The Resurrection Appearances of Jesus

Whether they consider themselves liberal, moderate, or conservative, scholars often agree on a fair amount of details from the life of Jesus and the beginning of the early church. For example, the vast majority of scholars today think, at the very least, that Jesus' disciples along with others thought that they had seen appearances of the risen Jesus.¹²

Why is this crucial fact conceded by virtually all scholars, even skeptics? There are many reasons, but there are several major ones.

The starting point is almost always Paul's eyewitness testimony that he had seen the risen Jesus, converting him from a life of persecuting Christian believers (1 Cor. 9:1; 15:8–10).

Equally important is that this is set in the context of the early creedal material that Paul had received and passed on to others (1 Cor. 15:3–7). Most critical scholars think that this information dates from immediately after the crucifixion and that Paul received it in the early to mid-30s AD from Peter and James the brother of Jesus during his visit to Jerusalem (Gal. 1:13–20) that came approximately three years after Paul's conversion.

Further, Paul took great care to check out his gospel message again with Peter, James, the brother of Jesus, and John, and they confirmed his gospel, adding nothing (Gal. 2:1–10).

Paul testified that the other apostles were teaching the same message that he was regarding the resurrection appearances of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:11–14).

Other reasons also point to the disciples' conviction that they had seen the risen Jesus.

Many other creedal texts that date from the earliest period of Christianity also confirm these conclusions

James the brother of Jesus was an unbelieving skeptic until he also saw or thought that he saw an appearance of the risen Jesus (1 Cor. 15:7).

The disciples were willing to die specifically for their message of the resurrection of Jesus, which demonstrates that they were totally convinced that it was true.

Christ in Emmaus (detail) by Rembrandt (1648).

The empty tomb, discussed above, indicates that what happened to Jesus happened to His body, so this also points in the direction of actual appearances of the risen Jesus.¹³

These eight arguments are accepted by most scholars, and they point quite strongly to the fact that we have been addressing: the earliest disciples were utterly convinced that they had witnessed appearances of the risen Jesus. Further, most scholars agree that alternative attempts to explain away the resurrection on natural grounds also fail. If this is so, then the disciples were correct about what they thought they had seen: appearances of the risen Jesus.

In other words, the evidence indicates that the disciples thought that Jesus was alive and that they had seen Him. If natural events do not explain these experiences, then the resurrection appearances become the best explanation. So the experiences plus the absence of natural alternatives equals the resurrection appearances!

We should mention once again that we are not saying that these facts are true simply because they are reported in the New Testament. If that were the basis for these events, then skeptical scholars who reject the inspiration or even the reliability of Scripture would presumably also reject these data. But virtually all scholars think that the disciples had real experiences that they thought were Jesus' resurrection appearances. It is rare to discover any scholars who deny this. That is because, as we said above, there are many reasons to accept these facts as historical. That is why so many scholars agree with them.

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