The Case For Christ

Strobel’s book is dedicated to proving that Jesus Christ, the son of Joseph and Mary, was both a real person and also the Son of God. To that end, Strobel presents two pictures of Jesus to readers. The first is of Jesus the Man, who was born around 6 B.C. in Bethlehem. His mother, Mary, was supposedly a virgin while his father, Joseph, was a carpenter. While little is known about Jesus’s early life, scholars believe that he started his religious ministry around the age of 30 after being baptized by John the Baptist. He travels what is now known as the Middle East performing miraculous feats, including instantaneous healing and feeding crowds from just a few loaves of bread and fish. As he travels, he selects men to serve as his twelves disciples, and he teaches them the framework of what would become known as Christianity after his death.

As Jesus becomes more popular, the Pharisees—who were a religious group who often clashed with Jesus over his interpretation of religious law—hatch a plan to have him arrested and killed. Jesus is arrested upon leaving the Garden of Gethsemane and taken before the Sanhedrin, a Jewish judicial body that ultimately convicts Jesus of blasphemy since he declared himself the Son of God. The Sanhedrin then takes Jesus before the Roman court and asks Pontus Pilate to condemn him. Pilate finds Jesus not guilty, but he leaves the decision to the Jewish crowd, who sentences Jesus to death by virtue of granting their pardon to another man. As a result, Jesus is severely beaten, forced to wear a crown of thorns and carry his own cross to Cavalry. There, Jesus is nailed to the cross where he will eventually die from his wounds.

Of course, Strobel is interested in more than just proving that Jesus the Man existed—he also wants to investigate whether Jesus was the Son of God. According to Jewish tradition, God would send a Messiah to earth in order to liberate the Jewish people. The gospels are clear that Jesus has been sent by God, as the Son of God, to save the world from sin. His ability to work miracles comes from his divinity, and his death on the cross is a holy atonement for the sins of humanity. It is this supernatural aspect of Jesus’s character that gives skeptics pause, especially since accepting Jesus’s divinity also means recognizing that a monotheistic, omnipotent, and omniscient God also exists. Thus, Strobel puts Jesus on trial once again, only this time Jesus is not in front of the Sanhedrin—he is the defendant in a case laid out for readers by Strobel himself. Jesus sits at the center of Strobel’s case by virtue of his critical role in Christianity, and Strobel’s experts tackle different aspects of both the Bible and Jesus’s life to try and prove the veracity of the Bible’s claims. In doing so, Strobel hopes to shed light on Christianity as a whole and determine whether its premise is true.

The Case for Christ follows a specific format: each chapter opens with an anecdote from Strobel’s time as a reporter, then jumps into an interview with an expert witness. Each witness addresses a single question about Christianity; from whether the Bible is a believable text to Jesus’s embodiment of God’s characteristics, Strobel uses the experts’ testimony much the same way a lawyer gathers information from a witness on the witness stand. His goal is to tap into their knowledge to address skeptics’ questions about Christianity and Jesus. In that way, Strobel stands in as the reader’s advocate—he asks each expert questions on behalf of the reader, then reports their responses back so that the reader can draw his/her own conclusions.

That is why Strobel goes to such great lengths to give readers each of his 13 experts’ credentials. He only chooses people who have been educated at prestigious seminaries and gone on to lead remarkable careers, both inside and outside academia. As Strobel himself points out, the credibility of a witness’s testimony is only as good as the witness himself, and Strobel wants readers to trust the information his experts provide. Consequently, the expert testimony serves as the argumentative backbone of The Case for Christ. In other words, in order for Strobel’s argument to work, readers must accept that Strobel’s experts are providing believable, trustworthy information. 

Dr. Craig Blomberg is the first theologian Strobel interviews for his book because of his impressive pedigree and reputation for being one of the foremost authorities on the New Testament gospels. He earned his doctorate in New Testament theology from Aberdeen University in Scotland, and he would go on to serve as a senior research fellow at Cambridge University in England before joining the faculty at Denver Seminary, where he had been teaching for 12 years at the time of Strobel’s interview. Blomberg is also a prolific author, and his books include numerous volumes on the gospels as well as the award-winning book Jesus Under Fire, which investigates the historical evidence for the existence of Jesus and his divinity.

