The End of Christianity (57 page)

12
. For example, see
http://www.michaeljacksonsightings.com/
.

13
. N. T. Wright, “Jesus’ Resurrection and Christian Origins,”
Gregorianum
83, no. 4 (2002): 615–35.

14
. Ibid.

15
. Ibid.

16
. See Richard Carrier,
Not the Impossible Faith: Why Christianity Didn't Need a Miracle to Succeed
(Raleigh, NC: Lulu, 2009), 85–127; and Jeffery Jay Lowder and Robert M. Price, eds.,
The Empty Tomb: Jesus beyond the Grave
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2005), 107–18,142–46.

17
. Many of which have been exposed by the points made and scholarship cited in Richard Carrier, “Why the Resurrection Is Unbelievable” in Loftus,
The Christian Delusion
, 291–315, and here in chap. 2; see also Robert Price's chapter in that same volume, “Jesus: Myth and Method” (273–90); and Lowder and Price,
The Empty Tomb.

18
. For just a start, see: Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds.,
Salem-Village Witchcraft: A Documentary Record of Local Conflict in Colonial New England
(Boston:

Northeastern University Press, 1993); Paul Boyer and Stephen Nissenbaum, eds.,
The Salem Witchcraft Papers: Verbatim Transcripts of the Legal Documents of the Salem Witchcraft Outbreak of 1692
, 3 vols. (New York: Da Capo, 1976); Richard Weisman,
Witchcraft, Magic, and Religion in 17th Century Massachusetts
(Amherst: University of Massachusetts Amherst Press, 1984).

19
. See, for example, the kinds of claims encountered across the world by John Cornwell in
The Hiding Places of God: A Personal Journey into the World of Religious Visions, Holy Objects, and Miracles
(New York: Warner Books, 1991), and again consider the earlier example of the thousands of claims investigated at Lourdes, and by private investigators like James Randi, Joe Nickel, and Massimo Polidoro (who have authored many books on the subject), and documented in such reference collections as
Harper's Encyclopedia of Mystical&Paranormal Experience
, ed. Rosemary Ellen Guiley (San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991), Gordon Stein's
The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1996), and Patricia Netzley's
The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Paranormal Phenomena
(Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2006).

20
. As demonstrated in Carrier, “Resurrection Is Unbelievable,” 298–99.

CHAPTER 9

1
. See John Warwick Montgomery,
History and Christianity
(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1974), 41–58.

2
. By William Lane Craig:
The Son Rises: Historical Evidencefor the Resurrection of Jesus
(Chicago: Moody, 1981);
Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics
, rev. ed. (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 1994); “The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus,” in
Gospel Perspectives: Studies of History and Tradition in the Four Gospels
, ed. R. T. France and David Wenham (Sheffield, England: JSOT Press, 1980), 47–74; “The Empty Tomb of Jesus,” in
Gospel Perspectives II: Studies of History and Tradition in the Four Gospels
, ed. R. T. France and David Wenham (Sheffield, England: JSOT Press, 1980), 173–200; “Did Jesus Rise from the Dead?” in
Jesus under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents the Historical Jesus
, ed. Michael J. Wilkins and J. P. Moreland (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995), 141–76. Other examples: Gary R. Habermas and Michael Licona,
The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus
(Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel, 2004); Gregory A. Boyd and Paul Rhodes Eddy,
The Jesus Legend: A Casefor the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus
(Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2007); Michael Licona,
The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach
(Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2010).

3
. David Friedrich Strauss, “Death and Resurrection of Jesus” in
The Life of Jesus Critically Examined
, trans. George Eliot and Mary Ann Evans (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1972), 691–744; Willi Marxsen,
The Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth
, trans. Margaret Kohl (Philadelphia: Fortress 1970); Reginald H. Fuller,
The Formation of the Resurrection Narratives
(New York: Macmillan, 1971); Norman Perrin,
The Resurrection according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke
(Philadelphia: Fortress 1977); and see discussion and scholarship cited in Richard Carrier, “Why the Resurrection Is Unbelievable,” in John Loftus, ed.,
The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails
(Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2010), 291–315.

