Non-Christian Sources for Resurrection

[StCsDavid]

Does anyone know of any early, non-Christian witnesses to the Resurrection of Christ. By that I mean, any eye-witness accounts from a source not directly connected to the faith. For example, a Roman soldier sees Christ walking around after the crucifixion and says, “Hey, didn’t we just crucify that guy?”

I was asked this question the other day, and I responded that Christ chose who He revealed Himself to after the Resurrection, but I got to thinking wouldn’t it be kind of neat if there was another source who had no vested interest in His coming back to life.

 

[CThomas]

Well, the apostle Paul was a staunch anti-Christian who gave a first-person eyewitness account of his encounter with the risen Christ. This is a “Christian source” only to the extent that he understandably became convinced after his encounter.

Regards,

CThomas

 

[NMJenny]

The Jewish historian Josephus is reported to have written something about the Resurrection, although there is controversy over its legitimacy. You can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josephus_on_Jesus#Testimonium_Flavianum

 

[StCsDavid]

Well, the apostle Paul was a staunch anti-Christian who gave a first-person eyewitness account of his encounter with the risen Christ. This is a “Christian source” only to the extent that he understandably became convinced after his encounter.

Regards,

CThomas

Quite true; however, Christ chose to reveal Himself to Paul. Paul persecuted Christians, but I haven’t read any accounts of him actually seeing Christ before his trip to Damascus.

 

[Prayer_Warrior]

To my knowledge, there aren’t any non-Christian eye-witness accounts of the Resurrection. I would suppose that anyone who witnessed the Resurrected Lord would have immediately become ‘Christian’. Paul was a good example and I’m sure there were many more who just never wrote anything down. Here is a list of non-Christian accounts of early Christianity. However, none of them are eye-witnesses to the Resurrection, but they were witnesses to what was going on with early Christians.