Strobel describes Blomberg as a meticulously precise man who measures “each word out of an apparent reluctance to tread pen one nuance beyond where the evidence warrants” (25). Strobel interviews Blomberg at length about the history of the Bible, including its historical accuracy. Strobel confronts Blomberg with apparent contradictions in the gospels—including whether the gospels are indeed eye-witness accounts of Jesus’s miracles and teachings—and allows Strobel to explain his counterarguments. Strobel finds Blomberg’s arguments compelling, but he is also struck by Blomberg’s measured thoughtfulness in his responses. Ultimately, Strobel remains skeptical despite being “impressed” by Blomberg’s “strong case for the reliability of the gospels” (66).

Matthew, also referred to in the Bible as Levi, was one of the twelve disciples. According to Blomberg, Matthew is widely accepted as the author of the Gospel of Matthew, the first gospel in the New Testament. He was also a former tax collector, which was a “despised” (27)profession at the time. 

John Mark is the accepted author of the gospel of Mark. He was not an apostle himself, but he was the companion of the Apostle Paul during his missionary work and would later help the Apostle Peter during his time in Rome.

Luke is widely accepted as the author of the gospel of Luke. Like John Mark, Luke was not an apostle, but he was both a historian and “Paul’s ‘beloved physician’” (26). Scholars believe that Luke also wrote the Book of Acts, which Blomberg refers to as “the Acts of the Apostles” (26). Additionally, Luke’s level of education makes him a compelling advocate for Christianity, and his historical references have been used by archaeologists like Dr. John McRay to verify locations and events in the New Testament.

An apostle and one of the most prominent figures in the New Testament. He was one of “Jesus’ inner three” (27), or three closest companions, along with the apostles James and Peter. Blomberg explains that the Book of John is the gospel with the most authorial controversy surrounding it. While scholars are sure that someone named John authored the gospel, there is debate about whether the Apostle John or another John, named John the Elder, actually wrote the book. Blomberg believes that most of the gospel of John was authored by the apostle, though he acknowledges that an unknown editor likely wrote the end of the book. 

Along with John and James, Peter was also one of the twelve apostles and a member of Jesus’s inner circle. In terms of Strobel’s argument, Peter is important because his eyewitness accounts of Jesus’s life are included in the New Testament gospels. Additionally, his relationship with John Mark lends credibility to both the gospel of Mark and the integrity of John Mark himself. 

Paul was one of Jesus’s apostles (though not one of the original twelve apostles who traveled with Jesus throughout his lifetime). According to the Book of Acts, the resurrected Jesus appears to Paul while he was traveling to Damascus. The encounter leaves Paul blind for three days until he is healed by a man named Ananias. Once his sight is restored, he becomes one of the world’s earliest Christian missionaries, traveling the Middle East preaching the gospel message. Paul was also a prolific writer—13 of the 27 New Testament books were written by him. Strobel and Dr. Yamauchi reference Paul’s writings as corroborative evidence of both Jesus’s existence and his claim to be the Son of God.

James Dixon was accused of shooting Chicago police sergeant Richard Scanlon during a domestic dispute and altercation. Originally, the evidence seems overwhelming in Scanlon’s favor—police find Dixon’s weapon (the same caliber as the one that shot Scanlon) with one bullet missing at the scene of the crime. Dixon pleads guilty to the shooting, but one of Strobel’s informants tells him that Dixon is actually innocent. When Strobel investigates the case, he finds that Scanlon was actually shot by his own illegal pen gun which accidentally discharged during the scuffle. Scanlon allowed Dixon to take the fall for the crime to protect his job, but ultimately the truth comes out; Dixon is acquitted, and Scanlon loses his job on the police force. Strobel opens his book with this story to show how evidence that seems air-tight can be affected by bias, and that changing one’s perspective can lead to the real truth, “regardless of whether it [fits] […] original presuppositions” (14). Strobel leverages this example to show readers what he wants them to do—namely, abandon their preconceived notions about Christianity and follow him through the evidence to uncover the truth of Christianity’s validity. 

Sixteen-year-old Michael McCullough was shot twice in the face while being mugged outside his Chicago apartment. The attack left him paralyzed from the neck down, and the court had to visit his bedside at the hospital in order to hear his testimony. Despite the attempts of defense attorneys to discredit McCullough as a witness, the muggers were sentenced to 50 years in jail for the attack. Unfortunately, McCullough never recovered, and he passed away 18 days after testifying. Strobel includes this story to show the importance of a good defense. Rather than judging the attorneys for trying to pick apart eyewitness testimony, Strobel argues that asking critical questions from a variety of perspectives is important to establishing the truth: “Honest and accurate testimony will withstand scrutiny, while false, exaggerated, or misleading testimony will be exposed” (48). Through this example, Strobel shows readers that a critical look at the eyewitness testimony of the gospels will reveal whether they—and the stories they tell—are genuine or not. 

