Last week I shared some of the documentary evidence that Jesus truly lived and was crucified. In this, I sought to show particularly from non-Christian sources how this cannot be denied without ignoring the clear facts. Truly, it seems to reject this is to reject the very study of history. If we cannot trust something so well documented, then we cannot trust anything.
Of course, the fact that Jesus of Nazareth lived and was crucified would be essentially meaningless to us today if He stayed dead. Thousands of people in history lived and were crucified. The vast majority we have never heard of and, frankly, don’t matter to us at all. What makes Jesus’ crucifixion so different are two things: the assertion that when He suffered on the cross, He was suffering God’s wrath towards all human sin and evil, and that He then rose from the dead to both prove the first and to assure us that He has won for us eternal life.
The Apostle Paul acknowledges this when he writes:
[I]f Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied (I Co 15:14-19 ESV).
Simply put, if Jesus died on the cross and stayed dead, then His death would mean nothing more than the suffering of one insignificant person out of billions. Therefore, what really matters is if Jesus rose from the dead or not.
The documentary evidence
A huge body of documentary evidence shows Jesus did actually rise from the dead. As I mentioned last week, the New Testament is by far the best-preserved set of documents in history. The ancient manuscript evidence for the New Testament exceeds 5000 full or partial manuscripts. When one adds to this the writings of various Christian authors from the first couple of centuries AD, the volume of documents attesting to the resurrection of Jesus is overwhelming.
The resurrection is somewhat more difficult to show from non-Christian sources for the simple reason that if someone is convinced Jesus did rise from the dead, then they are, almost by definition, Christian.[1] It can, however, be established by Christian writers that the truth of the Resurrection was attested to as central to Christianity from the beginning.
One of the earliest extra-biblical references to the Resurrection of Christ comes from a work known as 1st Clement. This work was probably written between 95 and 97, making it essentially contemporaneous with the Gospel of John and the book of Revelation.[2] In this work, Clement, the bishop of Rome, speaks of the resurrection of Christ as assumed: “Let us consider, dear friends, how the Master continually points out to us the coming resurrection of which he made the Lord Jesus Christ the firstfruit when he raised him from the dead.”[3] This shows how the resurrection of Jesus was a cornerstone teaching in the Christian church from the beginning.
Shortly after this, Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, wrote clearly that Jesus died and was raised back to life. Writing around 107-108, Ignatius takes on the idea circulating at the time that Jesus did not really die and rise again, but it was only an illusion.
For he suffered all these things for our sakes, in order that we might be saved; and he truly suffered just as he truly raised himself—not, as certain unbelievers say, that he suffered in appearance only … For I know and believe that he was in the flesh even after the resurrection; and when he came to Peter and those with him, he said to them “Take hold of me; handle me and see that I am not a disembodied demon.” And immediately they touched him and believed, being closely united to his flesh and blood.[4]
Ignatius, therefore, shows the earliest church insisted that Jesus did really rise bodily from the grave.
Within a couple of years of Ignatius, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, wrote a strong condemnation against those who reject Jesus’ bodily death and resurrection. In this he quotes John, his teacher, from 1 John 3:
For everyone “who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is antichrist,” and whoever twists the sayings of the Lord to suit his own sinful desires and claims that there is neither resurrection nor judgment—well, that person is the first-born of Satan.[5]
Much like Ignatius, Polycarp is strongly defending the resurrection against those who denied it.
The Debate over Josephus
First century Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (37-100) gives some of the best historical accounts of Jewish history. His work Antiquities of the Jews, written around 97, references Jesus as well. There is, however, some debate over the text. As the text has been handed down, it reads:
Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.[6]
Now, the wording of this seems strange for a Jew who never converted to Christianity, so it appears most likely that some Christian copyist inserted “corrections” into the text to make Jesus’ resurrection clear. However, scholars do still believe Josephus did refer to the Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead. A 10th century Arabic text is probably accurate to the original when it records this paragraph this way:
At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and [he] was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive. Accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders. 
Even in this form, this is text confirms the resurrection was known about, even within circles that rejected it.
From these texts, we can see very strong historical evidence of the resurrection. Faith is not, as many contend, a leap into believing something that cannot be proven. Saving faith, however, follows the teachings of the Bible: Jesus not only died and rose again, but He did it for me.
Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
[1] Here I am making the allowance that it is possible for someone to know that Jesus rose from the dead, but not trust in Him for salvation (James 2:19). This is the difference between knowing that Jesus died and rose and knowing that He died and rose for me.
[2] It is generally understood that these two were the last two books of the Bible to be written, with both dated around 90-100.
[3] Clement of Rome, “The Letter of the Romans to the Corinthians (I Clement),” in The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, ed. Michael W. Holmes, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 57.
[4] Ignatius of Antioch, “To the Smyrnaeans,” in The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, ed. Michael W. Holmes, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 185–87.
[5] Michael W. Holmes and Polycarp, eds., “The Letter of Polycarp to the Philippians,” in The Apostolic Fathers: Greek Texts and English Translations, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1999), 213–15.
[6] Flavius Josephus, “The Antiquities of the Jews, by Flavius Josephus,” trans. William Whiston, Project Gutenberg, n.d., Book XVIII, ch. 3, par. 3, https://gutenberg.org/files/2848/2848-h/2848-h.htm#link18noteref-9.