Over the last few weeks, we have presented the Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus as nothing less than ancient historical documents, written within the living memories of the eyewitnesses, by those eyewitnesses, or their close associates. Nonetheless, resurrection skeptic and critic Bart Ehrman has often been quoted saying that the Gospel accounts were corrupted through a long string of oral transmissions by multiple people over decades of time, resulting in a distorted and false story ultimately being recorded in the Gospel accounts. Even so, as noted in the previous articles, Ehrman’s assertions are deceptive and inaccurate. Nevertheless, the Gospels are not the only source of evidence for what happened to Jesus after the crucifixion. To be sure, there is an older source that reaches back nearly to the event itself. During the mid-first century, Paul of Tarsus wrote a letter to a church at Corinth. In this ancient historical document, Paul wrote something exciting.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom