Jekyll

Just wondering if anyone can help me out -

I have a paper due on the "empty tomb tradition" of the resurrection. I'm looking for semi-reliable online sources and/or book recommendations on the subject.

Stupid prof decided to assign this as our additional final paper (in addition to ANOTHER final paper) about three days ago. I have a week to complete it and am pulling my hair out.

HELP!

Peter Kirby

The Internet Infidels has posted this extensive discussion of the evidence for and against the historicity of the empty tomb of Jesus titled "The Historicity of the Empty Tomb Evaluated":

<a href="http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/peter_kirby/tomb/index.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/peter_kirby/tomb/index.shtml</a>

I think it is absolutely fabulous, but then I wrote it! Since I am not a recognized academic, you will most likely want to follow up the footnotes and refer to the works which I quote.

I have a shorter Word document titled "The Case Against the Empty Tomb" which leaves out the rebuttal stuff and focuses on the evidence against the historicity of the empty tomb. If you would like it, please e-mail kirby@earthlink.net with a request.

Jeffery Jay Lowder has a document, also shorter, that focuses on the rebuttal. It was written independently of my own essay. Lowder's essay titled "Historical Evidence and the Empty Tomb Story" can be found here:

<a href="http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/empty.html" target="_blank">http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/jeff_lowder/empty.html</a>

Richard Carrier has an essay titled "Why I Don't Buy the Resurrection Story" that touches upon some of these issues and more:

<a href="http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrection/index.shtml" target="_blank">http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrection/index.shtml</a>

Hopefully you will find plenty of stuff that is of use to writing your essay! And here is what you can use to pad your bibliography (or actually read, of course &lt;G&gt :

Peter Carnley: The Structure of Resurrection Belief

John Dominic Crossan: The Historical Jesus, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Birth of Christianity, and an essay in _The Passion in Mark_ ed. Kelber. (the essay here is Crossan's fullest discussion of the resurrection story)

Michael Goulder: Resurrection Reconsidered

Hans Grass: Ostergeschehen and Osterberichte [Don't read German? Neither do I! But I hear it is good.]

Randel Helms: Gospel Fictions

Herman Hendrickx: Resurrection Narratives

Roy Hoover: essay in _Jesus' Resurrection: Fact or Figment?_ (mainly a debate between Ludemann and Craig)

Alfred Loisy: The Birth of the Christian Religion

Gerd Ludemann: What Really Happened to Jesus? A Historical Approach to the Resurrection

Norman Perrin: The Resurrection according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke

John Shelby Spong: Resurrection: Myth or Reality?

And here is some material from 'the other side':

William Lane Craig, Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus (Lewiston: E. Mellen Press, 1989).

William Lane Craig, "The Historicity of the Empty Tomb of Jesus." (&lt;URL:http://www.origins.org/offices/billcraig/docs/tomb2.html&gt;, 1985).

William Lane Craig, "The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus" (&lt;URL:http: //www.origins.org/offices/billcraig/docs/bodily.html&gt;, 1980).

D.H. van Daalen, The Real Resurrection (London: Collins, 1972).

Edward Lynn Bode, The First Easter Morning. The Gospel Accounts of the Women's Visit to the Tomb of Jesus (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1970).

Reginald H. Fuller, The Formation of the Resurrection Narratives (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980).

Murray J. Harris, From Grave to Glory: Resurrection in the New Testament: Including a Response to Norman L. Geisler (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990).

You may also want to look up apologetic works written by Gary Habermas (The Resurrection of Jesus), J.P. Moreland (Scaling the Secular City), Josh McDowell (The Resurrection Factor), and whatever other apologetic books may discuss this, although I have not read the three just mentioned.

Hope this helps!

Peter Kirby

Bree

Holy buckets!

I'm not Jekyll - but thanks for posting all that stuff!

You're really going to take a bunch of stress off of her!

[ May 01, 2002: Message edited by: Bree ]</p>

Koyaanisqatsi

The tomb wasn't empty!!! AHHHHHHHHH!

<img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" /> <img src="graemlins/banghead.gif" border="0" alt="[Bang Head]" />

Mark, arguably the first gospel (see <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060655186/qid=1020260740/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-1553300-9233636" target="_blank">Who Wrote The New Testemant</a> by Burton Mack) states quite clearly that there is a man sitting inside the open tomb.

It's important to understand that the first one to relate this story quite clearly shows us how the myth started and a clue as to what really happened (if anything).

An unknown man (not an angel, just a man) is sitting in the open tomb. That's the beginning of the story.

There is absolutely nothing miraculous about that and it doesn't become miraculous until decades later when this unmiraculous story gets rewritten into angels and earthquakes and the like, ending with a bodily ascension into the sky; the natural progression of a classic mythical structure.

(Sorry, I just hate it whenever anybody tries to say that the tomb was empty, when in fact it was not; it's just that Jesus' body is not there, a "man" is. You do the math)

cloudyphiz

i don't want to speak for kirby here, but if you read his article i think you'll find his definition of 'empty tomb' is the same as yours. he doesn't imply that resurrection must have occurred in order for jesus body to be gone; he's just referring to the claim of GMk that jesus' body was not in the tomb. in doing so he doesn't preclude any explanation as to why the tomb might have been empty (i.e. jesus survived the crucifixion, his body was removed, etc.).

-gary

Koyaanisqatsi

I was responding to Jekyll.

leonarde

Yeah, cloudyphiz, Koy was heckling Jekyll

Bree

Tee hee - again, I'm not Jekyll. But I do know her fairly well - well enough to speak for her in this situation .

She's writing a paper for a "Historical Jesus" class. Obviously there WAS NO HISTORICAL JESUS. Jekyll's looking for sources in which to disprove the Empty Tomb myth - she is definately NOT a theist!

[ May 01, 2002: Message edited by: Bree ]</p>

Peter Kirby

Well, I hope that she has enough material to surprise any conservative prof. If she would like someone to provide feedback on the essay, I would be happy to do so.

Of course, I would note that one need not be a theist in order to think that there was a historical Jesus of some sort who got himself crucified or to think that his tomb had no body in it three days later. These are both non-theistic statements, however unproven or improbable they may be.

Jekyll

IEEE. Lord. Just looking for a few good sources, not accusations of being a theist!

To Peter - thank you so much for all of the sources. I'm sorry that I could not post sooner- it is getting down to finals week and this is one of five term papers I have due in the next few days. I printed out your essay and checked out your links; I will be pouring through them this weekend. I appreciate your help very much.

To those who are arguing, as Bree said, I am taking a class entitled "Searching for the Historical Jesus." I am a religious studies major (among other things). There's a reason I asked about the empty tomb "tradition." Key word. TRADITION. I have to do a paper on how it developed, and its implications for early Xtians. I am not trying to prove the existence of god/s. And if I were, so what? This is still a good place to ask.

Thanks again Peter, and the rest, calm down!

-Jekyll

[ May 03, 2002: Message edited by: Jekyll ]</p>