The alleged difficulties of the Christian Theory, extremely strong argument in favour of the Resurrection.
We decided in the last chapter that the Resurrection of Christ was probably true; that is to say, we carefully examined the various narratives, and came to the conclusion that they had every appearance of being candidly and truthfully written. We have now to consider, more in detail, the testimony of its first witnesses. And, as we shall see, this affords strong additional evidence in its favour; since all attempts to account for this testimony, without admitting its truth, fail hopelessly.
By the first witnesses, we mean those persons who saw, or said they saw, Christ alive after His Crucifixion. This will include the twelve Apostles, and over 500 other Christians, most of whom St. Paul says were still alive when he wrote. It will also include two persons, who at the time were not Christians,—St. Paul himself, an avowed enemy, and St. James who, though he was Christ's brother, does not seem to have believed in Him.[312]
[312] John 7. 5.
And before discussing the value of their testimony, it may be well to glance at some general rules in regard to all testimony. If, then, a person plainly asserts that a certain event took place, before we believe that it did take place, we must inquire first as to his Veracity: did he speak the truth as far as he knew it? Next as to his Knowledge: had he the means of knowing the truth? Next as to his Investigation: did he avail himself of those means? And lastly, as to his Reasoning: did he draw the right conclusion? And all possible ways of denying the truth of a man's statement can be brought under one or other of these heads. For if it is not true, it must be either:—
| Intentionally false | = want of Veracity. | |||||
| or | ||||||
| Unintentionally false, in which case he either | had not the means of knowing the truth | = want of Knowledge. | ||||
| or | ||||||
| had the means, and either | did not use them | = want of Investigation. | ||||
| or | ||||||
| used them wrongly | = want of Reasoning. |
From this it is clear that for anyone to deny a man's statement, without disputing either his veracity, knowledge, investigation, or reasoning, is very like denying that one angle is greater than another, without disputing that it is neither equal to it, nor less than it. We have now to apply these general rules to the testimony in favour of the Resurrection of Christ. And, as we shall see, the denial of these four points corresponds to the four chief alternative theories, which, may be called the Falsehood, the Legend, the Vision, and the Swoon Theory.
(A.) The Falsehood Theory.
We will begin with the Falsehood Theory. This would be to deny the veracity of the witnesses, and say that though they asserted that Christ rose from the dead, and appeared to them, they did not really believe it. In other words they were deliberate impostors, who, knowing that their Master did not rise from the dead, yet spent their whole lives in trying to persuade people that He did. And, as we shall see, their motives, their conduct, and their sufferings, are all strongly opposed to such a theory.