The apostles: eyewitnesses, they did not lie.
The apostles have been eyewitnesses to the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. When they witnessed they reported what they had actually seen and heard. Since the Pentecost, their goal in life was to pass their testimony to as many people as possible. As a consequence of that, they were persecuted, first by the Jewish authorities, and then by the Roman government. Persecutions implied serious consequences for them. They became fugitives, they were threatened, beaten, arrested, tortured and killed. Despite this, the apostles did not recant their testimony, not even to save their lives. This behaviour shows us that they were sincere and not lying.
James said to Peter: ,,,, don’t get me wrong… but sometimes I have the impression that this thing of persecutions… is somehow connected to that other thing… of preaching the gospel…
The conspiracy theory.
Many sceptics claims that Jesus never rose from the dead. Instead the apostles would have sat around a table after his death, and agreed on the story to tell. In this scenario, the resurrection would be a conspiracy between the twelve, to create an identity for the church.
The disciples are conspiring in the cenacle.
Peter: “… So this is what we will say. Do you have any questions?”.
John: “I think my idea was better than yours, we should have… opened a fish shop!”.
Five elements for a successful conspiracy.
If the Christian movement is the result of a conspiracy, that is certainly a successful one. In fact, millions of people believed in it. Is there some evidence supporting this hypothesis? Detectives have studied many conspiracy cases during his career, and found five basic elements for a successful conspiracy.
- The conspirators must be as few as possible. The smaller their number, the greater the probability of success of the conspiracy. When someone lies they may accidentally contradict themselves. With many participants at stake, this risk increases exponentially.
- The conspirators must efficiently maintain contact with each other. Communication must be constant and quick. They must constantly make sure that none of them have said anything wrong or given in and revealed the truth.
- The conspiracy must take place in a short space of time. The longer it goes on, the more difficult it is to keep the lies going. The best model of conspiracy is between two people, in which one kills the other so that the secret does not leak out.
- The conspirators must have strong ties to each other. This way it is more difficult for one to report the other. For example the members of a family.
- The conspirators must not be put “under pressure”. When they feel threatened they tend to confess and accuse others hoping for a reduction in sentence.
James enters the upper room, in panic, shouting: “The sceptics have discovered us!”.
His brother John, says: “We’re fried!”.
Peter responds very calmly: “James… don’t lose your head!”.
The Christian conspiracy.
Let’s apply these five conditions to the alleged Christian conspiracy:
- Small group? According to Luke there are about 120 eyewitnesses in the upper room who see the risen Jesus. According to Paul we have more than 500 eyewitnesses in total. But let’s limit that number to the 12 apostles. This is still a very large number for a successful conspiracy.
- Continuous and rapid contacts? The apostles dispersed throughout the ancient world to preach the gospel. None of them kept in touch with others. In the first century there was no quick way to communicate.
- Short term? The apostles kept preaching for the rest of their lives. That is, in some cases, for decades. That’s a very long time to keep a conspiracy going.
- Strong bonds? Apart from some of them who were relatives, and others who were acquaintances, most of the apostles were practically strangers to each other. The three years they spent together during Jesus’ ministry were very few compared to the years they would spend apart.
- Little or no pressure? The apostles were certainly subjected to heavy psychological pressure by the persecutions. But we have evidence that each of them was arrested and interrogated, without recanting.
It is very unlikely that twelve people would be able to maintain a conspiracy for decades, without having contact with each other for years, no close bond, nor a way to communicate quickly. Surely, if that was a conspiracy, under the stress of arrests, interrogations, and threats, some of them would have given in and confessed the truth, accusing others to save themselves.
When Paul got on the ship to Rome he thought: in this story… we have to get to the bottom!
Gamaniel’s advice.
In Acts 5, the apostles are all arrested by the chief priests. They escape from prison through divine intervention, and go back teaching in the temple. The chief priests are furious and hold a council to find a way to kill them. One of them is a Pharisee called Gamaniel. He gives them a piece of advice. They should leave the apostles alone. He reminds them similar examples from the past. Like Jesus, Theudas and Judas the Galilean, had been followed by hundreds. After their death, their movement had dwindled to nothing, and their followers had dispersed. Therefore, concludes Gamaniel, if the Christian movement is the work of men, it too will quickly cease, but if it is the work of God, the chief priests have no chance of stopping it. The chief priests accept this advice and decide to let the apostles go. This example shows us that when movement is left without a leader, it disappears. But why didn’t the Christian movement faded away like that? The reason is to be found in Jesus’ resurrection. Without a real resurrection, Christianity wouldn’t have made it until today.
