Did Jesus of Nazareth Rise from the Dead?

The Christian faith is squarely based on a historical event. This event is Jesus’s physical resurrection from the dead. If this event occurred, then the Bible’s claims are true. Two main claims are: 

1. Jesus is God Almighty, the Creator and Judge of heaven and earth; and 
2. all who believe in Him receive the Gift of Eternal Life, which means that they too will rise from the dead into everlasting life. 

Before He was crucified, Jesus repeatedly claimed His resurrection would be the sign proving His authority and identity. In the gospel of John, He used rebuilding the temple in three days as an illustration:

“The Jews then said to Him, ‘What sign do You show us as your authority for doing these things?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews then said, ‘It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?’ But He was speaking of the temple of His body.”
(John 20:18-21)

In other Gospel passages, Jesus used the story of Jonah in the whale to illustrate that He would be resurrected. 

“Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, ‘Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.’ But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; or just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’”
(Matthew 12:37-40—See also Matthew 16:4 and Luke 11:29-32)

If Jesus rose from the dead, then He is God and all of His teachings are true and right and should be followed. Moreover, if He is God and had the power to rise from the dead, then it would demonstrate that He was capable and had the power to perform all of His other miracles—such as walk on water and feed the five thousand, etc. 

The Apostle Paul recognized this resurrection as the essential claim upon which the entire Gospel rests, 

“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.”
(1 Corinthians 15:14)

“If Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”
(1 Corinthians 15:17-19)

Everything hinges on the historical event of Jesus’s resurrection. 

The claim that Jesus has risen is binary. Either Jesus rose from the dead or He did not. There are no half-way measures or other possibilities. 

As we consider this claim, we must acknowledge from the outset that the resurrection is an extraordinary declaration. People do not normally rise from the dead. Based on the normal human experience throughout all history, Jesus’s resurrection from the dead would be singularly unique. 

There have been many others who raised from the dead, including:

• Lazurus, who was raised by Jesus (John 11:44)
• The son of the widow of Nain, raised by Jesus (Luke 7:11-17)
• The daughter of Jairus, raised by Jesus (Luke 8:40-56)
• A young man who fell out of a window, raised through Paul (Acts 20:7-12)
• The widow’s son, raised through the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24)
• The Shunammite woman’s son, raised through the prophet Elisha (2 Kings 4:18-37)
• The man buried in Elisha’s grave (2 Kings 13:20-21)

And the Bible mentions others. The difference between these resurrections and Jesus’s resurrection is this: all these people died again. Jesus was raised never to die again. It is this singular exception that demonstrates His divinity.

Did Jesus of Nazareth rise from the dead, never to die again, or did He not? 

His followers claimed that Jesus rose from the dead. His enemies and many agnostics  claimed that He did not come back to life. Only one group’s claim on this question can be right.

The first point to make in considering whether Jesus rose from the dead is that the Bible claims that He did (Matthew 28:5-7, Mark 16:2-6, Luke 24:1-6, John 20:11-18). 

The Bible is the inerrant word of God. Because God’s infallible word clearly teaches that Jesus rose from the dead, this affirms that He did beyond all dispute. Therefore, believers can have supreme confidence that Jesus rose from the dead because the Bible says He did. As such, the resurrection of Jesus can be taken as an article of faith—albeit with many Biblical proofs (which will be presented later).

USING LOGICAL ANALYSIS TO EVALUATE THE RESURRECTION CLAIM

But what of the honest skeptic—the individual who admires Jesus’s teachings but finds it hard to accept the Bible’s supernatural claims, including the all-important resurrection? Is it possible for him to rationally verify the historic claim of the resurrection apart from faith in the Bible’s claim? 

While no one can go back in time to re-live or witness the resurrection event (or non-event), we can verify it by analyzing historical accounts and logic. To do this, we will consider the historical facts. And we will consider all of the claims and counter-claims both for and against Jesus’s resurrection. (There are six possibilities). 

Even though there are two logical outcomes to Jesus’s resurrection (either He rose from the dead or He did not) there are six possible explanations for His disciples’ claim that He rose from the dead.

These six possibilities are:

1. The disciples visited the wrong tomb and were mistaken when they claimed Jesus rose from the dead. Jesus remained and remains in His grave. Christianity is false and based on an error. This is called “The Wrong Tomb Theory. 

2. The disciples stole Jesus’s body and lied when they said He is risen. Jesus is still dead and Christianity is not only false, but the biggest hoax in history. This is called “The Stolen Body Theory.”

3. Jesus did not die, but merely fainted on the cross, before regaining consciousness three days later in His tomb. The disciples mistakenly believed and claimed He came back to life from the dead. The resurrection therefore never occurred, and Christianity is false and based on an accidental exaggeration. This is called “The Swoon Theory.”

4. The disciples hallucinated that they saw and heard Jesus after His death, which they mistook for reality. They were mistaken when they claimed Jesus rose from the dead. Christianity is false and based on unreal visions. This is called “The Hallucination Theory.”

