Would you be willing to die for something that you knew was a lie? I don’t mean would you be willing to die for something you strongly believed in, but would you be willing to die for something you knew to be false from firsthand experience? We will return to these questions later in this discussion.
In the last two
posts, I argued that there is sufficient evidence to assert that Jesus died by crucifixion and that his followers had real experiences that they interpreted to be the risen Jesus. We now continue with the third historical bedrock fact, that
Jesus’ followers were transformed as a result of their post-resurrection
experiences, even to the point of being willing to die for their faith in the
resurrection. The New Testament clearly illustrates a radical change in the
disciples that occurred after their claim to have seen the risen Jesus. If you
are skeptical of this data, I would encourage you to first read my post on the
historical reliability of the New Testament before continuing with this post.
Prior to Jesus’
crucifixion, the disciples were not expecting the Messiah to die, let alone
rise from the dead. After recognizing that he was the Christ, Peter rebuked
Jesus for predicting his death and resurrection (Matthew 16:21-23, Mark 9:31-33).
Elsewhere, the disciples didn’t even understand Jesus’ clear prediction that he
would die and rise again (Luke 9:45, 19:31-34). Furthermore, the disciples fled
out of fear when Jesus was arrested and Peter denied Jesus three times while he
was on trial before the Jewish leaders (Matthew 26:29-75, Mark 14:66-72, Luke
22:54-62, John 18:15-18, 25:27). While we tend to focus on Peter’s denial, the
other disciples failed to live up to their promise to follow him unto death if
necessary (Matthew 26:35, Mark 14:31). The picture that we have before the
resurrection is of a group of men that didn’t understand Jesus’ teachings on
the crucifixion and resurrection and failed in the hour of greatest pressure
for fear of their own safety. Due to the criterion of embarrassment, there is
no reason to believe that these details were fabricated.
After the disciples’
claimed post-resurrection experiences, their behavior was radically transformed
as they fearlessly proclaimed the gospel around the known world. Very soon
after the crucifixion, they were preaching in the streets of Jerusalem that
Jesus had risen from the dead (Acts 2:14-41, Acts 3:12-26). This is the same
city where Jesus was crucified, where the religious leaders would certainly
want to punish those carrying on his influence. When pressured by these
leaders, the disciples spoke boldly and refused to stop preaching the gospel
(Acts 4:1-21). Despite facing persecution (Acts 8:1-3) and imprisonment (Acts
5:17-42), the disciples preached the gospel wherever they went (Acts 8:4) and
lived a lifestyle of radical generosity (Acts 2:42-47, Acts 4:32-37). Peter and
John’s comments before the Sanhedrin when ordered to stop speaking in the name
of Jesus sum up the transformation that occurred in these men.
“Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s
sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we
have seen and heard.” (Acts 4:19-20)
The disciples’
willingness to face suffering and persecution for the sake of the gospel
message is confirmed in other books of the New Testament. Peter writes to the
church to encourage Christians to “rejoice that [they] participate in the
sufferings of Christ” (1 Peter 4:12) and that they should not be ashamed to suffer
as Christians, but should “praise God that [they] bear that name.” (1 Peter
4:16). In the book of Revelation, John identified himself as “your brother and
companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in
Jesus” and explains that he “was on the island of Patmos (in exile) because of
the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 1:9). It is clear that
the disciples were no longer a fearful band of deserters, but willing to suffer
for their testimony that Jesus was the risen Lord.
Early extra-biblical
sources confirm that Jesus’ followers faced persecution for their faith, which
centered on the resurrection. In a passage that has been cited in previous
posts, the historian Tacitus described Emperor Nero’s treatment of Christians
after the Great Fire of Rome in 64 A.D.
“Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most
exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians
by the populace.”1
Another Roman
historian, Suetonius, confirms the persecution of Christians under Nero and
also describes their harsh treatment under Emperor Claudius, who reigned from
41 – 54 A.D., in the first decades after the claimed resurrection.
“Nero inflicted punishment on the Christians, a sect given to a new and mischievous religious belief.”3
Beyond this evidence
of a general atmosphere of persecution, there is evidence that the disciples
were willing to face death for proclaiming that Jesus had risen from the dead.
I have always found the martyrdom of the apostles to be highly compelling
evidence for the resurrection. We return to the question, “Would you be willing
to die for a lie?” However, a note of clarification is required here. Some
might point out that a person’s willingness to die for their beliefs does not
prove that their beliefs are true. After all, Muslim jihadists are willing to
die to advance the cause of Islam and Buddhist monks are willing to set
themselves on fire to protest oppression, yet those worldviews contradict
Christianity in important areas. I agree with this objection, except that the
apostles were not just dying for a strongly held set of beliefs that had been
passed down to them, but for their testimony about what they had seen with
their own eyes. If I were to die as a result of preaching the gospel, it would
only prove that I sincerely and deeply believed in the Christian message, which
ultimately I have received second hand. What they disciples were willing to do
is different. They were willing to die for preaching that Jesus had risen from
the dead and they were in the position to know whether this was true or false.
