sky kunde

William Craig claims frequently that:

But there are actually three established facts, recognized by the majority of New Testament historians today...

1- On the Sunday following his crucifixion, Jesus' tomb was found empty by a group of his women followers

2- On separate occasions different individuals and groups saw appearances of Jesus alive after his death.

3- The original disciples suddenly came to believe in the resurrection of Jesus despite having every predisposition to the contrary

Who are these "majority of New Testament historians"? Is that true?

(even though it's an Ad numerum fallacy)

Chris Weimer

No, actually - I think you'll find yourself hard-pressed to find the majority of scholars believing such nonesense.

Gooch's dad

Several years ago, Peter Kirby provided this list:

Note that this doesn't even include historians that were never Christian at all.

I think Craig is just blowing smoke.

jjramsey

Judging from what I've read of Dale Allison, historians are divided about evenly divided on this, with respectable arguments on both side. Allison himself considers the facts to just barely favor an empty tomb. Craig may right in a technical sense, that is, historians favoring an empty tomb in maybe a 60:40 split, but that is not particularly meaningful. It's not as if the idea that the empty tomb story was made up is a fringe position.

Historians might agree about individuals having "seen" Jesus as a hallucination, but quibble about whether there were separate occasions or whether groups saw him. The mention of the 500 seeing Jesus in 1 Corinthians is often taken with a huge grain of salt.

Historians may quibble about the "suddenly" part, and would certainly disagree about the disciples "having every predisposition to the contrary."

mdarus

I have seen the argument "most New Testament historians" repeated on this forum in different forms supporting various opinions. Sometimes it is "most scholars." Everytime, I roll my eyes and wish people could be a little more specific. They may mean:
"most scholars I choose to read or know about"
"some sholars I agree with"
"some educated people who are not believers"
"most educated believers"
"most educated people who are smart enough to not be believers'
"some educated people who are smart enough to be believers"
"people who are part of the Jesus Seminar"
"some smart people who discount the Jesus Seminar"

I take it as short hand to saying, "Some smart people have studied this hard and they agree with me."

Ecrasez L'infame

Mdarus's post ought to be engraved on tablets of stone and repeated thrice by everyone here every day. Indeed, I'd go further: the word "most" is a weasel-word, has little useful meaning, and has no place in a scientific debate at all.

Jehanne

Anyone ever ask Craig if he believes in alien abductions? Here’s an excellent program on the topic for all of you doubters and unbelievers:

http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/1...r1_090895.html