Gunning for God (41 page)
Authors: John C. Lennox
25.
For an informative introduction written by a philosopher and a historian see Gary R. Habermas and Michael R. Licona,
The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus
, Grand Rapids, Kregel, 2004.
26.
Josephus,
Antiquities of the Jews
, 18.64.
27.
Tacitus,
Annals
, 15.44.
28.
Matthew 27:26–31.
29.
See Matthew 27:32.
30.
John 19:31ff.
31.
See, again, John 19:31ff.
32.
John 19:34.
33.
For further comments on the medical aspects of the crucifixion, see Raymond Brown,
The Death of the Messiah
, New York, Doubleday, 1994, 2:1088, and see also Charles Foster QC,
The Jesus Inquest
, Oxford, Monarch, 2006, Appendix 1.
34.
Mark 15:44–45.
35.
John Dominic Crossan,
Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography
, San Francisco, HarperCollins, 1991, p.145.
36.
Gerd Lüdemann,
The Resurrection of Christ,
Amherst, Prometheus Books, 2004, p.50.
37.
Matthew 27:57–60; Mark 15:42–46; Luke 23:50–53; John 19:38–42.
38.
Luke 23:50–51.
39.
See John 7:50–52; 19:39–42.
40.
Matthew 27:50.
41.
Luke 23:55.
42.
Matthew 27:62; Mark 15:47.
43.
Luke 23:53.
44.
Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55.
45.
Luke 8:3.
46.
Luke 23:49–55.
47.
John 19:42.
48.
John 19:39.
49.
Luke 23:55–56.
50.
Mark 16:1.
51.
Mark 16:1–3.
52.
John 20:3–9.
53.
Mark 15:46; Matthew 27:60.
54.
Matthew 27:62, 65–66.
55.
Matthew 27:62–66
56.
Mark 16:3–4.
57.
Matthew 28:11–15.
58.
The reasons for this are clear. Firstly, the disciples were initially afraid of the Jewish authorities, as is evidenced by the fact that for some time afterwards they met behind closed doors (John 20:19, 26). Secondly, Jesus met with them on various occasions soon after his resurrection, and told them to wait until the day of Pentecost before telling the nation that he had risen from the dead (Acts 1:4–5).
59.
See Ethelbert Stauber,
Jesus – Gestalt und Geschichte
, Bern, Francke Verlag, 1957, p.163f.
60.
Matthew 27:55–56.
61.
Mark 15:40–41.
62.
John 19:25.
63.
John Wenham,
Easter Enigma – Do the Resurrection Stories Contradict One Another?
Exeter, Paternoster Press, 1984, p.34.
64.
There is no further information about Joses, but in the lists of the Apostles (see, e.g., Matthew 10:3ff, Mark 3:13ff) there are two men with the same name, James: James the son of Zebedee, and James the son of Alphaeus. Alphaeus and Clopas could well be versions of the same Aramaic name, which is usually transliterated
Chalphai
. The reason for this is that the first letter of the name in Aramaic is a guttural, which can either be transliterated as a “k”, thus yielding Clopas (or
Cleopas
, in its nearest Greek equivalent, according to Wenham,
Easter Enigma,
p.37); or as an “h”. The latter is represented in Greek by a small sign called a rough breathing, and it was commonly dropped both in speaking or writing, so yielding the Greek
Alphaios
, which is Latinized as Alphaeus. It is also of interest that the historian Eusebius, in his
Ecclesiastical History
, written towards the beginning of the fourth century, mentions that Clopas was the brother of Joseph (that is, Joseph, the husband of Mary, Jesus’ mother).
65.
John 19:27.
66.
John 20:3.
67.
See Luke 24:10.
68.
Luke 8:3.
69.
Luke 8:3.
70.
John 12:1.
71.
Matthew 26:56; Mark 14:50. It is thought by many that the young man who was in the garden at the time of Jesus’ arrest, and who just managed to escape the arrest party, may well have been Mark himself (Mark 14:51–52).
72.
Mark 16:1; Luke 23:56 – 24:1.
73.
It is interesting to note that, although Jesus had told his disciples he would die and rise again (for example, Matthew 16:21), it had clearly not sunk in. The psychological reason for this is clear: it ran counter to all they hoped that Jesus, being the messiah, would do (see Luke 24, which is discussed later, for an instance of this). The Jewish authorities, however, had noticed Jesus’ predictions, which was their reason for guarding the tomb (Matthew 27:62–65).
