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Summary Outline of the Second Six Known/Accepted Non-Minimal Facts Data

Summary Outline of the Second Six Known/Accepted Non-Minimal Facts Data

Appendix 3

Summary Outline of the Second Six Known/Accepted Non-Minimal Facts Data

  • Jesus Was Buried (13 total)
    1. Burial is multiply attested
      1. also multiple forms
    2. Very early, pre-Pauline Creedal sources and sermon summaries for Jesus’s burial
    3. Indirect eyewitness testimony (Bauckham)
    4. Greek word thaptō in creed means burial, not dumping
    5. Pre-Markan passion narrative includes Jesus’s burial
    6. Archaeological evidence of crucifixion victims
    7. Embarrassing details
    8. Jerusalem factor—the story could be checked out
    9. Jews would bury even crucifixion victims (avoid desecration and eschatological relevance)
      1. Romans permitted burial
    10. The Jewish authorities would assure Jesus’s burial/whereabouts
    11. Jesus’s followers would assure his burial
      1. Joseph of Arimathea an obscure name
    12. Enemy attestation from polemic indicating disciples stole the body
    13. No competing accounts exist
  • Jesus’s Death Led the Disciples to Despair and Lose Hope (5)
    1. Natural psychological response
    2. Multiply attested
    3. Embarrassing testimony of disciples’ denial and desertion
    4. Limited dissimilarity
    5. Possible eyewitness material
  • Empty Tomb (21)
    1. Embarrassing testimony of the women being the first witnesses
    2. Jerusalem factor, opposition would have checked
    3. Multiple independent attestation
    4. 1 Cor 15:3–4 implies an empty tomb
    5. Acts 2:29–32 and 13:28–37 sermon summaries indicating an early empty tomb report
    6. Likely pre-Markan passion tradition; empty tomb account could be included
    7. Contemporary Jewish view primarily of bodily resurrection; New Testament view of bodily resurrection appearances
      1. N. T. Wright: anastasis and egeiro
      2. Cook: Paul and Gospels agree
    8. Enemy Attestation seeking to explain empty tomb
      1. Matt 27:62–66, Justin Martyr, Tertullian
    9. Early traditions of Peter and John investigating
    10. Semitisms in accounts
    11. Potential eyewitnesses/obscure names (Bauckham)
    12. Sunday as day of worship
    13. Gospels as Greco-Roman bios
    14. No tomb veneration or martyr cult
    15. Little supernatural elaboration, few details
    16. Lack of theological/apologetic development or use (dissimilarity)
    17. Obscure names throughout accounts
    18. Guards at tomb potentially an early pre-Matthean tradition (Kankaanniemi dissertation)
    19. No early sources deny ET/no strong alternative accounts
    20. Little reference to or nuance from Old Testament texts
    21. Nazareth decree (?)
  • Resurrection Message at Center of Early Christian Preaching (6)
    1. Resurrection mentioned in over 300 New Testament verses
    2. Included as the key to the homologia in the crucial Gospel proclamation (Rom 10:9)
    3. Early attestation in majority of creedal traditions (1 Cor 15:3–5)
    4. Multiple forms
    5. Multiply and independently attested
    6. This message the basis of New Testament Christology
  • Resurrection Message Proclaimed Initially in Jerusalem (5)
    1. Eyewitness testimony (Paul’s two discussions with three other apostles in Jerusalem)
    2. Early attestation (Acts sermon summaries)
    3. Multiple independent sources place proclamation in Jerusalem
    4. Multiple forms
    5. Plausibility/coherence
  • Christian Church Established and Grew with Sunday as the Primary Day of Worship (6)
    1. Church meetings begin after Jesus’s resurrection
    2. Eyewitness accounts of church meetings
    3. Early sources
    4. Sunday is referred to as the Lord’s day (also references to third and first days)
    5. Multiple independent sources
    6. Multiple forms

    • Total: 56 primary and secondary considerations plus other relevant factors on the six non-minimal, known/accepted 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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