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Bible Studies Core Christian Beliefs
The Resurrection
The claim the whole faith stands on. What the accounts say, what historians can weigh, and what the church confesses.
Paul says that if this did not happen, the whole thing is worthless. That is an unusually falsifiable claim for a religion to make, and it means this study has to be careful about which kinds of statement it is making.
What you’ll explore
- 01 What the four accounts report
- 02 Where they differ, and why that is worth noticing
- 03 The earliest summary of the claim
- 04 What historical method can and cannot reach
- 05 Why Paul says everything depends on it
- 06 Resurrection, not resuscitation
- 07 What it means for those who have died
What the four accounts report
Read Matthew 28:1-10; Mark 16:1-8; Luke 24:1-12; John 20:1-18
Read all four. Common to every one: the tomb is empty, women are the first witnesses, and nobody expects it. In a culture where a woman’s testimony carried little legal weight, that detail is not the one you would invent.
Where they differ, and why that is worth noticing
The number of figures at the tomb, the exact list of women, and the order of appearances vary between accounts. Ancient historical writing did not aim at the harmonisation modern readers expect, and independent witnesses agreeing on every detail usually indicate collusion rather than accuracy. The church kept all four unedited.
The earliest summary of the claim
Read 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
Paul says he is passing on what he received — a formula he inherited rather than composed — listing death, burial, resurrection, and named witnesses including five hundred at once. Scholars across the spectrum generally date this tradition to within a few years of the events, which makes it the earliest Christian statement we have on the subject. He also names himself last, and calls himself untimely born.
What historical method can and cannot reach
Read Acts 26:24-26
Paul tells Agrippa these things were not done in a corner. Historians broadly accept that Jesus was crucified and that his followers very soon proclaimed him risen and died for saying so. Whether God raised him is not a question historical method is equipped to settle — it can weigh the testimony and the origin of the movement, and there it stops.
Why Paul says everything depends on it
If Christ has not been raised, Paul writes, our preaching is in vain, your faith is in vain, you are still in your sins, and we are of all people most to be pitied. He does not offer a fallback in which Christianity survives as good moral teaching. The church has taken him at his word.
Resurrection, not resuscitation
Read Luke 24:36-43; 1 Corinthians 15:42-44
The risen Jesus eats fish and is not a ghost, and he also enters locked rooms and is not always recognised. Paul’s term is a spiritual body — transformed, not merely restarted. Whatever the accounts describe, it is not a man simply recovering from being dead.
What it means for those who have died
Read 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14
Paul calls Christ the firstfruits — the first of a harvest, implying the rest. He tells the Thessalonians not to grieve as those without hope, which assumes they will grieve. The Christian hope here is bodily resurrection, which is a stronger and stranger claim than the survival of a soul.
Questions to sit with
- Have you ever read all four accounts side by side?
- Where do you find yourself on Paul’s "if not, then" argument?
- What difference does bodily resurrection make to how you think about someone you have lost?
Every passage in this study
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Where this connects
This study sits inside a larger story. Read the passages above in their own books, and follow the thread back through Scripture as a whole.