The Resurrection Of Jesus Time Line
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS TIME LINE
Gary R. Habermas
Perhaps the majority of defenses of Jesus' resurrection concentrate on three different aspects: the failure of naturalistic theories to explain this event, historical evidences for Jesus' appearances, as well as the empty tomb. In this essay I will take a different tack. I will begin with the late first century and work my way back to the death of Jesus in about AD 30.1 My purpose will be to establish a different approach to the proclamation of the resurrection. I contend that current critical scholarship even agrees to the exceptionally early date of this proclamation as well as the eyewitness nature of those who made the claims.
Before beginning, we need to set a couple of key parameters regarding the study of historiography. Certainly in the recent writing of history, perhaps the two major components of any study are, wherever possible, to secure testimony that is both eyewitness and as close as possible to the events in question, especially when there are also enough data to answer alternative scenarios. Eyewitness testimony plus early observation are certainly crucial. They were also valued in ancient times as well.2