Problems for Hallucination Theories of the Resurrection

By Gary R. Habermas

Many . . . issues remain regarding the various types of hallucination hypotheses. (1) Even multiple individual hallucinations are questionable because they are generally far more rare than is commonly thought to be the case. Unless they are somehow induced, including by abnormal methods, they do not just occur anytime at all without cause, not to mention that some personalities are much less prone to experiencing them.

(2) Further, hallucinations of the extended sort as required by the New Testament and other reports (i.e., ones that involved multiple senses such as sight, hearing, and touch) are even rarer phenomena. . . . That these multisensory cases were reported on several occasions as occurring regularly during Jesus’s appearances militates further against Jesus’s disciples being the recipients.

. . . (4) Generally, hallucinations do not transform lives, even less so over a period of many years. Studies have argued that even with persons who hallucinate, it is quite frequently (or even usually) the case that they abandon or disavow such experiences once they realize that they “saw” things that did not happen or when others present around them state that they did not see the same thing. Jewish New Testament scholar Pinchas Lapide, though a non-Christian, still asserts, “In none of the cases where rabbinic literature speaks of such visions did it result in an essential change in the life of the resuscitated or of those who had experienced the visions.” Lapide adds, “Only the vision remains … but it did not have any noticeable consequences.” Not so with Jesus’s disciples—they were thoroughly changed.

Critics acknowledge freely that Jesus’s disciples were transformed even to the point of being quite willing to die for their faith. Additionally, no early texts report that any of them ever recanted. As far as we know, the disciples were faithful to the end of their lives, however each one ended. To suppose that this quality of conviction came about through false sensory perceptions without anyone rejecting it later seems highly problematic, as Lapide’s insights detail.

(5) Of course, if the appearances were hallucinations, then Jesus’s body should have been located safely and securely in its grave just outside the city of Jerusalem. But the hallucination theory is what we might label a “full tomb view” rather than an empty tomb position. Producing Jesus’s dead body from wherever it was buried would undoubtedly be a rather large disclaimer to the disciples’ efforts to preach that Jesus was raised. But hallucinations fail to even address this situation, so it is necessary that another naturalistic thesis be developed to explain the empty sepulcher.

. . . (7) Jesus’s resurrection was the disciples’ central teaching, and people usually take extra care with matters that are the closest to their hearts and that mean the most to them. This is what drove Paul to travel more than 100 miles to Jerusalem in order to investigate (historēsai) the nature of the gospel data with other key disciples on at least two occasions to make sure he was preaching the truth on this subject (Gal 1:18–19; 2:1–10). He found that the other apostles were also teaching the same message that he was about Jesus’s appearances to them (1 Cor 15:11). Are we to assume that, given all of Paul’s vigilant care, no one discovered that any of these experiences were subjective and ungrounded?

(8) What about the natural human tendency among at least some people to touch in order to confirm what they are witnessing? Assuming that at least a few disciples would have attempted to touch their best friend, who was supposedly standing just a few feet away, why wouldn’t someone have discovered, even once, that he was not physically there at all? This very human scenario is described in Luke 24:36–43 and other places in the Gospels (Matt 28:9; John 20:17, 24–29). Discovering that Jesus was a phantom would seemingly have ended the speculation in favor of hallucinations or worse!

(9) Why did the hallucinations stop after just forty days? Why didn’t these inward experiences continue to spread to other believers, just as other Christian experiences and expressions expanded, and just like other non-Christian phenomena at that time, as an initiation or badge of entry into the cultic beliefs?

(10) The resurrection of an individual contradicted general Jewish theology, which held to a corporate event at the end of time. That is why Paul wrote of the resurrection of the dead in the plural—the righteous dead are raised together (such as Rom 1:3–4). So Jesus’s individual resurrection did not fit normal Jewish expectations. Of course, new views certainly do emerge, but this is at least an additional roadblock.

— Gary R. Habermas is one of the world's leading apologists for the historicity of Jesus's resurrection. He is distinguished research professor of apologetics and philosophy and chair of the department of philosophy and theology at Liberty University and has written over fifty books.

image: Jesus’s Tomb

---

Excerpted from On the Resurrection, Volume 2: Refutations by Gary R. Habermas (B&H Academic, 2024). Used by permission.

While evidence for Christ’s resurrection abounds, there are still those who posit alternative explanations for the empty tomb. In On the Resurrection, Volume 2: Refutations, Gary Habermas offers detailed analyses and rebuttals of the alternate theories surrounding Jesus’s resurrection.

Comprehensive in scope, On the Resurrection, Volume 2: Refutations addresses topics such as:

• Second-century texts that seem to challenge the resurrection

• Hume’s arguments against miracles

• The naturalism and skepticism of nineteenth-century German liberalism

• Alternative theories such as the disciples or others stealing the body, the “swoon” theory, hallucinations, and mythological understanding

Habermas engages critically with the arguments and offers a comprehensive apologetic for the reality of Christ’s resurrection.

Published in four volumes, On the Resurrection serves as Gary R. Habermas’s magnum opus—a comprehensive defense of the authenticity of Jesus Christ’s resurrection, built from Habermas’s lifetime of scholarly study.

“This series confirms Habermas’s status as the leading voice among an increasing number of eminent scholars openly affirming the strong evidence for Jesus's resurrection.”

— Craig S. Keener, F.M. and Ada Thompson Professor of Biblical Studies, Asbury Theological Seminary

“Professor Gary Habermas has made studying the resurrection of Jesus Christ his life’s work. Probably no one else on the planet has researched or documented the relevant arguments in greater detail.”

— Peter Williams, principal, Tyndale House, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Find On the Resurrection, Volume 2: Refutations at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Christianbook.com, and Books-a-Million.

*sponsored