Evidence record

What happened after the crucifixion?

Every sentence on the exploration belongs to at least one claim below. Each says what kind of statement it is, what it rests on, what the evidence does not establish, and how far it was checked. Nothing here is a score, and none of it is a verdict on a belief or a theory.

Last checked 23 September 2026.

A judgement, not a fact: 28
Source checked: 35
Partly checked: 2

If something here is wrong, misquoted, out of date or unfair, write to support@unknownoceans.com and give the claim number, which does not change.

What the question takes for granted

A historical question about the first years after an execution, put where history and faith meet most sharply. The page keeps three things apart: what historians can establish (that the claim was made, early, by named people), what the texts report (appearances, a tomb), and what Christians confess (that he was raised).

Jesus was executed, by crucifixion
Established
The page starts from the execution. Tacitus, hostile and Roman, attests the execution under Pilate; the manner, crucifixion, comes from the Christian texts.
Something happened afterwards that needs explaining
Established
What is established is that the movement did not end with the execution and that its leaders were claiming he had been raised by the time Paul joined them. What the something was is the open question.
History could say whether it was a resurrection
Contested
Whether historical method can return a verdict on a miracle is argued in the philosophy of history. The page reports one side’s principle, analogy, and says a verdict either way borrows a premise.
He was raised
A matter of belief
Confessed in the creeds of 325 and 381, and the thing Paul stakes the faith on. The page reports the belief and neither endorses nor dismisses it.

How the question is labelled

Claim: After the crucifixion

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: After the cross

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

The question

Claim: Something turned a scattered group into a movement.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from Mark’s account of the arrest, where the disciples flee, and from the movement’s visible growth afterwards.

Context · WEB
Mark 14, World English BibleMark 14:27, 50
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ ... They all left him, and fled.
Context · English, tr. Church and Brodribb
The Annals, Book 15, chapter 44Annals 15.44
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judæa , the first source of the evil, but even in Rome

What this does not establish

The flight is Mark’s narrative. That the followers scattered is what the Gospel reports, not an independent record.

Claim 1 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What that something was is an open question as old as the movement.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:12
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Now if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Supports · WEB
Matthew 28, World English BibleMatthew 28:13-15
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: saying, “Say that his disciples came by night and stole him away while we slept. ... This saying was spread abroad among the Jews, and continues until today.
Matthew already answers a rival account of the empty tomb.

What this does not establish

The texts show the question contested within the first generations. They do not say how widely.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “What that something was is the oldest open question here.” Not true of the Faith section, which also asks whether the Exodus happened and where hell and the devil came from. What the sources do show is that the question was argued from the start: Paul answers Corinthians who deny resurrection, and Matthew answers a rival account of the tomb.

Claim 2 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: By the time Paul joined the movement, people who had known Jesus were saying he had been raised, and Paul later met two of them in Jerusalem.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:3-8, 11
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: ... and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ... Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. ... Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
Paul places his own experience last, after Cephas, the twelve and James, and says they preach the same thing.
Supports · WEB
Galatians 1, World English BibleGalatians 1:13, 18-19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God and ravaged it. ... Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days. But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother.

What this does not establish

Paul reports that others were claiming appearances before his own; the sources read here do not date his joining in years after the execution.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Within a few years of the execution, people who had known Jesus were saying he had been raised, and saying it in Jerusalem.” "Within a few years" needs a date for Paul’s call relative to the execution, which no source cited or read gives. The corrected sentence states the sequence Paul’s own letters carry: appearances to others before his, and a visit to Peter and James in Jerusalem three years after his call.

Claim 3 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: That the claim was made early is documented.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:3-8
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
Supports
The social construction of Paul’s apostolic leadership in Corinthp. 2
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: When Paul wrote our 1 Corinthians (ca. 55 AD)

Claim 4 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Whether the claim is true is not the kind of thing a document settles.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s thesis, argued in the unknown section: the documents establish that the claim was made, and a verdict on it needs a premise from outside them.

Context
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy§ 3.3, The impact of Hume’s “Of Miracles”
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Commitment to something like Hume’s position lies on one side of a deep conceptual fault line that runs through the discipline of biblical studies.

Other readings

Proponents of explanatory arguments, such as the “minimal facts” argument the Stanford Encyclopedia describes, hold that the documented facts are best explained by a resurrection.

Claim 5 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Crucifixion was a Roman method for ending things.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

A characterisation of the penalty, set up by the sentences that follow.

Context · English, tr. Church and Brodribb
The Annals, Book 15, chapter 44Annals 15.44
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment

Claim 6 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: It was public, it was slow,

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · English, tr. Whiston
The Wars of the Jews, Book 5, chapter 11, section 1War 5.11.1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: crucified before the wall of the city. ... The main reason why he did not forbid that cruelty was this, that he hoped the Jews might perhaps yield at that sight
Supports · WEB
Mark 15, World English BibleMark 15:25, 34, 44
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: It was the third hour when they crucified him. ... At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice ... Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead
Pilate’s surprise assumes the penalty usually took longer than six hours.

What this does not establish

Josephus describes mass crucifixion during the siege of 70, not ordinary practice; Mark describes one execution. Neither gives a usual duration.

Claim 7 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: and it was aimed at the followers as much as at the man, who was the point being made.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from the deterrent use of the penalty that Josephus describes.

Context · English, tr. Whiston
The Wars of the Jews, Book 5, chapter 11, section 1War 5.11.1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: he hoped the Jews might perhaps yield at that sight, out of fear lest they might themselves afterwards be liable to the same cruel treatment
A Roman commander using crucifixion to frighten the victims’ own side.

