The Resurrection of Jesus

Student’s name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date
Reflection on the Resurrection of Jesus (Chapter 20).
* In Christian history, numerous remarkable events have taken place, and Christians attach great significance to them. Strauss mentions the resurrection of Jesus as one of those events and concurs with Paul the Apostle on its importance. According to Paul, the resurrection marked a paradigm shift in human history since it took people from the age of promise to the age of fulfillment (p. 612).
* The Apostle also contends that the event played an instrumental role to give credence to Christianity. According to him, if Jesus had not come back to life, many people would have dismissed Christianity as counterfeit, which would certainly have been disastrous.
* Since time immemorial, critics have sought reasons, credible or otherwise, to fault gospel miracles. The resurrection of Jesus is one such miracle that many critics have discounted with fervor. They base their argument that the resurrection is a fabrication on four rational explanations (p. 612).
* The first explanation is known as the swoon theory. This approach claims that Jesus did not die after being crucified. According to Strauss, those who crafted this theory argue that Jesus only fainted, and the soldiers thought he was dead. After placing him in the tomb, cool air revived him, and he made good his escape. They claim he died from severe injuries after appearing to his disciples (p. 612).
* The author contends that even though the theory is regarded as rational, it defies rationality in many aspects. For instance, Jesus would not have managed to roll the stone at the mouth of the tomb upwards, given his condition. As such, many critical scholars have rejected it.
* The other theory is known as the wrong tomb theory, and the author terms it weak and unconvincing. The theory claims that the women who announced that Jesus had been resurrected must have confused an empty tomb for the one where Jesus was laid. The author intimates this would be an unlikely development since the tomb where Jesus was laid belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. As such, Joseph would never forget where his own tomb was, even if all other people mysteriously did so (p.614).
* The third explanation is the theft theory, which suggests that the disciples of Jesus stole his body and then claimed he had been resurrected. According to the author, this theory has also not found favor amongst critical scholars for several reasons. First, the disciples were utterly devastated after Jesus was crucified and were in no state to contrive to steal his body to further the resurrec...