The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus: A Multisource Investigation

The resurrection of Jesus has multiple independent confirmations, which lend credibility to the event according to historical criteria. These attestations come from various sources outside the Bible. Gary Habermas from his book, “Evidence for the Historical Jesus: Is the Jesus of History the Christ of Faith?”, notes that “Well, as far as the historical facts are concerned, the New Testament has always been and still remains the best source for the historicity of Jesus.” Furthermore, Habermas also notes that “We have to look at some dozen and a half non-Christian sources outside the New Testament. Archaeology chimes in on a few things here, as well, and when you put it all together, we have quite a lot of information about Jesus Christ and his life in the first century.” These non-Christian sources are the facts that will be used to show that the resurrection was a historical fact. 

Habermas shows in his book, “Risen Indeed: A Historical Investigation into the Resurrection of Jesus”, that Karl Barth, “…it is still obvious that Barth relegates the resurrection of Jesus to something other than the history in which other events happen.” These kinds of individuals corroborate the historicity of the Bible. Clement I also mentioned the resurrection of Jesus in his First Epistle to the Corinthians. Clement I wrote, “Consider, beloved, how the Lord keeps reminding us of the resurrection that is to come, of which he has made the Lord Jesus Christ the first-fruits by raising him from the dead.” Remember these two individuals who corroborated these facts that correspond to the major theme of the New Testament. Early non-Christian sources corroborate details of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, including writings by Ignatius, and Polycarp. While these historical records do not prove the resurrection conclusively, they provide strong evidence for the early belief in the resurrection and the events surrounding it.  

Is there evidence of crucifixion even occurring in the 1st century? Dr. Kennedy shows in his book “Excavating the Evidence for Jesus,” that the skeletal remains of two individuals have been recovered that show conclusive signs of the use of nails in crucifixion during the 1st century AD Judea Province.” One of which was found in 1968, archaeologists discovered the remains of a crucified man named “Jehohanan” near Jerusalem, which was dated to the 1st century AD. Jehohanan’s remains showed a nail driven through his heel bones, consistent with crucifixion methods of the time. Crucifixion was a known common form of capital punishment in ancient Roman times. The details of Jesus’ crucifixion align with known Roman practices. Dr. Habermas notes in his book “On the Resurrection, Volume 1: Evidence”, “that This geographical location for the birth of what early church as well as the hub of preaching and would later become teaching for years is multiply attested in independent or largely independent sources.”