that the Evangelical reports would have been written <strong>late<\/strong> with respect to the facts, that the disciples would be <strong>lying<\/strong>, or that the they had <strong>hallucinations<\/strong>. But these conclusions do not come up even if we analyse the studies of the most sceptical, agnostic, and atheist scholars.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">First of all, let us debunk the myth of the <strong>Gospels having been written late<\/strong>: already one or two years after the death of <strong>Jesus of Nazareth<\/strong>, indeed, the little community of the Christians in Jerusalem, proclaimed and announced the earliest Christian creed: the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Christ. This <em><a href=\"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/03\/jesus-of-nazareth-the-first-and-complete-historical-sources-its-dated-30-a-d\/\">is demonstrated<\/a><\/em> by the <strong>First Letter to the Corinthians<\/strong>, redacted by Saint Paul in 50-55 A.D., using, though, pieces of information learnt from the disciples in 35 A.D., which, besides, had been known since some years. Almost the totality of the experts claims the very ancient origin of the Pauline letter (written before the Gospels), and amongst them <strong>there are not only<\/strong> Christian scholars, hastily and erroneously deemed by someone as \u201cbiased\u201d, as if they did not have the moral duty to demonstrate their theses in an objective way, just like Jewish, agnostic, and Muslim scholars (are they all biased?). Even <strong>innumerable notoriously sceptical historians<\/strong> are convinced that the first and complete source on the historical Jesus dates back to the years immediately subsequent to Jesus. We have quoted them <strong><u><a href=\"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/03\/jesus-of-nazareth-the-first-and-complete-historical-sources-its-dated-30-a-d\/\">in this recent article<\/a><\/u><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It is not an irrelevant data: if Christians had announced <strong>falsehoods or inventions<\/strong> to their fellow citizens about a Jew being so famous \u2013 at least for a short time \u2013, they would have been immediately exposed by the Jews, by the members of the Synedrion, and by the Romans. In case of lies or inventions, the little Christian sect would have been easily crushed and ridiculed by the other eyewitnesses of the events, unfavourable to them. However, <strong>nobody accused the Christians of lying<\/strong>, but even historian Flavius Josephus <em><a href=\"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/2015\/04\/19\/le-testimonianze-extrabibliche-su-gesu-di-nazareth\/\">confirmed<\/a><\/em> the content of the Gospels.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Another interesting element: there has never been any historical information about someone who would have demonstrated that in the tomb where that Man was buried <strong>there was a corpse<\/strong> or that the Nazarene had been <strong>buried in another place<\/strong>: also in this case, Jews and Romans would have easily silenced the false narratives of the followers of Christ. Hence, we infer that the tomb<strong> was really found empty<\/strong>, but, probably, this did not upset the majority of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, also because the concept of resurrection <em><a href=\"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/2017\/01\/22\/la-risurrezione-di-gesu-evento-inconcepibile-per-gli-ebrei-del-primo-secolo\/\">was inconceivable<\/a><\/em> for the Jews of that time. As written by great sceptic <strong>Robert W. Funk<\/strong>, the non-believing founder of\u00a0 the\u00a0<em>Jesus Seminar<\/em>: \u00ab<em>The conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead\u00a0was already rooted\u00a0when Paul converted around <strong>33 AD<\/strong>. Since Jesus died around 30 AD, the time for its development was then of two or at most three years<\/em>\u00bb (quoted in RW Hoover,\u00a0<em>Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus<\/em>, Polebridge Press 1998, p. 466).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">If we directly address the <strong><u>appearance of Jesus to the disciples<\/u><\/strong>, after His death, it is interesting and curious to notice \u2013 in the studies of the main scholars of the historical Jesus, especially those most <strong>sceptical<\/strong> about His Divinity \u2013 the historical belief that the disciples effectively saw something\u00a0 and really thought of having seen Jesus resurrected, and they were ready for martyrdom rather than deny their strong conviction. None of these scholars hypothesise <strong>collective hallcination<\/strong>, which \u00a0<em><a href=\"http:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/2016\/02\/24\/unindagine-psicologica-sulle-apparizioni-ai-discepoli-del-gesu-risorto\/\">has been discarded<\/a><\/em> since years. But let us leave the floor to eminent <strong>EP Sanders<\/strong>,\u00a0a \u201cliberal and secularised Protestant\u201d, as he defines himself: \u00ab<em>That the followers of Jesus (and, later, also Paul) had experiences of resurrection is, in my opinion, <strong>a<\/strong> <strong>historical fact<\/strong>. I do not consider deliberate frauds as a useful explanation. Many of these people spent the rest of their life by proclaiming to have seen the Lord resurrected, and many of them would die because of this. After His death, His followers experienced what they described as \u201cresurrection\u201d; the aspect of a living but transfigured aspect. They believed it, lived it, and died because of it<\/em>\u00bb (EP Sanders,\u00a0<em>The Historical Figure of Jesus<\/em>, Penguin Books 1993, pp. 279-280).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Agnostic <strong>Bart D. Ehrman<\/strong>,\u00a0from the North Carolina University, wrote: \u00ab<em>Historians, naturally, have no difficulties in talking about the belief in the resurrection of Jesus, because this is an issue of public domain [\u2026]. Why, then, did some disciples state to have seen Jesus alive after his death? <strong>I have no doubt<\/strong> that some disciples claimed so. We have none of their written witnesses, but Paul, writing around twenty-five years after, indicates that this is what they claimed, and I do not think he is inventing it. Indeed, he had met some of them just three years after the event (Galatians 1,18-19)\u00bb<\/em>\u00a0(B.D. Ehrman,\u00a0<em>The New Testament: An Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings<\/em>, Oxford University Press 2004, p. 282).