Objection · Case 02 · Resurrection of Christ
The soldiers confirming his death is reported in the Gospels, which are the very sources under scrutiny.
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
True, but no one in antiquity, including the fiercest early critics of Christianity such as Celsus and the rabbinic tradition, ever suggested that Jesus survived the cross. Roman executioners were professionals who faced death themselves if a condemned man escaped. The swoon theory was invented by eighteenth-century rationalists, and even David Strauss, no friend of Christianity, rejected it: a half-dead man crawling out of a tomb would have inspired pity, not the conviction that he had conquered death.
About this exhibit
This objection is to Apparent death, or the swoon idea.
The claim here is that Jesus did not actually die on the cross but passed out, then revived later in the tomb, so that his followers only thought he had risen. The strongest form of this view leans…
Under Claim 05: A real resurrection is the best explanation of the facts.