Strobel interviews Bruce M. Metzger in his chapter investigating whether the copies of the Bible that exist today have changed from the original texts. At the time of the interview, Metzger is an 84-year-old professor emeritus at Princeton Theological Seminary. Metzger holds both a master’s and doctorate degree from Princeton University, and his professional accolades include honorary doctorates from five colleges, chairing the New Revised Standard Version Bible Committee, and serving as a fellow of the British Academy. The author and editor of more than 50 books on the New Testament, Metzger is considered one of the foremost scholars on the New Testament. In fact, Strobel says that not only are his books “mandatory reading in universities and seminaries around the world,” Metzger is also “held in the highest regard by scholars from across a wide range of theological beliefs” (74). Metzger provides Strobel with an in-depth discussion of the authenticity of biblical manuscripts and how scholars establish the canon, i.e. the list of authoritative biblical texts. 

Strobel uses the story of Harry Aleman to show readers the importance of both reliable witness testimony and corroborative evidence. Harry Aleman was a hitman for a Chicago crime syndicate in the 1970s. Aleman’s violent reputation was well known, but prosecutors struggled to convict him because they could not find willing witnesses to testify. That changed after Aleman was arrested for the murder of a Chicago Teamster union member. One of Aleman’s former “cronies”(95), Louis Almeida, agreed to testify in exchange for a lesser sentence for his own weapons charges. Even though Louis Almeida was an eyewitness to many of Aleman’s violent crimes, Strobel explains that the fact that he was offered legal leniency affected his credibility as a witness. In other words, he was motivated to lie on the stand. That meant prosecutors had to find another, more reliable witness to testify and support Almeida’s claims. They were able to find Bobby Lowe, who witnessed the murder while walking his dog. The corroborative evidence made Almeida’s testimony more powerful, just as the non-canonical ancient documents discussing Jesus and his life lend credence to the stories of the biblical gospels.

Dr. Edwin Yamauchi is a professor and historian who helps Strobel understand whether outside documents help support the authenticity of the New Testament. Yamauchi, a former Buddhist who converted to Christianity in the 1950s, earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in Mediterranean studies from Brandeis University. Along with being the recipient of eight prestigious fellowships, Yamauchi also served as the chairman and president of the Institute for Biblical Research and the president of the Conference of Faith and History. Along with being a prolific writer of academic scholarship, Yamauchi also participated in the archaeological excavation of the Herodian temple in Jerusalem. Yamauchi lends his expertise to Strobel’s investigation and walks him through a large variety of ancient Jewish and Roman texts that mention Jesus’s existence, his crucifixion, other major social events mentioned throughout the New Testament. Ultimately, Yamauchi asserts that “even if you were to throw away every last copy of the gospels, you’d still have a picture of Jesus that’s extremely compelling” (118).

Although Strobel does not use this phrase in his book, this is the group of ancient writers and historians mentioned throughout Chapter 4 that provide corroborating evidence for the existence—and at times, the deity—of Jesus. Some of the more important writers, like Josephus and Paul, are discussed individually in this section. But Dr. Yamauchi and Strobel mention quite a few other writers in brief throughout their discussion of ancient historical texts. These authors include Tacitus, Pliny the Elder, Thallus, Julius Africanus.

Josephus was a Jewish historian born in 37 A.D. who wrote about events in the first century, including his surrender to the Roman general Vespasian during the Jewish-Roman War. Dr. Yamauchi further describes him as a “priest, a Pharisee, and […] somewhat egotistical” (102), and he explains that Josephus was disliked by his fellow Jews for assisting the Romans. More importantly, Josephus wrote about multiple biblical characters, including James and Jesus. In his book The Antiquities, he writes about Ananias having James killed after the death of the Roman governor Festus—an event also found in the Bible. But most famously, Josephus writes about the crucifixion of Jesus in what scholars refer to as the Testimonium Flavianum. The writings of Josephus help substantiate the idea that Jesus was indeed a real person, and that his death and resurrection were actual events rather than just a mythological construct. 

