A few days ago, I posted a note on the discovery of an ancient, pre-Christian tablet that includes mention of a messiah rising in three days. (For information on the conference held in Jerusalem today where this was discussed, click here .)
Some have suggested my post asserted that the tablet’s message is certain prophesy of Christ’s resurrection. Perhaps I expressed myself unclearly; all we can ascertain from this discovery is that this notion mentioned on the tablet—the notion of a suffering messiah dying and rising from the dead after three days—existed before Christ’s time on earth. That itself is a huge find which challenges many theories, but it’s not one that must instantly “shake our view of Christianity” the way the fellow highlighted in the New York Times coverage hoped it would.
What it does tell us is that the term “resurrection” may have been an available concept in Judaism, which could explain how the disciples employed this concept to describe their experience. To call this proof that the New Testament is false is a much bigger leap, but it definitely makes for a catchier news story!
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