FINAL WARNING: The Curtain Falls
The first mention of the resurrection of Jesus appears in 1 Corinthians
15:3- 8, because it is believed that this was actually written about ten
years before Mark was written. Therefore the stories concerning the
resurrection of Jesus were unknown to Paul. In 1 Corinthians 9:1, Paul
says: “...have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?” yet there is no
historical reference that he knew Jesus. The word “seen” was
translated from the Greek word ‘ophthe,’ which means to have one’s
eyes opened to realms beyond this physical world, which refers to
visions. It is the same verb which is used by Isaiah (Isa. 6:1) when he
said: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne...” It was also used in Luke
24:34 to say that Jesus “appeared to Simon” and in the Book of Acts
to describe the resurrection. Paul never spoke of a physical
resurrection, because in light of the proper translation, it was only in a
spiritual resurrection, where Jesus now “sitteth on the right hand of
God.” (Col. 3:10)Nearly a hundred “gospels” appeared during the first three centuries,
and to preserve continuity and protect the new Christian religion, the
four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were chosen. Despite
some gaps and contradictions, they were very similar. These books
were not written during Jesus’ lifetime, but date from a time of major
revolution in Judea, 66-74 and 132-135, and the earlier writings that
they had been based upon have since been lost.The argument has been made, that though some apocryphal gospels
are derived from some sects that are doctrinely different from
Christianity, their appearance, some in the early 2nd century, suggest
that they were closer to the actual events than the four gospels, and
possibly more historically accurate.What all the writers of the Gospels had, concerning Jesus, was just an
outline of the man. There were no eyewitnesses to consult, so where
there was a void in detail, they just referred to the Hebrew Scriptures
to fill in the blanks. For example, the removal of Jesus to Egypt by His
earthly father Joseph, hearkens back to the patriarch Joseph in the
Book of Genesis; the story about the young Jesus in the Temple, was
modeled after Samuel’s Temple experiences; the Sermon on the Mount
was an attempt to paint Him as another Moses; the story of Jesus’
raising of the widow’s son at Nain, was taken from Elijah’s raising of
the widow’s son in 1 Kings 17:17; Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 was just