Mae'r Cyfrifon Atgyfodiad

We have seen that the gospel writers are honest men. And we have seen that everyone was sure that Jesus was dead. Now let us look at the evidence that Jesus was alive again three days later. We need to look at this very carefully. The most important items are listed below with a quick explanation. The titles of most items have a hyperlink. Clicking the hyperlink takes you to another page where that item is examined more carefully. We have already said that there are important differences between the stories in the four gospels. These differences provide strong evidence that the writers did not copy their stories from each other. Sometimes it seems they do not agree with each other. But when we look carefully at the little details we will see that they are all parts of the same story. Some have said that parts of the stories were added later to make them sound better. I will discuss this idea while we are looking more carefully at what the writers say.

First, a couple of preliminary points:

1. The disciples did not believe Jesus could come back from the dead.

2. It was hard to believe that the spirit of Jesus was still alive. But it was much harder to believe that his body was alive again.

If we read the gospel accounts, we can see that the disciples were very surprised. So let us examine their stories more closely …

3. Where were the disciples while Jesus was in the tomb?

John stayed in Jerusalem and cared for Mary, the mother of Jesus. Peter also stayed in Jerusalem. The other disciples and women were most likely in Bethany.

Now let us think about the morning when Jesus came back to life …

Jesus said he would rise on the third day. Did he decide to come back early?

4. What about the guards?

Matthew told us that the Roman soldiers were guarding the grave from the second day. When the angel appeared, the soldiers escaped. wedyn, the soldiers claimed that the disciples stole the body. This confirms that the body was no longer in the tomb. Fel arall, this account makes no sense.

5. What Did the Women See?

They arrived early in the morning. The stone had already been pushed away from the door and the tomb was open. Jesus was not there. Some women saw two angels: but others only saw one.The angels looked like men wearing white clothes.

Some people say that parts of these stories were added later to improve them. We will discuss this here.

6. Who saw Jesus first?

Mary ran to find John and Peter. They came and saw that the tomb was empty: but they didn’t see Jesus. After this, Mary sees Jesus: but at first Mary thinks Jesus is a gardener. A little later, Jesus meets the other women, who are still on their way to Bethany.

7. One final point about the women’s accounts:

When Jesus lived, men did not believe a woman’s evidence.

Society was ruled by men. They thought women’s stories were completely unreliable. Judges ignored women’s evidence (Lk 24:11). The women’s reports were included only because that was what really happened. They did not make the story more convincing.

This surprises me! First, you write a lot about how the stories disagree. Then you try to show that these disagreements prove that all the stories are true!

Surely, if your explanation is correct, everyone should know what happened!

Click here to continue…