We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

What makes the claim that Jesus rose from the dead unique?

Question: What makes the story of Jesus’ resurrection different from other pagan resurrection stories, such as those surrounding the Egyptian god Osiris?

Answer: In Lord or Legend? (and more academically, The Jesus Legend), Paul Eddy and I address this, and many other, objections to faith in Jesus. I encourage you to check either of these books out. But basically, if one examines the details of the various mythic accounts of dying and rising gods, there really aren’t many impressive parallels to the Gospel accounts.

For example, consider the example you yourself give. As the story goes (at least according to one of the versions that’s come down to us) Osiris was killed by his brother, chopped up into fourteen pieces and scattered throughout Egypt. Isis then rescued all but one of his body parts, reassembled them and brought him back to life. He was then given rulership of the underworld (the realm of the dead). To claim that this account “parallels” the Jesus story is quite a stretch, to say the least. Indeed, it’s not even clear we should call it a resurrection account since Osiris was never fully reconstituted. Not only this, but poor Osiris really wasn’t brought back to “life” at all since his resuscitated rulership remained in the realm of the dead!

If you examine all the alleged parallels to the Jesus story, this is pretty much what you find. Like they say, “the devil is in the details.”

Having said this, I want grant that there are vague parallels to the Jesus story in pagan myths throughout history and around the globe. But far from concluding that these vague parallels in any way discount the historicity of the Jesus story, Paul and I argue that they actually confirm it. If the Jesus story is in fact true, we should expect parallels like this to exist. After all, one aspect of the Jesus story, extending back into the Old Testament, is the teaching that humans are made in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28). We’re thus “wired” for God, if you will. Not only this, but the New Testament itself declares that Jesus is the light “of all people” (John 1:4, 9) who is always working in the hearts of all people to lead them back to himself (Acts 17:26-28, cf. Rom 1:19-20). We should thus expect to find “echoes” of the Jesus story expressed in the myths and legends of all people.

Category:
Tags: ,
Topics:

Related Reading

Overemphasizing Christ?

In response to my work, some have argued that I tend to overemphasize Christ. In light of the claim that in Jesus we have the one and only definitive Word of God and that no previous revelation should ever be placed alongside him or allowed to qualify what he reveals about God, some allege that…

A Foolish and Weak-Looking God

The New Testament assumes that the God of Israel and the God revealed in Jesus Christ are one and the same God. But there also can be no question that the portrait of God that was unveiled when the Messiah arrived on the scene was in some respects quite different from what the OT had…

How do you respond to Ezekiel 26:1–21?

There are a number of specific prophecies against various cities in the Old Testament which were fulfilled (though some were not, see Jer. 18:6–10). The Lord’s prophecy against Tyre is one of the most impressive. The Lord says Nebuchadnezzar will ravage the seaport (vs. 7–11) and tear down all the buildings and throw the rubble…

What is the significance of Numbers 14:11?

In the light of the Israelites’ relentless complaining the Lord says to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” The fact that the Lord continued, for centuries, to try to get the…

Topics:

Reflections on the Supremacy of Christ (Part 1)

In my previous post I argued that the Bible tells a story in which the culminating event – the coming of Christ – reframes everything that preceded it. Though it is all inspired, not everything in it should carry equal weight for us. Rather, everything leading up to Christ, including the portraits of God, must…

What is the significance of Numbers 14:12–20?

In response to Israel’s bickering the Lord says “I will strike them with pestilence and disinherit them, and I will make of you [Moses] a nation greater and mightier than they” (vs. 12). Moses asks the Lord to forgive the people, and the Lord eventually responds, “I do forgive, just as you have asked” (vs.…

Topics: