Is there historical evidence of Jesus' resurrection?

1) The burial of Jesus: it is reported by numerous independent sources (the four Gospels, including the material used by Mark which according to Rudolf Pesch dates back to seven years after the crucifixion of Jesus and comes from eyewitness accounts, several letters from Paul, written before of the Gospels and even closer to the facts, and the apocryphal Gospel of Peter) and this is an element of authenticity on the basis of the criterion of the multiple attestation. Furthermore, the burial of Jesus through Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, is reliable because it satisfies the so-called embarrassment criterion: as the scholar Raymond Edward Brown explained (in "The Death of the Messiah", 2 vols ., Garden City 1994, p.1240-1). The burial of Jesus thanks to Joseph of Arimathea is "very probable" since it is "inexplicable" how members of the early church could value so much a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin, having an understandable hostility towards them (they were the architects of death of Jesus). For these and other reasons the late John At Robinson of the University of Cambridge, the burial of Jesus in the grave is "one of the oldest and best attested facts about Jesus" ("The Human Face of God", Westminster 1973, p. 131 )

2) The tomb found empty: on the Sunday after the crucifixion, the tomb of Jesus was found empty by a group of women. This fact too satisfies the criterion of the multiple attestation being attested by various independent sources (Gospel of Matthew, Mark and John, and Acts of the Apostles 2,29 and 13,29). Furthermore, the fact that the protagonists of the discovery of the empty tomb are women, then considered devoid of any authority (even in Jewish courts) confirms the authenticity of the story, satisfying the embarrassment criterion. Thus the Austrian scholar Jacob Kremer said: "by far most exegetes consider the biblical declarations concerning the empty tomb to be reliable" ("Die Osterevangelien – Geschichten um Geschichte", Katholisches Bibelwerk, 1977, pp. 49-50).

3) Apparitions of Jesus after death: on different occasions and in various circumstances numerous individuals and groups of different people say they have experienced apparitions of Jesus after his death. Paul often mentions these events in his letters, considering that they were written close to the events and taking into account his personal knowledge with the people involved, these apparitions cannot be dismissed as mere legends. Moreover, they are present in different independent sources, satisfying the criterion of the multiple attestation (the apparition to Peter is attested by Luke and Paul; the apparition to the Twelve is attested by Luke, John and Paul; the apparition to women is attested by Matthew and John, etc.) The German skeptical critic of the New Testament Gerd Lüdemann concluded: «It can be taken as historically certain that Peter and the disciples had experiences after the death of Jesus in which he appeared to them as the resurrected Christ »(" What Really Happened to Jesus? ", Westminster John Knox Press 1995, p.8).

4) The radical change in the attitude of the disciples: after their frightened escape at the moment of the crucifixion of Jesus, the disciples suddenly and sincerely believed that He had risen from the dead, despite their Jewish predisposition to the contrary. So much so that suddenly they were even willing to die for the truth of this belief. The eminent British scholar NT Wright therefore said: "This is why, as a historian, I cannot explain the rise of primitive Christianity unless Jesus rose from the dead, leaving an empty tomb behind him." ("The New Unimproved Jesus", Christianity Today, 13/09/1993).