Gamaniel is talking to the chief priests: “The apostles are like my wife’s relatives… no use chasing them away… sooner or later… they leave my house!“
A motive is missing.
From any available historical source, we learn that the apostles never gained anything from their claims, other than persecution.
The apostles became richer than Louis XVI, the king of France! It is not true! I am joking! But, some of them have something in common with this famous king… they met the same end!
Main motives for lying.
No one in their right mind would lie without a reason. There are three main motives why criminals lie: sex, money and power. Any other motive is based on one or more of them. So if the apostles were laying, they would expect to gain something in one of these three areas.
A friend of my wife’s, who is single, is so desperate to get married as soon as possible… that when she goes out…, she puts on… a fake hump! Ok… Wait a second….. that doesn’t make sense!
Motives sex and money.
I think everyone agrees that the apostles certainly did not have any sexual or economic advantage from their testimony. They left their families and their possessions to follow Jesus. Later, due to persecution, they had to keep moving, living a economically disadvantaged life. We can clearly see that the focus of the apostles’ interest was their ministry. Even married life was considered a distraction to be avoided, as we can read in Paul’s letters.
The members of the famous rock band “Guns and Roses” took that of the apostles as a model of life… Okay… this is silly… otherwise what should they have called themselves?… “Flogs and crosses”?
Motive of power.
We must admit that the apostles became church leaders, and had power over the Christian community. But, when you think about it, this was simply an unexpected result of their preaching. Christian doctrine is completely opposite to Jewish one. For Christians, Jesus is God. The Jewish leaders, did not recognise Jesus as the Messiah. They considered Christians to be blasphemers. How would the apostles have invented a story deemed blasphemous by most of the community in which they lived, with the expectation of achieving success and power?
In the city everyone feared him, everyone respected him, everyone knew him as Al… Pietrone!
It would have been easier to lie.
If the apostles had lied and made everything up, wouldn’t it have been easier to create a story that pleased the Jewish leaders and their culture, rather than one that made them look bad? Because they were preaching the gospel, most of the people considered them infamous. They were persecuted, arrested, beaten and stoned by all the Jewish communities in which they preached it.
The chief priests to the apostles: this sermon… “non sa da fare!”
Nobody dies from a lie.
The martyrdom of the apostles is one of the greatest proofs of their sincerity. The twelve apostles traveled throughout the ancient world to witness Jesus’ resurrection and none of them ever recanted their testimony. None of them ever gained anything by it, none of them lived longer by their testimony. We have two possibilities: either they were twelve crazy people, or they were telling the truth and committed to doing so.
It is Easter morning, Peter and John enter the upper room announcing: ….There is good news and bad news. The bad news is that they ran out of everything at the market… no roast lamb this year! The good news is that, alternatively, we can make a nice risotto: I was walking under the trees when I found… these mushrooms…
Martyrdom as proof of reliability.
If today you or I died for our faith, it would not prove that Jesus was resurrected. This happens because our faith comes from second-hand information: someone told us that Christ was risen and we believed him, convinced by the Holy Spirit. But we did not see Jesus die and resurrect with our own eyes. Instead, the fact that it was Jesus’ eyewitnesses who died is very strong proof. The disciples knew that the resurrection was not a lie because Jesus resurrected: they had seen him, they had spoken to him and they had touched him. If eyewitnesses die for their testimony, this proves that their testimony is not mendacious, nor fabricated.
The apostles gave their lives because of the works of Jesus… Matthew explains… “This is how much we loved… that wooden furniture!“
Did the apostles really die as martyrs?
At this point, the sceptics, tight on the ropes, raise doubts about the persecutions and the martyrs. Could it be true that the apostles were truly persecuted and killed for their faith? Or are these exaggerations of the church?
Sceptics invite Christians to be more mature… Come on! Just because they threw some stones at them, it doesn’t mean they were persecuting them… that’s an exaggeration of the church! They were just… testing their reflexes!
