Bible Questions and Answer

Some skeptics suggest the disciples had grief-induced visions or hallucinations of Jesus after He died. Christians have given several reasons to think the appearances were more than that. Hallucinations usually happen to one person at a time, but Jesus appeared to groups, including more than five hundred people at once, according to Paul, who said most of them were still alive to be asked. He ate fish in front of the disciples and invited Thomas to touch His wounds. People who didn't believe in Him, like His brother James and Saul the persecutor, became convinced. The disciples weren't expecting a resurrection at all. They were hiding and discouraged. The tomb was also empty, which a vision wouldn't explain. Paul called his own experience a "heavenly vision," but he still listed it with the other appearances as real. The New Testament writers went out of their way to say the risen Jesus had a real, touchable body.