4
. Their polemics are aimed out into the ambient air, by way of apostrophe (“O Death, where is thy sting?”), to absent opponents, the old Rationalists, but the actual audience/readership is mostly believers looking to quiet their doubts. They, too, are already eager to believe what the narrative says and thus take most of it for granted without even noticing—even when the story itself is at issue. No wonder Evangelicals, especially fellow apologists, purport to find these apologetics cogent!

5
. Albert Schweitzer,
The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede
, trans. W. Montgomery (New York: Macmillan, 1975), 27–67. See
chapters 3
–
6
devoted to the Rationalists, including Heinrich Eber-hard Gottlob Paulus, Karl Friedrich Bahrdt, and Karl Heinrich Venturini.

6
. Charles H. Talbert,
What Is a Gospel? The Genre of the Canonical Gospels
(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1977); Robert M. Price, “Brand X Easters,” in
The Resurrection of Jesus: A Sourcebook
, ed. Bernard Brandon Scott (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge, 2008), 49–59.

7
. C. S. Lewis, “Myth Became Fact,” in C. S. Lewis,
God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
, ed. Walter Hooper (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1970), 63–67.

8
. Price, “Jesus: Myth and Method,” in Loftus,
The Christian Delusion
, 273–90.

9
. Robert M. Price,
The Case against the Case for Christ: A New Testament Scholar Refutes the Reverend Lee Strobel
(Cranford, NJ: American Atheist, 2010), 209–10. See the astute “Jesus and Mo” cartoon, on which I am dependent, accompanying the text (from
jesusandmo.net
, used with permission).

10
. R. G. Collingwood,
The Idea of History
(New York: Oxford University Press/ Galaxy Books, 1956), 236–39; see Price,
Againstthe Casefor Christ
, 210.

11
. David Friedrich Strauss,
The Life of Jesus for the People
, 2nd ed. (London: Williams and Norgate, 1879), 1:412.

12
. Yes, yes, I know apologists will blow the whistle here, insisting that there was no time for such textual evolution and no manuscript evidence that it occurred. But the early dating apologists take for granted is simply the dating that would, if true, be most convenient for them. And as for manuscript evidence, there isn't any one way or the other for the tunnel period between the composition of the Gospels and the first copies we possess. We have no alternative to trying to look for internal clues of redaction, and no right simply to assume the Gospels have always read as they do now, say, in the United Bible Societies Greek New Testament.

13
. Mumtaz Ahmad Faruqui,
The Crumbling of the Cross
(Lahore, Pakistan:

Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at-i-Islam, 1973), 25. Faruqui already makes this connection, though surely he is speaking for a long polemical/exegetical tradition.

14
. “It is certain that the prayer prayed at Gethsemane was accepted.” Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad,
Jesus in India: Being an Account of Jesus’ Escape from Death on the Cross and of His Journey to India
, trans. Qazi Abdul Hamid (Rabwah, Pakistan: Ahmadiyya Muslim Foreign Missions Department, 1962), 37.

15
. Solomon Schechter,
Some Aspects of Rabbinic Theology
(New York: Macmillan, 1910), 174–75; Shalom Spiegel,
The Last Trial: On the Legends and Lore of the Command to Abraham to Offer Isaac as a Sacrifice: The Akedah
, trans. Judah Goldin (Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Classic Reprints, 1993), 41–43. Spiegel is arguing that, in accordance with a persistent and ancient tradition, Jews first told the story with Isaac actually being slain and his death availing for Israel's sin. Then the story was changed out of later disdain for human sacrifice: Isaac's willingness (or Abraham's) must have been enough. Even so, one might infer that the Gospel story originally told of a real death, and that the features I am highlighting were part of a widespread “docetic” rewrite. That may be. It does not tell on my theory one way or the other. It is just that a precanonical, preredactional
Scheintod
version, whether primary or secondary, makes the state of the evidence easily ambiguous enough that the Swoon Theory remains fully plausible, which is the only verdict that can be rendered for any of the theories at this late date in history.

16
. Ahmad,
Jesus in India
, 33. This brand of Islam accepts the Koranic assertion that Jesus did not die on the cross (4:157–58), but they believe Jesus came down from the cross still alive, for which, among other things, the followers of the teachings of Ahmad (the Ahmadiyya) are dismissed as heretics by most Muslims.

17
. Josephus,
Life
75 [William Whiston translation].

