Transplanar

When Jesus was supposedly ressurected, and seen walking around and such, was this witnessed by people previously acquainted with Jesus? Or was it just random, passers-by?

Diogenes the Cynic

According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus was first seen by the women of his entourage, then by the disciples (although the chronologies, settings and circumstances vary and even contradict from Gospel to Gospel).

Paul claims that Jesus appeared "first to Cephas, and then to the twelve," then to "500 brethren" (an event which is unexplained by Paul and uncorrobrated in the Gospels) then to James and then to the apostles.

There are some curiosities about Paul's account and some question as to how he perceived the appearances as well as how he identified the witnesses Why does he mention an appearance to "Cephas and the twelve" and then a separate appearance to "James and then the apostles?" Did Paul see "the twelve" as being a separate group from the "apostles?" Was James one of the twelve? If so then why is another appearance to James listed separately from the appearance to the twelve? Paul's claim for the number twelve would seem to show a lack of awareness of the Judas story.

Really, you could go on for pages with this stuff but I guess the short answer to your question is that a resurrected Jesus was alleged to have been seen by people he knew, but none of those people left any first hand testimomy and all of the accounts (including Paul's) are hopelesly contradictory and confusing.

Doug Shaver

What do the gospels say? If we assume for the sake of argument that the resurrection did happen, we have no other source of information about the particulars except the gospels.

If you say we can't trust the gospels, then your question looks pretty empty of meaning to me.

So, if there was a resurrection, then he was seen by people who had known him. Otherwise, if he had appeared only to people who had not known him, who would have claimed that he had been resurrected?

John Kesler

Perhaps. Or Paul may have employed ampliatio, similar to the Big Ten conference's still being called this even after adding an eleventh member.