5. The disciples were only speaking metaphorically, and not literally, when they said “Jesus is risen.” Jesus remains dead. Christianity is false and is entirely based on a misunderstanding. This is called “The ‘Spiritual’ Resurrection Theory.”

6. Jesus’s physical body returned to life after being dead for three days. The disciples were telling the truth. Christianity is true. This concept is called “The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus.” 

For now, it is important to note that all six of these theories are based on the premise that the disciples taught the resurrection of Jesus. No one seriously disputes that the disciples made this claim, and if they do dispute this, it is necessary to point out how the books of the New Testament, which were written by the Apostles, were all composed and published within the decades following Jesus’s crucifixion, and therefore their claim traces back to the time and place of the events themselves. 

We will organize these six resurrection-claims using logic. They will be arranged into a logical “Hexalemma” and according to the principles of “Occam’s Razor.”

A hexalemma is like a dilemma. A dilemma is logical problem with two possibilities that are unclear from the outset. But instead of only two possible outcomes, a hexalemma has six possibilities. 

A hexalemma can be used in conjunction with another logic tool called “Occam’s Razor.”

Occam’s Razor is a principle that suggests when faced with competing hypotheses, the one with the fewest assumptions should be selected. It emphasizes simplicity, proposing that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. This principle is widely used in scientific and philosophical reasoning to eliminate unnecessary complications.

We can use Occam’s Razor as we consider the six outcomes of the Resurrection Hexalemma by arranging the order in which we consider these outcomes, beginning with the outcome that is the most straightforward and has the fewest complications, and therefore is the most plausible from the outset. This limits the outcomes and narrows the field, creating more clarity about what is true. The best-case scenario in using a hexalemma is to eliminate all but one outcome. 

The first option which passes the scrutiny of the situation will automatically be considered the most likely outcome. Any option that is rendered untenable after this analysis will be regarded as false. If only one option remains viable, then it is logically valid and should be considered true. 

The structure of this type of argument is called a “reductio ad absurdum.” A reductio ad absurdum considers each alternative according to its own logic and entertains it until it breaks under its own inconsistency. Once an alternative is broken, it is eliminated and discarded as false. (The Geometer, Euclid, consistently used reductio arguments to demonstrate his geometric proofs in his work, “The Elements”). 

Five of the six outcomes in the Resurrection Hexalemma result in the logical outcome that Jesus did not rise from the dead. One of its outcomes results in the logical conclusion that Jesus did come back to life.

For this strictly logical exercise, we will assume that people do not normally rise from the dead. Resurrection requires divine intervention, which is a major complication, for this to be a possibility. 

Therefore, the option that Jesus actually rose from the dead will initially be ranked last and will be considered the least likely outcome within the parameters of this exercise, given that resurrection is exceedingly rare. According to this logic exercise, the resurrection can only be considered true if all five of the other outcomes are rendered untenable. 

Applying the principles of Occam’s Razor, we will arrange each of the Resurrection Hexalemma’s six outcomes according to the most immediately plausible and least far-fetched possibility, and work our way to the least immediately believable and most miraculous—which is the claim the Bible makes that Jesus really rose from the dead. 

In short order, these six theories from the most immediately plausible to the most miraculous are:

1. THE WRONG TOMB THEORY
2. THE STOLEN BODY THEORY
3. THE SWOON THEORY
3. THE HALLUCINATION THEORY
4. THE “SPIRITUAL” RESURRECTION THEORY
5. THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS

All six theories are based on the premise that the disciples of Jesus claimed and taught that He rose from the dead after three days in His grave. The Bible records between eighteen and twenty-three post-resurrection and post-ascension appearances of Jesus.  

A listing of Jesus’s post-resurrection and post-ascension appearances can be found here: “How many times did Jesus appear after His resurrection?” 

Once again, the premise that the disciples claimed to see the risen Lord is in alignment with not only what the Bible says in the Book of Acts and the Epistles, but is also established by the historic and remarkable spread of Christianity in the early centuries, and with the contemporary historical account regarding the Christian faith. The contemporary accounts of their historic understanding of the resurrection will be further discussed in the section about the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory. 

For now, it is sufficient to note that all of these theories are based on the premise that the disciples taught the resurrection of Jesus and that this premise is deeply rooted in the Biblical and historical account of Christianity. 

We will now consider the six possibilities one by one, beginning with the simplest and most immediately plausible explanation—the Wrong Tomb Theory.

 

1.  THE WRONG TOMB THEORY

The first and simplest explanation for what happened was that Jesus did not rise from the dead and that the women (and later the disciples) mistakenly went to the wrong tomb on the first day of the week, found it empty, and erroneously believed that Jesus rose from the dead. The disciples then taught that Jesus rose from the dead based on this mistake. 

The appeal of this argument is that people make mistakes all the time, but people do not normally rise from the dead. At least based on superficial appearances, The Wrong Tomb Theory is more plausible than the claim that Jesus literally rose from the dead. It is likewise more plausible than most of the other theories, because this theory explains the resurrection-claim as being based on a simple mistake. 

