Historical Snobbery?

When it comes to the resurrection I have heard people comment on how primitive cultures believe so many things naively, chief among them is the resurrection of Jesus. Often this comment is made without the realization of the cultural view of resurrection during this time. William Lane Craig writes in his book, Reasonable Faith, "For a Jew the resurrection always occurred after the end of history. He had no conception of a resurrection within history." (392) Within Judaism there was belief in a general resurrection of all righteous people at the end of time. For a resurrection to take place in the middle of history, and for it to consist of a sole individual, was completely foreign to them. Others claim that Christianity simply lifted the resurrection story from ancient mythical spiritual beliefs. N.T. Wright in his book, The Resurrection of the Son of God, states "Christianity was born into a world where its central claim was known to be false. Many believed that the dead were non-existent; outside Judaism, nobody believed in resurrection." (35) Salvation for the Greek was liberation from the body, and any idea of a resurrection in bodily form would have been repulsive. Edwin M. Yamauchi in an article, Easter: Myth, Hallucination, or History?, writes: 

"I have tried to show that theories attributing the Resurrection of Christ to the borrowing of mythological themes, to hallucinations, or to alternative explanations of the empty tomb are improbable and are also inadequate to explain the genesis and growth of Christianity. To be sure, the Resurrection of Jesus is unprecedented, but Jesus himself is sui generis, unique." 

The idea that the resurrection of Jesus was founded on anything other than the Gospels is lacking. When we look down upon the cultures of the past as intellectually inferior to ourselves, we are committing historical snobbery. C.S. Lewis warned against this "uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate of our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that count discredited.” With that in mind, would you take some time to reconsider your stance on the resurrection? Here are some links below to get you started.

Edwin M. Yamauchi article http://www.leaderu.com/everystudent/easter/articles/yama.html

Gary Habermas on the Resurrection https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ay_Db4RwZ_M

Historical Evidence for the Resurrection http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/historical-evidence-for-the-resurrection