...{Give} an account, outside of the biblical texts, describing a previously dead person wandering around speaking to groups and/or individuals. You would think that would attract a bit of notice, no? After all, emperors come and go all the time, but previously dead people would be quite the novelty.
Paul (who at one time was a great enemy of Christians) wrote several letters. At the time he wrote them there was no New Testament. So when the previous Christian persecutor (Paul) wrote his letters he was outside of current scripture. Paul who said Christ appeared to over 500 people and over 250 of them are still alive (at the time he wrote his letter) put himself and his whole life's work on the line by saying there were still over 250 people still alive who saw the risen Christ because this fact could easily be verified by skeptics of the day. This letter about the 250 people still being alive who saw Christ is very good historical evidence. As someone once said, if you take away the supernatural bias, Christ and his resurrection would be considered a historical fact (based on the historical evidence available.) This is probably one of the reasons why the famous Oxford historian Thomas Arnold , the author of the 3 volume "History of Rome" whom I mentioned about 6 months ago in other threads said the following:
"The evidence for our Lord’s life and death and resurrection may be, and often has been, shown to be satisfactory; it is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad. Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece, as carefully as every judge summing up a most important cause. I myself have done it many times over, not to persuade others, but to satisfy myself. I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and
I know of no one in the history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer than the great sign which God has given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead" (ref.7, pp.425-426).
http://www.newtestamentchurch.org/html/Christian_Evidence/Historical_Evidence.htm
Also, here is a site that gives
23 more historical reasons why Oxford historian Thomas Arnold might have said what he said:
http://www.truthortradition.com/iph...=49:23reasons&catid=28:jesus-christ&Itemid=56
