Four Witnesses to the Resurrection

On this Easter Day I thought I would review the witnesses that we have in the scriptures that Jesus was indeed resurrected.  In chapter 6 of the manual on President Howard W. Hunter’s teachings, he catalogued some of those in the New Testament who saw the Savior after He was resurrected, saying, “The testimony of those who saw [Jesus] as a living person after his death has never been contradicted.”  Mary Magdalene and the eleven apostles all saw Him as recorded in John 20. In the next chapter all of the apostles saw Him again at the Sea of Galilee.  Two disciples saw Him on the road to Emmaus as written in Luke 24.  Paul wrote that “he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once” and that “he was seen of James” (1 Corinthians 15:6).  Paul himself saw the resurrected Jesus as recorded in Acts 9, and Stephen saw “the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” as he was being martyred (Acts 7:56).  And there were many more than that who saw Him, for He was “seen of [the disciples] forty days” before His final ascension into heaven recorded in Acts 1.  In short, the New Testament accounts as a whole stand as a witness that the Savior was indeed resurrected. 

                As I thought about how the New Testament is a witness of the reality of the resurrection, I realized that the other three canonical books of scripture likewise give us uncontradicted testimonies of those who actually saw the resurrected Lord.   In the Book of Mormon we have the 2500 hundred who witnessed the Savior’s arrival among the Nephites, and then countless others who continued to see Him during His ministry recorded in 3 Nephi.  We also have Moroni’s witness that he did see Jesus and talked with Him “face to face” (Ether 12:39).  In the Pearl of Great Price we have Joseph’s powerful witness of the resurrection: “I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” (JSH 1:17)  And the Doctrine and Covenants is of course one long witness of the resurrection because it shows the very words of the Savior, spoken by Him as a resurrected Being.  In the sections we also have a strong witness from Joseph and Sidney: “And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!  For we saw him, even on the right hand of God; and we heard the voice bearing record that he is the Only Begotten of the Father” (D&C 76:22-23) So in reality we have a testimony and witness from all four books of scripture to this most fundamental fact to Christianity: Christ rose from the grave, never to die again.