What this does not establish

No source says what Pilate intended in this case. The Gospels have the followers flee rather than be pursued.

Claim 8 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: It usually worked.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

A generalisation of the kind Acts puts in Gamaliel’s mouth about Theudas and Judas the Galilean.

Context · WEB
Acts 5, World English BibleActs 5:36-37
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: He was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed and came to nothing. ... He also perished, and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered abroad.
Acts has Gamaliel cite two movements that ended with their leaders’ deaths.

What this does not establish

A judgement from a few cases, not a count; and Acts is a Christian text making a point about this movement.

Claim 9 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What has to be accounted for here is that in this case, by the time Paul met them, the people it was aimed at were in the same city saying the execution had not been the end.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
Galatians 1, World English BibleGalatians 1:17-19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me ... Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days. But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother.
Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:5, 7, 11
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ... Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, ... Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
Supports · WEB
Mark 15, World English BibleMark 15:41
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
The execution took place at Jerusalem.

What this does not establish

Paul met them three years after his call. How long after the execution that was, the sources read here do not say.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “What has to be accounted for here is that in this case, within a very short time, the people it was aimed at were in the same city saying the execution had not been the end.” "Within a very short time" is an interval no source cited or read dates. Paul’s letters do put Peter and James in Jerusalem when he visited, which is the point the sentence needs.

Claim 10 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: This page is going to be unusually careful about a distinction that matters more here than anywhere else on this site: between what the evidence establishes, and what is being claimed.

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What is documented

Claim: What is documented

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

The claim is documented within about twenty-five years

Claim: The claim is documented within about twenty-five years

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
The social construction of Paul’s apostolic leadership in Corinthp. 2
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: When Paul wrote our 1 Corinthians (ca. 55 AD)
Supports
Is rewritten Bible/Scripture the solution to the Synoptic Problem?p. 6, dating tables
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: 30 CE Jesus in Galilee 50 CE 60 CE 70 Gospel of Mark
Both schemes Malan tabulates place Jesus’s activity at 20 to 30 CE.
Supports · English, tr. Church and Brodribb
The Annals, Book 15, chapter 44Annals 15.44
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus

What this does not establish

Both ends are approximate: the letter about 55, the execution about 30 on Malan’s tables and under Pilate on Tacitus. The sources read give no exact year for either.

Claim 13 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Writing to Corinth in the 50s

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
The social construction of Paul’s apostolic leadership in Corinthp. 2
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: After an initial 18 months of founding activity in Corinth (50–51 AD, Ac 18:1–17), Paul left to continue his work elsewhere. ... When Paul wrote our 1 Corinthians (ca. 55 AD)

Claim 14 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Paul passes on a formula he says he received rather than composed: that Christ died, was buried, was raised on the third day, and appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve, then to more than five hundred at once, then to James, then to all the apostles, and last to Paul himself.

Kind: Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:3-8
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.

What this does not establish

What Paul reports, not a record of the appearances themselves.

Claim 15 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Scholars on both sides of the long debate over it treat its opening lines as a formula fixed before Paul, which pushes the claim back earlier still.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.

Supports
The Resurrection of Jesus in the Pre-Pauline Formula of 1 Cor 15.3–5abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 23 September 2026
The source reads: The present essay offers a fresh contribution to the long-standing debate regarding the nature of the resurrection of Christ within the pre-Pauline formula of 1 Cor 15.3–5. ... this primitive confession.
Supports
The Resurrection of Jesus in the Pre-Pauline Formula of 1 Cor 15.3–5abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 23 September 2026
The source reads: a number of common arguments on both sides of the debate are lacking or inconclusive
Supports
Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15p. 56, note 2
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: See J. Ware, ‘The Resurrection of Jesus in the Pre-Pauline Formula of
Cook cites Ware as a survey of views, using the same description.
Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:3
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received:

What this does not establish

Read as an abstract and a citation: both treat verses 3 to 5 as a pre-Pauline formula, but the arguments for that were not read, and how far the formula extends past verse 5 is argued.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “The phrasing is compressed and list-like in a way that suggests it was already fixed language before Paul wrote it down, which pushes the claim back earlier still.” Integrity pass: the argument from the formula’s phrasing was not in anything read. What the readable material carries is that the debate treats verses 3 to 5 as a pre-Pauline formula (Ware’s abstract; Cook citing Ware as a survey of such views); the page now says that.

Claim 16 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Paul adds that most of the five hundred are still alive

Kind: Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:6
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep.

Corrected

24 September 2026. Previously: “He adds that most of the five hundred are still alive” Integrity pass: once the sentence before it became about scholars, "He" no longer named Paul; the report of the five hundred is Paul's, in 1 Corinthians 15:6.

Claim 17 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: which is the sort of thing a writer says when he expects it to be checkable.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s reading of Paul’s aside in 15:6.

What this does not establish

Paul names none of the five hundred, so the aside invites checking without giving anyone the means.

Claim 18 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

It was made where it could be contradicted

Claim: It was made where it could be contradicted

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from the passage: the leaders were in Jerusalem, where the execution happened.

Claim 19 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Paul’s letters put its leaders in Jerusalem, within walking distance of the execution

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
Galatians 1, World English BibleGalatians 1:17-19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me ... Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter
Supports · WEB
Mark 15, World English BibleMark 15:20, 41
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: They led him out to crucify him. ... and many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

What this does not establish

Mark and Matthew point the disciples to Galilee to see him; Luke keeps them in Jerusalem. Paul’s letters show the leaders in Jerusalem when he visited, not where the claim was first made.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The movement began in Jerusalem, within walking distance of the execution, among a population that had every reason to be unimpressed.” The passage cited only Galatians, which does not say where the movement began, and Mark 16:7 and Matthew 28:7 send the disciples to Galilee to see him. Galatians does put its leaders in Jerusalem, and the sentence now says so and on what evidence.

