Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
Topic: The empty tomb 50
Reading: Matthew 27:57-66, 28:1-15
Scripture: He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee. (Luke 24:6)
Note: The “Subjective Vision Hypothesis (SVT)” was developed by Ernest Renan and Albert Réville in 1863 to try to explain away the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus as hallucination by the disciples. In effect the purpose is to declare the New Testament account as defective and not trustworthy.
This modified theory of an original dying theory, asserts that the disciples had hallucinations of Jesus after his death. They claim that the guilt effect of having denied Jesus and abandoned him during his hour of need, resulted in an automatic compensatory mechanism in which the disciples projected hallucinations of Jesus risen from the dead. Deceived by these hallucinations, the disciples actually believed that Jesus had been risen from the dead.
There are obvious fatal flaws in this assertion. Jesus didn’t appear to only his twelve disciples over a period spanning 40 days. He appeared to about 500 different people, some of whom were unbelievers and were not as close to Jesus as the 12 disciples, to have suffered a psychological backlash of denying or abandoning the Master. Even Thomas, a member of the 12 was very skeptical of the earlier resurrection appearance to the 12 disciples until he saw Jesus himself and felt the nail and spear wounds on his palm and side respectively.
Based on the Jewish backgrounds of the disciples, any projected hallucinations of a risen Jesus after his death would have visions of Jesus in glory in Abraham’s bosom or in glory with God in heaven. Also, the subjective vision hypothesis has to assume the empty tomb is merely a legend, a later development. Unfortunately for this line of thinking, incontrovertible evidence abounds in the fact that the empty tomb story is one of the earliest materials in the New Testament.
Food for thought: The empty tomb narrative found in the Gospels is fundamentally reliable. It can’t be wished away by a hallucination hypothesis.
Declaration: He is not here: for he is risen as he said. Come see the place where the Lord lay. (Matthew 28:6)
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