When the disciples first heard the women’s report that Jesus was risen, they may have had a similar line of reasoning (as The Wrong Tomb Theory) to doubt the women’s claim. That is, the disciples may have assumed that the women went to the wrong tomb. Some of the disciples went to verify the women’s report for themselves and found it just as the women had said (Luke 24:12, 22-24).

However, the Wrong Tomb Theory is proven untenable on several grounds.

First, the women who went to the tomb knew where it was located, making it unlikely that they went to the wrong tomb.

We know that the women knew where it was located because they had been there when Jesus was buried (Matthew 27:61, Mark 15:47, Luke 23:55). Moreover at least some of the women revisited the tomb on the evening of the first day, mere hours before Jesus rose from the dead (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1). 

The fact that they were familiar with the location of Jesus’s grave makes it unlikely that they went to the wrong tomb and then mistakenly claimed that He is risen. 

Second, the same tomb was visited multiple times on the morning of the resurrection and by multiple people:

1. It was first visited by Mary Magdalene
   (John 20:1-2)
2. Then it was visited by other women
   (Matthew 28:5-8, Mark 16:2-8, Luke 24:1-9)
3. Then it was visited by Peter and John
   (Luke 24:12, John 20:3-10)
4. Then it was visited again by Mary Magdalene, where she saw Jesus
   (Mark 16:9-10, John 20:11-18)
5. “The other Mary” also visited it and saw Jesus
   (Matthew 28:1, 9-10)

It is extremely unlikely that every one of these individuals or groups repeatedly and separately made the same mistake again and again, when they knew the place Jesus was buried. 

Third, on three of these visits one or more people encounter an angel and/or the risen Jesus at this tomb (Matthew 28:5-7 and Mark 16:2-7; John 20:11-17; and Matthew 28:9-10). The Wrong Tomb Theory does not take into account any of these additional interactions. By not explaining these encounters, this theory becomes even more shaky. 

Fourth, and perhaps most importantly, had the followers of Jesus mistaken the tomb, and claimed Jesus was raised from the dead based on their mistake, the religious leaders could easily have demonstrated their erroneous claim by pointing out the real location of Jesus’s grave and/or by producing His body. 

The religious leaders would have been highly motivated to do this to squash these reports (Matthew 27:62-64). But they did not produce Jesus’s body because Jesus’s followers went to the correct tomb and found it empty.

The Wrong Tomb Theory does not align with the facts: the women knew where Jesus’s tomb was, several different groups went to the same empty tomb where they encountered angels and/or the risen Jesus, and the religious leaders never attempted to produce Jesus’s body to refute the disciples’ resurrection claim. Thus, the Wrong Tomb Theory is untenable and is considered an invalid outcome. Next, we will consider the Stolen Body Theory.

 

2.  THE STOLEN BODY THEORY

The second and next simplest theory as to what happened at Jesus’s tomb is that Jesus’s disciples stole His body and fabricated His resurrection. Accordingly, disciples lied when they claimed Jesus rose from the dead.

The appeal of this argument is that if someone were to claim that a dead person has risen back to life and they only show his empty tomb as proof, the most logical explanation is that the dead body has been relocated—and possibly by the same people who are trying to convince others of this remarkable claim. People lie about things far more often than people come back to life. Therefore, it is more plausible to believe the Stolen Body Theory than the resurrection of Jesus. 

The Stolen Body Theory is so initially plausible that it was the same lie that the chief priests and elders used to try and cover up the actual resurrection. They bribed the soldiers to tell people that Jesus’s disciples stole His body during the night, instead of telling the truth about what happened at Jesus’s tomb (Matthew 28:11-15).

However, the Stolen Body Theory is proven false on at least two grounds.

The first fact that defangs the Stolen Body Theory is that Jesus’s tomb was guarded and sealed, preventing the disciples from taking it. 

Jesus’s tomb was secured by professional soldiers and sealed to the highest standards known to the religious leaders (Matthew 27:65). These guards, likely Roman legionnaires, were experienced and battle-hardened, fully capable of repelling any undisciplined assaults or schemes from former fishermen and tax collectors. The presence of such a guard and a secure seal would have made it nearly impossible for the disciples to steal Jesus’s body.

Additionally, if the disciples had somehow overpowered the guards and stolen the body, there would have been clear evidence of a struggle. No contemporary sources ever mentioned any struggle, reinforcing that the body was not stolen.

The second aspect that demonstrates the untenability of the Stolen Body Theory is an insufficient motive.

The disciples had no logical reason to steal Jesus’s body and fabricate His resurrection. People generally lie for personal gain. But what could the disciples hope to gain from this supposed lie? The disciples did not gain any wealth, power, or any material benefits for claiming Jesus rose from the dead. 

Instead, they received the opposite for their alleged lie. All of the disciples experienced terrible persecution and martyrdom for saying “Jesus lives.” It contradicts human nature to willingly endure suffering and death for something known to be false.

Given their circumstances, if the disciples were motivated to lie about the resurrection, they would have been motivated to lie against the resurrection rather than for it.

