You walked through the water
of the mighty sea,
but your footprints
were never seen.
You guided your people
like a flock of sheep,
and you chose Moses and Aaron
to be their leaders.Psalm 77:19-20 (CEV)
Last night I had the chance to read a review of James McGrath’s book The Burial of Jesus: History and Faith at Chris Tilling’s blog. The review was written by Nelson Moore. It was disheartening to discover that the thesis of the book is essentially that Jesus did not rise on the third day but was crucified and his body later dumped in a common grave where the disciples then retrieved it and gave it a proper burial. The basis of this claim is that the Gospels as historical sources are not reliable and show signs of emendation. I’m sure James’ book is more nuanced than that but that’s the basic idea. (corrections welcome) It’s important to note that McGrath does affirm the resurrection appearances of Jesus.
Now, there are a couple of ways to react to a claim like this. First, we can decide that God’s Word has more authority than McGrath’s book and just dismiss the idea. Second, we can offer an alternative rational argument that proves that Jesus did rise from the grave. Books like Who Moved the Stone? by Frank Morison and Josh McDowell’s The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict Fully Updated To Answer The Questions Challenging Christians Today are examples that take this route. Third, or course, is we can see McGrath’s claims as making a lot of sense and try to incorporate them into our faith without undermining it.
Personally, I’m not much for conflict. And the second route seems to be one in which endless debates are generated but neither side ever budges. Instead I tend to favor the first option with a healthy dose of respect for church tradition thrown in. From the earliest writers and throughout the centuries the Church has affirmed the historicity of the Bible record. There are parts that I as a 21st century person have trouble believing but pragmatically it’s better to place your bet on the received record rather than nitpick through the Bible. Still, that doesn’t mean that I dismiss James as my brother in Christ. Heretic hunters abound and I’m sure plenty of them are preparing to find James guilty and burn him at the stake (verbally, hopefully!). But not me.
I found one of James’ comments on the review to be revealing:
You see, here’s where we agree but then go on to different conclusions. I also see the historical record as insufficient to prove some of the major miracles of the Bible. And yet I continue to affirm them. Why is that? One reason is that the minimalism advocated by McGrath and the mad bunch at The Guild of Biblical Minimalists spits out the fruit and swallows the seeds. They have created what seems to me a vibrant faith built on a book that they don’t trust. But personally, I can’t find a way to chip away at the Bible here and there without reducing it to rubble.
And this is why I quoted from Psalm 77 at the beginning of this post. The Psalmist is writing in the present remembering the past. He’s affirming the great interventions of God in history through the Creation and the Exodus. And yet he’s stuck in the present with a God who is invisible.
Then I said, "God Most High,
what hurts me most
is that you no longer help us
with your mighty arm."
Our LORD, I will remember
the things you have done,
your miracles of long ago.Psalm 77:10-11 (CEV)
This tension between affirming God’s intervention in the past while despairing of his help in the present is that shaky place called faith. It doesn’t look particularly more secure than McGrath’s thesis now that I look at it. But that’s where I am.
For a burnout case, this is a beautiful and useful post! I love your opening verse. It speaks directly to the issue.
I’m probably one for arguing, and I lean toward your second option. The first leaves me feeling unsatisfied. The proofs proferred by the atheistic author are undoubtedly insecure. They can and should be attacked.
I believe the church blundered horribly when she accepted the premise that faith must be blind. God never, ever suggests anything like that. Instead, He constantly chides His children to look back on history for proof of His faithfulness. We cannot surrender the history of Christ’s work, nor its historicity. I don’t really care whether a bunch of God’s enemies are unmoved by our facts, though. I care that a bunch of His fragile, scared children are reassured in their dark nights of the soul.
Accurate, dependable, informed history has saved me on many a cold, lonely night. When the walls are falling in and I begin to wonder whether I’m deluded to continue to hope in an invisible Deity, I remind myself why I believe the Son of God came to Earth and overcame death. Once the reality of His work in Jerusalem settles in, the sun begins to rise and the fog begins to burn off.
Declaring the authority of a book has never had that power in my heart.
(Great post. You might consider keeping on doing this stuff for a little while.)