Jeffrey MacDonald was a former Green Beret and emergency room physician who found himself on trial for the murder of his wife and two daughters. MacDonald claimed that he was asleep on the couch when two “drug-crazed hippies” (123) broke into their home. He was knocked unconscious during a scuffle with the intruders, and when he awoke, his family had been stabbed to death. But forensic evidence contradicted MacDonald’s story. Because each member of his family had a different blood type, detectives were able to reveal the truth: MacDonald had stabbed each of his family members to death, and he was sentenced to prison for their murders. Strobel includes this anecdote to impress on readers how important science is in revealing the truth, and he translates this concept to his investigation of the New Testament. 

Dr. John McRay is a professor of New Testament and archaeology at Wheaton College in Chicago, where he has taught for more than 15 years. He holds a Ph.D. From the University of Chicago, is a trustee of the Near East Archaeological Society, sits on editorial boards for numerous academic publications, and has served as an expert for television programs like Mysteries of the Bible and mainstream publications like National Geographic. He also boasts substantial field experience, including supervising excavation teams at Caesarea, Sepphoris, and Herodium in Israel and studying Roman ruins in England and Wales. Strobel speaks with McRay to better understand if—and how—archaeology supports the validity of the New Testament. 

Richard Moss was arrested and accused of murdering a 19-year-old Chicagoan outside of a bar. During the trial, Moss’s lifelong friend, Ed Passeri, took the stand. During his testimony, he confessed to the murder and claimed that Moss was innocent. The prosecutors did not buy Passeri’s statement, especially since the evidence pointed to Moss. In order to refute Passeri’s claim, the prosecution had to find “rebuttal evidence,” or other evidence that showed Passeri was trying to take the fall for Moss. The prosecution was able to find three other eyewitnesses that saw Moss shoot the victim, and Passeri’s testimony was overturned. Strobel includes this story to help readers understand the idea of rebuttal evidence, and he applies this idea to a variety of counterarguments against the claims of Christianity. 

This is a fringe group of biblical scholars united in their belief that Jesus did not “say 82 percent of what the Gospels attribute to him” (148). The core belief of the Jesus Seminar hinges is that the Jesus of the Bible is outdated and fails to speak to modern social needs. Additionally, despite their diversity of perspectives, the members of the Jesus Seminar agree on a “naturalistic” view of Jesus; that is to say, they believe Jesus was just a man and not “supernatural” (153). In other words, they argue that the stories about Jesus presented in the Bible are mythological, not realistic. Additionally, the Jesus Seminar uses other historical accounts of extraordinary people to challenge the idea that Jesus was unique in his ability to work miracles. Strobel includes this group and their beliefs as a counterpoint to the information he collected throughout the first five chapters of The Case for Christ, and by examining the counterargument with the input of Dr. Gregory Boyd, Strobel hopes to better understand whether “the Jesus of History” is the “same as the Jesus of faith” (146). 

Dr. Gregory Boyd is an Ivy League-educated scholar who has emerged as one of the leading critics of the Jesus Seminar. Boyd received his doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary and has published articles and books refuting the claims of the Jesus Seminar, including the popular book Cynic Sage or Son of God? Recovering the Real Jesus in an Age of Revisionist Replies. Along with serving as a professor of theology at Bethel College, Boyd is also a pastor at Woodland Hills Church. Strobel presents Boyd with the Jesus Seminar’s most controversial claims, including the argument that Jesus was an ordinary man, which Boyd systematically refutes. If the Jesus Seminar offers a counterargument to mainstream Christian theological thought, then Boyd serves as Strobel’s “rebuttal evidence.” In other words, Boyd’s repudiation of the Jesus Seminar reinforces the validity of the evidence Strobel presents in his first five chapters. 

Apollonius was a 1st-century man who allegedly healed people, exorcised demons, raised people from the dead, and even appeared to some of his followers after his death—much like Jesus. The story of Apollonius was recorded by his biographer, Philostratus, a century and a half after Apollonius’s death. Apollonius is a central figure to the Jesus Seminar’s refutation of Jesus’s divinity; they argue that Jesus’s ability to perform miracles—if it even existed—was certainly not unique. Thus, they argue that while Jesus might have been a talented man, he could not have been the only Son of God, as the gospels assert. Dr. Gregory Boyd challenges this argument. First, he explains that Apollonius’s story was written much later than the gospels, which leads to a greater chance for “legendary development, for error, or for memories to get confused” (160). Additionally, Apollonius’s story is recorded in a single source, whereas Jesus’s story appears throughout multiple canonical and non-canonical works. Lastly, Boyd points out that “Philostratus was writing in the early third century in Cappadocia, where Christianity had already been present for quite a while” (160). In other words, Boyd believes that Apollonius’s miraculous feats were based on those of Jesus rather than happening as a unique set of events. 