Moreover, all the disciples would have had to consistently maintain this lie often under extreme pressure and hardships. Any one of the disciples making such a confession would have debunked the entire resurrection claim. Despite significant incentives to recant, none of the disciples ever did. Their consistent testimony in the face of persecution refutes the Stolen Body Theory. 

The guarding and sealing of the tomb combined with the psychological argument that people do not tell and endure punishment for a lie discredits the Stolen Body Theory. 

The discrediting of the Stolen Body Theory, like the discrediting of the Wrong Tomb Theory, does not prove that the Resurrection of Jesus is true. It simply demonstrates that these first two theories are false. But the disproving of the Stolen Body Theory does positively prove at least one thing. The disciples’ steadfastness and unwavering testimony over decades of persecution, and ultimately death, proves their authentic belief in the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

But sometimes people can sincerely believe something that is not true. The next two theories are based on the possibility that the disciples mistakenly believed and claimed that Jesus rose from the dead. We now will consider their claims and validity beginning with the Swoon Theory.

3.  THE SWOON THEORY

The third theory does not argue against the idea that Jesus resurrected so much as it argues that Jesus never died. The Swoon Theory claims that Jesus did not die on the cross, but rather that He was unconscious for three days and then woke up. Consequently, when the disciples claimed that Jesus was resurrected from the dead, they were mistaken because He merely woke up from a state of living unconsciousness.

The appeal of this argument is that people sometimes wake up from a prolonged state of unconsciousness, but they do not tend to come back to life after being dead. Therefore, it is more likely that Jesus passed out from the pain of the cross and woke up three days later rather than He died and came back to life.

However, when we examine the validity of the Swoon Theory, we see that it too is debunked on several grounds.

First, the Bible rejects the Swoon Theory because it plainly states that Jesus died on the cross when the Gospels say things like Jesus surrendered His spirit, breathed His last, or He bowed His head (Matthew 27:50, Mark 15:37, Luke 23:46, John 19:30).

Second, the Roman centurion officially confirmed to Pilate that Jesus was all-the-way -dead (Mark 15:44-45). The centurion, a high-ranking soldier, was likely posted to oversee what was typically a routine task (crucifixions were common throughout the Roman Empire) because he was a trustworthy and highly competent soldier who was managing what had become a politically fraught execution. All this to say, the centurion would have easily been able to tell if Jesus was dead or merely passed out. And the centurion reported to Pilate that Jesus was dead.

Third, we know Jesus was dead, and not merely passed out because the Roman soldiers saw that Jesus was dead (John 19:33) and one of them pierced His side with a spear and blood and water came out (John 19:34). The phenomenon of blood and water pouring out occurs only when a person is dead and usually results from heart failure. 

All of this proves that Jesus truly was dead and not temporarily unconscious. If Jesus was dead, then the Swoon Theory has to be false because it claims that Jesus never died.

Moreover, the following factors render the Swoon Theory highly unlikely. 

Jesus had just suffered a terrible physical trauma. He was abused, flogged, and crucified.

During these tortures, He was greatly weakened and injured. He suffered severe blood loss and dehydration. Were he still alive after having been crucified, He would also have had a serious open wound in His side from where the Roman soldier stabbed Him. 

The people who buried Him believed He was dead, and they would have left Him no food or water—which meant He had no nourishment or care for three days. According to the Swoon Theory, Jesus woke up after enduring this terrible ordeal and had the strength to break through His burial wrappings (John 19:39-40) and to roll away the exceptionally large stone (Mark 16:4) that was fastened and sealed (Matthew 27:66) at the mouth of the tomb—all by Himself.

It is unlikely that any single person who is fit, strong, and healthy could perform such a feat of strength, let alone one who was recently crucified and left for dead. 

Finally, if Jesus merely swooned on the cross and recovered consciousness three days later, what became of Him afterward? If He did not rise from the dead, then He was not God and did not have life in Him (John 1:4a). He would have died eventually—yet there is no record of His eventual death anywhere. 

His disciples would have likely seen His eventual death and realized that His “resurrection” was temporary, and then would have lost hope. His enemies would surely have made much fuss over His demise had Jesus swooned on the cross only to later perish from another cause. But none of them claimed He swooned because they all were certain Jesus was dead. 

According to the Bible, Jesus was dead. The Roman authorities certified His death and pierced His side to confirm it. Furthermore, no man could have rolled the sealed, large gravestone away after suffering all that Jesus endured. Therefore, the Swoon Theory does not hold up to scrutiny. 

4.  THE HALLUCINATION THEORY

The fourth theory claims that Jesus’s followers did not really see Him alive after His crucifixion, but they hallucinated or had some sort of wakeful-dream experience which made them believe that they had seen Him. The Hallucination Theory argues that the disciples were themselves mistaken when they claimed Jesus had risen from the dead.

The appeal to this argument is that while it is rare for people to hallucinate and interact with things and figures that they perceive as real when they are not real, it is even rarer for people to rise from the dead. Therefore, it is more plausible that those who claimed they encountered Jesus post-resurrection were only hallucinating than it is to accept that Jesus actually came back to life. 

