In 111 AD, referring to his belief that he could not stop Christianity in its tracks, Pliny wrote to Emperor Trajan: “For this contagious superstition is not confined to the cities only, but has spread through the villages and rural districts; it seems possible however to check and cure it.”
At the heart of this ‘contagious superstition’ was the alleged resurrection of Jesus. Writing nineteen centuries later the former Chief Justice of England, Lord Darling, wrote: “The crux of the problem of whether Jesus was, or was not, what He proclaimed Himself to be, must surely depend on the truth or otherwise of the resurrection.”
In the Foreword to this book, Professor Rose commenting on the legal case for the resurrection writes: “Keith Matthee’s excellent short book provides some of the raw legal data and the juristic argument on which the case is built. It makes compelling reading and it is a great pleasure and privilege to introduce this work.”
Keith Matthee is at the Cape Town Bar. He was appointed as Senior Counsel by President Mbeki in 2002.