Section 11
Names, not legends
The resurrection claim is anchored in named eyewitnesses, transmitted through identifiable channels.
Papias (~110 to 130 AD) explicitly says he sought out the elders who had been disciples of the apostles, and named his sources. This is what an ancient historian did.
The inclusio device. Mark frames his Gospel with Peter at the start and Peter at the end, signalling that everything between rests on Peter’s testimony. A known ancient convention found also in Lucian, Porphyry, and Tacitus.
Bauckham analysed the relative frequency of names in the Gospels versus Josephus, ossuary inscriptions, and the Murabba’at and Masada texts. Gospel name frequencies match first century Palestinian Jewish demographics very closely.
The Gospels are best regarded as testimony in this strong sense. They embody the testimony of the eyewitnesses in a way that is substantially faithful to how the eyewitnesses themselves told it.
Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 2006, p. 6.
By the numbers
- Named witnesses (1 Cor 15:5 to 8)
- 6 categories
- Inclusio examples
- Mark / Peter, Luke / women, John / Beloved Disciple
- Time from event to Mark
- ~35 years
Strongest counter position
Form critics in the older Bultmannian tradition argue the Gospels reflect anonymous community oral tradition. Engaged in the knowledge base.
What this does not prove
Bauckham’s case is contested. The minimal facts case does not depend on it.
Citations
- Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, 2nd ed., 2017.
- Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 3.39.
- 1 Corinthians 15:5 to 8.
- Tal Ilan, Lexicon of Jewish Names in Late Antiquity, 2002.
Goes deeper