Claim 20 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: among a population that had every reason to be unimpressed

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The city had just seen him executed. A judgement about the audience, not a report of it.

Claim 21 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: three years after he joined, he went up to visit Peter there, and saw James.

Kind: Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
Galatians 1, World English BibleGalatians 1:15-19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days. But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother.

What this does not establish

“Three years” is counted from his call, which Paul does not date.

Claim 22 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: He also says he persecuted the movement before he joined it, in his own words and against his own interest: “beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God and ravaged it”.

Kind: Quotes the Bible. The words of a biblical text, in the translation named. That the text says it is a fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
Galatians 1, World English BibleGalatians 1:13, 22-23
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: For you have heard of my way of living in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God and ravaged it. ... but they only heard, “He who once persecuted us now preaches the faith that he once tried to destroy.”

What this does not establish

Paul does not say where he persecuted it, and says the assemblies of Judea did not know him by face.

Claim 23 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: That tells you people who wanted it stopped existed and acted on it.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from Paul’s own account of persecuting it.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “That tells you people who wanted it stopped existed and were organised.” Galatians attests one persecutor acting; it says nothing about organisation. That is Acts’ account, which the page does not cite.

Claim 24 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What that establishes is that the claim was public, early and locally made.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Summarises the checked claims above it.

What this does not establish

“Locally” rests on the leaders being in Jerusalem when Paul visited.

Claim 25 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: It does not by itself establish the claim.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page declining to move from testimony to event.

Claim 26 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

By the early second century it is visible from outside

Claim: By the early second century it is visible from outside

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · English (Internet History Sourcebooks)
Pliny on the Christians: Letters 10.96 and 10.97, in Englishheadnote
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Pliny the Younger was governor of Pontus/Bithynia from 111-113 AD.

What this does not establish

Not the first outside notice claimed by the page; the earliest one it discusses.

Claim 27 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Around 112, Pliny the Younger, governing the province of Pontus and Bithynia, wrote to the emperor Trajan for instructions about Christians.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · English (Internet History Sourcebooks)
Pliny on the Christians: Letters 10.96 and 10.97, in Englishheadnote
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Pliny the Younger was governor of Pontus/Bithynia from 111-113 AD. We have a whole set of exchanges of his letters with the emperor Trajan
Supports · Latin
Letters, Book 10, Letter 96: to the Emperor Trajan, concerning ChristiansLetters 10.96.1
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Sollemne est mihi , domine , omnia de quibus dubito ad te referre . ... Cognitionibus de Christianis interfui numquam

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “governing a province in northern Asia Minor” The sources read name the province as Pontus/Bithynia and do not locate it; the page now says what they say.

Claim 28 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Describing what he had found out about them, he says they were in the habit of meeting before dawn on a fixed day and singing a hymn to Christ "as to a god", and binding themselves by oath not to commit theft or robbery or adultery, not to break their word, and not to refuse to return a deposit.

Kind: Quotes a source. The words of a named text, checked against the source.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · Latin
Letters, Book 10, Letter 96: to the Emperor Trajan, concerning ChristiansLetters 10.96.7
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Affirmabant autem hanc fuisse summam vel culpae suae vel erroris , quod essent soliti stato die ante lucem convenire , carmenque Christo quasi deo dicere secum invicem seque sacramento non in scelus aliquod obstringere , sed ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent , ne fidem fallerent , ne depositum appellati abnegarent .
Rendered on this page as: singing a hymn to Christ as to a god
Supports · English (Internet History Sourcebooks)
Pliny on the Christians: Letters 10.96 and 10.97, in EnglishLetters 10.96
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery

What this does not establish

Pliny reports what people who said they had left the movement told him under questioning.

Claim 29 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Pliny is not sympathetic.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from what he did and wrote, in the next sentence.

Claim 30 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: He ordered the execution of those who kept confessing, had two enslaved women who were called deaconesses tortured to find out what they did, and reported that he found nothing but a depraved and excessive superstition.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · Latin
Letters, Book 10, Letter 96: to the Emperor Trajan, concerning ChristiansLetters 10.96.3, 10.96.8
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Confitentes iterum ac tertio interrogavi supplicium minatus ; perseverantes duci iussi . ... Quo magis necessarium credidi ex duabus ancillis , quae ministrae dicebantur , quid esset veri , et per tormenta quaerere . Nihil aliud inveni quam superstitionem pravam et immodicam .
Supports · English (Internet History Sourcebooks)
Pliny on the Christians: Letters 10.96 and 10.97, in EnglishLetters 10.96
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: those who persisted I ordered executed. ... by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “He had people tortured to find out what they did, and reported that he found nothing but a depraved and excessive superstition.” Difficult history told whole and exactly. The letter names whom he tortured, two enslaved women called ministrae, and says he had those who persisted led away to execution, which "people tortured" left out.

Claim 31 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The value of the passage is exactly that: an outsider, unfriendly,

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Hostile testimony is not written to flatter; the page’s judgement of its worth.

