The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem

by Marcus J. Borg

So central is the historical factuality of the Easter stories for many Christians that, if they didn’t happen this way, the foundation and truth of Christianity disappear. To underline this claim, a verse from Paul is often quoted: “If Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain” (1 Cor. 15:14). We agree with this statement, even as we do not think that it intrinsically points to the historical factuality of an empty tomb.16 But we are convinced that an emphasis on the historical factuality of the Easter stories, as if they were reporting events that could have been photographed, gets in the way of understanding them. On the one hand, it is a stumbling block for people who have difficulty believing that these stories are factual. If these think that believing these stories to be historically factual is essential to being Christian, they think they can’t be Christian.17 The issue is not simply whether “things like this” ever happen. Rather, the issue is generated by the stories themselves: their differences are difficult to reconcile, and their language often seems to be other than the language of historical reporting.18 Moreover, focusing on the factuality of these stories often misses their more-than-factual meanings. When treated as if they are primarily about an utterly unique spectacular event, we often do not get beyond the question, “Did they happen or not?” to the question, “What do they mean?”