Paul is also aware of the fact that Jesus lived recently. Paul refers to Jesus’ contemporaries: Cephas and the twelve (1 Cor. 15:5); the apostles, brothers of
7 For example, after providing arguments for the trustworthiness of this information, Jewish New Testament scholar Pinchas Lapide declares that this formula “may be considered as a statement of eyewitnesses.” See his volume, The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective(Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1982), pp. 97–99.
8 Wells, “Was Jesus Crucified Under Pilate?” pp. 24–25.
Christ, and Cephas (1 Cor. 9:5); James, the brother of the Lord, and the apostle Peter (Gal. 1:18–19); the apostles Peter, James, and John (Gal. 2:8–9); Peter alone (Gal. 2:11). The best explanation for the phrase “the third day” (1 Cor. 15:3–4) is that Paul had temporal interests in mind, and that these witnesses began to see Jesus three days after he was raised from the dead.^9 Further, Paul points out that most of the 500 people who saw the resurrected Jesus at one time were still alive when he wrote the book of 1 Corinthians, about AD 55–57. In the evaluation in our next section, we will list other problems of this nature.
Wells’ explanation of these texts is insufficient, as well as being faulty.^10 For instance, he actually suggests, in describing James as the Lord’s brother, that Paul is referring not to an actual brother (in the sense of a blood relation) but to a group of individuals in the early church called the brethren of the Lord!
Perhaps almost needless to say, several decisive problems plague this supposition. This is far from the most normal way of understanding Paul, either in Galatians 1:19 or 1 Corinthians 9:5. Further, all four Gospel writers did not hesitate to speak of Jesus’ brothers in the clear context of his physical family.^11 Whether these four volumes were written later or not, they all agree against Wells’ position. Additionally, the ancient historian Josephus calls James “the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ.”^12 This is certainly not a reference to any Jerusalem faction of believers (see discussion below)! Lastly, there is no ancient evidence at all that supports Wells’ position, not to mention the sense one gets of special pleading.
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