John Douglas is the original “psychological profiler” for the FBI, and he pioneered the art of extrapolating information about a criminal’s behavior, motivations, and tendencies from crime scene evidence. In other words, Douglas “deduces the individual’s psychological makeup” (186) from the clues he or she leaves behind. Even though the science was in its infancy, Strobel tells readers that Douglas made a name for himself in the early 1980s by predicting the patters of the “Trailside Killer,” which helped lead to his arrest. Strobel includes Douglas’s story to support his methodology of analyzing Jesus’s works to better understand whether Jesus believed himself to be the actual Son of God. 

Strobel’s interview with Dr. Ben Witherington marks the book’s shift from considering the Bible as a reliable text to investigating the claims of Jesus himself. Witherington holds a doctorate in theology and New Testament from the University of Durham in England, and he now teaches at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky. He has authored multiple books on Jesus and his role in Christianity in addition to being a member of the Society for the Study of the New Testament, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the Institute for Biblical Research. Strobel interviews Witherington about what readers can infer about Jesus’s character from the gospels, especially in terms of whether Jesus believed he was the Son of God. 

Strobel turns to Dr. Gary Collins to investigate whether Jesus was mentally stable given his belief that he was the Son of God. Collins is a psychologist with more than 35 years of experience. He earned his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Purdue University and went on to teach at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School for more than two decades. Along with his professorial experience, Collins is also a prolific author and serves as the editor of two major journals: Christian Counseling Today and the Journal of Psychology and Theology. During their interview, Collins offers a measured look at Jesus’s mental stability, and he even concedes that some of his miracles might be attributable to the placebo effect. But ultimately, Collins argues that the overwhelming body of evidence shows that Jesus was both mentally stable and capable of performing feats unexplainable by science alone. 

Dr. Donald Carson—who Strobel also refers to as D.A. Carson—is a research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He received his doctorate in New Testament at Cambridge University, and he would go on to author more than forty books during his career as a professor and theologian. Along with the New Testament, Carson’s areas of expertise include the historical Jesus, postmodernism, Greek grammar, and the theology of the apostles Paul and John. Strobel uses his interview with Carson to address whether Jesus embodies the characteristics of God laid out in the Old Testament. 

Louis S. Lapides is a Jewish man who converted to Christianity after researching how Jesus’s life fulfilled the Jewish prophesies in the Old Testament. Lapides is originally from New Jersey, where he was raised in a Jewish household. As a young man, he is very skeptical of Christianity; not only did it go against his Jewish upbringing spiritually, he also worried that “there could be anti-Semitism” (234)among Christians. But things get more complicated for Lapides as he grows older. His parents’ divorce when he is 17, and he finds little support in the Jewish church. Shortly thereafter he is conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War, where a combination of violence and anti-Semitism amongst the soldiers prompts him to “distance [himself] from [his] Jewish identity” (236).

When he returns to the United States, Lapides struggles to cope with what he witnessed in Vietnam. In an attempt to find meaning and understand the evil he witnessed, he starts to research other religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. But Christianity catches his interest when he encounters some sidewalk preachers who tell him about the Jewish prophesies in the Bible. Lapides starts doing his own research, and when he finds that the preachers were correct, he keeps digging. He becomes convinced that Jesus was in fact the Messiah, and he converts one night while camping in the Mojave Desert. He explains that “God objectively spoke to [his] heart” (240), and he converted on the spot. After his conversion, he starts attending church where he meets Deborah, a Jewish woman who has also converted. They eventually marry, have a family, and start Beth Ariel Fellowship: a church for “Jews and Gentiles who also are finding wholeness in Christ” (245).

Lapides’s interview is in large part his personal testimony—that is, it is his personal story about finding and converting to Christianity. The idea of testimony is central to Christianity, and sharing personal stories about faith is one of the religion’s main conversion techniques. But more importantly, this chapter marks an important turning point in Strobel’s argumentative structure. For the first time, he includes information that appeals directly to readers’ emotions (also known as pathos). In doing so, he adds an important, persuasive layer to his investigation, which starts to lay the foundation for the book’s move into the realm of memoir. 

