From its beginning, the Christian movement has been rooted in the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. No other religion or faith tradition so powerfully bases everything in the reality of one event. And yet, Paul can write to other Christians, “And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14, ESV). Everything hinges on the truth of this singular event in history. Apparently, evidence matters even to Jesus Himself. The Bible says, “After his suffering, he presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3, NIV). That being the case, it’s worth considering the following twelve pieces of evidence from both Scripture and outside Scripture for this event.

1. Jesus died by crucifixion.

All the evidence both within the Bible and outside the Bible demonstrates that Jesus truly died on Good Friday (Matthew 27:50-56; Mark 15:37-41; Luke 23:46; John 19:33-35). Roman soldiers were professional executioners, and if a soldier failed to carry out his orders, his own life would be on the line. No one survived crucifixion. This rules out the swoon theory, which argues that perhaps Jesus didn’t die on the cross, and somehow survived being covered in myrrh, wrapped in burial cloths, and laid in a stone ossuary for 36 hours. If, by some miracle He survived all this, could Jesus really have convinced His followers that He had come back as the Lord who conquered death?

2. The location of the tomb was well known.

Every record we have uniformly teaches that Jesus’ body was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea (Matthew 27:57-61; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-55; John 19:38-42). Because there are no competing accounts for the tomb’s location and women followers witnessed his burial, that rules out someone going to the wrong tomb on Easter morning.

3. The tomb was empty.

The earliest record of Jesus’ tomb from both friends and enemies of Christianity is that the tomb was empty on the Sunday following the Friday that Jesus died on the cross. Christ’s enemies claimed the disciples stole the body, and this continued to be their claim even in the time of the second century apologist Justin Martyr.[1] One thing the “stolen body” story assumes is that the tomb really was empty. Interestingly, we don’t see any of Christ’s enemies claim that the disciples merely went to the wrong tomb, or that the tomb was still occupied. Enemy attestation is generally powerful evidence in court, so this proves that the tomb Jesus had been interred in was empty on Easter morning (Matthew 28:1-8, 11-15).

4. Women as the first eyewitnesses.

The first eyewitnesses of both the empty tomb and the risen Jesus were women (Matthew 28:1-10; Luke 24:9-12). This is significant because a woman’s testimony was not valid in a first century court.[2] The fact that women are recorded as the first eyewitnesses who courageously went to the tomb while the men were holed up in an upper room behind locked doors is an embarrassing detail that would only be included if it truly happened (John 20:19, 26). This demonstrates that the account has the ring of truth and is not an invention of Christians.

5. Individuals and groups saw the risen Jesus.

The accounts of Jesus being witnessed demonstrate that He was seen in a variety of circumstances by both individuals and groups of various sizes (1 Corinthians 15:1-8; Matthew 28:9-10, 16-20; Luke 24:15-32, 36-53; John 20:14-29; John 21; Acts 1:3-9, 9:3-9; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Some skeptics have argued that the disciples probably just had hallucinations of Jesus, as sometimes happens with the bereaved. However, the fact that Jesus appeared to groups as large as 500 people rules out the hallucination theory, since hallucinations are subjective experiences for individuals. If a group witnesses something, they must be seeing something that has an objective reality outside themselves.

6. The physical nature of Jesus’ body.

Jesus proved His resurrected body was real and physical by showing the nail scars in His hands and eating with the disciples (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-28). This shows the risen Jesus was not a ghost or a spiritual vision. N. T. Wright has also demonstrated that in the ancient world, the word resurrection universally referred to “new bodily life” after death.[3] It was not a general term for the afterlife or “going to heaven.” When Paul preached Christ’s resurrection to the Athenian Greeks, they scoffed – not because they didn’t believe in the soul’s afterlife, but because they denied any return to bodily life (Acts 17:32). Jesus’ resurrection is recorded as a real event with eyewitnesses, not a metaphor for “Jesus rising in our hearts” or some other such nonsense.

7. The resurrection was proclaimed from the beginning.

Our earliest records indicate that the most pivotal message proclaimed by the early church in Jerusalem from the beginning was that Jesus was bodily raised from death and that this was based on eyewitness testimony (See Acts 2:22-24, 32; 3:13-15, 26; 4:10-11; 5:30-32; 10:39-41; 13:26-31, 34-39; Romans 1:4; 4:24; 7:4; 10:9; 1 Corinthians 15:15-20; Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 2:12; 2 Timothy 1:10; 1 Peter 1:21; 2 Peter 1:16; 1 John 1:1-3). This rules out the legendary development theory.