But the Hallucination Theory unravels when we consider the historical and medical facts. 

The historical argument for why the Hallucination Theory does not work is that the disciples’ claims would have been easily and immediately disproven. This theory imagines that the disciples hallucinated seeing Jesus back from the dead, and so they began to tell other people that He is risen and proclaim the Gospel message. 

But if the resurrection was only a hallucination, then Jesus would still be dead in His tomb. The religious authorities who were determined to put an end to the Jesus movement at all costs would have easily been able to disprove the disciples’ false claim by exhuming Jesus’s body, which would have been inside the tomb.  

The religious leaders did not exhume Jesus’s body to disprove the disciples’ resurrection claims. Therefore, they were not hallucinating when they said: “Jesus is alive!”

The historical argument against the Hallucination Theory is one of the same reasons that the Wrong Tomb and Swoon Theories are also unsound.

The medical reason that the Hallucination Theory is false is that hallucinations happen to individual people, not groups of people. Moreover, when people hallucinate their experiences are unique and particular to the individual and are not shared by others. And yet, it was many different people—both individuals and groups of people—who saw Jesus alive and in many different settings over the course of forty days. 

By the most conservative reading of the Biblical record, Jesus appeared no less than nine times between His resurrection and ascension. A closer reading of the texts suggests that He may have appeared as many as fourteen times. 

Here is a list of the Bible’s recordings of Jesus’s post-resurrection and post-ascension appearances: “How many times did Jesus appear after His resurrection?” 

To learn more about these appearances and how they fit together, see The Bible Says articles: 

• “How can the Biblical events concerning Jesus’s Resurrection be Harmonized? Part 1: The day Jesus rose from the dead”.
• “How can the Biblical events concerning Jesus’s Resurrection be Harmonized? Part 2: Galilee to Ascension”.

All these encounters took place with different people, in different settings, and over an extended period of forty days. Moreover, multiple groups of several, eleven, and up to five hundred people at one time all experienced Jesus alive after He was crucified. From a medical perspective a hallucination like this is impossible.

The Hallucination Theory could only work if the resurrection of Jesus was witnessed by one person, and perhaps its legitimacy could be stretched to two or three witnesses. But almost twenty different people saw Jesus on the first day. Many of them saw Him again, and eventually five hundred people saw Him. Their resurrection encounters were no dream. They actually encountered the risen Jesus. 

It is fascinating to consider how when the disciples first encountered Jesus as they were hiding inside a room within the city of Jerusalem (Luke 24:36), the disciples refused to believe their eyes. They themselves thought that they were seeing a ghost or something like a hallucination,

“But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.”
(Luke 24:37)

Jesus assured them that they were not imagining things, but that He was real (Luke 24:38). And He proved that He was real by inviting them to touch His physical body.

“‘See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’” And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.”
(Luke 24:39-40)

As the disciples were still having some difficulty accepting His resurrection as legit, Jesus proved Himself further by asking to eat some food, and by eating a piece of boiled fish in front of them (Luke 24:41-42).

Therefore, the Hallucination Theory is proven false, because had the followers of Jesus only been dreaming that they saw Jesus alive after His death, the religious leaders would have presented Jesus’s corpse to disprove their claims. Furthermore, it is proven false because hallucinations occur in individual people, not across groups, so the theory does not medically describe the disciples’ multiple experiences with Jesus after His death. 

The disciples were not dreaming that they saw Jesus—they saw the same person who died on the cross also come back to life by the power of God.

5.  THE “SPIRITUAL” RESURRECTION THEORY

The fifth resurrection theory claims that the disciples were not speaking literally when they taught that Jesus rose from the dead, but rather they were speaking metaphorically when they said statements like “He is risen.” According to the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory: 

• Jesus died but did not bodily rise from the dead.
• The disciples metaphorically spoke of His “spiritual” resurrection.
• Jesus’s enemies had no need to produce His body to refute the disciples’ resurrection claim, because they and everyone else understood the disciples were speaking metaphorically when they said: “He is risen.” 
• Much later, at some undisclosed time, Christianity shifted and began to misunderstand the disciples’ metaphor and began to falsely claim that Jesus literally rose from the dead. 

People often speak in hyperbolic or metaphorical language to convey important ideas. Hyperbolic metaphors are not intended to describe a literal event. But sometimes people mistake metaphors for literal claims about reality. And this is what happened within Christianity, according to the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory.  

The appeal of the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory is that a linguistic misunderstanding seems to be a simpler explanation than a physical resurrection which requires a suspension of natural laws and/or a belief in miraculous events.

According to the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory, what the disciples meant by their metaphorical claim “He is risen” is that either Jesus came back to life in a metaphysical sense (but not a physical one) or that His message and cultural influence greatly expanded after the humiliation of the cross. If “spiritual” resurrection refers to the explosive rise of Christianity, then it describes the irony that Jesus’s crucifixion inadvertently catapulted Christianity across the Roman Empire instead of stigmatizing Him and His teachings as it was intended to do. 

