500

[Wyrd of Gawd]

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Lately, I've been hearing a lot from visiting Christians that 500 witnesses saw Jesus ascend into the sky after his resurrection.

The reference is to Paul's testimony in 1Cor 15. First, let me begin by going step by step through the relevant parts of the chapter:

1COR 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

What scriptures? The Gospels had not yet been written. And why did he need to hear about it from the scriptures instead of an obvious recent history, one that happened only a few years prior?

And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

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Actually, he died on Friday and rose before dawn on Sunday according to John, so that seems more like two days, but hey, who's counting?

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15:5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

But Cephas (Peter) WAS one of the disciples and Judas was dead and Mattias, his replacement, hadn't yet been chosen.

15:6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

If 500 people saw him at once, how did they not convert? According to Acts, the Christians numbered at 120.

15:7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

Wasn't James one of the 12?

15:8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

But all this happened within Paul's lifetime. How was Paul born at the wrong time? Did Paul believe the resurrection of Jesus happened in a distant past? Would that explain why he heard about it "from the scriptures" instead of recent memory?

Now on to Acts

Acts 1:1-3 The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:
To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

So Jesus hung around for 40 days after the resurrection? Not exactly consistent with the Gospel accounts, some of which say he rose into Heaven that very day. Ironically, the Gospel of Luke, supposedly the same author as Acts of the Apostles, is one of the sources that says "same day".

1:9-11 And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.

So this marks the ascension.

1:15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)

So there were only 120 of them. Why not 500? Did the other 380 just say, "Meh, just some guy flying up into the clouds. And those angels saying something or other, happens all the time".

500 isn't 120.

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The conventional wisdom is that Jesus was crucified on Friday but to get the correct answer you have to follow all of the clues given. The correct day was most likely Wednesday. A case can even be made for a Thursday crucifixion. To get the correct answer to match the clues a person would have to calculate backwards for almost 2,000 years, throwing in the change in our calendar and the day of preparation for the passover sabbath (which was in the middle of the week for that incident). You can also get distracted by the regular sabbath.
http://thewayofthemessiah.org/tsp.html

IMO you need a supercomputer to figure out the ethnocentric Jewish religious fairy tale. But it's good to read all of the opinions.