SITU MEMO 41

HE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

 "The resurrection of Jesus took everybody by surprise. The disciples werent expecting it. They knew perfectly well, that if you followed someone who you thought was the Messiah, and he got killed, then that was it. We know of at least a dozen other Messianic or prophetic movements, within a hundred years on either side of Jesus, they routinely ended with the death of the founder. And if the movement wanted to continue, they didnt say, that he had been raised from the dead. They said, lets find his brother or cousin who can carry on this movement. You can see how those Jewish groups did that. This proto-christian did it differently. They had James the brother of Jesus, as their great leader of the early church, but nobody said, James is the Messiah. They said, Jesus is the Messiah. Why? He was raised from the dead. The only way you can explain, why Christianity began, and why it took the very precise shape it was, is let's say it cautiously, first - they really did believe He was bodily raised from the dead. And then if you take the second question, why would they believe that? They had a fresh sense of the presence of God. The only way you can explain the rise of the early Christian belief that Jesus was raised, is that there really was an empty tomb. They really did meet Jesus again, in a transformed body. And the thing makes sense. Of course, when I wrote a big book on this, my philosopher tutor from Oxford who was an atheist read it and he said, great book. You really make your argument.” From that moment I simply choose to believe that there must be some other explanation even though I did not know exactly what it was, but maybe there really is not one creator God."