THE CITY RESURRECTION A Publication of Houston Baptist University SPRING 2016 T H E C I T Y A selection from Article 4, Question 54, Third Part of the Summa Theologiae, written by Thomas Aquinas in the 13th Century A.D. From the Blackfriars translation, edited and translated by Thomas Gilby, et al., McGraw Hill, 1976. It was fitting that in the resurrection Christ’s soul take up once more a body with wounds. This was so first of all for the sake of his own glory, for Bede tells us that he persevered his wounds not from any inability to cure them, but that there might be a perpetual sign of his glorious triumph. Augustine continues this line of reasoning, Perhaps in the kingdom of God we shall see on the bodies of the martyrs marks of those wounds which they received for the sake of Christ’s name; in their bodies this will not be a sign of deformity but of dignity. From these wounds, though they are in the body, will shine forth a beauty which is not from the body but is the result of virtue. A publication of Houston Baptist University S p r i n g 2016 ooo T he C ity p u b l i S h e r Robert Sloan e d i t o r S Jerome Johnston Craig A. Evans Jeffrey Green Jeremiah J. Johnston S t u d e n t e d i t o r Cullen Ware C ontributing W r i t e r S John Granger Cook Craig A. Evans Collin Garbarino Gary R. Habermas Jeremiah J. Johnston Michael R. Licona Louis Markos Pheme Perkins Charles L. Quarles Barrie M. Schwortz Daniel R. Streett James P. Ware Phillip H. Wiebe THE CITY Volume IX, Issue 1 Copyright 2016 Houston Baptist University. All rights reserved by original authors except as noted. Letters and submissions to this journal are welcomed. Cover art Ressurection by Luca Giordano (c. 1665). Email us at [email protected], and visit us online at hbu.edu/TheCity. Spring 2016 CONTENTS Resurrection Craig A. Evans on The Resurrection of Jesus in the Light of Jewish Burial P ractices 7 Gary R. Habermas on The Resurrection of Jesus in Contemporary Theology 15 Michael R. Licona on What are the P rimary Sources for Jesus’s Resurrection? 23 Pheme Perkins on Witnesses to Resurrection 31 Charles L. Quarles on P aul as a Witness to the Resurrection of Jesus 39 James P. Ware on Jesus’s Resurrection and Ours According to P aul the Apostle 48 Daniel R. Streett on Rome and the Risen Jesus 57 Barrie M. Schwortz on F ive Reasons Why Some Christians are Shroud Skeptics 67 Phillip H. Wiebe on The Resurrection 77 John Granger Cook on Resurrection in P aganism and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ 86 Jeremiah J. Johnston on How Early Critics and Objectors Confirm the T ruth of the Easter Story 95 Collin Garbarino on Martyrdom and the Resurrection 109 Louis Markos on And W e Believe in the Resurrection of the Dead 117 3 The City 4 Spring 2016 Editor’s Noteh Jeffrey Green am proud to present to you the Spring 2016 issue of The City. This issue has been a joy to work on as the theme has been resurrection. I have had a long standing academic interest in resurrection, both Iwith reference to Christ’s resurrection but also the general resurrection of the dead. No doubt some of this interest is because of the way in which other philosophical areas I am interested in interact with the rich theological themes in these discussions. For example, resurrection brings to mind questions involving the mind-body problem, personal identity, philosophy of time, and composition.1 More importantly, however, is that the idea of resurrection itself is one I find to be a particularly celebratory concept. The raising of the dead is not always thought of in a celebratory context. Indeed, I would argue that our current culture’s most salient reference point to the dead rising is the vast amount of television, video games, comics, books and other media that are focused on narratives involving various undead monsters and in particular vampires and zombies. While these examples are not technically cases of resurrection (the term “undead” itself gestures at the common trope in the various mythologies that the monsters are still dead but somehow animated) I think in this case the technicality is often missed and beside the point. Whether dead or in some other state, the creatures that occupy these stories act very much like a living thing in that they move, feed, speak, show intelligence, etc. Thus, whether actually resurrected or not, they are in some sense raised and it behooves us to distinguish the resurrection promised by the Bible with the corpses on our television. I think it is hard for some Christians to feel joy in discussing resurrection 1 For those interested in learning more about analytic philosophy and its intersection with resurrection, I encourage you to see my Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy article on this subject: http://www.iep.utm.edu/resurrec/ 5 The City because it does involve death. There is a sense of morbidness about such discussions. Augustine, for example, feels compelled to address in chapter 20, book 22 of the The City of God what would happen to the body in the resurrection if a cannibal had digested parts of the corpse. That is not a discussion one likes to have at the dinner table. In addition, the media that I referenced before often paints existence after death as, at best, a tormented existence. The cravings of the undead never are sated and a strong sense of alienation is part of their lives. Even in a non-monstrous portrayal of reborn life we find a dark lining. The eponymous character of the television series Dr. Who is close to immortal given his numerous “regenerations” (again, not quite resurrection) and is portrayed not just with happiness but also a deep sense of sadness at such loss and pain his long life brings. The Christian story about resurrection is much different than what our culture offers. It is not just another shot to live longer with the same cravings. Rather, it is the fruit of Christ’s work that reconciled us with God. The existence we look forward to is not more of the same but a life where we live with God in the New Heaven and the New Earth. Without Christ’s death and resurrection this hope is worthless. As Paul writes “If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15:19, NASB). Christ’s resurrection is the foundation of our hope. In this issue we bring you articles that are focused on Christ’s resurrection and the general resurrection of the dead. The articles pursue a wide range of topics from the Shroud of Turin to the various eye- witness accounts of Christ’s resurrection to the way Christ’s resurrection was understood by early Christians. I hope that you are blessed as much as I was by reading the works of these great scholars. He is risen! JEFFREY GREEN, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Houston Baptist University where he serves as the director of the Institute of Christianity and Scholarship and the interim dean of The Graduate School. 6 Spring 2016 The Resurrection of Jesus in the light of jewish burial practices Craig A. Evans he resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who was put to death on a Roman cross, in Jerusalem, in the early spring of either AD 30 or 33, lies at the very heart of Christian faith and is the principal datum that accounts for the emergence of the Christian church. Skeptics, not surprisingly, express doubt. They usually say that the resurrection story is legend, myth, inadequately Tsupported by eyewitness testimony, or the result of some elaborate hoax or conspiracy. In recent years a number of skeptics, including scholars who ought to know better, have charged that the story of the burial of Jesus itself is unhistorical, that Roman law did not in fact permit the burial of the crucified, and that the story of the burial is therefore simply part of early Christian apologetic, designed to confirm the story of the resurrection. A few of these scholars have suggested that in all probability the body of Jesus was not buried but left hanging on the cross or at best was cast into a ditch where it was mauled by animals. Skepticism regarding the burial of Jesus is ill-founded, in the light of Roman law and Jewish law, custom, and practice. The present essay will review both of these elements. ROMAN LAW ACCORDING TO THE DIGESTA Roman law regarding the burial of the executed is far more nuanced — and lenient — than many suppose. In the Digesta, compiled by Roman emperor Justinian in the sixth century (AD 530–533) but comprising a great deal of law from the first and second centuries, we find important 7 The City and relevant material in chapter 24 of book 48. All three of the paragraphs that make up chapter 24, the final chapter, entitled De cadaveribus punitorum (“On the bodies of the punished”), are helpful. I shall treat paragraphs §1 and §3, both of which directly bear on the question of the burial of the executed. §1 Ulpian, Duties of Proconsul, book 9: The bodies of those who are condemned to death should not be refused their relatives; and the Divine Augustus, in the Tenth Book of his Life, said that this rule had been observed.