Don’t you think it’s one thing “to chip away at the Bible here and there”
and that it’s quite another thing
“to introduce the average reader to the historical reasearch methods employed by biblical scholars,
to put those tools to work in the historical study of the burial of Jesus,
and ultimately to convince the reader that a bodily resurrection did not take place and is not a necessary component of Christian faith”?
I mean no disrespect, but “scholars schmolars”! I mean, once you get a Ph.D. you get to go around making money and personal fame by selling stuff that you believe (or you pretend to anyway).
If Saint Paul had known this, he’d not have needed to write his first letter to those dirty Corinthians about how life after death in the body makes so much sense after so many had witnessed life after death in the body of Jesus and then later died for that testimony, many of ‘em.
Paul could have gotten his doctorate at Butler, written a book on the mythologies in Athens, and had the philosophers tout it for the average readers at Mars Hill.
I think Paul chose doggie doo instead, foolish man.
Thanks for mentioning the review. I will say for clarification that I do NOT think the disciples retrieved the body and gave it a proper burial, although I do think they would have liked to do so.
Any chance I can persuade you to read the book and write your own review of what I actually wrote?
P.S. I assume that the Guild of Biblical Minimalists is an attempt at humor. I was added as an associate member after I left a comment asking “Why can’t New Testament scholars be full members? Is it because we have too much historical evidence in our field to be full-blown minimalists?”
Dr. McGrath,
I’ve just read all of your thoughtful comments at Chris Tilling’s blog and at Michael Bridgman’s. You can see in my snarkiness above that I was thinking what Michael wrote. I think you should be commended for 1) your scholarship (which is real work) and 2) your encouragement of dialogue and intellectual curiosity!! I will also buy and read the book.
I love what you say to and ask of Michael:
“[A] more fundamental question is whether we can adequately confirm the claims about actual events in history one finds there [in I Cor 15] and in the Gospels. And if we cannot do so from our standpoint in history, or even if we can go as far as saying ‘probably’, will that provide a sufficient basis for our Christian faith? And if historical study cannot provide the certainty most of us long for, then can we find it elsewhere, or do we simply have to live with being uncertain?”
Seems you’re questioning the epistemological benefit of historiography as much as you are the resurrection of Jesus. No?
Can’t Muslims so skirt [their] history to be as probably certain that Jesus never really actually died? (Al Qur’an 4:156-159) By that, I suppose I mean David’s Guild of Koranic Minimalists
Yes, I will buy and read your book too.
mcgrath is obviously insane- expecting people to read what HE writes instead of opining about it before they even get it in hand.
clearly he doesn’t know that the soul of reading these days is based on reading ABOUT things not things themselves.
oh, and from what i hear, the GBM site is precisely intended to be satire. obviously satire is a craft for the witty.
Yep on all that. And though the site is satirical it is populated by minimalists same diff.
I made my very serious comment here
http://gothictheology.blogspot.com/2008/09/some-thoughts-on-first-corinthians-15.html
What’s this about satire, Jim?! Next you’ll be claiming that bishop Wrong isn’t really dead!
I could not afford to be gullible (because blowing up buildings gets rather expensive). So I spent the $12.99 plus tax.
Here’s what I got:
“Faith, taken to its extreme, becomes credulity, gullibility, and willingness to believe anything, to accept uncritically things that we are told by the right book or the right person. Although such faith has never been healthy, and never been what the Bible means by faith, it is particularly obvious in our day and age, when people commit suicide and blow up buildings because of their ‘faith’ that we cannot afford to be gullible. When the word ‘faith’ appears in the Bible, it means first and foremost trust or confidence in God, and secondly faithfulness to God. Only rarely is the focus on believing the truthfulness of certain propositions.”
And that saved me from the pretend history of Mark, and those “Jesus” sayings. At Butler, the right book and the right person never utters propositions, at least not unbelievable, incredible, unhistorical propositions like these:
He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.”
[They] will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise.”
But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him.
Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
(PS: all those Apollo lunar missions? faked! We’re probably in the Matrix of history now, folks.)
Can I borrow that book when you’re done?
I’ve seen Jesus’ footprints! In the sand, next to mine. And then there was only one set of footprints, and it turns out he was piggy-back riding on my back — which would explain, I guess, why the footprints were deeper.
No, he just went out to walk on the water for a while.