500 Witnesses
1 CORINTHIANS 15:3-8
The Resurrection of Christ
For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.
Lets talk about vs. 6: Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.
1 - "appeared"? Did Jesus "appear" in a manner as a ghost appear's in a Hollywood movie? I honestly don't know if Paul means Jesus appeared in some sort of mystical, spiritual fashion, or he appeared physically, just kind of walked up to this very large group of Christians that were gathered - and why were they gathered? Were they gathered in anticipation of seeing the resurrected Jesus? 500+ people don't just gather for the heck of it. Did Jesus speak to them at this gathering? Surely he spoke, didn't he?
2 - Who counted these 500+ witnesses? Was it an estimate, or did someone actually count them as they gathered? I couldn't look out at a group of more than 20 people and give anywhere near an accurate estimation.
3 - It seems that it would have been prudent for there to be numerous mentions of such a witness-gathering, rather than just ONE passage in the entire New Testament?
Matthew says nothing!
Mark says nothing!
Luke says nothing!
John says nothing!
Acts says nothing!
Why anyone should believe that this happened when the ONLY person to mention it in the bible (Paul) WAS NOT THERE . Is it possible that Paul is confusing this story with the story we read in Matthew 14 - the feeding of 5,000 - I mean, one story was before the death of Jesus, the other story was after his death, and the only difference is one zero.
4 - Admittedly, Paul was not at this witness-gathering, so he heard this claim from someone else. Is it possible that the person(s) who relayed this claim to Paul also got it 2nd hand? Paul is relaying it some 20-25 years after the supposed resurrection of Jesus. It would have been nice if Paul had told us who he got this information from, and when he received it. Wouldn't that information add an air of credibility to the story?
5 - Paul must know the names of most of these witnesses since he claims to know that "most " are still alive - or - he is just passing on another part of the claim that was given to him by someone else, in which case, he is simply passing on one giant rumor.
6 - It seems that Paul is just doing what so many Christians do today - pass on claims as if they know the claims are true. Paul, in 1 Cor. 15:6, was passing along a claim that was passed along to him - a claim of more than 500 witnesses to the resurrected Jesus, all at one gathering, and today's Christians are just passing along the same claim of this large gathering of witnesses to the resurrected Jesus. It is a claim, like so many other biblical claims, that is entirely useless - unless - you are already a believer in biblical claims.
"Believing is easier than thinking. Hence so many more believers than thinkers."
~Bruce Calvert
r.u.reasonable@gmail.com
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