74.
Mark 16:1.
75.
Wenham,
Easter Enigma – Do the Resurrection Stories Contradict One Another?
p.69.
76.
John 20:2.
77.
John 20:3–8.
78.
See John 20:15.
79.
Michael Grant,
Jesus: An Historian’s Review of the Gospels
, New York, Charles Schribner & Sons, 1977, p.176.
80.
Acts 1:3.
81.
Gerd Lüdemann,
What Really Happened to Jesus? A Historical Approach to the Resurrection
, translated by John Bowden, Louisville, Westminster John Knox, 1995, p.80.
82.
Acts 2:32.
83.
Acts 3:15.
84.
Acts 10:41.
85.
Acts 13:29–31.
86.
1 Corinthians 15:1–8. A full list of references to the post-resurrection appearances of Christ is: Matthew 28:1–10, 16–20; Mark 16:9ff; Luke 24:13–31, 34, 36–49; John 20:11–18, 19–23, 24–29; 21:1–23; Acts 1:1–3, 6–11; 9:1–9; 22:3–11; 26:12–18; 1 Corinthians 15:5–9.
87.
William Lane Craig,
Reasonable Faith
, Wheaton, Illinois, Crossway, 1994, p.288.
88.
Acts 7:56.
89.
1 Corinthians 15:8.
90.
1 Corinthians 15:6.
91.
See Michael Licona,
The Evidence for God
, Ada, Baker Academic, 2010, p.178.
92.
Lewis,
Miracles
, p.151.
93.
Matthew 28:1.
94.
John 20:1.
95.
John 20:11–18.
96.
Matthew 28:9.
97.
Luke 24:33ff.
98.
John 20:19–25.
99.
Wenham,
Easter Enigma – Do the Resurrection Stories Contradict One Another?
100.
Acts 9:1–19.
101.
1 Corinthians 15:8.
102.
Acts 4:17–22.
103.
Matthew 26:52.
104.
John 19:36.
105.
John 20:1–10
106.
See John 20:10–18
107.
John 20:17.
108.
John 20:19–23; Luke 24:36–49.
109.
Edwin Abbott,
Flatland
, Oxford, Blackwell, 1884.
110.
1 Corinthians 15:44.
111.
Luke 24:39.
112.
Luke 24:41–43.
113.
Luke 24:11.
114.
John 20:25.
115.
John 20:28.
116.
John 20:29.
117.
Luke 24:3–35.
118.
Isaiah 53:5.
119.
Isaiah 53:11.
120.
Anderson,
The Evidence for the Resurrection
, p.11. For a more recent evaluation of the evidence both for and against the resurrection by a legal expert, see
The Jesus Inquest
, by Charles Foster QC, Oxford, Monarch, 2006.
Chapter 9: Final reflections
1.
Greek:
en autois
.
2.
Greek:
autois
.
3.
Romans 1:19–21.
4.
Richard Dawkins,
The Blind Watchmaker
, London, Longman, 1986, p.1.
5.
Interview with
Wirtschaftswoche
, August 2007. Translation mine.
6.
Robert Spaemann,
Das unsterbliche Gerücht
:
Die Frage nach Gott und die Täuschung der Moderne,
Stuttgart, Klett-Cotta, 2007, p.63.
7.
Similar to the gematria of the classical world where a boy, using a simple letter/number code might inscribe on a wall: “I love the girl whose number is 467”. A famous biblical example is the number 666.
8.
In God we are born, in Christ we die, through the Holy Spirit we are made alive.
9.
J. L. Mackie,
The Miracle of Theism
, Oxford, Clarendon, 1982, pp. 115–116.
10.
Kant,
Critique of Practical Reason,
Conclusion, p.113.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Are God and Faith Enemies of Reason and Science?
Chapter 2: Is Religion Poisonous?
Chapter 3: Is Atheism Poisonous?
Chapter 4: Can We be Good Without God?
Chapter 5: Is the God of the Bible a Despot?
Chapter 6: Is the Atonement Morally Repellent?
Chapter 7: Are Miracles Pure Fantasy?