The term “spiritual” in the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory could also mean some version of both the metaphysical resurrection and the expansion of Jesus’s cultural influence that occurred after His death. 

Before we analyze the claims of the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory, we must make two observations about it:

1. 1. This theory about Jesus’s alternative resurrection is a distinctively modern one. It did not originate until well after the events themselves and was not widely considered until the eighteenth century during the Enlightenment era.
   2. This theory is largely based on the paradoxical belief that only the material world exists or has meaning. (This belief is paradoxical because meaning itself is not material). 

To learn more about the paradoxical nature of worldviews, see The Bible Says article: “Founding Paradox”.

When we consider the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory, we see that it has no basis in the historical events or development of Christianity and cannot be seriously maintained without rejecting the historical evidence. 

The primary reason why the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory is false is because it is a spurious and gross misinterpretation of the disciples and the history of the Christian faith. 

The Bible clearly teaches both Jesus’s spiritual (metaphysical) and bodily resurrection from the dead. As has already been presented in our analysis of the Swoon Theory, the Bible indicates that Jesus physically died. 

Here are several scriptures from the Gospels that demonstrate Jesus’s bodily resurrection:

• “And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.
  (Matthew 28:9)

In this verse, when the women first encounter Jesus after His resurrection they wrap their hands and arms around Jesus’s feet. They would not have been able to take “hold of His feet” if He was merely a spiritual apparition.

• “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
  (Luke 24:39)

In this verse, Jesus invites His disciples to touch His physical body to prove to them that He has physically risen from the dead and is no mere spirit.

• “They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish; and He took it and ate it before them.”
  (Luke 24:42-43)

In these verses, Jesus eats food and the disciples witness this. This proves His bodily resurrection because only physical beings can consume physical food.

• “Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.’”
  (John 20:27)

In this verse, Jesus invites Thomas who previously said he would not believe that Jesus had risen unless he felt His scars (John 20:24-25) to do just that. When Thomas touches the scars in Jesus’s hands and side, he realizes that Jesus really has physically risen from the dead and cries out, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

Additionally, the Book of Acts and the disciples in the Book of Acts consistently teach that Jesus physically rose from the dead:

• “To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.”
  (Acts 1:3)

The action of Acts begins with this statement, which emphasizes the physical resurrection of Jesus, which was demonstrated by “many convincing proofs…over a period of forty days” (Acts 1:3).

• “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.”
  (Acts 2:32)

Fifty days after Jesus’s death, Peter preached that Jesus physically rose from the dead to thousands of Jews in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. 

Finally, Paul makes the bodily resurrection of Jesus an essential fact of the Gospel:

• “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
  (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)
• “Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain.”
  (1 Corinthians 15:12-14)

All of these scriptures demonstrate that from the time they began carrying out the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) and onward, the disciples claimed that Jesus rose from the dead physically and not just “spiritually.” 

Therefore, Christianity has always claimed that Jesus physically and literally came back to life. The literal resurrection of Jesus was not a spurious misunderstanding of the Gospel centuries after the fact. Ironically, it is the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory that is a spurious misunderstanding of the Gospel.

Furthermore, Christianity as it developed continued to believe and teach the physical resurrection of Jesus. This is most clearly demonstrated in the Apostle’s Creed  (~215 A.D.) and the Nicene Creed (325 A.D.). 

In addressing the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Apostle’s Creed claims:

“I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who…suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day, He rose again from the dead.”
(The Apostle’s Creed)

This statement in the Apostle’s creed demonstrates that the spread of Christianity was rooted in the disciples’ claim that Jesus physically rose from the dead and that His bodily resurrection was still a core idea well into the third century. The Nicene Creed affirms these ideas about the resurrection a century later. 

Finally, the Jewish historian Josephus (37 A.D.—100 A.D.) and the Roman historian Tacitus (56 A.D.—120 A.D.), whose lives overlapped those of Peter, John, and Paul and the events recorded in the Book of Acts both understood the disciples’ claim that “Jesus rose from the dead” to be a statement about physical reality and no metaphor.

Concerning Jesus’s resurrection, Josephus wrote:

“And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned [Jesus] to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him, for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.” 
(Antiquities of the Jews, Book 18, Chapter 3, Section 3)

Tacitus was a Roman senator who wrote an intricate historical account of important political events within the Roman Empire called the “Annals.” In this work, Tacitus appears to allude to the disciples’ resurrection claim when he wrote:

“Christus, from whom the name [Christians] had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome...”
(Tacitus. Annals 15.44)

Historians generally believe that the “most mischievous superstition” to which Tacitus is referring is the claim that Jesus rose from the dead.

There are no records of any friend, foe, or neutral observer of Christianity within the first few centuries of the church who understood the disciples’ claim that Jesus rose from the dead in metaphorical terms. They all understood it to be a literal claim about reality.