If Jesus had not risen, they would have died for something they knew was a lie.
According to church
history, all the apostles were martyred, except for John, who died in exile on
the island of Patmos. There is not enough historical evidence to confirm this
tradition, however there is evidence to support the assertion that Peter, Paul,
James the brother of Jesus, and James the son of Zebedee were martyred, that
Thomas was most probably martyred, and that Andrew may have been martyred.4 The lack of evidence for the
other apostles doesn’t mean that they didn't die as martyrs, but that we don’t have
sufficient historical data to ultimately determine how they died. However, we
do know that there is evidence for a general atmosphere of persecution and that
there is no historical evidence that any of the disciples ever recanted of
their testimony that Jesus had risen from the dead.
In the next post, I
am going to focus on the transformed lives of two of Jesus’ opponents, his
brother James and the Apostle Paul, so I am not going to focus on the evidence
for their martyrdoms in this post. Instead, I would like to put forward
evidence to support that James the son of Zebedee and Peter died for their
testimony of the resurrection.
In the book of Acts,
the historian Luke writes, “King Herod arrested some who
belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.”
(Acts 12:1-2). It is believed that James’ death occurred in 44 A.D and James
only appears in two later apocryphal writings, Acts of St. James and The
Apostolic History of Abdias.5 His absence in other writings
suggests that it was established early in church history that James had in fact
been killed by the sword.
Peter
is believed to have been crucified upside down during the reign of Nero,
between 64 – 67 A.D. Interesting circumstantial evidence to support Peter’s
death is Jesus’ prediction of this fate:
“‘Very
truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you
wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else
will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.’ Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death
by which Peter would glorify God.” (John 21:18-19).
The
gospel of John is believed to have been written between 70 – 90 A.D., which
places it after Peter’s death. Whether you believe that Jesus’ words were
prophetically spoken during a post-resurrection appearance or merely invented after
the fact, it would be odd to include them if Peter hadn’t actually died as a martyr.
Peter’s
death is confirmed by Clement of Rome in The First Epistle of Clement to the
Corinthians, likely written in the late first century.
Peter’s martyrdom is
further corroborated by Ignatius in his Epistle to the Smyrnaeans, written in
the early second century.
For myself, I am convinced and believe that even after
the resurrection he was in the flesh. Indeed, when he came to Peter and his
friends, he said to them, ‘take hold of me, touch me and see that I am not a
bodiless ghost.’ And they at once touched him and were convinced, clutching his
body and his very breath. For this reason they despised death itself, and
proved its victor.”7
Through several New
Testament documents and extra-Biblical sources, we have a clear picture of the
transformation of Peter from someone who rebuked Jesus for predicting his death
and fearfully denied him during his trial to a bold leader of the early church,
who fearlessly proclaimed the resurrection in the face of imprisonment,
persecution, and ultimately death. We have good evidence that James son of
Zebedee met a similar fate. While we may not know the details of how they died,
we have strong evidence that the other disciples were similarly transformed and
boldly testified to the resurrection in a hostile environment of general pressure
and persecution. Something happened after Jesus’ death to cause this dramatic turn
in the disciples. Any theory about what happened after the crucifixion must
account for this radical transformation.
Sources:
1) Tacitus, Annals
15.44, cited in Strobel, Lee. The
Case for Christ, Zondervan, 1998, p. 82.
2) Suetonius, Life
of Claudius, 25:4, cited in Wallace, J. Warner. “Is there any Evidence for
Jesus Outside the Bible?” Retrieved from https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/is-there-any-evidence-for-jesus-outside-the-bible/
3) Suetonius, Lives
of the Caesars, 26:2, cited in Wallace, J. Warner. “Is there any Evidence
for Jesus Outside the Bible?” Retrieved from https://coldcasechristianity.com/writings/is-there-any-evidence-for-jesus-outside-the-bible/
4) McDowell,
Sean. “Did the Apostles Really Die as Martyrs for their Faith?” Retrieved from https://www.oneplace.com/ministries/bible-answer-man/read/articles/did-the-apostles-really-die-as-martyrs-for-their-faith-by-sean-mcdowell-17589.html
5) Ibid.
6) Clement of Rome, The
First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, 5:1-4, Retrieved from http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/1clement-hoole.html
7) Ignatius, Epistle
of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans, 3:1-2, Retrieved from https://www.orderofstignatius.org/files/Letters/Ignatius_to_Smyrnaeans.pdf
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