WHERE WE ARE

In Chapter 6 of the book I’m currently working on (Thinking Critically about the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resuscitation of the Swoon Theory), I argue that William Craig’s objections to the Swoon Theory FAIL. One of Craig’s objections asserts that Jewish Thought in the first century would have prevented Jesus’ disciples from mistakenly believing that a Jesus who had survived crucifixion had been raised from the dead by God. I refer to this as Objection #10 (Jewish Thought).

Here is a part of Craig’s argument for this objection:

3a. Seeing Jesus alive after his crucifixion (around 30 CE) would lead the eleven remaining disciples of Jesus to believe that Jesus had not died on the cross, not that Jesus was…gloriously risen from the dead.

A. According to non-conspiratorial versions of the Swoon Theory, the eleven remaining disciples of Jesus came to believe that Jesus was gloriously risen from the dead as a result of the eleven remaining disciples seeing Jesus alive after his crucifixion (around 30 CE).

THEREFORE:

2a. Non-conspiratorial versions of the Swoon Theory cannot explain why the eleven remaining disciples of Jesus came to believe that Jesus had gloriously risen from the dead.

One of the serious problems with Objection #10 (Jewish Thought) is that Craig fails to provide a good reason to believe that the key premise (3a) is true.  Premise (3a) is based on premise (4a):

4a. It is contrary to 1st-century Jewish thought to believe that Jesus had died on the cross (around 30 CE) and then to believe that Jesus had gloriously risen from the dead (less than 48 hours later).

Premise (4a) is in turn based on these two false historical claims:

6a. In 1st-century Jewish thought, the resurrection always occurred after the end of the world.

7a. In 1st-century Jewish thought, the resurrection was always the resurrection of all the righteous or all the people.

These two historical claims are mistaken because Craig presents an oversimplified view of 1^st-century Jewish thought. 

Craig ignored the beliefs of the Sadducees.  He committed the fallacy of Hasty Generalization by taking the beliefs of some 1^st-century Jewish thinkers and projecting those beliefs onto 1^st-century Jewish thinkers in general. 

AN ATTEMPT TO REPAIR CRAIG’S JEWISH THOUGHT OBJECTION

One could attempt to repair Craig’s argument against the Swoon Theory by modifying the scope of the above two key historical claims, to make them less general:

6b. In 1st-century Jewish thought, among Jews who believed in the resurrection of the dead, the resurrection always occurred after the end of the world.

7b. In 1st-century Jewish thought, among Jews who believed in the resurrection of the dead, the resurrection was always the resurrection of all the righteous or all the people.

By restricting the scope of these claims to Jews “who believed in the resurrection of the dead” one can eliminate the counterexample of the Sadducees, because the Sadducees clearly rejected the belief in the resurrection of the dead.  So, they would fall outside the scope of these modified historical claims.

However, even though these modified claims are not subject to the counterexample of the Sadducees, these modified claims are in fact FALSE.  The Gospels provide plenty of examples of Jews who believe that resurrections could happen before the end of the world, and that resurrections could happen to individual people:

• Jesus HIMSELF allegedly raised individual people from the dead before the end of the world (Luke 7:49-55 & 8:40-56, John 11:38-44)
• Jesus CLAIMED to have raised individual people from the dead before the end of the world (Matthew 11:2-5, Luke 7:20-22)
• Jesus INSTRUCTED his disciples to raise individual people from the dead before the end of the world (Matthew 10:5-8)
• Jesus PREDICTED he would be killed and then rise from the dead before the end of the world (Matthew 16:21-22, 17:9-12, 20:17-19, Mark 8:31-32, 9:30-32, 10:32-34, Luke 9:21-22 & 18:31-34)  

The idea that individual people could be raised from the dead before the end of the world was clearly and obviously a part of the ministry and teachings of Jesus, according to the Gospels. Thus, Jesus’ disciples learned from their Jewish religious teacher and leader that individual people can rise from the dead before the end of the world.

Furthermore, according to the Gospels, Jesus and his disciples were NOT the only Jews who held this belief:

• Other Jews, besides Jesus’ disciples, believed that individual people could rise from the dead before the end of the world (Matthew 14:1-3, Mark 6:14-16, Luke 9:7-9)

Finally, according to the Gospel of Matthew, the religious leaders of Jerusalem were worried that after Jesus was crucified Jesus’ disciples would steal his body and then deceive their fellow Jews into believing that Jesus had risen from the dead (BEFORE the end of the world):

62 The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 Therefore command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise, his disciples may go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead,’ and the last deception would be worse than the first.”

(Matthew 27:62-64, New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition)

Although the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem might not have believed that an individual person could rise from the dead before the end of the world (especially since many of them were probably Sadducees), they believed (according to the Gospel of Matthew) that many of their fellow Jews could be persuaded to believe that an individual person (i.e. Jesus) could rise from the dead before the end of the world.  If the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem were right about this, that implies that many Jews at that time believed that an individual person could rise from the dead before the end of the world.

Either the Gospels contain several false historical claims on this subject (thus damaging the credibility of the Gospels as reliable sources of historical information about the alleged death and resurrection of Jesus) or else, the modified premises (6b) and (7b) are false, and thus they do NOT constitute true and established historical claims.  If (6b) and (7b) are false, then the attempt to repair Craig’s Objection #10 by modifying the scope of premises (6a) and (7a) FAILS.  Therefore, we may confidently conclude that Objection #10 against the Swoon Theory FAILS.