This is the part of the history where the scientists begin to tut and shake their heads in pity at the poor fools who believe in raising the dead to life. Unfortunately, it is also a fairly key plank of the whole Christian faith, so bear with me ...
Having established that Jesus was properly dead, rumours of his sitting up, talking and eating fish were a source of consternation to some. In particular, there were those who had staked their professional reputations on his being dead (on a permanent basis).
And yet, Jesus was spotted (or so it is claimed) not long after his death.
"and that he [Jesus] appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time ... Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me [Paul] also ..." 1 Corinthians 15:5-8
How on earth can we account for all these sightings of Jesus after his death?
The classic explantaion is that of "hallucination", and after all:
- hallucinations can be brought on by psychological factors such as extreme stress, loss of sleep or mental disorder;
- in one of the alleged sightings, Jesus' close friends failed to recognise him at first;
- Jesus' disciples also claimed to have seen Moses and Elijah on a mountain top.
On the other hand:
- it is a bit of a coincidence that just about all of Jesus' followers had the same hallucination;
- it is strange that this trick of the light took in both Saul the Destroyer and Doubting Thomas;
- it is unusual for hallucinations to book an appointment for a repeat performance.
In any event, if Jesus was dead, then where was his lifeless body while all these idle phantasms were carrying on?
