William Craig's Argument about the Alleged Appearance to Five Hundred Brethren

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WHERE WE ARE

In a recent blog post called "William Craig's Case for the Resurrection of Jesus - Part 27: More Appearances", I showed that the alleged appearance of the risen Jesus to "five hundred brethren" fails to provide any significant support to (HC2), the most important historical claim in Craig's case for the resurrection of Jesus:

HC2: Beginning on the first day of the week following Jesus' crucifixion, various individuals and groups experienced on different occasions and under varying circumstances appearances of Jesus alive. 

However, Craig puts forward an argument about the alleged appearance of the risen Jesus to "five hundred brethren", so I will critically examine that argument here in this current post.

CRAIG'S ARGUMENT ABOUT AN APPEARANCE TO 500 BRETHREN 

In the third edition of his book Reasonable Faith (hereafter: RF3), Craig puts forward the following argument about an alleged appearance of the risen Jesus to five hundred brethren:

...Paul himself apparently had personal contact with these people, since he knew that some had died.  This is seen in Paul's parenthetical comment, "most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep."  Why does Paul add this remark? The great New Testament scholar of Cambridge University, C.H. Dodd, replies, "There can hardly be any purpose in mentioning the fact that the most of the 500 are still alive, unless Paul is saying, in effect, 'The witnesses are there to be questioned.' " Notice: Paul could never have said this if the event had never taken place and there were no witnesses.  But evidently there were witnesses to this event, and Paul knew that some of them had died in the meantime.  Therefore, the event must have taken place.  (RF3, pages 378 to 379)

Here are the claims Craig makes in the above paragraph: 

1. Paul had personal contact with the 500 brethren.

2. Paul knew that some of the 500 brethren had died.

3. Paul made the comment, "most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep".

4.  The great New Testament scholar of Cambridge University, C.H. Dodd claims that (3) implies that Paul was communicating that "The 500 brethren are there to be questioned."

5. Claim (3) implies that Paul was communicating that "The 500 brethren are there to be questioned."

5. Paul could never have said this if the event had never taken place and there were no witnesses.

6. But there were witnesses to this event.  

7. Paul knew that some of them had died in the meantime.  

8. The event must have taken place.

 The first sentence in the above quotation is this:

...Paul himself apparently had personal contact with these people, since he knew that some had died. 

 The first sentence in the above quotation can be represented this way:

(1), SINCE (2).

This indicates that (2) implies (1). We can now represent this inference in standard form:

2. Paul knew that some of these people had died.

THEREFORE:

1. Paul had personal contact with these people.

The second sentence in the above quotation is this:

This is seen in Paul's parenthetical comment, "most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep." 

The word "This" refers back to the previous statement, which is represented as (2).

The phrase "is seen in" is an inference indicator that suggests that Paul's comment shows that "This" or (2) is the case. Paul's making the comment is represented as claim (3), so we can represent the second sentence this way:

(3) SHOWS that (2) is the case.

We can now represent this inference in standard form:

3. Paul made the comment, "most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep".

THEREFORE:

 2. Paul knew that some of these people had died.