By Robert Conner ~ T he first mention of Jesus’ resurrection comes from a letter written by Paul of Tarsus. Paul appears to have had no interest whatsoever in the “historical” Jesus: “even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, we know him so no longer.” ( 2 Corinthians 5:16 ) Paul’s surviving letters never once mention any of Jesus’ many exorcisms and healings, the raising of Lazarus, or Jesus’ virgin birth, and barely allude to Jesus’ teaching. For Paul, Jesus only gets interesting after he’s dead, but even here Paul’s attention to detail is sketchy at best. For instance, Paul says Jesus “was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” ( 1 Corinthians 15:4 ), but there are no scriptures that foretell the Jewish Messiah would at long last appear only to die at the hands of Gentiles, much less that the Messiah would then be raised from the dead after three days. After his miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus—an event Paul never mentions in his lette...

By Robert Conner ~ B esides being the first to comment on the ghost story quality of the post- resurrection accounts, the philosopher Celsus appears to have been the first to advance a psychological explanation for Jesus’ apparitions. Celsus, a conservative member of his society’s upper class, was particularly critical of the irrational, emotionally driven nature of Christian belief. “While [Jesus] was alive he did not help himself, but after death he rose again and showed the marks of his punishment and how his hands had been pierced. But who say this? A hysterical female, as you say, and perhaps some other one of those who were deluded by the same sorcery, who either dreamt in a certain state of mind and through wishful thinking had a hallucination due to some mistaken notion (an experience which has happened to thousands), or, which is more likely, wanted to impress the others by telling this fantastic tale, and so by this cock-and-bull story to provide a chance for other beg...

By Robert Conner ~ B ack in 2005, while researching material for a book on magic in the career of Jesus, I read Daniel Ogden’s sourcebook, Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman Worlds , and recall being surprised at how closely the post mortem appearances of Jesus in the gospels of Luke and John match Greco- Roman ghost stories. My initial search of the available literature turned up nothing that specifically addressed the similarities, but convinced of the parallels, I included a chapter, “The Resurrection as Ghost Story,” in my book, Jesus the Sorcerer: Exorcist and Prophet of the Apocalypse , released in 2006.   Why would elements from ghost stories end up in the gospels? What could possibly motivate the author of a gospel to compose a resurrection narrative that reads like a ghost story? It turns out there are a number of reasons.   First of all, most people in the first century took the existence of ghosts for granted: “Shortly before dawn, Jesus we...

By Robert Conner ~ I n Matthew, ancient Christianity’s favorite gospel, the author abandons all pretense of historical reportage, crashes through the guardrail, and takes his readers off-roading through the untamed wilderness of the imagination. Who the author of this high-on-Jesus joy ride really was is unknown, but for convenience we’ll just follow tradition and call him “Matthew.” A preview of how crazy this is about to get is provided by Matthew’s reworking of Mark’s account of the women at the tomb—Matthew uses Mark as a primary source, quoting or paraphrasing around 95% of Mark. Here is Mark’s description of the women coming to the tomb: “They began saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?’” (Mark 16:3) Here’s Matthew’s answer to the women’s doorman dilemma: “Behold! A great earthquake occurred because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and approaching them, he rolled the stone away and sat on it. His appearance w...

By Robert Conner ~ T he gospel of John describes what happened immediately after Jesus’ death on the cross: “Later, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a secret disciple of Jesus for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate if he might take Jesus’ body and Pilate consented, so he came and took his body. Nicodemus, who earlier had come to see Jesus by night, brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, around seventy- five pounds. Then they took Jesus’ body and wrapped it in linen cloth together with the spices, as is the Jewish burial custom. In the place he was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish Preparation Day, and because the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.” (John 19:38- 42) About a half dozen features of this brief account are either improbable, flatly contradict the version of events in the other gospels, or raise even more questions. We might as well start with Joseph of Arimathea, who Mark describes as...

By Robert Conner ~ T o hear Paul tell it, the resurrection isn’t just a big deal, it’s The Big Deal: “But if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching has no purpose and your faith is foolishness.” (1 Corinthians 15:14) Given the essential importance of Jesus’ resurrection, at the very least one would expect plenty of witnesses to the Most Important Miracle of all time—at least as many as witnessed the raising of Lazarus—as well as a coherent narrative of the events leading up to it. If you’re at all surprised to learn the New Testament includes neither, then obviously you haven’t been keeping up. First, there’s bad news and there’s even worse news. Let’s start with the worse news: according to the canonical gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John— no one actually sees Jesus rise from the dead. Cook on that for a minute. Despite repeated predictions that Jesus will rise from the dead after three days (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:32-34), not a single one of his apostles shows up to see...

By Robert Conner ~ A ccording to Mark, generally regarded as the earliest surviving gospel, Jesus repeatedly foretells his humiliation, crucifixion, and resurrection. “He began to teach them that it was necessary for the son of man to suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the high priests and the experts in the law and be killed and rise [from the dead] after three days.” (Mark 8:31) “He taught his disciples, telling them, ‘The son of man is to be delivered into men’s hands and they will kill him and three days after being killed, he will rise.’” (Mark 9:31) “He again began to say to the Twelve, ‘The son of man will be handed over to the chief priests and the experts in the law and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the Romans. They will ridicule him and spit on him and flog and kill him and after three days he will rise.’” (Mark 10:32b-34) According to the gospels, the apostles witness the very public resurrection of the son of the widow of Nain ...

By Robert Conner ~ L ately we are informed by some of America’s leading Evangelical High Muckety-Mucks that Donald John Trump is literally the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Not, as you might logically expect, the Whore of Babylon or the Beast of Revelation bearing blasphemous names, but Cyrus the Great, the Persian monarch who established a policy of repatriation following his conquest of the Babylonians. Deutero-Isaiah calls Cyrus Yahweh’s anointed and the books of Ezra and 2 Chronicles claim the tribal god of Israel impelled Cyrus to release captive Jews, although an authentic reflection of ancient Persian belief, the Cyrus Cylinder, proclaims the god Marduk as the source of Cyrus’ inspiration. Just as ancient Jewish scribes rewrote Persian history to suit their theopolitical ends, modern evangelicals, busy as ever putting the “mental” in fundamentalist, have predictably glommed onto Old Testament prophecy. Lance Wellnau, a prophet and “leadership coach” who hails from Dallas,...