The Biblical record, the earliest Church creeds, and contemporary writers all assert or confirm that Christianity has always claimed that Jesus physically and literally came back to life. Therefore the literal resurrection of Jesus was not a spurious misunderstanding of the Gospel centuries after the fact. Rather it is the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory that is a spurious twisting of both history and the Gospel, having emerged more than seventeen hundred years after the original events. 

Thus, when the historical evidence is taken into account, it is evident that the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory is based on a modern reinterpretation of the historical growth of Christianity. 

Its attempt to explain away the resurrection has more to do with the tenets of materialism than it has with the facts of history. 

While materialists are free to believe or not believe in the physical resurrection of Jesus, it is inauthentic of them to dismiss the miracle of the resurrection on grounds of materialism and then say the reason they are materialists is because they have never seen a miracle. Circular reasoning should not be considered persuasive. 

Having considered the first five possibilities regarding the disciples’ claim that Jesus rose from the dead from the simplest explanation to the most complex, we now must consider the only possibility remaining—that the disciples were telling the truth when they claimed that Jesus literally rose from the dead.

6.  THE BODILY RESURRECTION OF JESUS

The first five possibilities of the Resurrection Hexalemma have been disproved. Only one more remains. 

Jesus really did rise from the dead three days after His death on the cross. The disciples told the truth. And they died as martyrs for telling it. 

The appeal of this argument is that even though people do not normally rise from the dead, only one person was divine—Jesus. Divine persons can rise from the dead, which is what Jesus, the Son of God, did. As almighty God, rising from the dead was no obstacle for Him. 

From a certain point of view, it is less of a wonder that He who is the Author and Living Source of Life (John 1:4a, 5:26) should rise than it is to consider how the One who is the Life should die in the first place.  

Because the first five possibilities of the Resurrection Hexalemma are false, its final possibility—the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus—must be true. 

In his masterpiece of geometric proofs “The Elements,” the famous Greek astronomer, Euclid, used this same type of negative reasoning we have used throughout our analysis of the Resurrection Hexalemma to logically prove and demonstrate his conclusions. This type of logical reasoning is called “reductio ad absurdum”. 

Euclid entertained each alternative possibility to a question until he discovered and could demonstrate their falsehood. Once a possibility was seen to be false it was eliminated. After Euclid had eliminated every possibility but one through the negative reasoning of reductio ad absurdum, he then accepted the final possibility as unquestionably true without attempting to positively prove it. 

We have used the same reductio logic with the Resurrection Hexalemma. Having eliminated five of the six possibilities, it is now logically sound for us to assert that the sixth possibility—the resurrection of Jesus—must be true. 

But, in our logical analysis of the historical account of the resurrection of Jesus, we have done more than negatively disprove the alternative theories; we have also stated positive proofs for the resurrection along the way. 

Thus far, we have established the following pieces of evidence for Jesus’s resurrection:

• The disciples went to the correct tomb and found it empty. (His tomb would have been empty had He risen).
  (Counters the Wrong Tomb Theory)
• The disciples genuinely believed that Jesus rose from the dead and died for this belief, despite strong incentives to say He did not rise. (They were killed for making this claim).
  (Counters the Stolen Body Theory)
• Jesus really died on the cross before He was buried and He was seen alive again.
  (Counters the Swoon Theory)
• The disciples encountered and interacted with the physical risen Jesus.
  (Counters the Hallucination Theory)
• Many different people saw Jesus risen from the dead.
  (Counters the Hallucination Theory)
• The disciples were speaking literally and not metaphorically about His resurrection and everyone understood them to be making literal claims.
  (Counters the “Spiritual” Resurrection Theory)

When considering the historical record logically, it affirms that Jesus really did rise from the dead, just as the Bible said. 

Even so, we should believe in Jesus’s resurrection on the basis of God’s word, which is infallible. However, we should also not be surprised to discover that its claims are often affirmed historically, scientifically, and logically. 

When we consider the wider Biblical case for the resurrection of Jesus, we see that it provides a host of additional reasons to positively accept His resurrection as true.

• The Old Testament events and figures foreshadowed His death and resurrection:
  • Noah’s deliverance from the flood in the ark
    (Genesis 6-9)
  • Abraham’s near sacrifice of Isaac on Mt. Moriah
    (Genesis 22:1-19)
  • Jospeh being lifted from the pit
    (Genesis 37:28)
  • The children of Israel passing through the Red Sea
    (Exodus 14)
  • Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego being drawn from the furnace
    (Daniel 3:19-30)
  • Daniel being lifted from the lion’s den
    (Daniel 6)

• The Old Testament Prophecies foretold that He would suffer, die, and rise:
  • Genesis 3:15
  • Psalm 16:9-10
  • Psalm 22:22-24, 27-31
  • Psalm 31:5
  • Psalm 49:15
  • Psalm 69:15-18
  • Psalm 116:3-4, 6-10
  • Psalm 118:17
  • Isaiah 50:6-7
  • Isaiah 52:13-14
  • Isaiah 53:10-12
  • Hosea 6:2

