A review of the literature, religious and non-religious [of the first century CE], demonstrates multiple accounts of empty tombs and disappearing appearing bodies.
Dale Allison, Christian New Testament scholar: “Early Christians had the imaginative ability to fabricate fictions on the basis of theological convictions, and on more than one occasion they did so.” Allison writes emphatically, “One of them made up the story in Matthew 27:51b-53:
And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
We can also be fairly confident that the narrative about the guard [at the tomb] in Matthew 27:62-66, which has no parallel in Mark, Luke, or John, is sheer fiction.”
Skeptics also challenge what they perceive as invented stories, seen multiple times throughout the Christian Bible, such as the virgin birth (conception) and the ascension forming imaginative bookends, to mention just two.
–Michael Alter, Jewish counter-missionary, in his book, The Resurrection and Its Apologetics: Jesus’ Death and Burial, Volume 1, p. 238
Gary: Take that, Dr. Anderson!
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End of post.
Escaping Christian Fundamentalism 