What would be the Most Compelling Physical Evidence of the Resurrection of Jesus? (original) (raw)

The Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the most disputed and controversial events in all of history. The New Testament claims throughout its books that Jesus was crucified, after three days rose from the dead, and was seen by many disciples. Oceans of ink and countless keystrokes have been used trying to both defend and refute the Resurrection. In the 21st century, there has also been an upsurge in the assertion that Jesus never even existed. Most mainline scholars do not question Jesus’ existence. He is, after all, mentioned in both Roman and Jewish sources. But the question of the Resurrection continues to get a lot of attention in mainstream scholarship. Traditional Christianity says that people who didn’t see Jesus after his death as some of the disciples did, have to rely on latter’s testimony, as well as faith, to accept that Jesus indeed rose from the dead, and was God as he and his disciples apparently claimed. Skeptics offer explanations like mass hallucinations, the women went to the wrong tomb, or the body was stolen. I would like to approach this via a thought experiment. The proposal in this experiment is to speculate what was the best means that God could have left to history as evidence that the Resurrection really happened. In it, I’m going to assume that God exists, that Jesus existed, that he truly rose from the dead, and that God desires to use the Resurrection to bring people to Him by faith. I will follow along those lines; therefore, whatever is deemed to be the best physical evidence of the Resurrection cannot be a knock-down proof, but require an element of faith. If we were somehow able to transport 21st century equipment back to Jerusalem in the 1st century to assist in discovering what occurred at the time of what we call the Resurrection, we would of course have an array of video and audio equipment, including night vision cameras, electromagnetic-reading equipment, etc. But we can only use what was available in the 1st century, which limits things considerably. Now, even the disciples who claimed to have seen Jesus after his death didn’t actually witness the actual Resurrection, which according to reports happened in a darkened tomb that had a stone rolled in front of it. The only items in the tomb were the burial clothes and spices, additional topics of controversy in biblical exegesis. The Gospels use several different Greek terms to describe the burial clothes, including sindon, a long winding sheet. It’s rather obvious that a long winding sheet would be capable of having a chemical or some other type of interaction between the sheet and the body being recorded on it. If the imprints were clear enough, recorded the specific crucifixion wounds that Jesus suffered, but the image-forming process remained a mystery over hundreds of years, then it would easily become the best available tool for God to use to show that Jesus existed, and could also be a possible indicator of his Resurrection.