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This theory claims that the disciples never claimed that Jesus rose from the dead. Rather, as the story of Jesus and his teachings spread, they were embellished with supernatural details, this is known to contemporaries as Chinese whispers.

One example of legendary embellishments is the Buddhist scriptures. Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563–483 B.C.) founded Buddhism, but he left only oral traditions of his teaching. Buddhist scriptures of today arose from two traditions differentiated by the languages in which they are written, the older Pali and later Sanskrit. The Pali manuscripts are dated to the first century B.C. The later Sanskrit appeared at the beginning of the Christian era. This leaves plenty of time for legend to creep into the oral tradition, since the earliest writings didn’t appear until approximately four hundred years after the founder’s death. It is also notable that stories of miracles by Gautama almost all appear in the later Sanskrit texts. The Buddhist scriptures are highly suspect in that embellishments crept into the tradition over time. Asking a granddad about the details of the Second World War may differ if he told his kids in 1950 or his grandchildren in 1980–Maybe more drama or heroism. In our modern age there are websites devoted to debunking embellishments whether it be history or general. If there were legendary embellishment early on, the disciples would be able to debunk it (and in the New Testament they do address critics here and there as with John’s gospel that is seen to be responding to Gnostic thinking).

The textual purity of the New Testament is rarely questioned in scholarship, almost all who studied the ancient texts seriously agree the text is as it was when first written. New Testament critics find few words in the New Testament to criticise (only 0.1-0.3% of it) and those they do have no doctrinal issues in them.

Did legendary embellishment creep in before the writing? No.

1a. The resurrection can be traced to the real experiences of the original apostles. 

If resurrection was added as embellishment, we expect it to appear later, however they preached resurrection from the beginning. Early church fathers going into the 1st century 2nd century onward all claim the disciples saw the risen Jesus. To backup our five facts I’ve added a handful of words from what people said about Christ early on to show no embellishments centuries later.

Polycarp, 69-156 AD, once a young student of the Apostle John can be quoted as saying:

Now may the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the eternal high priest himself, the Son of God Jesus Christ, build you up in faith and truth…and to us with you, and to all those under heaven who will yet believe in our Lord and God Jesus Christ and in his Father who raised him from the dead”.

Polycarp, 1st – 2nd century church leader, disciple of Apostle John

Clement of Rome ~95AD, also known to know and meet with Peter the Apostle and Paul says “

Consider, beloved, how the Lord keeps reminding us of the resurrection that is to come, of which he has made the Lord Jesus Christ the first fruits by raising him from the dead.

Clement of Rome, 1st – 2nd century church leader

Early church father Ignatius, 35-108AD, also a student of the apostle John says

For our God, Jesus the Christ, was conceived by Mary according to God’s plan, both from the seed of David and of the Holy Spirit. I glorify Jesus Christ, the God who made you so wise, for I observed that you are established in an unshakable faith, having been nailed, as it were, to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Ignatius, 1st – 2nd century church leader, disciple of Apostle John

Justin Martyr, 150AD, said of Jesus

And that Christ being Lord, and God the Son of God, and appearing formerly in power as Man, and Angel, and in the glory of fire as at the bush, so also was manifested at the judgment executed on Sodom, has been demonstrated fully by what has been said.

Justin Martyr, 2nd century church leader

Irenaeus, 170AD said

For I have shown from the Scriptures, that no one of the sons of Adam is as to everything, and absolutely, called God, or named Lord. But that He is Himself in His own right, beyond all men who ever lived, God, and Lord, and King Eternal, and the Incarnate Word, proclaimed by all the prophets, the apostles, and by the Spirit Himself, may be seen by all who have attained to even a small portion of the truth.

Ignatius, 2nd century church leader, disciple of Polycarp & Ignatius

Clement of Alexandria, 200 AD, said

This Word, then, the Christ, the cause of both our being at first (for He was in God) and of our well-being, this very Word has now appeared as man, He alone being both, both God and man—the Author of all blessings to us; by whom we, being taught to live well, are sent on our way to life eternal…. The Word, who in the beginning bestowed on us life as Creator when He formed us, taught us to live well when He appeared as our Teacher that as God He might afterwards conduct us to the life which never ends.

Clement of Alexandria, 3rd century church leader

And Hippolytus, living 170 – 235 AD, Said of God in the flesh

He now, coming forth into the world, was manifested as God in a body, coming forth too as a perfect man. For it was not in mere appearance or by conversion, but in truth, that He became man. Thus then, too, though demonstrated as God, He does not refuse the conditions proper to Him as man, since He hungers and toils and thirsts in weariness, and flees in fear, and prays in trouble. And He who as God has a sleepless nature, slumbers on a pillow.

Hippolytus, 2nd – 3rd century church leader

1b. Secular sources makes reference to ‘worshipping a dead God like he’s still alive’

Emperor Nero’s decision to blame the Christians for the fire that had destroyed Rome in A.D. 64, the Roman historian Tacitus wrote:

Nero fastened the guilt . . . on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of . . . Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome.

