Proving The Resurrection By the Minimal Facts Approach

[pocaracas]

I'm assuming that somebody already told this guy that some of the earliest copies we've uncovered of the New Testament never made any mention of a ressurection, right?

The following passage of Paul's first Letter to the Corinthians contains a "proto-creed" of the early Church which Paul probably learned from the apostles within five years of the resurrection of Jesus.

1 Corinthians 15
15 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

The letter was written before the gospels.

Hope this helps.

So... the story was already existent (scriptures), but the new version (Jesus, Teacher, Apollonius, etc...) was retrofitted to align with that story.
No matter how undocumented and unconfirmed this hypothesis is, it is still way more probable than magic-man-comes-back-to-life-after-being-certainly-dead.