The New Testament is a reliable historical source.
Despite the objections of sceptics, most historians consider the New Testament to be a collection of historically reliable ancient texts. Good evidence of their authenticity and reliability is provided by internal consistency, the principle of embarrassment, lack of anachronisms and the principle of multiple sources. These documents may be considered biased, but they are such historical as those of Tacitus, Josephus, Pliny and many others. The New Testament is history!
The Colosseum was packed with spectators, Peter was about to be crucified. In that moment his whole life passed before him. All of a sudden he found the answer to a question he had been asking himself for years… “Ah! Now I understand! The yeast of Pharisees wasn’t for… organic bread!”
Persecutions and martyrs in the New Testament.
The New Testament shows us a pattern of persecution against the Christians from Jesus to Paul. In the New Testament, we can find many examples of it.
- In Matthew 10 and 16, Jesus predicts the persecution against Christians.
- In Matthew 12, the Pharisees accuse Jesus.
- In Matthew 14, John the Baptist is killed by Herod.
- In Matthew 15, Jesus calls the Pharisees: hypocrites.
- In Matthew 16, Jesus rebukes the Pharisees and Sadducees.
- In Matthew 16, 17, and 20, Jesus predicts his death.
- In Matthew 21, the chief priests and Pharisees try to take Jesus.
- In Matthew 22, the Pharisees plot against Jesus.
- In Matthew 23, Jesus condemns the hypocritical scribes and Pharisees.
- In Matthew 26, the chief priests, scribes and elders of the people decide that Jesus must die.
- In Matthew 26, and 27, Jesus is arrested, tortured and killed for his doctrine.
- In Matthew 26, the disciples run away and hide after Jesus’ arrest.
- In Matthew 26, Peter denies Jesus for fear of being arrested.
- In Acts 4, Peter and John are arrested for preaching at the temple and threatened to stop preaching the name of Jesus.
- In Acts 5, all the apostles are arrested and beaten for continuing to teach in the temple.
- In Acts 6 and 7, Stephen is stoned after speaking before the Sanhedrin.
- In Acts 8, the disciples flee Jerusalem due to Saul’s persecution.
- In Acts 8, Saul searches for Christians from house to house.
- In Acts 12, Herod has James, John’s brother, arrested and killed to please the Jewish leaders.
- In Acts 12, Peter is arrested again for the same reason.
- In Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas are expelled from Antioch due to the persecution by the Jews.
- In Acts 14, the Jews, in agreement with the Pagans, attempt to stone Paul and Barnabas in Iconium.
- In Acts 14, the Jews from Antioch and Iconium follow Paul to Lystra and incite the crowd to stone him.
- In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are beaten and arrested in Philippi.
- In Acts 17, they are hunted down and flee from Thessalonica and Berea.
- In Acts 19, they are nearly lynched by the mob for ruining the sales of a goldsmith who made temples of Diana in Ephesus.
- In Acts 21, Paul is arrested at the temple in Jerusalem.
- In Acts 21 to 26, Paul is imprisoned and put on trial.
- In Acts 27 and 28, Paul remains under house arrest in Rome for two years.
Paul, speaking to the therapist: Paul: “I feel that lately, my ministry is no longer as successful as it once was. This year I still haven’t been… stoned!”
The death of James, brother of John.
The death of James, brother of John, is reported by Luke in the book of Acts. Herod had him arrested and beheaded to gain the consent of the Jewish leaders.
James originally was a fisherman with his brother John. He caught fish of all kinds. But he couldn’t figure it out why he didn’t like a certain type of fish. That was… the swordfish!
The death of James, brother of Jesus.
In Matthew 13:55, James is listed among Jesus’ brothers. He is not to be confused with disciples: James, brother of John, and James, son of Alphaeus. James, Jesus’ brother, did not follow Jesus as a disciple but witnessed his resurrection. He was later called ‘the just’ and became leader of the church in Jerusalem. James’ role as a witness is important in our case for the resurrection because he was sceptical. He became a believer after encountering the risen Jesus. His death as a martyr is reported by the Jewish historian Josephus, who wrote from the first century.
James is talking to the therapist….
James: “Whatever I do… he is always better than me!”.
