Dale Allison And The Maximal Facts vs. Minimal Facts Debate

 I am finally getting around to reading Dale Allison's recent book on the resurrection (The Resurrection of Jesus: Apologetics, Polemics, History). In his discussion of the empty tomb, Allison makes a valuable point about defending the Gospels as it relates to the empty tomb. Before I provide the quote, it should be noted that Allison doesn't fall into either the minimal facts or maximal data camp. He thinks that several naturalistic theories can explain the minimal facts. As for the Gospels, he states, “Although the Gospels contain mythical elements, they are not on the whole mythological constructs” (p. 21). Of course, this doesn't mean that Allison doesn't believe we can learn a lot about the historical Jesus from the Gospels, but it's not the type of confidence that could get you to a maximal data approach. With that aside, here is the relevant quote:

“As a footnote, I should observe that the immediately preceding paragraphs assume, for the sake of argument, what so many modern scholars take for granted, namely, that those whose names are now attached to the canonical Gospels did not write them. If, however, as some still hold, that John Mark known from Acts… Who is named as a coworker of Paul in Col. 4:10; 2 Tim. 4:11; and Phlm. 24, wrote the second gospel, and/or if the Luke mentioned in Col. 4:14; 2 Tim. 4:11; and Phlm. 24 composed Luke-Acts, everything changes. If Paul’s close associates included the author of Mk. 16:1-8 or of Lk. 24:1-12 or both men, the odds that the apostle was unacquainted with a story about an empty tomb approach zero.” p. 145

A lot of skeptics tout the argument that Paul didn't believe in an empty tomb because it isn't mentioned in 1 Cor. 15. Of course, the minimal facts crowd can point out (correctly) that Paul's usage of "egeiro" in 1 Cor. 15 necessitates that Paul would have believed in an empty tomb (see here for more on "egeiro" and 1 Cor. 15). However, this does not mean that Paul was familiar with the same empty tomb narratives in the Gospels. Although, yes, this is still inferential when defending the Gospels, it makes Paul's knowledge of the empty tomb traditions in the Gospels much more likely.

For more on the maximal data approach, see this playlist put together here, by Lydia McGrew. This playlist includes multiple videos from Lydia herself and Erik Manning of Testify.