Lecture Listening Guides
Peter Williams
'Things Which Ought To Be Better Known About The Resurrection of Jesus'
April 7, 2012
Created by: Emma Abernathy
For: Dr. Capes with LTL Internship
- At the beginning of his lecture Dr. Williams lays out a basic outline. What is it? And why do you think he began with tha
- What happened in Rome in AD 65? How do we know about it? What can we learn from it?
- According to Williams, what is the origin of the term “Christian”? Does it have any relation to the resurrection?
- How difficult was it to be a Christian at the time of Tacitus? Did this encourage. Or discourage new converts?
- Who was Pliny the Younger? Where was he from? What was his role?
- What “tests” did Pliny the Younger devise to see who were true Christians?
- What was the logical conclusion upon which this test was built?
- Why was Pliny the Younger’s test necessary?
- What is bias and how does bias affect the way we read texts and interpret evidence?
- How many books in the New Testament refer to the resurrection either through presupposition or explicit reference
- How does Dr. Williams account for the similarities and differences in the phrasing, order and omissions of the first Four Gospels? Did the writers copy from each other?
- What did Romans think of the possibility of a resurrection from the dead?
- What did Jews think about it?
- According to Williams what are the two most bizarre Christian beliefs? Why does he say so
- What are some of the common elements throughout the four gospel accounts regarding the resurrection?
- Who was David Hume and hat was his objection to believing in miracles?
- How do our previously held beliefs affect the way we process whether something is true or false? How does Dr. Williams connect this to believing in miracles in a post-Enlightenment society?
- What is the “Third Leg of the Stool” referring to? How does this aid our understanding of the resurrection of Jesus?
- How did Jesus reconstruct Confucius’s Golden Rule?
- When did the lunar eclipse during Jesus’s life take place? Why is this significant to Dr. Williams’ lecture?