18
. See Josephus,
Life
1. For apologists it is axiomatic (i.e., an article of faith) that Acts and the Gospel writers cannot have used Josephus, since that would play hell with the too-early dates they prefer for those New Testament books. However, Steve Mason,
Josephus and the New Testament
(Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1992), 185–229, tells a very different story, and leading scholars are in agreement, e.g., Richard Pervo,
The Mystery of Acts: Unraveling Its Story
(Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge, 2008) and
Acts: A Commentary
(Minneapolis: Fortress, 2009). And Theodore J. Weeden,
The Two Jesuses: Jesus of Jerusalem and Jesus of Nazareth
[monograph published as
Forum
, New Series 6, no. 2 (Fall 2003), 137–341] rearranges the furniture on the Titanic but good: the passion narrative turns out to be based on Josephus's account of Jesus ben Ananias (Josephus,
Jewish War
6.300–9)! This possibility is corroborated in Craig Evans, “Jesus in Non-Christian Sources,” in
Studying the Historical Jesus: Evaluations of the State of Current Research
, ed. Bruce Chilton and Craig Evans (Leiden, South Holland: Brill Academic, 1998), 475–77.

19
. Krister Stendahl,
The School of St. Matthew and Its Use of the Old Testament
(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986); Richard Longenecker,
Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period
(Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1975), 140–52.

20
. 20. B. P. Reardon, ed.,
Collected Ancient Greek Novels
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989), 29–32 (Chariton, Book 1, Chapters
7
–
9
) and 151–53 (Xenophon, Book 3, Chapters
8
-
10
).

21
. Philostratus,
Life of Apollonius of Tyana
8.12, trans. C. P. Jones, I am not suggesting Luke borrowed the scene from Philostratus or from some earlier source about Apollonius. No, it is just that the one puts the other in a new light: they sound so similar, who's to say Luke is trying to say anything more than Philostratus does?

22
. Stephen Fuchs,
Rebellious Prophets: A Study of Messianic Movements in Indian Religions
(New York: Asia Publishing House, 1965), 31, 33,154,188,197,220.

23
. Robert Graves and Joshua Podro,
Jesus in Rome: A Historical Conjecture
(London: Cassell, 1957); J. Duncan and M. Derrett,
The Anastasia: The Resurrection of Jesus as an Historical Event
(Shipston-on-Stour, UK: P. Drinkwater, 1982); Barbara Thiering,
Jesus of the Apocalypse: The Life of Jesus After the Crucifixion
(New York: Doubleday, 1995).

24
. See Richard Carrier, “The Plausibility of Theft,” in
The Empty Tomb: Jesus beyond the Grave
, ed. Robert M. Price and Jeffery Jay Lowder (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 2005), 358–64.

25
. Pilate so describes the brutalized Jesus in Tim Rice,
Jesus Christ Superstar.

26
. See Richard Carrier, “The Burial of Jesus in Light of Jewish Law,” Price and Lowder,
The Empty Tomb
, 369–92.

27
. Similarly, Matthew's attesting to a widespread report that the body was stolen is evidence it was: see Carrier, “Plausibility of Theft,” in Price and Lowder,
The Empty Tomb
, 355–57.

28
. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin,
Monty Python's The Life of Brian (of Nazareth)
(New York: Ace, 1979), 99.

29
. James M. Robinson, “Jesus from Easter to Valentinus (or to the Apostles Creed),” in
Jesus according to the Earliest Witness
, ed. James M. Robinson (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 38–39.

30
. Rudolf Bultmann,
History of the Synoptic Tradition
, trans. John Marsh (New York: Harper and Row, 1972), 259–61.

31
. Contrary to contentious but popular modern translations, the text simply reads
kai idontes autonprosekunesan hoi de edistasan
, “and upon seeing him they worshipped, but they doubted,” implying all eleven disciples (the
hoi
of Matt. 28:17 being the same
hoi
of Matt. 28:16, specifically in fact the
hoi endeka mathetai
, “the eleven disciples”).

32
. Quoted in Origen,
Contra Celsum
, trans. Henry Chadwick (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1980), 402.

33
. Irenaeus,
Against Heresies
1.23.1, 3.

34
. Scott D. Hill, “The Local Hero in Palestine in Comparative Perspective,” in
Elijah and Elisha in Socioliterary Perspective
, ed. Robert B. Coote (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1992), 37–74.