User:Feredir28/The Case for Easter

The Case for Easter: Journalist Investigates the Evidence for the Resurrection is a book authored by Lee Strobel, published in 2004.

Chapter One: The Medical Evidence: Was Jesus' Death a Sham and His Resurrection a Hoax
Strobel begins this chapter with a short introduction of the character of Dr. Robert J. Stein, a forensic pathologist, who says that dead bodies can reveal a lot about the person while alive.

Strobel says the idea that Jesus did not die on the cross can be found in the Qu'ran, which was written in the seventh century. Strobel also introduces the thoughts of Karl Bahrdt, Karl Venurini, and others from the 19th century who thought Jesus simply fainted on the cross (called the swoon theory), or perhaps given a drug that gave the false impression he was dead. Strobel calls these people "conspiracy theorists" who use the verse Mark 15:36 to claim that Jesus was drugged when he was given some liquid on a sponge.

Strobel confronts the swoon theory first. Strobel then introduces Gary Habermas, who Strobel calls a "resurrection expert", who disagrees with such conspiracies. Strobel then travels to interview Alexander Metherell, M.D., PhD. Strobel sought him out because he had heard of his credentials to explain the Crucifixion, but more importantly to Strobel was that he could explain the Crucifixion dispassionately while remaining very accurate.

The Torture Before the Cross
Matherell begins to walk Strobel through the story of Jesus at the trial (as reported through the gospels). Matherell explains the reason behind Jesus "sweating blood" and psychological problems was due to hematidoris.

What Matherell and Strobel do not share, either because they do no already know or they deliberately do not want the reader to know, is that the phrase "sweating blood" does not appear in the original gospels anywhere. To understand this, in the early stages of Christianity, there was a great diversity ad Christians debated left and right about many things about Jesus (some held beliefs that many Christians today would consider then very un-Christian). One of the debates was whether Jesus was fully man or divine. Later Christian scribes inserted their own personal beliefs that was not shared by the gospel authors. Among these insertions was the "sweating of blood" in Luke chapter 5. The reason behind this was the scribe wanted to push his personal theological stance that Jesus was divine but also human; by showing that Jesus bled and felt agony revealed that he was man. The problem with this is that the original gospel author of Luke (the supposed eye-witness of Jesus, but even that is not accepted by scholars ) did not record this "sweating of blood" ever happening, therefore it does not seem likely that Jesus ever sweat blood, making Matherell's analysis rather irrelevant.

For Further Evidence
Here Strobel lists books by several other Christian apologists.
 * 1) William Lane Craig, A Reasonable Faith.
 * 2) Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ.