On Easter Sunday morning, Christians all over the world will be celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Atheists and other skeptics will marvel that large groups of people could be so stupid and naïve.  After all, the resurrection is a miracle and a scientific mind can’t accept miracles, right?  But the Bible is criticized on historical grounds as well. The four gospels are deemed untrustworthy even to the small details of inaccurately reporting the culture they came from.

In point of fact, the gospels measure quite well when compared to other history of the ancient world. On my website, you can find many articles defending the Bible and the historicity of the resurrection.  But this morning, for Easter Sunday, allow me to bring up just one small but interesting caveat.

Sometimes, the complaints people have about the Bible contradict themselves. Yes, accuracy is one concern. The Bible coming out of a chauvinistic culture is another area of major contention.  Actually, the Bible is not a chauvinistic document but it does indeed come out of a male dominated world. To the Romans, the Greeks and the Jews (the three major cultures converging when the New Testament was written) women were viewed as little more than property. Interestingly enough, this makes the gospel accounts very noteworthy. If these writings were crafted by men who wanted to deceive and influence their peers why was Mary Magdalene reported as the first to encounter the resurrected Christ?  She met Jesus before the others. She also reported the meeting to Jesus’ male disciples, who at first, did not believe her (John 20:10-20, Luke 20:9-12).  In those days, reporting that a woman had been the first to witness the resurrection would not have been the shrewdest way to commit fraud and generate a legend. So why did they write the gospels that way?  Maybe because that’s the way it really happened?  Just a thought.

This is Bob Siegel, making the obvious, obvious.

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