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Resurrection of Jesus (Easter)
Proclaimed from c. AD 30–33· Event· Judaism, Christianity & Islam
Faith & scriptureHeld by believers on faith and scripture; history can neither confirm nor rule it out.
The Christian teaching that Jesus rose bodily from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion, celebrated at Easter.
See it on the World Religions map →What it is
The Gospels report that on the Sunday after the crucifixion women followers found Jesus' tomb empty, and that he then appeared to Peter, the other disciples and others over several weeks before ascending to heaven. Paul, writing around AD 54, lists witnesses, including 'more than five hundred' at once. Christians believe the resurrection shows Jesus' victory over sin and death and promises that believers will rise too. Easter, its annual feast, is Christianity's oldest and most important festival.
Why it matters
It is the foundation of Christian faith; Paul wrote that without it faith would be in vain. It turned a movement that seemed defeated into a missionary one.
Faith and history
History can confirm that Jesus' followers proclaimed it very early: Paul quotes a creed many scholars date within a few years of the crucifixion. Whether it happened is a matter of faith.
Questions and debates
How to explain the disciples' conviction divides believers, who see a miracle, and skeptics, who propose visions or other causes. The Gospel accounts differ in details.
Connections (3)
▸Crucifixion of Jesus was followed, Christians believe, by Resurrection of Jesus (Easter)Faith & scripture
The connection
Christians believe that Jesus, having died on the cross on a Friday, rose from the dead on the third day, Sunday. In their teaching the two events form one story: the crucifixion is the sacrifice, the resurrection God's vindication of it. Each year Easter Sunday follows Good Friday to mark this.
When and where
Jerusalem, around AD 30–33, during Passover; the Gospels name Mary Magdalene and other women as the first to find the tomb empty.
How do we know?
History confirms the crucifixion and that followers soon proclaimed the resurrection; the resurrection itself is held on faith.
Questions and debates
Some scholars doubt Jesus had a tomb burial, since Rome often left the crucified unburied; others cite Jewish burial law and the 1968 Jerusalem find of a buried crucified man.
▸Resurrection of Jesus (Easter) inspired Paul the ApostleFaith & scripture
The connection
Paul writes that the risen Jesus appeared to him 'last of all', turning him from persecutor into apostle. In Christian belief that encounter launched his mission. For Paul, the resurrection proved that Jesus was God's Son and promised that believers too would rise, a theme at the heart of his letters, especially 1 Corinthians 15.
When and where
Near Damascus, Syria, c. AD 33–36. Acts describes a blinding light on the road; Paul's own letters say only that Jesus 'appeared' to him.
How do we know?
Paul's own letters (Galatians 1, 1 Corinthians 15) attest his claim and his dramatic change; the appearance itself is a matter of faith.
Questions and debates
What Paul experienced, a vision, an inner revelation or a bodily appearance, is debated, as are differences among the three accounts in Acts.
▸Resurrection of Jesus (Easter) is central to New TestamentHistorical record
The connection
Every Gospel climaxes with the empty tomb, and the resurrection runs through the rest of the New Testament: Acts makes it the apostles' core message, Paul calls it 'of first importance', and Revelation pictures Jesus as the one who was dead and is alive forever. Its writers present it as the event that explains everything else.
When and where
Written c. AD 50–120; 1 Corinthians 15, from about AD 54, contains the earliest written account.
Historical evidence
The texts themselves: the resurrection appears in all four Gospels, Acts, most of the letters and Revelation, written by many different authors.
Questions and debates
Scholars debate why Mark's earliest manuscripts end at the empty tomb without appearances, and how the later Gospel accounts developed.