Claim 32 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: describing a group that is worshipping a crucified man some eighty years after the execution.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · English (Internet History Sourcebooks)
Pliny on the Christians: Letters 10.96 and 10.97, in Englishheadnote
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Pliny the Younger was governor of Pontus/Bithynia from 111-113 AD.
Supports · English (Internet History Sourcebooks)
Pliny on the Christians: Letters 10.96 and 10.97, in EnglishLetters 10.96
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god
Supports
Is rewritten Bible/Scripture the solution to the Synoptic Problem?p. 6, dating tables
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: 30 CE Jesus in Galilee 50 CE 60 CE 70 Gospel of Mark
Supports · WEB
Mark 15, World English BibleMark 15:25
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: It was the third hour when they crucified him.

What this does not establish

Pliny does not mention the crucifixion; that comes from the Christian texts. "Some eighty" rests on an execution about 30, which is approximate.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “within eighty years of the execution” With the execution about 30 and the letter about 112, the interval is a little over eighty years, not within it.

Claim 33 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

The Gospel usually dated earliest ends without an appearance

Claim: The Gospel usually dated earliest

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Is rewritten Bible/Scripture the solution to the Synoptic Problem?p. 5
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Two Document Hypothesis offers the most economical and plausible accounting of the form and content of the synoptic Gospels. It continues to be by far the most widely accepted solution to the Synoptic Problem (Kloppenborg Verbin 2000:11).
Supports
Is rewritten Bible/Scripture the solution to the Synoptic Problem?p. 4
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: patterns of agreements in the triple tradition (Matthew, Mark and Luke agree, meaning Mark was the source for both Matthew and Luke)

What this does not establish

Markan priority is the majority solution, not a unanimous one; the Griesbach hypothesis puts Matthew first.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The earliest Gospel ends without an appearance” That Mark is earliest is the majority scholarly view, not a recorded fact. The heading now says so, as the pilot did for John.

Claim 34 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: ends without an appearance

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Codex Sinaiticus, Mark chapter 16folio 228; verse index for Mark 16
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Mark, 16:1 - 16:8 / Luke, 1:1 - 1:18
Supports · WEB
Mark 16, World English Bible, with the translators’ note on verses 9 to 20Mark 16:7-8
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: There you will see him, as he said to you.’ ” They went out, and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come on them. They said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid.
An appearance is promised, not narrated.

What this does not establish

True of the text in Sinaiticus. The King James and the World English Bible carry a longer ending.

Claim 35 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: In Codex Sinaiticus, a Bible written in the middle of the fourth century, Mark chapter 16 runs to verse 8 and stops.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Codex Sinaiticus, Mark chapter 16“What is Codex Sinaiticus?”; viewer, folio 228
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Codex Sinaiticus, a manuscript of the Christian Bible written in the middle of the fourth century ... Mark, 16:1 - 16:8 / Luke, 1:1 - 1:18

What this does not establish

Read from the project’s description of the folio and its verse index, not from the Greek transcription.

Claim 36 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The women flee the tomb and say nothing to anyone, because they are afraid.

Kind: Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
Mark 16, World English Bible, with the translators’ note on verses 9 to 20Mark 16:8
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: They went out, and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come on them. They said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid.

Claim 37 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The verses that follow in printed Bibles such as the King James and the World English Bible, in which Jesus appears and commissions the disciples, are not there: Luke begins on the same page.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · KJV
Mark 16, King James VersionMark 16:9, 15
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene
Supports · WEB
Mark 16, World English Bible, with the translators’ note on verses 9 to 20Mark 16:14-15
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table; ... He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
Supports
Codex Sinaiticus, Mark chapter 16viewer, folio 228
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Mark, 16:1 - 16:8 / Luke, 1:1 - 1:18

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The verses that follow in most printed Bibles, in which Jesus appears and commissions the disciples, are absent from the oldest complete manuscripts. Modern translations generally keep them and mark them.” The passage cites Sinaiticus and the WEB, which carry one manuscript, not "the oldest complete manuscripts", and one translation, not what modern translations "generally" do. The WEB’s own note does more than mark the verses: it defends them. The corrected text says what the two cited sources show.

Claim 38 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The World English Bible prints them with a footnote: the critical text, it says, notes their omission by a few manuscripts, and its own translators regard them as reliable.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Added with the correction recorded on claim 38.

Supports · WEB
Mark 16, World English Bible, with the translators’ note on verses 9 to 20footnote to 16:9
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: NU includes the text of verses 9-20, but mentions in a footnote that a few manuscripts omitted it. The translators of the World English Bible regard Mark 16:9-20 as reliable based on an overwhelming majority of textual evidence

Claim 39 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: It is a rare case where the textual history is visible to any reader who looks at a footnote.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s judgement, following from the footnote just described.

Claim 40 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What is argued

Claim: What is argued

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What the accounts of the tomb are doing

Claim: What the accounts of the tomb are doing

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Paul, the earliest witness, lists appearances and does not mention an empty tomb.

Kind: Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:3-8; and Romans 1-16, 1 Corinthians 1-16, 2 Corinthians 1-13, Galatians 1-6, Philippians 1-4, 1 Thessalonians 1-5, Philemon, WEB, searched for tomb, sepulchre and grave
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The only hit is Romans 3:13, a psalm quotation (“Their throat is an open tomb”). Paul says Christ was buried and raised, and never mentions the tomb.
Supports
Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15p. 56, quoting Bousset
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: ‘Here it is now extraordinarily im-portant that the Apostle says nothing either concerning the empty tomb or con-cerning the witness of the women about the empty tomb.

Claim 43 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The Gospels, written later, all describe the tomb and differ from each other about the morning.