Dr. Robert Stein is the central figure of Chapter 11’s opening legal anecdote. Stein was the medical examiner for Cook County, Illinois, and he performed more than 20,000 autopsies during his career. Stein’s evidence was often what prosecutors needed to make their case, and his examinations of the murder victims in the John Wayne Gacy case are what helped convict the notorious serial killer on 33 counts of murder. Strobel includes this anecdote to show readers how “crucial medical evidence can be” (256), and it reinforces the testimony that Dr. Alexander Metherell later provides about Jesus’s crucifixion. 

Dr. Alexander Metherell serves as Strobel’s expert witness to the reality of death by crucifixion. Not only did Metherell earn a medical degree from the University of Miami in Florida, he also holds a doctorate in engineering from the University of Bristol in England. Along with his academic accomplishments, Metherell also served as a research scientist at the University of California, edited scientific books on medicine, and remains a board-certified physician. In his interview, he walks Strobel through the medical realities of Jesus’s death with textbook language. Strobel probes Metherell about whether Jesus could have survived crucifixion in “any possible way,” and Metherell responds, “absolutely not” (269). By including Metherell’s testimony, Strobel helps readers understand the severity of Jesus’s torture in order to prove that Jesus could not have been entombed alive. This sets the stage for the following three chapters, where Strobel will further investigate whether Jesus’s divine resurrection actually happened. 

Helen Brach was the heiress to a candy empire who disappeared without a trace. More than 20 years later, investigators have yet to conclude what happened to her. Although they suspect murder, the fact that they have never recovered a body means that there is no definitive proof of her death, and thus no case to bring against a criminal. Strobel relates this story to the story of the empty tomb in the gospels, except that unlike Brach, Jesus “was seen, dead; and he was seen, alive once more” (276). By comparing the two stories, Strobel emphasizes how shocking Jesus’s resurrection would have been to his contemporaries.

Strobel first learns about Dr. William Craig when he moderates a debate between him and the spokesman for American Atheists, Inc. Strobel is struck by Craig’s ability to form a persuasive argument, and he is not alone. Eighty-two percent of the audience, which was comprised of Christians and atheists, found Craig’s argument much more compelling than his competitor’s. Craig holds a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Birmingham, England, and would go on to teach at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is most well-known as a prolific writer who focuses on the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology. His books cover a wide range of subjects covering everything from the nature of God to cosmology, and he holds nine memberships in professional societies, including the American Academy of Religion and the American Philosophical Association. More importantly for Strobel, Craig offers an in-depth look at the proof that Jesus was actually buried after he was removed from the cross.

Addie Mae Collins was a 14-year-old African American girl who was killed in a racially-motivated church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963. Her family remained dedicated to her memory, which is why they decided to have her body exhumed and reburied at another cemetery. But when the grave was uncovered, the family discovered that Addie Mae’s body was missing. Strobel includes this anecdote to show readers that “an empty grave does not a resurrection make” (267). In other words, just because Addie Mae’s body was missing, people did not automatically assume she had been resurrected. Strobel uses this example to show that the resurrection story around Jesus is different, and he explores why this might be throughout the rest of Chapter 13.

Joseph of Arimathea was in charge of putting Jesus’s body in his tomb after the crucifixion. A member of the Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus, Dr. William Craig explains that Joseph was not present to vote on Jesus’s case. Not only do historical records prove Joseph was a real person, they also explain why he would have buried Jesus in a tomb rather than dumping it to be eaten by wild dogs, as the Jesus Seminar claims. 

Like Dr. William Craig, Dr. Gary Habermas is also a seasoned debater who bested Anthony Flew, a leading philosophical atheist, and a debate about the resurrection. Beyond that, Habermas is also a distinguished professor and chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University. After earning his doctorate at Michigan State University with a focus on the resurrection, Habermas would go on to earn a Doctor of Divinity degree from Emmanuel College in Oxford, England. Along with his professorial duties, Habermas has also authored multiple books on Jesus’s resurrection and formerly served as president of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. Habermas provides Strobel with an expert perspective on whether Jesus was actually seen alive after his crucifixion and burial, which is a key component to verifying that the resurrection actually happened.