Tacitus, 1st century Roman Historian

Another important source of evidence about Jesus and early Christianity can be found in the letters of Pliny the Younger to Emperor Trajan. Pliny was the Roman governor of Bithynia in Asia Minor. In one of his letters, dated around A.D. 112, he asks Trajan’s advice about the appropriate way to conduct legal proceedings against those accused of being Christians. Pliny says that he needed to consult the emperor about this issue because a great multitude of every age, class, and sex stood accused of Christianity.  At one point in his letter, Pliny relates some of the information he has learned about these Christians:

They were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up; after which it was their custom to separate, and then reassemble to partake of food—but food of an ordinary and innocent kind. 

Pliny the Younger, lawyer, author, and magistrate of Ancient Rome, 1st century

There are only a few clear references to Jesus in the Babylonian Talmud, a collection of Jewish rabbinical writings compiled between approximately A.D. 70-500. Given this time frame, it is naturally supposed that earlier references to Jesus are more likely to be historically reliable than later ones. In the case of the Talmud, the earliest period of compilation occurred between A.D. 70-200. The most significant reference to Jesus from this period states:

On the eve of the Passover Yeshu was hanged. For forty days before the execution took place, a herald . . . cried, “He is going forth to be stoned because he has practiced sorcery and enticed Israel to apostasy.

Jewish Talmud

Lucian of Samosata was a second century Greek satirist. In one of his works, he wrote of the early Christians as follows:

The Christians . . . worship a man to this day–the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rites, and was crucified on that account. . . . [It] was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.

Lucian of Samosata, 2nd century satirist

Although Lucian is jesting here at the early Christians, he does make some significant comments about their founder. For instance, he says the Christians worshipped a man, “who introduced their novel rites.” And though this man’s followers clearly thought quite highly of Him, He so angered many of His contemporaries with His teaching that He “was crucified on that account.”

Although Lucian does not mention his name, he is clearly referring to Jesus. But what did Jesus teach to arouse such wrath? According to Lucian, he taught that all men are brothers from the moment of their conversion. That’s harmless enough. But what did this conversion involve? It involved denying the Greek gods, worshipping Jesus, and living according to His teachings. It’s not too difficult to imagine someone being killed for teaching that. Though Lucian doesn’t say so explicitly, the Christian denial of other gods combined with their worship of Jesus implies the belief that Jesus was more than human. Since they denied other gods in order to worship Him, they apparently thought Jesus a greater God than any that Greece had to offer!

There are more sources, but I’ll stick with these for now..

What we can conclude here is there’s a wealth of early sources dipping into the 1st and 2nd century reporting the resurrection as a historical belief, whether they were mocking or agreeing. 

2. Paul came to Christ through an experience of seeing the risen Jesus

This also dates very early. Sceptical Figures like Bart Ehrman, a New Testament Textual Critic, and an agnostic accepts the authenticity of 7 of Paul’s letters as do many other atheist/agnostic scholars. We need reasons for his conversion from unbelief, since his conversion was based on a personal appearance of Jesus and counts very heavily against embellishment considering his background as a killer of Christians. Paul preserved an early creed which is pre-Pauline which mentions clearly a risen Jesus and appearing to people 

3. James’ sceptical brother came to Christ through seeing the risen Jesus

A man who historically becomes head of the Jerusalem church. This fact needs to be accounted for. 

4. Assertions

the mentioning of or assertion is not evidence that it is true. While embellishments may be introduced causing legend to develop over time, this certainly has not occurred with all ancient accounts. 

Structured response

1. The disciples claimed resurrection from the very beginning 
   1. Church fathers back this up from the very beginning. Deity, Death, Resurrection has always been there.
   2. Non-christian sources make many references to deity, death and resurrection beliefs related to Jesus
2. Paul came to Christ through an experience of seeing the risen Jesus
   1. Critics grant his writings and they agree this isn’t an embellishment, he saw something for sure
   2. He preserves an ancient creed containing the consistent deity, death, resurrection message
3. James claims to have seen the risen Jesus and been changed by it
4. Critics themselves will need evidence for the assertions made.

Sources on ‘Legendary embellishment’

• Buddhism – (Kenneth K. S. Ch’en, Buddhism [Woodbury, Conn.: Barron’s Educational Series, 1965], 16–17)
• For information on the textual purity of both the Old and New Testaments, see Michael Licona, Behold, I Stand at the Door and Knock (Virginia Beach, Va.: TruthQuest, 1998), ch. 2.
• Pliny, Epistles x. 96, cited in Bruce, Christian Origins, 25; Habermas, The Historical Jesus, 198.
• Pliny, Letters, transl. by William Melmoth, rev. by W.M.L. Hutchinson (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1935), vol. II, X:96, cited in Habermas, The Historical Jesus, 199.
• The Babylonian Talmud, transl. by I. Epstein (London: Soncino, 1935), vol. III, Sanhedrin 43a, 281, cited in Habermas, The Historical Jesus, 203.
• Lucian, The Death of Peregrine, 11-13, in The Works of Lucian of Samosata, transl. by H.W. Fowler and F.G. Fowler, 4 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon, 1949), vol. 4., cited in Habermas, The Historical Jesus, 206.