Women of Intelligent Faith

Christians like to point to the martyrdom of the first apostles as evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. [1]  They base their hypothesis on the premise that people don’t die for a lie they know to be false. People might die for a lie that they believe to be true, but not one they know to be false. This is persuasive evidence for the reliability of the testimony of the early eye witness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection. In his book,  The Resurrection of Jesus , historian Michael R. Licona states this about Jesus’ disciples: After Jesus’ death, the disciples endured persecution, and a number of them experienced martyrdom. The strength of their conviction indicates that they were not just claiming Jesus had appeared to them after rising from the dead. They really believed it. They willingly endangered themselves by publically proclaiming the risen Christ. [2] What do we know about the deaths of the first disciples of Jesus? Tradition holds that the apostles di...

Until just a few years ago when my husband mentioned it, I didn’t even know there was a question about the ending of Mark 16. Sure enough when I opened my Bible, in between verse 8 and 9 it says in brackets, “The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have Mark 16:9-20.” [1]  When comparing the shorter ending with the longer ending, it is clear that the longer version is a happier ending. Did Bible editors include the longer version just to give us a happy ending? The shorter ending is not a happy ending. It ends rather abruptly with women coming to Jesus’ tomb to anoint his body with spices only to find the tomb empty. A young man dressed in white tells them not be alarmed and to go tell the disciples that Jesus will meet them in Galilee. Trembling and bewildered they flee the scene, and say nothing to anyone because they were afraid. [2]  Whereas the longer ending has Jesus speaking to the apostles, His ascension to heaven, ...