8. Origin and sudden growth of Christianity.

It’s very difficult to explain the origin and sudden growth of the Christian movement apart from Jesus truly rising from death and appearing to eyewitnesses (Acts 2:41-47; 5:42). There were other self-proclaimed messiahs in the first century, who were later killed or crucified. In each case, these movements died with their founders. So what led the early Christians to begin worshiping Jesus, who was also crucified as a criminal by Rome? Historian N. T. Wright said, “Never before had there been a movement which began as a quasi-messianic group within Judaism and was transformed into the sort of movement which Christianity quickly became.”[4] One early Christian creed dates from within the first few years after the cross and includes a list of eyewitnesses to the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:3-7). Such an early date rules out legendary development, too.

9. Liars make poor martyrs.

The Apostles went from hiding behind locked doors to being willing to suffer and die for their claim to witness the resurrected Jesus (John 20:19, 26; Acts 5:40-42; 6:59-60; 12:1-2). This is compelling because while martyrs can be deceived and may unknowingly die for a lie, it’s hard to imagine a group of men willingly dying for what they knew to be a lie. Can you imagine their rallying cry: “Okay, fellas, we’re about to go out and suffer horribly and possibly die for this whopper we’ve just cooked up. Who’s with me?!” When people try to cover up a fraud, there is usually some kind of motivation, like money or power. But these men only lost power because of their devotion to the risen Lord. They had nothing to gain in this world by proclaiming the resurrection. Their only motivation for enduring persecution and death must have been their firm conviction that Jesus truly did rise as Lord of life. Historian Michael Licona has said, “Liars make poor martyrs.”[5] And Blaise Pascal said, “I only believe histories whose witnesses are ready to be put to death.”[6]

10. Early belief that Jesus is God.

All the evidence shows that the earliest Christians were Jewish monotheists (believed in only one God). However, they also worshiped Jesus as God, something utterly unthinkable unless Jesus had truly proved Himself to be God by rising from the dead (John 20:28; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 1:15-19). Skeptics like Bart Ehrman have tried to argue that the view that Jesus was God evolved over time, but the evidence of the New Testament shows that Christians understood Jesus to be God from the first decades while eyewitnesses to His resurrection were still alive. They simply adopted the view that Jesus took of Himself, such as when He forgave sins as only God can, claimed to be the Giver of life, said He shared in the Father’s divine glory, and took the divine name “I Am” (Yahweh) to Himself on numerous occasions. We can especially note Jesus’ affirming response to Thomas, who after seeing the resurrected Lord proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).[7]

11. Unexpected conversions.

Even non-Christian historians generally acknowledge that both James, the Lord’s brother, and Saul of Tarsus were initially skeptics about Jesus being the divine Messiah. In fact, the book of Acts records Saul as a passionate opponent of Christianity who wanted to destroy the movement until he encountered the risen Lord and later became known as the Apostle Paul (read about this transformation in Acts 9:1-30). It’s very hard to explain James’ and Saul’s sudden conversion to Christianity after initially opposing it apart from the resurrection.

12. Immediate transformation of religious observance.

The first Christians immediately began meeting on Sunday, instead of Sabbath (Saturday), the day that Jews had gathered for worship for hundreds of years (Exodus 20:8-11; Acts 20:7; 1 Corinthians 16:2). This only makes sense if Jesus did in fact rise on Sunday (John 20:1-2). The first Christians also began celebrating the Lord’s Supper (a special meal that commemorates the Lord’s death; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34) and baptism (which is the initiatory rite of a disciple and pictures union with Christ in His death and resurrection; Matthew 28:18-20). Both ordinances only make sense in light of Christ’s substitutionary death and resurrection in history.

Conclusion

Certainly, it might be hard to accept that someone truly defeated death itself on the basis of one or two pieces of evidence. However, the cumulative case that can be made for Christ’s resurrection is staggering. Because of space constraints, I’m only giving a brief overview, but this is just the tip of the ice berg. Each one of these could be unpacked in far greater detail. The point is that the Christian claim that Jesus rose from the dead is well-founded in history. This gives the Christian great hope. Salvation is by grace alone, apart from any good works or religious obedience. All who put their trust in the risen Lord are assured of forgiveness of sins and eternal life with Him (Romans 10:9-10). Jesus said, “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19, NIV).

Have thoughts on this post? Feel free to comment below!

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[1] This is mentioned in Justin’s Dialogue with Trypho.

[2] N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 2003), 686-96.

[3] N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope, 35-36.

[4] N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, 17.

[5] Quoted in Gary Habermas and Michael Licona, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus.

[6] Quoted in Josh and Sean McDowell, Evidence that Demands a Verdict.

[7] There is also plenty of extrabiblical evidence that the earliest Christians worshiped Jesus as God, including the writings of the ante-Nicene fathers. In the year 112 AD, Pliny the Younger wrote to his Roman Emperor Trajan that Christians he saw “were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound them themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds…”