The therapist: “Mr James, that’s not possible… this is projection… to do that, your older brother should be… God!”
In the gospels and Acts, we observe a recurring path.
From Jesus to the apostles, we observe a recurring pattern regarding persecution. The gospel itself generates hostility in some listeners. Maybe because the truth is sometimes hard to accept. That hostility was increased by the strict views of the Jews. As we have seen for the Jews, Christians were blasphemers and, according to the Mosaic law, had to be killed. Despite the apostles knew this, they continued to preach the gospel. They knew the risks they were taking. In Acts, we see Paul and Peter publicly preach that Jesus is God, and divide the crowd in two. One part accepts the news and converts; while the other rejects it and physically threatens them. Since they knew what awaited them with their preaching, the fact that they persisted, shows us that they were firmly convinced of what they said. They were willing to obey God, also if there were hard consequences to pay.
The stories of Acts always follow the same pattern:
Phase 1: The Jews heard the gospel
Phase 2: The Jews understood the gospel
Phase 3: The Jews rejected the gospel
Conclusion: The Jews re-ejected Paul… from the synagogue.
Apostles’ students confirm persecutions.
The persecution against the apostles was confirmed by their students Clement of Rome, a student of Peter; and Ignatius, a student of John. Students also said they were persecuted because of their faith.
Polycarp, from the second generation of students, confirms the persecution against the apostles, and that of their students, also speaking of his own. The following generations also do the same. We can therefore observe a recurring path and a certain continuity in the persecution against Christians.
It must be pointed out that in the first three hundred years of the church, persecuting Christians was not the main objective of the Roman Empire. There were, periods of peace alternated with short periods of intense persecution.
Together with the gospel, the church fathers also received persecution… it’s like when someone wins the lottery, and, together with the money, they are rewarded with… taxes!
Tacitus reports the persecution in the Annals.
The non-Christian historian Tacitus reports in the Annals that the emperor Nero ordered the persecution against Christians, blaming them for the fire of Rome: a crime he himself committed. During times of persecution, Christians could be arrested just for proclaiming the name of Jesus, and many were. This means that there was a real danger for those who preached the gospel in those times. From the church fathers, we learn that Nero also ordered the martyrdom of Peter and Paul.
Nero is talking to his therapist. Nero: “Nobody likes me. I can’t even keep a job, … I’ve also lost this job as a pizza chef!”.
Therapist: “What happened?”.
Nero: “Customers were complaining…”
Therapist: “What was the problem?”
Nero: “They were insinuating that all my pizzas were coming out… charred!”
Correspondence between Pliny and Vespasian.
There is a correspondence between Pliny the Younger and the emperor Vespasian. The content shows us that when a Christian was arrested, he was asked to renounce his faith, deny the divinity of Jesus, and worship pagan gods and the statue of the emperor. If they did so they were free to go, otherwise, by persisting in their faith, they would have been killed.
Pliny is interrogating a Christian.
Pliny: “If you worship Vespasian I will let you go, otherwise you will die”.
The Christian: “If Vespasian is a god, why is he balding?”.
Pliny: “Vespasian came down from heaven. The hair in front of him got burned when the emperor… entered the atmosphere!
Christianity: “Game over”!
Their enemies had two ways to crush the Christian movement. First, they could have been to publicly display Jesus’ body. In fact, the Christian faith is completely based on the resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul writes that, without Jesus’ resurrection, our faith would be useless. Second, they would have made the disciples recant their testimony. But none of that ever happened. We don’t even have an ancient document stating that the apostles recanted and were released. On the contrary, all sources unanimously affirm the same ideas: the apostles were persecuted and were willing to die rather than deny the resurrection.
The Pharisees are talking to their lawyer: “We got a letter from the court in The Hague… they are accusing us of killing Jesus without just cause.”
The lawyer replies: “Don’t worry… I already have the solution for your case… you see: the law is clear… no corpse… no murder!”.
No source attests to the contrary.
Although we have a tradition that the apostles died as martyrs; we don’t have a tradition that says otherwise. Not even one source has ever been found denying the persecutions against the apostles, nor concrete evidence indicating that the apostles recanted their testimony about Jesus.
This is what really happened… they were all… kidnapped by a UFO! And replaced by clones!
Five points from McDowell.
The deaths of the apostles are attested by traditional sources: such as the New Testament and the church fathers, and by hostile sources such as Josephus. There is also information in the apocryphal books, which obviously cannot be considered as reliable as the other sources. Sean McDowell carried out a study on the deaths of the apostles and established their historical probabilities. McDowell presented an argument, which shows evidence that all the apostles were persecuted for their faith and that they were willing to die for their testimony. That’s based on five points:
1 The apostles as eyewitnesses.
After the death of Judas Iscariot, the apostles were looking for someone to replace him, to fulfill the prophecy from the Old Testament. The candidates had to be chosen between the disciples, and he had to have been present since Jesus’ baptism. To be an eyewitness to the risen Jesus was the most important requirement for the apostles.
When the apostles were replacing Judas, Peter made a requirements list for the candidate:
He had to be a disciple, he had to be there from the beginning, he had to be… quick to run!
Then, when Mattias was chosen, the twelve gave him some advice…
Rule 1… cardio… Preach the gospel, if the thing goes wrong… start running!
Rule 2… double tap… if you get stoned… play dead!
Rule 3… watch out for… synagogues!
2 The apostles preached the resurrection.
Apostles’ preaching was all about Jesus’ resurrection. They preached three basic facts: Jesus died, he was buried, and he was resurrected.
The apostles entered the temple and called the crowd to attention. James began to speak: “Brothers, today we will talk about three facts… er… just a moment… where are my notes… I left them here last night… sorry for the inconvenience… but sometimes I think that sooner or later, this mess… will make me lose my head!”,
3 The gospel in opposition to the Roman state.
As in other pagan-based governments in the Roman Empire, subjects were required to worship the emperor as a god. But the apostles preached that Jesus is the only God and that pagan gods do not exist. As a result, they were preaching that the emperor is not God. This was enough for them to be sentenced to death. The gospel was opposed to the laws of the Roman state.
On this thing of being God, Caesar wanted to compete with Jesus… but in the end… He died!
4 The apostles did not let the authorities stop them.
In Acts 4, Peter and John are arrested, threatened, and ordered not to preach in the name of Jesus. In Acts 5, all the apostles are arrested for violating this order by the Jewish authorities. Continuing to read the Acts and the epistles, we can see that despite being threatened, beaten and imprisoned, the apostles continued to announce the gospel publicly without fearing the consequences.
The apostles continued to preach without giving up, even though things always ended badly… A bit like those who continue to vote for the same party, thinking that… They will pay less taxes!
5 We have good evidence for some deaths.
The death of James, brother of John, is confirmed by Luke in Acts. The death of the other James, brother of Jesus, is mentioned by Josephus. In Acts, Luke also records Stephen’s death. Even if he wasn’t an apostle, his death, shows us how Christian preaching was triggering harsh persecutions.
The deaths of Peter and Paul are also well documented. According to the church fathers, Paul was beheaded and Peter was crucified, both in Rome by order of Nero, who was the first emperor to officially persecute the church.
What do the martyrdoms of James, Paul and Peter have in common with the fact that my jokes don’t make anyone laugh? That both things are…. well documented!
Historical probabilities.
McDowell provides a table of historical probabilities for the martyrdom of the twelve apostles. This table was created through scientific principles and the analysis of available sources on the topic.
- Highest probability: Peter, Paul, James son of Zebedee.
- Most likely true: James, brother of Jesus.
- More likely than not: Thomas and Andrew.
- More possible than not: Bartholomew and James son of Alphaeus.
- Possible: Philip, Matthew, Thaddeus, Simon the Zealot, Matthias.
- Unlikely: John son of Zebedee.
The apostles died as martyrs… very likely. The church was persecuted…very likely. My jokes make you laugh… unlikely!!
They would die for the truth.
While not all of the apostles died as martyrs, we have evidence they were willing to die for their testimony, rather than recant or remain silent. This means that they were not liars. Instead they were sincerely convinced of what they had seen and heard.
The worst part of Peter’s martyrdom was when they forced him to assemble his own cross, they got it… from IKEA.
Thanks for your attention and see you in the next post!
Books.
Sean McDowell: The Fate of the Apostles.
J. Warner Wallace: Cold Case Christianity.
Lee Strobel: Case For Christ.