\u00a0German and atheist theologian <strong>Gerd L\u00fcdemann <\/strong>surprisingly commented, in his turn: \u00ab<em>It may be considered <strong>historically certain<\/strong> that Peter and the disciples had experiences after the death of Jesus, in which Jesus appeared to them as the resurrected Christ<\/em>\u00bb (G. L\u00fcdemann,\u00a0<em>What Really Happened to Jesus?<\/em>, Westminster John Knox Press 1995, p. 80).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Paula F. Fredriksen<\/strong>, liberal scholar of the historical Jesus (whom she considers an apocalyptic preacher) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, finally observed: \u00ab<em>I know their words; what they saw was the risen Jesus. This is what they say, and all the <strong>historical evidence<\/strong> we have attests their belief in what they saw. I am not saying that they really saw Jesus resurrected. I was not there. I do not know what they saw. But, as a historian, I know that <strong>they<\/strong> <strong>must have seen something<\/strong>. The conviction of the disciples to have seen the resurrected Christ, their move to Jerusalem, the inclusion of Gentiles as Gentiles. All these are historical foundations, known and undoubtable facts of the first community after the death of Jesus<\/em>\u00bb (P.F. Frederickson ,\u00a0<em>Jesus of Nazareth: King of the Jews<\/em>, Vintage 2000).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">That is how the erroneous popular convictions collapse, after years of bad instruction. The Evangelical narratives did not emerge <strong>decades or even centuries<\/strong> <strong>after<\/strong> the facts they narrate; no historian thinks so: already 1-3 years after the facts, the Christian creed was fixed and announced by men and women so convinced \u2013 after their disappointment at the moment of Jesus\u2019s arrest \u2013, as to defy anti-Christian persecutions and to prove <strong>so<\/strong> <strong>convincing<\/strong> as to create a people having existed until our days. Moreover, the most sceptical historians <strong>reject the false idea<\/strong> of the Apostles lying and of collective hallucination: the question, therefore, remains about what happened to deny their extreme conviction. \u00ab<em>They must have seen something; it is undoubtable<\/em>\u00bb: beyond this point, the purely \u201clay\u201d historical analysis \u2013 we may see \u2013 cannot go. But it is already enough.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>The Editorial staff<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Passion, crucifixion, death and resurrection: the earliest Christian creed were known 1-3 after Jesus death, as confirm historians, also non-believer. On resurrection many scholars are convinced that Apostels really saw something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[975,50,355,1038,1036,1037,1039,1035],"class_list":["post-1218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-historical-jesus","tag-history","tag-jesus","tag-jesus-resurrection","tag-jewish-resurrection","tag-proof-resurrection","tag-reliability-gopels","tag-resurrection"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What do sceptical scholars think about appearances of Jesus? - UCCR<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What do sceptical scholars think about appearances of Jesus? - UCCR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Passion, crucifixion, death and resurrection: the earliest Christian creed were known 1-3 after Jesus death, as confirm historians, also non-believer. On resurrection many scholars are convinced that Apostels really saw something.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCCR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uccronlineng\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-08-18T09:00:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-09-16T19:36:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/caravaggio-300x184.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Simone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Simone\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/\",\"name\":\"What do sceptical scholars think about appearances of Jesus? - UCCR\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-08-18T09:00:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-09-16T19:36:43+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What do sceptical scholars think about appearances of Jesus?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"UCCR\",\"description\":\"Union of Catholic Christian Rationalists\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109\",\"name\":\"Simone\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/author\/simone\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What do sceptical scholars think about appearances of Jesus? - UCCR","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What do sceptical scholars think about appearances of Jesus? - UCCR","og_description":"Passion, crucifixion, death and resurrection: the earliest Christian creed were known 1-3 after Jesus death, as confirm historians, also non-believer. On resurrection many scholars are convinced that Apostels really saw something.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/","og_site_name":"UCCR","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uccronlineng\/","article_published_time":"2018-08-18T09:00:37+00:00","article_modified_time":"2018-09-16T19:36:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/new.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/caravaggio-300x184.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Simone","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Simone","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/","name":"What do sceptical scholars think about appearances of Jesus? - UCCR","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2018-08-18T09:00:37+00:00","dateModified":"2018-09-16T19:36:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2018\/08\/18\/what-do-sceptical-scholars-think-about-appearances-of-jesus\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What do sceptical scholars think about appearances of Jesus?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/","name":"UCCR","description":"Union of Catholic Christian Rationalists","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/4532086d8bfbd5d026fa22701599d109","name":"Simone","url":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/author\/simone\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1218"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1439,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1218\/revisions\/1439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}