Peter Williams 2012

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

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  1. 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
  2. What happened in Rome in AD 65?  How do we know about it?  What can we learn from it?
  3. According to Williams, what is the origin of the term “Christian”?  Does it have any relation to the resurrection?
  4. How difficult was it to be a Christian at the time of Tacitus?  Did this encourage. Or discourage new converts?
  5. Who was Pliny the Younger?  Where was he from?  What was his role?
  6. What “tests” did Pliny the Younger devise to see who were true Christians?
  7. What was the logical conclusion upon which this test was built?
  8. Why was Pliny the Younger’s test necessary?
  9. What is bias and how does bias affect the way we read texts and interpret evidence?
  10. How many books in the New Testament refer to the resurrection either through presupposition or explicit reference
  11. 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?
  12. What did Romans think of the possibility of a resurrection from the dead?
  13. What did Jews think about it?
  14. According to Williams what are  the two most bizarre Christian beliefs? Why does he say so
  15. What are some of the common elements throughout the four gospel accounts regarding the resurrection?
  16. Who was David Hume and hat was his objection to believing in miracles?
  17. 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?
  18. What is the “Third Leg of the Stool” referring to? How does this aid our understanding of the resurrection of Jesus?
  19. How did Jesus reconstruct Confucius’s Golden Rule?
  20. When did the lunar eclipse during Jesus’s life take place? Why is this significant to Dr. Williams’ lecture?