Is There Any Real Evidence for the Resurrection?

The short version of the historical case.

Yes — and not the kind of evidence Christianity’s cultural reputation might lead you to expect. The case is not the Bible says so, therefore it’s true. The case is the kind of case a historian would make for any event in the ancient world, using the same tools they would use for any other claim.

Here is the case in one paragraph.

A Jewish rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth was executed by Roman crucifixion under Pontius Pilate around the year 33. This is attested in four independent Christian sources and at least three non-Christian ones, and is accepted by essentially every historian of the period. Within weeks of his death, his followers — who had scattered in fear during his arrest — were preaching in the streets of Jerusalem that he had risen from the dead, and continuing to preach it under escalating persecution that eventually killed most of them. A hostile witness, Saul of Tarsus, who had been hunting down Christians, converted on the basis of a personal encounter with what he said was the risen Jesus. The brother of Jesus, James, who had not believed during Jesus’ lifetime, also converted and led the Jerusalem church until he was killed for it. The tomb where Jesus was buried was, as far as we can tell from every available source, empty within days of the burial.

The interesting question is: given these facts, what is the best explanation?

The traditional Christian explanation — that Jesus actually rose from the dead — accounts for all of them with a single hypothesis. Every alternative explanation that has been offered (the disciples stole the body, the disciples hallucinated, Jesus didn’t really die, the stories grew up as legend over time) has to either ignore one or more of the facts, or combine multiple ad-hoc mechanisms to cover what the resurrection covers with one.

This is, I think, the strongest argument for Christianity, and it is the argument the New Testament itself makes — most directly in 1 Corinthians 15, which contains a creed Paul says he received from the earliest believers, dating to within a few years of the crucifixion itself.

The full case is in the history section. The recommended order:

1. The minimal facts — the five points essentially every historian accepts.
2. The creed Paul quotes — why the resurrection claim cannot be a late legend.
3. Who wrote the gospels — the reliability of the sources.
4. The empty tomb — the central event, and what each alternative requires.