A Context for the Resurrection: Four Historical Factors which conditioned the Early Believers

Abstract

The author reviews four historical factors that conditioned the generation that first received Jesus resurrection’s announcement. Methodologically choses to work only with historical events of public nature, collated also in extra-biblical sources, and widely accredited by specialized historian’s consensus. Describes how (a) John the Baptist’s apocalyptic movement, (b) Jesus’s extended fame as miracle worker, (c) the controversy over the empty tomb, and (d) his follower’s reproduction of miraculous signs after Passover formed a suggestive network of public events that positively conditioned first listeners of the resurrection’s message. These facts are registered as public events that –beyond informing about the historical Jesus– allow us to know better the experience of the first Christian believers.