The empty tomb, taken alone, doesn’t conclusively demonstrate the resurrection. Mary Magdalene’s own first reaction was that the body had been stolen (John 20:13). What settled the matter for her wasn’t the empty grave — it was his personal appearance to her (John 20:14-18).

These were direct, visible, physical, tangible meetings — ‘the living image of the resurrection.’

Where and When

Christ’s initial appearances happened on the same day the tomb was found empty, in the garden where his body had been laid. Subsequent encounters are set out in detail (Matt 28:1-20; Mark 16:9-19; Luke 24:1-53; John 20:19-21:25; Acts 1:3-9) — first around Jerusalem, then soon after in Galilee.

Luke condensed it: ‘He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during a period of forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God’ (Acts 1:2-3). These were direct, visible, physical and tangible meetings, displaying ‘the living image of the resurrection.’¹Calvin, Institutes, 3.25.3; 991.

At Least Fourteen Occasions

There may have been more unrecorded. The New Testament identifies eleven before Christ’s ascension and three after.

1. To Mary Magdalene (Matt 28:1; Mark 6:19; John 20:11-18)
2. To the women returning from the grave (Matt 28:2, 8-10)
3. To Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Cor 15:5)
4. To two companions travelling to Emmaus (Mark 16:12-13; Luke 24:13-31)
5. To the disciples, without Thomas (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-23)
6. To the disciples, including Thomas (Mark 16:14; John 20:26-29)
7. To seven disciples fishing the Sea of Tiberias (John 21:1-23)
8. To the eleven on the Galilean mountain (Matt 28:16)
9. ‘To more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive’ (1 Cor 15:6)
10. To James (1 Cor 15:7)
11. To the witnesses of his ascension (Matt 28:18-20; Mark 16:19; Acts 1:3-12)
12. To Stephen at his martyrdom (Acts 7:55)
13. To Paul at his conversion (Acts 9:17; 1 Cor 15:8)
14. To John on Patmos (Rev 1:9-12)²This paragraph combines lists in Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:483 and Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1:626.

Four Ways to Read the Evidence

What was the true nature of those experiences? Several readings are available.

One: their objective nature can’t be known with certainty; all we can know is how the disciples understood and reported them.

Two: they may be believed as reported — taken on faith — but not objectively verified.

Three: some aspects can be historically verified, such as the empty tomb, while others cannot be established beyond doubt, such as the literal truth of the bodily resurrection.

Four: there is sufficient publicly verifiable evidence — the empty tomb and the appearances — to establish their reality as probable, beyond reasonable doubt, and highly likely to have occurred as the Gospels suggest.

Examine the evidence and the fourth reading is most plausible. Here’s why.

They Bet Their Lives on What They Saw

Were it not for the miracle reports, most historians ‘would be very happy to treat their accounts as generally historically reliable.’³Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels?, 133.

The apostles’ willingness to die for their conviction is a strong argument for its historical truth. Their belief that the risen Jesus truly appeared to them is what motivated them to endure persecution and martyrdom.

Martyrdom isn’t unique to Christianity. What is unique is that ‘the apostles died for what they saw firsthand. … Their convictions were not based on secondhand testimony, but personal experience with the risen Jesus … banking their lives on it.’⁴McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles, 261, 265.

‘The apostles died … for the belief that they had actually seen the risen Christ … [They] really believed that Jesus had risen from the grave. The apostles could have been mistaken, but their willingness to die as martyrs establishes their unmistakable sincerity. The apostles were not liars; rather, they believed that they had seen the risen Jesus, they were willing to die for this claim, and many actually did die for it.’⁵McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles, 3.

‘No evidence exists that any wavered in their faith or commitment. Of course, this does not mean they were necessarily right, but it does mean they really thought Jesus had risen from the grave, and they bet their lives on it.’⁶McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles, 259.

The Sheer Number and Variety

Taken at face value, the number and variety of claims to have encountered the risen Christ — combined with the empty tomb — is strong evidence.

The four Gospels present their material quite differently, but that isn’t a problem. That they ‘provide multiple, independent reports of post-mortem appearances of Jesus’⁷Craig, On Guard, 263. is arguably an indication of authenticity. Look at the range:

‘The resurrected Jesus is recorded as appearing in Judaea and in Galilee, in town and countryside, indoors and outdoors, in the morning and in the evening, by prior appointment and without prior appointment, close and distant, on a hill and by a lake, to groups of men and groups of women, to individuals and groups of up to five hundred, sitting, standing, walking, eating, and always talking. Many are explicitly close-up encounters involving conversations. It is hard to imagine this pattern of appearances in the Gospels and early Christian letters without there having been multiple individuals who claimed to have seen Jesus risen from the dead.’⁸Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels?, 134-35.

The accounts list eyewitnesses who saw Jesus alive on at least eleven occasions (1 Cor 15:5-8) — individuals, small groups, and large gatherings, including one of more than five hundred at once. ‘Paul’s list of eyewitnesses to Jesus’ resurrection appearances guarantees that such appearances occurred.’⁹Craig, On Guard, 263.

Why ‘Hallucination’ Doesn’t Explain It

That the appearances combine individual and collective experiences matters enormously. Group experiences can’t have been mistaken subjective visions or delusional hallucinations, for three reasons.

First, that explanation assumes the disciples expected Christ to rise. The Gospels depict the opposite: despair, and reluctance to believe it when told.¹⁰Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics. Abridged, 456.

Second, it’s highly unlikely that so many accounts from differing sources — many of whose witnesses were still alive when the reports were written — were coordinated by people sharing an intention to deceive.

Third, it’s less likely still that numerous people were jointly deceived by shared flights of imagination or wish-fulfilment.

The First Witnesses Were Women

First-hand meeting with the risen Jesus was an apostolic qualification (Acts 1:22). Yet the two earliest eyewitnesses were women, both named Mary (Matt 27:61; 28:1).

Note the initial reception. Their testimony, and Joanna’s, was met with sheer disbelief combined with misunderstanding, fear and astonishment (Mark 16:8; Luke 24:11). It was further encounters with the risen Christ that produced faith among his contemporaries (Luke 24:31, 36).

Which makes it historically significant that all the Gospels make so much of the women’s priority as witnesses. In that setting it was the least persuasive way to tell the story — and nobody inventing an account would have chosen it.

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• 1
  Calvin, Institutes, 3.25.3; 991. ↩︎
• 2
  This paragraph combines lists in Oden, Systematic Theology, 2:483 and Brakel, The Christian’s Reasonable Service, 1:626. ↩︎
• 3
  Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels?, 133. ↩︎
• 4
  McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles, 261, 265. ↩︎
• 5
  McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles, 3. ↩︎
• 6
  McDowell, The Fate of the Apostles, 259. ↩︎
• 7
  Craig, On Guard, 263. ↩︎
• 8
  Williams, Can We Trust the Gospels?, 134-35. ↩︎
• 9
  Craig, On Guard, 263. ↩︎
• 10
  Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics. Abridged, 456. ↩︎