14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.’” 15 And God, furthermore, said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name to all generations.”

(Exodus 3:14-15)

10 "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me [וּבְחָנוּנִי, from the root BaCHaN] now in this,” says the LORD of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows.

(Malachi 3:10)

37 "If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; 38 but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I [am] in the Father."

(John 10:37-38)

3 To these He also presented Himself alive, after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God.

(Acts 1:3)

EARLIEST VERBAL TESTIMONY

the earliest presentations of the Good News

constant claims of bodily resurrection

(Acts 2:23-37; 3:13-15; 4:10; 5:30-31; 7:52; 8:5, 32, 25; 10:39-40; 13:26-31; 17:2-3, 18, 30-32; 25:19; 26:22-23; 28:20, 23)

EARLIEST WRITTEN RECORDS

Jesus was crucified, buried, and came

back to life on the third day.

(Matthew 28:1-6; Mark 16:2-6; Luke 24:1-6; John 20:1-20)

1 Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first/primary/basic/foundational importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sinsaccording to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…

(1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

14 And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith also is vain. 15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised. 17 …and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. 19 If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied. 20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

(1 Corinthians 15:14-20)

THE REST OF THE NEW TESTAMENT

(Romans 10:9, 2 Timothy 2:8; 1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:4, 8, 18, 2:8, etc.)

A STORY MANUFACTURED FOR MARKETABILITY?

The earliest evangelists made this the focal point of their preaching in spite of the fact that they knew this would clash with the beliefs of the very cultures they were trying to reach!

(1 Cor. 1:18, 21, 23; Gal. 5:11)

REACTION OF ALL WHO FIRST SAW HIM

Surprise, confusion, fear, and even disbelief.

(Matthew 28:10; Mark 16:8, 11, 13-14; Luke 24:4-5, 11, 25, 37-38; John 20:13, 15, 19)

ANOTHER CONSPIRACY THEORY?

They are not huddled together creating a conspiracy: they are in hiding, in immeasurable grief, and are SURPRISED when He returns from the dead!

MULTIPLE ATTESTATION

Women at the tomb (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10; John 20:1)

The two disciples on the Road to Emmaus (Mark 16:12; Luke 24:13-36)

Paul’s list (Peter, the 12, 500-plus at one time, James, the 12 again, and Paul himself, 1 Corinthians 15:5-8)

Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.*

*Shlomo Pines, An Arabic Version of the Testimonium

Flavianum and its Implications, 1971.

(Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 18:63-64)

“Onkelos…went and raised Jesus the Nazarene from the grave through necromancy. …This was His sin: He mocked the words of the sages.”

(Babylonian Talmud Gittin 57a)

“Woe to him who makes himself alive by means of the name of God!”*

*This passage has to do with the case of Jesus and His

leading of Israel astray by the use of His magical powers; thus, the broader context makes perfectly clear who the “him” and “himself” refer to.

(Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 106a)

21 And when His own family* heard of this, they went out to take custody of Him; for they were saying, "He has lost His senses.”

(Mark 3:21)

*Mt. 13:55-56— “Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas, 56 And His sisters…”

9 “…and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.”

(Galatians 2:9)

13 And after they had stopped speaking, James answered, saying, "Brethren, listen to me…..

19 Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles…”

(Acts 15:13, 19)

THE LETTER OF JAMES

THE OSSUARY OF JAMES (AD 62)

Ya’akov bar Yosef, achoui d’ Yeshua

(“James son of Joseph, the brother of Jesus”)

...Ananus [the high priest]…convened the judges of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man named James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ, and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned.

(Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 20:200)

[The religious leaders said,] “Take your stand on the Temple parapet, so that from that height you may be easily seen and your words audible to the whole people.” Then they said, “O Righteous One, whose word we are all obliged to accept, the people are going astray after Jesus who was crucified. So tell us what is meant by ‘the door of Jesus’?” He replied as loudly as he could: “Why do you question me about the Son of Man? I tell you, He is sitting in heaven at the right hand of the Great Power, and He will come on the clouds of heaven.” ...So they went up and threw down the Righteous One. Then they said to each other, “Let us stone James the Righteous,” and they began to stone him….. Then one of them, a fuller, took the club which he used to beat out the clothes, and brought it down on the head of the Righteous one. Such was his martyrdom.

(Hegisippus [Born c. AD 90], Ecclesiastical History 2.23

“The resurrection of Jesus: Fact or fiction?”

https://news.ag.org/features/the-resurrection-of-Jesus-fact-or-fiction

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE

Late 2016-early 2017

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THE TOMB OF JESUS IS INDEED EMPTY, REGARDLESS OF WHICH LOCATION YOU PREFER!

Q: THE CHRISTIAN FAITH IS BASED ON:

subjective experience

speculation

legend and myth

historical reality/evidence