We can be certain of NO resurrection - A Response

[Randy Carson]

In the next paragraph of his blog post, Baxter opines:

Here’s another problem – several New Testament authors never mention the resurrection of Jesus. Paul never once mentions a physical, bodily, resurrection. He never mentions the empty tomb either.

Now, I had planned to write a response this this particular assertion...but quite honestly, the subject has been addressed quite capably by many others at various websites. Here in one example:

It has been supposed that Paul’s Damascus road experience was essentially different from the experience of the other apostles. His experience has been held to be mystical and subjective, while theirs was physical and objective. Furthermore, it is argued, Paul says nothing about the tomb being empty.

Paul, however, does not differentiate his experience from the rest of the apostles, other than in its timing. He was not with them at the beginning. He says “he appeared to Peter … he appeared to James … and last of all he appeared also to me”. Previously he had asked. “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?” (1 Corinthians 9:1). He says nothing to imply that his experience was essentially different from theirs.

While he does not refer to the tomb being empty, it is implicit in the creed. Firstly, the creed describes the progression “died … buried … raised … appeared”. Whilst modern people might be tempted to separate these meanings, a first century Jew would only have believed that the sentence implied a continuity. What was dead was buried, what was dead and buried was raised, and what was dead, buried and raised also appeared. The clear implication of this creed is that Jesus underwent a bodily resurrection.

Secondly, the creed is emphatic that something happened “on the third day”. That event, we are told, is that Jesus “was raised”. The appearances, which followed, continued over several weeks.

Thirdly, we need to imagine how Paul and Peter spent their time when they spent 15 days together in Jerusalem. We have already noted that Paul went there “to investigate”. Did they not retrace Christ’s final journey? Did they not pause for prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane or stand where the cross had stood? Did Peter not show him the tomb where he and John had discovered the grave clothes? This, of course, is speculation. But Paul wanted to clarify the facts – and 15 days in a small city is a long time. There are therefore very good reasons to believe that Paul was fully aware that the tomb was empty.

Source:
The Resurrection of Jesus and the Witness of Paul
by Peter May
http://www.bethinking.org/did-jesus-rise...ss-of-paul

About the Author
Peter May served on the General Synod of the Church of England from 1985 to 2010 and was Chair of the UCCF Trust Board from  2003 to 2010. He is a retired GP.

From this, we see that 1) Paul did speak of the physical resurrection of Jesus in 1 Cor 15, and 2) Paul's meetings in Jerusalem with the apostles would have provided him with an opportunity to investigate (Gr. historeo) (cf. Gal. 1:18-19) the full details of the empty tomb. Additionally, I think it is more than reasonable to assume that prior to his conversion, Paul would have been fully aware of the believers' claim of resurrection as well as the counter-claim that the disciples stole the body put forward by the Jews in response. In fact, he would have advocated that stolen body theory himself during the 2-3 year period that he was persecuting the early Church.

The claim that the body had been stolen coupled with the fact that his own conversion was brought about by his meeting the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus (which convinced him that the body obviously had not been stolen), leave no doubt that Paul believed the tomb was empty.

Baxter is simply wrong.