The Testimony of the Evangelists by Simon Greenleaf

It was expanded a bit and summarized in 38 points, in the paper, “Harmonizing the Gospel Accounts of the Resurrection.”

2010).Īnglican biblical and Greek scholar John Wenham offered what Christian apologist Gary Habermas believed was the best such harmonization in his book, Easter Enigma (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1992). Gene White proposed “The Resurrection of Jesus Christ: A Twenty-Two Point Harmony of the Four Gospels” (c. Note that these are 15 and 31 years prior to Barker’s challenge. Perry, in his book, The Easter Enigma (London: Faber and Faber, 1959), pp. Later, he discovered a nearly identical effort from Michael C. Professor of Biblical Exegesis at Fuller Theological Seminary, George Eldon Ladd, devised a 17-point scenario in his book, I Believe in the Resurrection (Eerdmans, 1975), pp. It has 19 points, with much commentary (much like Akin’s) and additional related pieces, “ Answers to specific alleged contradictions” and “ Answers to objections posed by readers of this page.” Peter Ballard wrote, “Harmonising the Resurrection Accounts” (2-12-00 last revised on 4-4-05). Jimmy Akin offered “How the Resurrection Narratives Fit Together” (1-23-17): a 16-point schema, including a lot of written analysis, and final sections on “Gospel Sequencing” and “Proposed Chronology.” The important condition to the challenge, however, is that not one single biblical detail be omitted.īut first things first: Christians, either tell me exactly what happened on Easter Sunday, or let’s leave the Jesus myth buried next to Eastre (Ishtar, Astarte), the pagan Goddess of Spring after whom your holiday was named.

Additional explanation of the narrative may be set apart in parentheses. The narrative does not have to pretend to present a perfect picture–it only needs to give at least one plausible account of all of the facts. Since the gospels do not always give precise times of day, it is permissible to make educated guesses.

Then, without omitting a single detail from these separate accounts, write a simple, chronological narrative of the events between the resurrection and the ascension: what happened first, second, and so on who said what, when and where these things happened. These 165 verses can be read in a few moments. Also read Acts 1:3-12 and Paul’s tiny version of the story in I Corinthians 15:3-8. In each of the four Gospels, begin at Easter morning and read to the end of the book: Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20-21. The conditions of the challenge are simple and reasonable. My straightforward request is merely that Christians tell me exactly what happened on the day that their most important doctrine was born. My challenge is simply this: tell me what happened on Easter. I HAVE AN EASTER challenge for Christians.

The Testimony of the Evangelists by Simon Greenleaf