Kind: Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
Mark 16, World English Bible, with the translators’ note on verses 9 to 20Mark 16:1-5
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices ... Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side
Supports · WEB
Matthew 28, World English BibleMatthew 28:1-2
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. Behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from the sky
Supports · WEB
Luke 24, World English BibleLuke 24:4, 10
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: two men stood by them in dazzling clothing. ... Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James.
Supports · WEB
John 20, World English BibleJohn 20:1, 12
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went early, while it was still dark, to the tomb ... and she saw two angels in white sitting
Supports
Is rewritten Bible/Scripture the solution to the Synoptic Problem?p. 6, dating tables
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: 30 CE Jesus in Galilee 50 CE 60 CE 70 Gospel of Mark
Mark, the earliest, about 70; the others later.

Claim 44 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Historians read that relationship in opposite directions: as a later narrative growing around an earlier core, or as Paul taking for granted something his readers already knew.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15p. 56
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: What he does not say, one cannot wish to read between the lines. ... This is an argumentum ex silentio and as such is logically invalid. Nevertheless, Bousset’s approach has become pro-grammatic for many scholars in the discipline.
Supports
Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15p. 56, abstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: one can conclude that Paul could not have conceived of a resurrection of Jesus unless he believed the tomb was empty.

What this does not establish

Cook argues the second reading, from what resurrection meant in Paul’s world. He does not argue that Paul’s readers already knew a tomb story.

Claim 45 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: One detail bears on the other side:

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “One detail is regularly noted on the other side:” "Regularly noted" reports a pattern in scholarship that no source read here carries.

Claim: in all four accounts women, or in John Mary Magdalene, are the first to find the tomb empty.

Kind: Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
Mark 16, World English Bible, with the translators’ note on verses 9 to 20Mark 16:1-6
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, that they might come and anoint him. ... He is not here. See the place where they laid him!
Supports · WEB
Matthew 28, World English BibleMatthew 28:1, 6
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. ... He is not here, for he has risen, just like he said.
Supports · WEB
Luke 24, World English BibleLuke 24:1-3, 10
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body. ... Now they were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James. The other women with them told these things to the apostles.
Supports · WEB
John 20, World English BibleJohn 20:1-2
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went early, while it was still dark, to the tomb, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

What this does not establish

In John she sees the stone moved and runs for Peter; the disciples are the first to go in.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “all four accounts make women the first witnesses.” "First witnesses" left open of what: in Mark no one sees Jesus at all. In John a single woman comes first. The sentence now says what all four have in common.

Claim 47 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The premise underneath it is real and can be read.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Introduces Josephus.

Claim 48 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Josephus, setting out the law on evidence, writes that “the testimony of women” is not to be admitted “on account of the levity and boldness of their sex”, and files servants under the same rule.

Kind: Quotes a source. The words of a named text, checked against the source.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · English, tr. Whiston
Antiquities of the Jews, Book 4, chapter 8, section 15: the law on witnessesAntiquities 4.8.15 (4.219)
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: But let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex 1 Nor let servants be admitted to give testimony, on account of the ignobility of their soul

What this does not establish

Josephus’s statement of the law, written about 93. It says what one first-century writer gives as the rule, not how courts applied it.

Claim 49 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: What is disputed is what follows from it.

Kind: Disputed. A contested point, where the page reports a side or the disagreement.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Separates the readable premise from the inference.

What this does not establish

Says where the disagreement lies and takes no side in it.

Claim 50 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: The argument built on the detail, that nobody inventing a story would have chosen them, is an argument about plausibility rather than a piece of evidence, and how much it carries is disputed.

Kind: Disputed. A contested point, where the page reports a side or the disagreement.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page reports the argument and takes no side on its weight.

What this does not establish

The page reports the argument and does not weigh it.

Claim 51 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What the appearances were

Claim: What the appearances were

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: That the earliest followers said they had encountered Jesus alive is in a letter Paul wrote in the 50s, in a formula he says he received, more than a decade before any of the Gospels.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:3-5
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: ... and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Supports
The social construction of Paul’s apostolic leadership in Corinthp. 2
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: When Paul wrote our 1 Corinthians (ca. 55 AD)
Supports
Is rewritten Bible/Scripture the solution to the Synoptic Problem?p. 6, dating tables
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: 30 CE Jesus in Galilee 50 CE 60 CE 70 Gospel of Mark

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “That the earliest followers said they had encountered Jesus alive is in the oldest text the movement produced, decades before any of the Gospels.” 1 Corinthians is not the oldest Christian text: 1 Thessalonians is usually dated earlier, around 51 (Malan, p. 8). What is early here is the formula Paul says he received, and the sentence now says that.

24 September 2026. Previously: “That the earliest followers said they had encountered Jesus alive is in a letter Paul wrote in the 50s, in a formula he says he received, decades before any of the Gospels.” Malan’s tables date Mark, the earliest Gospel, to about 70 and Barentsen dates 1 Corinthians to about 55: some fifteen years, which "decades" overstated.

Claim 53 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Explanations of that claim are where agreement stops: bereavement experiences, visionary states of a kind attested across many cultures, later theological elaboration, or an event of the kind the texts describe.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Partly checked. Only part of the source could be read. What was not read is listed.

