The Case for Jesus: The Biblical and Historical Evidence for Christ

by Brant Pitre

Notice that there is a clear distinction here between the resurrection of Jesus from the tomb and the ascension of Jesus into heaven. The resurrection has to do with what happened to Jesus’s dead body as it lay in the tomb; the ascension has to do with what happened to Jesus’s living body after it exited the tomb. The resurrection and the ascension are not two ways of describing the same event.10

This clarifies.

Contrary to what some readers assume, the disciples on the road to Emmaus do not fail to recognize Jesus. It’s not as if they’ve forgotten what he looked like after only three days! The Gospel says very clearly that their eyes are “kept” from recognizing him (Luke 24:16). In other words, the resurrected Jesus can change or veil his appearance.

on Easter Sunday, the risen Jesus passes through the “shut” doors. How can he do this? Because after the resurrection, he possesses what the apostle Paul refers to as a “glorified” body—one that has been radically “changed” (1 Corinthians 15:42-51).

Nor did they mean that his soul was exalted to heaven after he died. Instead, they meant that Jesus had been restored to bodily life—a new, glorified bodily life. And in this glorified body, Jesus would never die again. Ever.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee…. And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted. (Matthew 28:16-17)

So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens,…[God] has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. (Acts 17:22, 31-32)

It’s important to highlight how unlikely it would be for the discovery of the empty tomb to be attributed to a female disciple like Mary Magdalene if Jesus’s other disciples had wanted anyone to believe it.20 As a number of scholars have shown, in the first century AD, the testimony of women was widely regarded as unreliable.21

some of the male disciples regarded the women’s account of Jesus’s resurrection as an “idle tale” or “nonsense” (Greek lēros) (Luke 24:10-11).

is this: Jesus’s resurrection from the dead was the fulfillment of Jewish Scripture. Over and over again, the New Testament writings insist on this point:

Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. (Luke 24:45)

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4)

According to Jesus, it is not just his resurrection from the dead that will be a reason for believing in him. It is also the inexplicable conversion of the pagan nations of the world—the Gentiles.

As we have seen in chapter 1, as compelling as Lewis’s argument may seem at first glance, it depends on two assumptions: (1) that the Gospels are historically reliable and (2) that they all depict Jesus as claiming to be God. Take either of these assumptions off the table and the argument no longer works.

Now, Peter’s confession of faith in the divine sonship of Jesus is not contrary to his human intellect. After all, Peter witnesses lots of events that point to Jesus’s unique identity, such as the walking on water, the stilling of the storm, and the Transfiguration. In the end, however, according to Jesus, Peter is only able to believe the incomprehensible mystery that Jesus is really “the Son of the living God” because God himself reveals it to him. As the apostle Paul would later put it: “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3).

I can give you all the historical evidence for concluding that Jesus of Nazareth claimed to be the long-awaited Jewish Messiah, the heavenly Son of Man, and the divine Son of God. I can do all these things—and I’ve tried to do them to the best of my ability. But there is one thing I can’t do. I can’t answer the ultimate question—the question of whether Jesus of Nazareth was in fact God. That is a question you have to answer for yourself.

“But who do you say that I am?”