Did Jesus rise from the dead?

We learn from Mark 15:25 that Jesus was crucified at nine o'clock in the morning and at three o'clock in the afternoon he died. (verse 34.) So Jesus was six hours on the cross before he died. Joseph of Arimathea gained permission from Pilate to take the body on the evening of the Sabbath to place it in the tomb. Pilate was amazed that Jesus was already dead and called the centurion to confirm it. Add another four or five hours, and we have a total of ten or eleven hours since crucifixion. People crucified were often several days on the cross before they died. Jesus was a young, healthy man of about thirty. He suffered no vital organ damage apart from wounds in hands and feet. Is it possible that Jesus only appeared to be dead when Joseph took him down from the cross? Many who have appeared to be dead, have been resuscitated.

Some have suggested that there was time for Jesus to have been revived. Nothing is recorded as happening on the Sabbath day. There would have been over twenty four hours between when he was placed in the tomb and the next episode on Sunday morning.

The story of the resurrection of Jesus is here set out in questions and answers. The gospels are shown in capitals.

At what time did the women visit the tomb? MARK: At the rising of the sun. JOHN: When it was yet dark.
Who came? JOHN: Mary Magdalene alone. MATTHEW: Mary Magdalene and the other Mary. MARK: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome. LUKE: Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James and other women.
Was the tomb open or closed when they arrived? MATTHEW: Closed. LUKE: Open. Whom did they see at the tomb? MATTHEW: the angel. MARK: a young man. LUKE: two men. JOHN: two angels. Were these men or angels inside or outside the tomb? MATTHEW: outside. MARK, LUKE, and JOHN: inside. Were they standing or sitting? LUKE: standing. MATTHEW, MARK and JOHN: sitting. Did Mary Magdalene observe the divine messengers when she first arrived at the sepulchre? MATTHEW, MARK and LUKE: she did. JOHN: she did not. Who became frightened when they saw the messengers? MATTHEW: the keepers. MARK and LUKE: the women. Did the women see Jesus? MATTHEW: they did, Jesus met them just after they left the tomb. LUKE: they did not see Jesus. Did the women tell the disciples what they had seen? LUKE: they did. MARK: they did not. Did Mary Magdalene know Jesus when he first appeared to her? MATTHEW:

she did. JOHN: she did not. How many disciples visited the tomb? LUKE: Peter alone. JOHN: Peter and another. Was Mary Magdalene permitted to touch Jesus when he first appeared to her? MATTHEW: yes. JOHN: no. Where did Jesus appear to his disciples? MATTHEW: in Galilee. LUKE: in Jerusalem. Were all the disciples finally convinced of the resurrection? JOHN: they were. MATTHEW; they were not, some doubted.

Why such confusion and lack of certainty? According to the Synoptic Gospels Jesus saw his disciples but once after the resurrection. John's Gospel has it that he saw them on three separate occasions. Paul's account of the events following the resurrection of Jesus differs in almost every respect from the gospel narrative. Paul tells of about five hundred brethren who saw the risen Jesus yet according to Acts 1:15, the number of the faithful after the resurrection was no more than one hundred and twenty. I am indebted to Mr. John Bowden for the above analysis published 1968.

It is strange that those who claimed to have seen the risen Jesus on the first day of the week, Sunday, are agreed on almost nothing about what happened that morning except that the tomb was empty. There are various stories of people seeing the risen Christ but without convincing agreement. Jesus seems to have disappeared from the scene. If he was dead, his burial place has never been found. If he had been raised from the dead, there is no evidence of his ministry continuing, why? Was Jesus revived and then taken and hidden or even taken out of the country? We will never know. He obviously was disillusioned when he said on the cross "My God! My God! why have you forsaken me?" Then again, there are those who suggest that the whole story of Jesus is a fabrication by religious zealots. Many scholars have tried to find the historical Jersus without success. The idea that resurrection could happen to divine beings was widespread. For those who believed, the sight of the empty tomb would turn the disciples' desire and expectation into a fact. They immediately pro-claimed to the other disciples "The Lord is risen". Science has not yet succeeded in bringing a truly dead person back to life although many have been revived who first appear to be dead. While it would appear to the believers that Jesus had been raised from the dead, in fact it could have been otherwise. There are only two alternatives, Jesus died and was secretly buried or Jesus survived and was taken out of the country. Only life can create new life. The truly dead stay dead. Again we are dealing with immutable natural laws.