• Jesus predicted His death and resurrection many times:
  • Matthew 12:40, Luke 11:29-30
  • Matthew 16:4
  • Matthew 16:21, Mark 8:31, Luke 9:22
  • Matthew 17:22-23, Mark 9:31
  • Matthew 20:18-19, Mark 10:33-34, Luke 18:31-33
  • Matthew 26:31-32, Mark 14:27-28
  • Luke 23:46
  • John 2:19-22
  • John 5:21
  • John 5:25-26
  • John 10:17-18
  • John 11:25-26
  • John 12:23-28, 33
  • John 13:31-33
  • John 14:18-19
  • John 16:16-22
  • John 17:1-5

The Bible foreshadowed and foretold of Jesus the Messiah’s death and resurrection many times and in many ways. Indeed, the very reason Jesus was born was so that He could suffer and die for the sins of the world and be raised to life for the everlasting resurrection of all who believe in Him (Isaiah 49:6, Matthew 1:21, John 3:16). Jesus’s resurrection makes our resurrection possible (1 Corinthians 15:20-22). 

All of this was foreordained from “before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:20—see also Revelation 13:8).

Jesus’s resurrection, like His birth and crucifixion, was part of God’s plan to redeem creation. The Bible promises that Jesus will restore all things to their original design, including restoring humanity to its original design (Hebrews 2:5-10).

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF JESUS’S RESURRECTION?

Unlike other religions which do require blind faith, Christianity puts itself to the test. It stakes its claims on a historical event, an event which can still be verified to this day. 

If Jesus did not rise from the dead, then the Gospel is a lie (1 Corinthians 15:14-19). 

But if Jesus really did rise from the dead, then the Gospel is true (1 Corinthians 15:14-22).

There is an abundance of evidence within the Bible and history that affirm the resurrection was both real and true. 

The resurrection of Jesus is the sign (Matthew 12:38-40) and proof of His divine identity as the Son of God (Romans 1:4). Consequently, everything else He claimed and taught also has divine authority over the cosmos and our lives. Because Jesus is God, we should worship and love Him by obeying His teachings lest we perish (Psalm 2:11-12). He alone has the words of life (John 6:68).

Jesus showed us how to live a complete and fulfilling life. This fulfillment is found when we trust God and obey His commandments from the heart (see the Sermon on the Mount—Matthew 5-7). His commandments are summarized as “Love God and love others through acts of mercy and service.”

But Jesus did not come to condemn those who did not follow Him. He came to save them,

“For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
(John 3:17)

The good news, or Gospel, is that Jesus came to offer the Gift of Eternal Life to all who would believe in Him (John 3:16-18, 11:25-26). 

The Gift of Eternal Life is an essential component of the Gospel. It includes not only the forgiveness of sins (Romans 8:1, Colossians 1:14), it also includes the empowerment to overcome our trials with God and by His power (John 15:4-5, Romans 8:2-14, Galatians 5:16-18, Ephesians 3:16). The Gift also grants us irrevocable (Romans 11:29) and everlasting belonging in God’s family (John 1:12, Romans 8:15-16) and promises us that we will be resurrected and alive with Him forever (John 11:25-26).

To receive the Gift of Eternal Life, all one must do is believe that Jesus is God’s Son and trust that His death and resurrection have the power to save from sin and death,

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
(John 3:16)

The amount of faith required is sufficient faith to look, hoping to be delivered (John 3:14-15). 

Furthermore, the Gift of Eternal Life grants us the opportunity in this life to inherit the Prize of Eternal Life by faith. The Prize of Eternal Life entails really knowing God in this life (John 17:3), entering God’s kingdom (Matthew 7:21), enjoying fellowship with other believers (1 John 1:7), and being restored to our divine destiny to reign with God as part of His administration of the new heaven and the new earth (Matthew 19:28-29, Romans 8:17-18, Ephesians 1:9-12, 2 Timothy 2:12a, Hebrews 2:9-10). 

To inherit the Prize of Eternal Life, believers must be faithful to overcome their trials by faith in God and in His strength. 

Paul, who was clearly a believer who had received the Gift of Eternal Life, told the Philippians that he renounced all of his previous works of righteousness and strove to know God by faith so that he could win the prize (Philippians 3:7-14).

“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 3:14)

The Bible encourages us to believe in God and seek Him by faith (Hebrews 11:6). God promises to reward all who seek Him by faith. 

But God does not expect us to believe in Him without evidence. He does not ask us to take an irrational leap of faith blindly into the dark, hoping that something will catch us. But rather God provides ample reasons of His power and goodness so that we can trust Him, so that everyone is without excuse (Romans 1:19-20). It is foolish to not believe in God (Psalm 14:1).

The resurrection of Jesus is the primary evidence that demonstrates that He is the Son of God and that the good news (His Gospel) that we can have everlasting life in Him is true. 

The disciples saw and believed. They were blessed. But Jesus said that those of us who do not see and still believe will be even more blessed (John 20:29). It is, therefore, an amazing opportunity to gain immense blessing for all who believe.