Supports
The Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus as Bereavement Experiences: An Engagement with Gerald O’Collinsabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Abstract only, 23 September 2026
The source reads: debate has resumed regarding whether or not the post-resurrection appearances may have been hallucinations or delusions on the part of the disciples. A sub-category of this debate is the question of bereavement hallucinations.
Supports
Paul’s ecstatic trance experience near Damascus in Acts of the Apostlesabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Luke reports more than twenty altered states of consciousness experiences in Acts of the Apostles. These are common and normal human experiences in approximately ninety percent of contemporary cultures.
Supports
Metaphorical understanding of Jesus’ resurrectionp. 2
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: What we must remember is that the verb ‘appeared’ was often used with reference to ‘apparitions’, meaning a specific type of vision (Borg 1999)
Supports
Metaphorical understanding of Jesus’ resurrectionabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: The article illustrates the need for interpreting the ancient references to the resurrection of Jesus metaphorically.
Supports
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy§ 2.2.3, explanatory arguments
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: A typical “minimal facts” argument for the resurrection of Jesus starts with a list of facts such as these
The argument that the event is the best explanation.

What this does not establish

Smith was read as an abstract only. The four positions are each argued in what was read; no source read surveys all four together.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “visionary states of a kind attested in other grief and other movements” The source read on visionary states, Pilch, describes altered states as common across cultures; nothing read documents them in other movements specifically.

Claim 54 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Each explanation has to carry the same weight, which is that the belief appears very early, in named people, some of whom had known him well, and that it survived the deaths of the people who founded it.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from the checked claims on 1 Corinthians 15, Galatians 1 and Pliny.

Context · WEB
Galatians 1, World English BibleGalatians 1:18-19
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother.
Context · Latin
Letters, Book 10, Letter 96: to the Emperor Trajan, concerning ChristiansLetters 10.96.9
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Multi enim omnis aetatis , omnis ordinis , utriusque sexus etiam vocantur in periculum et vocabuntur .
The movement is large and still growing about 112.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “some of whom had been in a position to know whether the body was in the tomb” The earlier wording presupposed a known tomb, which the passage before it reports as disputed, and so weighted the list toward one explanation. That Cephas and James knew him is what Paul’s letters carry.

Claim 55 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What history cannot reach

Claim: What history cannot reach

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Section title; the argument is in the passage beneath it.

Claim 56 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A method that assumes the past was like the present cannot return a verdict on an event defined as unlike anything in it.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

A conditional: it is about a method that makes the assumption.

Context
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy§ 3.1, General arguments, quoting Flew
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: third, that, since miracle has to be defined in terms of practical impossibility the application of these criteria inevitably precludes proof of a miracle.

Other readings

Critics answer that a believer in miracles does not deny dependable regularities, since a miracle is an exception to them (SEP).

Claim 57 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Whether it happened

Claim: Whether it happened

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Historical method, as many studies of the historical Jesus practise it, works by asking what probably happened given the evidence, and assumes that the past resembled the present: the theologian Ernst Troeltsch called this the principle of analogy.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy§ 3.3, The impact of Hume’s “Of Miracles”
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: rechristened as the “principle of analogy” in the writings of the theologian Ernst Troeltsch (1913), and endorsed, explicitly or implicitly, in many contemporary studies of the historical Jesus
Supports
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy§ 3.1, General arguments, quoting Flew
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: the present relics of the past cannot be interpreted as historical evidence at all, unless we presume that the same fundamental regularities obtained then as still obtain today
Supports
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy§ 3.1.2, setting out Ehrman’s argument
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: An historian can establish only what probably happened in the past.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Historical method works by asking what most probably happened given the evidence, and it is built on the assumption that the past resembled the present.” Stated as the nature of historical method, this is one side of what the Stanford Encyclopedia calls a deep fault line in biblical studies. The sentence now attributes the principle and says who practises it.

24 September 2026. Previously: “Historical method, as many studies of the historical Jesus practise it, works by asking what most probably happened given the evidence, and assumes that the past resembled the present: the theologian Ernst Troeltsch called this the principle of analogy.” The source states the historian’s premise as establishing only what probably happened; "most probably" was the page’s own sharpening.

Claim 59 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: On that assumption a resurrection is the one kind of event excluded in advance.

Kind: Disputed. A contested point, where the page reports a side or the disagreement.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Now conditional on the principle stated before it.

Qualifies
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy§ 3.1, General arguments
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: The most obvious rejoinder here is that the believer in miracles does not generally believe that there are no dependable regularities in the physical world; it is in the nature of a miracle to be an exception to the ordinary course of nature.

Other readings

The SEP entry calls the definition of a miracle as the most improbable event “tendentious”, and reports arguments that the probability of a miracle given the evidence can still be weighed.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “A resurrection is, by definition, the one kind of event that assumption excludes in advance.” "By definition" settles a contested point: the SEP entry calls that definition tendentious. The sentence is now conditional on the principle it follows from.

Claim 60 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: So a historian examining this can say, with real confidence, that people claimed it very early, that some of them had known the man, and that the claim cost them.

Kind: Historical claim. A statement about the past that historical evidence can test.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:5-7, 30-32
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ... Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour? I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes
Supports · WEB
Galatians 1, World English BibleGalatians 1:13, 19, 23
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God and ravaged it. ... But of the other apostles I saw no one except James, the Lord’s brother. ... “He who once persecuted us now preaches the faith that he once tried to destroy.”

What this does not establish

The cost is attested for Paul and for the communities he persecuted; the sources read here do not say how any of the named witnesses died.

Claim 61 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: A historian cannot move from there to a verdict without borrowing a premise from somewhere else, and which premise you borrow is doing the work.

Kind: Disputed. A contested point, where the page reports a side or the disagreement.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Even-handed: it applies to a verdict for the resurrection and against it.

Context
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy§ 3.3, The impact of Hume’s “Of Miracles”
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Commitment to something like Hume’s position lies on one side of a deep conceptual fault line that runs through the discipline of biblical studies.

Other readings

Explanatory arguments hold that the evidence itself favours one verdict once alternatives are compared (SEP, § 2.2.3).

