What is the Gospel?

The Good News of Christ's Birth, Death and Resurrection

1 Cor. 15:1-4 Is a creed too early for legend to corrupt

1 Corinthians 15:1-4

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

This passage is both the most succinct summary of the gospel -- the good news of Jesus -- as well as a creedal statement incorporated into the text of the New Testament. Considering the lack of a printing press and a largely illiterate first century, passing the gospel on via creedal statements like this would have been commonplace. What makes this one so powerful is that it was very likely in circulation within a few years of the actual resurrection itself. For most of historical events we have attestation from at best several hundred years after the fact, giving a lot of time for myths to develop. Here we have powerful evidence supporting the truth of the resurrection and Christian belief.

Why do scholars date 1 Corinthians 15:3-8 so early after the Resurrection?

Before we consider the evidence for an early dating of 1 Corinthians 15, we should point out that even skeptical scholars date this passage incredibly early. Habermas writes, "Even radical scholars like Gerd Lüdemann think that ‘the elements in the tradition are to be dated to the first two years after the crucifixion… no later than three years after the death of Jesus.’"[5] Consider a number of skeptical historians regarding the dating of this section in 1 Corinthians:

Gerd Lüdemann (atheistic professor of NT at Göttingen): “The testimony of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 is the earliest text in the New Testament to make concrete mention of the death, resurrection, and appearances of the risen Christ. Here Paul uses traditions which he knows from an earlier period. As 1 Corinthians is usually dated around 50 A.D., we may note, first, that the traditions which he mentions must be even older… It is hard to say what the relationship is between the event itself and the development and description of it. Because of the extraordinary nature of the event in question we may suppose that it was also reported immediately after the appearance of Jesus. How could it be conceivable that an event took place and was only related, shall we say, ten years later?”[6]

Gerd Lüdemann (atheistic professor of NT at Göttingen): “The elements in the tradition are to be dated to the first two years after the crucifixion of Jesus…not later than three years… the formation of the appearance traditions mentioned in I Cor. 15.3-8 falls into the time between 30 and 33 CE.”[7]

Michael Goulder (atheistic NT scholar at the University of Birmingham): “[1 Corinthians 15:3ff] goes back at least to what Paul was taught when he was converted, a couple of years after the crucifixion.”[8]

Roy W. Hoover (founder of the Jesus Seminar): “The conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead had already taken root by the time Paul was converted about 33 C.E. On the assumption that Jesus died about 30 C.E., the time for development was thus two or three years at most.”[9]

John Dominic Crossan (atheistic NT scholar): “Paul wrote to the Corinthians from Ephesus in the early 50s C.E. But he says in 1 Corinthians 15:3 that ‘I handed on to you as of first importance which I in turn received.’ The most likely source and time for his reception of that tradition would have been Jerusalem in the early 30s when, according to Galatians 1:18, he ‘went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas [Peter] and stayed with him fifteen days.’”[10]

References:

[4] Habermas writes, “In short, these creeds were communicated verbally years before they were written and hence they preserve some of the earliest reports concerning Jesus from about 30-50 A.D. Therefore, in a real sense, the creeds preserve pre-New Testament material, and are our earliest sources for the life of Jesus.” Habermas, Gary R. The Historical Jesus: Ancient Evidence for the Life of Christ. Joplin, MO: College Pub., 1996. 143.

[5] Gary Habermas, “Tracing Jesus’ Resurrection to Its Earliest Eyewitness Accounts.” From Craig, William Lane., and Chad V. Meister. God Is Great, God Is Good: Why Believing in God Is Reasonable and Responsible. Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2009. 212.

[6] Gerd Lüdemann and Alf Özen, What Really Happened to Jesus: a Historical Approach to the Resurrection (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1995), 9, 15.

[7] Gerd Lüdemann, The Resurrection of Jesus (Fortress Press, 1994), 171-72.

[8] Michael Goulder, “The Baseless Fabric of a Vision” Resurrection Reconsidered. Oxford. 1996. 48.

[9] Roy W. Hoover, The Acts of Jesus, (Santa Rosa, CA: Polebridge Press, 1998), 466.

[10] John Dominic Crossan, Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2001), 254.