The gospel writers fabricated the stories about the darkening of the sky, the curtain being ripped, etc. Matthew fabricated the prophecy from Hosea 11:1, and the church corrupted Isaiah 53. Response?
Question:
The Gospels’ writers fabricated stories about Jesus which have no strong evidence, e.g., the sky grows dark for 3 hours at midday at the crucifixion, an earthquake rips the curtain in the Jewish temple & opens the tombs of the saints, from which dead people resurrect and then appear throughout Jerusalem. This is an extraordinary event, indeed, and yet there is no follow-up in the Gospels or Acts of how the city was affected by these events. If it happened in real life, then there would be no need to preach the gospels to convince Jews & Greeks. Matthew was such a fabricator that he made up prophecies from old events, e.g., Hosea 11:1 in its original context talking about the deliverance of the people of Israel from bondage in Egypt but Matthew attributed this to Jesus. Similar is about Isaiah 53. When the Gospels’ writers had no chance to prove the reason of Jesus’ Crucifixion, they corrupted the text of Isaiah out of context. What’s your response?
Answer:
The first set of statements about the resurrection events amounts to mere rhetoric without evidence. It is hard to respond to mere statements which are not supported by evidence. For example you (or someone else?) say that these stories were fabricated. What is your evidence of fabrication? You say that there is no strong evidence. Well, the “evidence” is that eye witnesses to the events told the hearers of the gospel that these things happened. As for the hours of darkness, there is evidence for this event, which is that the very reliable and honest writer of Matthew said it happened. Besides, there was an early non-Christian writer named Thallus who wrote a three-volume history of the world in the 50’s AD. He mentions the darkness at the time of the resurrection of Jesus. Thallus tried to explain the darkness as having been caused by an eclipse of the sun. The problem with this is that there was no solar eclipse during the Passover in Jerusalem at the time of the death of Jesus. This is good evidence from a non-believer that this darkness did in fact happen.
As for the rending of the curtain in the temple at the time of the death of Jesus, I will agree that we only have the gospel writers on this, but many of the Jews, including non-believers who were there that day were still alive when Matthew wrote his gospel. Surely, they would have objected to Matthew publishing a lie. We have every reason to believe that Matthew was an honest recorder of events which actually happened. He believed in Jesus, he was willing to die for his faith, and he had no reason to fabricate stories, as the truth about Jesus was sufficient!
You say that if these events, extraordinary as they were, had happened, they would have been sufficient that everyone in Jerusalem would have believed, and there would have been no need to convince Jews and Greeks in these circumstances. I strongly disagree with this. The resurrection of Jesus on the third day is a more extraordinary than any of these events. Jesus was killed and his tomb was empty. These are well-established facts. Yet, the majority of Jews in Jerusalem refused to believe in Jesus. The addition of the facts of the darkness and the rent curtain (which, as you say, are less strongly attested to) would not significantly add to the wonder of events surrounding the death of Jesus, given the well-known and strongly-attested facts surrounding his resurrection. I disagree with this contention. The empty tomb was more than enough reason to believe in Jesus, yet many chose not to follow Jesus.
Matthew was no fabricator!!!! This is a totally false accusation! The prophecy in Hosea 11:1, “Out of Egypt I called my son” applies to Joseph, to Moses, to Israel, to Jesus, and to anyone who chooses to be freed from slavery to sin through the saving death of Jesus. Those who deny the validity of this prophecy simply do not understand the Old or the New Testament. The exodus of Israel from Egypt was a foreshadow of Jesus coming out of Egypt. The allusion is a clear one, and ignorance of Muslims about the Old and New Testament is not evidence that the prophecy is a false one.
Whoever claims that Isaiah was corrupted clearly does not know what they are talking about!!! This is a dramatically ignorant statement. We have two copies of Isaiah from the Dead Sea Scrolls which were written well over one hundred years before Christ was killed!!! Besides, Jews quoted from Isaiah 53 before Christ, and Isaiah 53 was found in the Greek Septuagint translation from the second century BC. It is evidence of the relative ignorance of any person who makes this obviously false statement. When was Isaiah corrupted by the church? In 250 BC? Besides, the Jews have the same Isaiah 53. Would they agree to let the Christians corrupt their scripture? Who can believe this absurd challenge to the reliability of the Jewish scripture!!!
You need to find a more reliable and believable critic of Christianity. This source is clearly not at all reliable.
John Oakes