Claim 62 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: That is not a dodge, and it is not a hint.

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: It is the actual shape of the limit, and pretending the limit is not there would misrepresent both the evidence and the claim.

Kind: Disputed. A contested point, where the page reports a side or the disagreement.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

Follows from the two claims before it.

Other readings

Some philosophers and historians deny that the limit exists, and argue a verdict from the evidence (SEP, explanatory arguments).

Claim 64 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What is claimed, and held

Claim: What is claimed, and held

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What Christianity claims

Claim: What Christianity claims

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: The creeds of the councils of Nicaea in 325 and Constantinople in 381 both confess it: "the third day he rose again".

Kind: Quotes a source. The words of a named text, checked against the source.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · English, tr. Percival
The Creed of the Council of Nicaea (325)the Creed of Nicaea
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: He suffered and the third day he rose again, and ascended into heaven.
Supports · English, tr. Percival
The Creed of the First Council of Constantinople (381)the Creed of Constantinople
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures

What this does not establish

The creeds confess the resurrection; they do not rank it among other doctrines. The words are Percival’s English translation.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The resurrection is not one doctrine among others in Christianity.” Whether the resurrection is central to Christianity as a whole, including those who read it non-literally, is a judgement the creeds and Paul do not settle. Narrowed to what the two creeds say, in their own words, under the owner’s rule that only what a credible source verifies is shown.

Claim 67 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Paul, in the same letter that preserves the earliest list of appearances, says that if Christ has not been raised then the preaching is empty and so is the faith.

Kind: Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:14, 17
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith also is in vain. ... If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins.

Claim 68 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: For Paul, the whole thing is staked on a claim about an event.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The page’s reading of 1 Corinthians 15:14-19.

What this does not establish

Paul’s staking; not every Christian now holds it the same way.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “The whole thing is staked on a claim about an event.” With the sentence on the resurrection’s place in Christianity narrowed to the creeds, “the whole thing” would have carried the removed generalisation. The staking is Paul’s, and the sentence now says so.

Claim 69 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: That is worth stating plainly, because it is easy to describe religion as being about values or community and leave out the part that is a claim about what happened on a particular weekend.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The “weekend” is the Gospels’ Friday to Sunday.

Context · WEB
Mark 15, World English BibleMark 15:42
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: because it was the Preparation Day, that is, the day before the Sabbath,
Context · WEB
Mark 16, World English Bible, with the translators’ note on verses 9 to 20Mark 16:2
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb

Claim 70 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

What people believe and why

Claim: What people believe and why

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

Claim: Paul presents the resurrection as part of the good news his readers had "received", and in which they "stand".

Kind: Describes a Bible passage. What a biblical passage says, in this page’s words. A fact about the text, separate from whether an event happened.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports · WEB
1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible1 Corinthians 15:1-4
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026
The source reads: Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, ... For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

What this does not establish

What Paul says of his Corinthian readers. It is not a claim about how Christians now come to the belief, which nothing read measures.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Christians do not generally arrive at the resurrection by weighing manuscripts. They hold it as something received and lived inside: in worship, in a community, in what they take to be their own experience.” A generalisation about how Christians across traditions hold the resurrection, which no study or tradition’s document read could carry. Narrowed to Paul’s own language of receiving and standing, which the old wording drew on, under the owner’s rule that only what a credible source verifies is shown.

Claim 72 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Some find the historical case strong, and some do not think the question turns on it.

Kind: What scholars argue. A report of what specialists argue, or where they disagree.
Review: Source checked. The cited passage was read, and it says this.

Supports
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy§ 2.2.3, explanatory arguments
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: The explanatory argument starts with this scholarly consensus and contends that all alternative explanations for these facts are inferior to the explanation that Jesus actually
Supports
Metaphorical understanding of Jesus’ resurrectionabstract
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: The article illustrates the need for interpreting the ancient references to the resurrection of Jesus metaphorically.

What this does not establish

Both are positions argued in print; neither source counts who holds them.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “Some also find the historical case strong, and some do not think the question turns on it.” “Also” leaned on the removed sentence about how Christians generally hold the belief.

Claim 73 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: People who do not believe it need not be unaware of the evidence above.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The sceptical case is made by people who know the evidence; Hume’s is the classic.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “People who do not believe it are not, for the most part, unaware of the evidence above.” "For the most part" is a claim about what most unbelievers know, and nothing read measures it. The point the passage needs is that unbelief does not depend on ignorance.

Claim 74 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: They can read the same early claim and judge that early, sincere and costly testimony to an extraordinary event is still testimony to an extraordinary event.

Kind: Disputed. A contested point, where the page reports a side or the disagreement.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The shape of Hume’s argument about testimony to a resurrection.

Context
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy§ 3.1, General arguments, quoting Hume’s Enquiry
Cited · Link answered, 19 October 2026 · Read in full, 23 September 2026
The source reads: When anyone tells me, that he saw a dead man restored to life, I immediately consider with myself, whether it be more probable, that this person should either deceive or be deceived

Other readings

Critics of Hume, reported in the same entry, reject the weighting.

Corrected

23 September 2026. Previously: “They read the same early claim and judge” Follows from the correction to the sentence before it.

Claim 75 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: Both of those are positions held by thoughtful people who have looked.

Kind: This page’s reading. A judgement the page makes from the evidence. Others read it differently.
Review: A judgement, not a fact. Reviewed for whether it is fairly put and follows from the checked claims. No source can confirm it.

The SEP entry reports serious arguments on both sides.

