Alive - by Dave Smith

• To groups of men and groups of women
• To individuals and groups of up to 500
• Sitting, standing, walking
• Eating and always talking. 11
We’ve studied in some detail some of the main appearances of Jesus
to his disciples, which took place in the 40 days between his
resurrection and his ascension to heaven. There were other such
occasions, including one to more than 500 at one time (1 Corinthians
15:6). We’ve also explored the post-ascension appearance of Jesus
to Saul, especially significant because, as we’ve seen, Saul was
previously one of Jesus’ primary opponents. This, along with Jesus’
appearance to his sceptic half-brother James (1 Corinthians 15:7a),
has convinced even some sceptical scholars of the historicity of the
resurrection.
There have been, though, several sceptics who consider miraculous
intervention to be an impossibility and have therefore sought to come
up with alternative suggestions concerning what happened. Two of
the primary arguments are that:
• The disciples were deceivers who made this all up and invented the
story of both the empty tomb and the appearances.
• The disciples were sincere but mistaken – instead of seeing the
resurrected Jesus, they were subject to visions, psychological wishfulfilment
or hallucinations.
The first suggestion that the disciples made it all up is extremely
unlikely. Not least, as we have seen, if the early Christians had
wanted to make up a case for the resurrection, they wouldn’t have
had the women as the first witnesses since in the patriarchal culture