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Chapter 30 of 34

Outlined Data in Favor of the Minimal Facts

Outlined Data in Favor of the Minimal Facts

Appendix 2

Outlined Data in Favor of the Minimal Facts

  • Crucifixion (12 total)
    1. Multiple attestation of sources
    2. Early sources (especially creeds)
    3. Indirect eyewitness testimony
    4. Limited dissimilarity
    5. Embarrassment
      1. Aramaic terms (Jesus forsaken on cross)
    6. Enemy attestation (Roman soldiers, Jewish leaders)
    7. Multiple forms
    8. Coherence
    9. Medical data (severe treatment, asphyxiation, shock, congestive heart failure)
    10. Postmortem chest wound (+ Roman confirmation)
    11. Strauss Critique
      1. naturalistic theories fail
    12. Shroud of Turin (?)
  • Disciples’ Experiences, Thought to Be Appearances of the Risen Jesus (13)
    1. Eyewitness testimony (such as 1 Cor 9:1; 15:8)
    2. Early creedal traditions
    3. Apostolic connection to the creeds (e.g., 1 Cor 15:11 following 15:3–7)
    4. Paul’s confirmation of the Gospel content with Peter and James (Gal 1:18–20)
    5. Paul’s second visit fourteen years later, meeting with Peter, James, and John (Gal 2:1–10)
    6. Numerous group appearances
      1. naturalistic theories fail
    7. Multiple attestation
    8. Multiple forms
    9. Embarrassment
    10. Limited dissimilarity
    11. Aramaic wording
    12. Enemy attestation
    13. The Empty Tomb may provide additional confirmation
  • Early Proclamation (19)
    1. Layer: Appearance experiences
    2. Layer: Initial teaching (homologia)
    3. Layer: Likely “Pre-Pauline 1” creedal traditions
    4. Layer: Paul’s experience on the way to Damascus
    5. Layer: Paul’s first visit to Jerusalem—dialogues with Peter and James (Gal 1:18–19)
    6. Layer: Paul’s second visit—dialogues with Peter, James, and John (Gal 2:1–10)
    7. Layer: “Pre-Pauline 2” creeds after Paul’s conversion
    8. Layer: New Testament Epistles (single attestation)
    9. Layer: Gospels and Acts (single attestation)
    10. Multiple attestation
    11. Confirming testimony (1 Cor 15:11)
    12. Multiple forms
    13. Embarrassment
    14. Dissimilarity
    15. Aramaic words
    16. Enemy attestation
    17. Empty tomb probable (helps to confirm)
    18. Groups of observers (“the twelve,” “all the apostles,” the “500,” cf. the women)
    19. Jesus’s deity connected to the discussion and earliness
  • Transformation of Jesus’s Disciples (14)
    1. Male disciples denied Jesus and fled
    2. Disciples’ experiences as the impetus for their transformation
    3. Conversion of James
    4. Disciples immediately began preaching (homologia)
    5. Oral and creedal traditions (including Acts sermon summaries)
    6. Conversion of Paul
    7. Paul’s two trips to Jerusalem—visits with Peter, James, and John (Gal 1:18–20; 2:1–10)
    8. Multiple attestation
    9. Embarrassment
    10. Enemy attestation
    11. Extensive ministries: Peter, James, John, and Paul
      1. decades of leadership in Acts and epistles
      2. extracanonical Christian testimony
    12. Repeated willingness to suffer and die
    13. First-century texts for the martyrdoms of Paul, Peter, James, and John
    14. Utilizing Bayes’ Theorem (McGrew and Swinburne)
  • Conversion of James, Jesus’s Brother (11)
    1. James called an unbeliever before crucifixion (Mark 3:20–21, 31; 6:3–4; John 7:5)
    2. Jesus’s appearance to James (1 Cor 15:7); with believers in Acts 1:14
    3. Early testimony (Acts 1:15; 15:13–21)
    4. James’s transformation
    5. Multiple attestation
    6. Multiple forms
    7. Enemy/adversarial attestation
    8. Embarrassment
    9. James’s martyrdom (Josephus)
    10. New Testament book of James (?)
    11. James Ossuary (?)
  • Conversion and Life of the Church Persecutor Paul (11)
    1. Zealous unbeliever before conversion (eyewitness testimony)
    2. Jesus’s appearance to Paul (eyewitness)
    3. Paul’s traveling partners as witnesses (Acts 9, 22, 26)
    4. Early data
    5. Paul’s Epistles and missions demonstrate transformation
      1. extracanonical Christian sources (Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp)
    6. Multiple attestation
      1. limited multiple forms
    7. Embarrassment
    8. Enemy attestation
    9. Repeated willingness to suffer and martyrdom
    10. Paul well-educated as Pharisee; prior training facilitates research
    11. Failure of naturalistic theories

    • Total: 80 primary and secondary considerations plus other relevant factors on the six minimal facts (Note: Not all of these are evidences, and there is some overlap when the items refer to more than one fact; additional factors follow if subdetails are differentiated.)

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