Claim 76 · checked 23 September 2026 · AI-assisted audit

Claim: This site can show you where the evidence stops. It has no standing to tell you what to do at the edge.

Kind: Framing. Signposting. It asserts nothing a source could check.

What was read

Galatians 1, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
1 Corinthians 15, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domainRead in full. For the absence of an empty tomb, all seven undisputed letters of Paul (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon: 61 chapters) were also read in the WEB and searched for tomb, sepulchre and grave. Those chapters are not separate entries in the evidence list.
Letters, Book 10, Letter 96: to the Emperor Trajan, concerning ChristiansPliny the Younger, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University · Latin text, Perseus Digital Library, Letters 10.96 in fullThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain textPerseus spaces its punctuation; excerpts keep its spacing. The page has no English of its own for the Latin, so its English is recorded as a rendering.
Codex Sinaiticus, Mark chapter 16The Codex Sinaiticus Project: British Library, Leipzig University Library, St Catherine’s Monastery, National Library of Russia · Codex Sinaiticus Project: the manuscript viewer at Mark 16 and the page “What is Codex Sinaiticus?”The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026Read the viewer’s description of folio 228 (“Mark, 16:1 - 16:8 / Luke, 1:1 - 1:18”) and its verse index for Mark 16, which runs from verse 1 to verse 8. The Greek transcription loads by script and was not read.
Mark 16, World English Bible, with the translators’ note on verses 9 to 20eBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.org, with its footnotes to 16:8 and 16:9The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
Antiquities of the Jews, Book 4, chapter 8, section 15: the law on witnessesJosephus, translated by William Whiston, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University · Tr. William Whiston, Perseus Digital Library, Antiquities 4.8.15The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain translation
Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15John Granger Cook, New Testament Studies · Publisher PDF, New Testament Studies 63(1) 56 to 75, open access on Cambridge CoreRead in full, 23 September 2026 · Copyright Cambridge University Press; quoted brieflyRead from the PDF text layer, which drops digits; excerpts avoid them. The exploration dates it 2016, the online date; the issue is 2017.
Pliny on the Christians: Letters 10.96 and 10.97, in EnglishInternet History Sourcebooks, ed. Paul Halsall, Fordham University · Internet History Sourcebooks English translation of Letters 10.96 and 10.97, with Halsall’s headnoteThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Copyright; educational use permitted by the Sourcebook; quoted brieflyUsed for the English wording and the headnote’s dates, not as scholarship.
The Annals, Book 15, chapter 44Tacitus, translated by Church and Brodribb, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University · Tr. A. J. Church and W. J. Brodribb, Perseus Digital LibraryThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain translation
The Wars of the Jews, Book 5, chapter 11, section 1Josephus, translated by William Whiston, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University · Tr. William Whiston, Perseus Digital Library, War 5.11.1The cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain translation
The Creed of the Council of Nicaea (325)Tr. Henry Percival, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 14, New Advent · NPNF second series vol. 14, tr. Henry Percival, New AdventThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain translation
The Creed of the First Council of Constantinople (381)Tr. Henry Percival, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 14, New Advent · NPNF second series vol. 14, tr. Henry Percival, New AdventThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain translation
Mark 14, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
Mark 15, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
Mark 16, King James VersioneBible.org, public domain · King James Version, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
Matthew 28, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
Luke 24, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
John 20, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
Acts 5, World English BibleeBible.org, public domain · World English Bible, eBible.orgThe cited passage was read, 23 September 2026 · Public domain
Is rewritten Bible/Scripture the solution to the Synoptic Problem?Gert J. Malan, HTS Teologiese Studies 70(1), open access · Publisher PDF, HTS 70(1), art. 2101, 10 pagesRead in full, 23 September 2026 · Open access; quoted brieflyRead from the PDF text layer. Its dating figures are tables of two schemes (Mack’s and Müller’s), flattened by the extraction.
The social construction of Paul’s apostolic leadership in CorinthJack Barentsen, HTS Teologiese Studies 74(4), open access · Publisher PDF, HTS 74(4), art. 5191, 13 pagesRead in full, 23 September 2026 · CC BY 4.0Read from the PDF text layer.
The Resurrection of Jesus in the Pre-Pauline Formula of 1 Cor 15.3–5James Ware, New Testament Studies 60(4)Abstract only, 23 September 2026Crossref record and abstract: New Testament Studies 60(4) 475 to 498. Unpaywall lists no open copy. The article’s title is also cited, as a survey of views, in Cook’s note 2.
The Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus as Bereavement Experiences: An Engagement with Gerald O’CollinsStephen H. Smith, Irish Theological Quarterly 85(2)Abstract only, 23 September 2026Crossref record and abstract: Irish Theological Quarterly 85(2) 109 to 126. Unpaywall lists no open copy.
Paul’s ecstatic trance experience near Damascus in Acts of the ApostlesJohn J. Pilch, HTS Teologiese Studies 58(2), open access · Publisher PDF, HTS 58(2) 2002, 18 pagesRead in full, 23 September 2026 · Open access; quoted brieflyRead from the PDF text layer; spacing artifacts of the extraction corrected in excerpts.
Metaphorical understanding of Jesus’ resurrectionChris Jones, Verbum et Ecclesia 46(1), open access · Publisher PDF, Verbum et Ecclesia 46(1), art. 3441, 9 pagesRead in full, 23 September 2026 · CC BY 4.0Read from the PDF text layer.
Miracles, in the Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyTimothy McGrew, Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University · Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Miracles”, current revisionRead in full, 23 September 2026 · Copyright; quoted briefly