From the perspective of history, it seems reasonably clear that "something happened" at the end of Jesus' life, which his followers called a resurrection. Did his reanimated corpse stand up and walk out of the tomb? If there was a bodily resurrection, did it involve his horribly abused original body or a new "spiritual" body? Many years later, the Apostle Paul saw a vision of Christ and lumped himself in with those who had seen the risen Lord (I Corinthians 15:8). Was the resurrection, thus, a mass vision? Was it, maybe, some deep emotional feeling of the presence of the crucified Christ shared by his followers? Perhaps, but the gospels insist that Jesus returned in physical form.For the professional historian, this evidence from Paul and the gospels is highly suspect. First, it reports an incredibly unlikely event, a resurrection. Second, it comes from a religious sect that had a vested interest in concocting a story purporting the resurrection of its beloved leader. Third, people in ancient times could believe things happened that did not actually happen.
Historically speaking, then, the only evidence we have that "something happened" is the bare fact that Jesus' movement did not die away when he died. There had been messiahs before, but their movements always ended with their death. If nothing special happened, how was it possible that a motley group of common folks could defy the authorities, overcome their grief and loss, invent a patently ridiculous story about a bodily resurrection, and jump start a religious movement that rapidly gained adherents? How could this happen in Jerusalem, which was small enough so that people would have known if the disciples had just made up the story? No, something happened, and it was not just your ordinary, every day, garden variety "something." Something strange and apparently spiritually powerful happened.
That is the most we can say historically, and obviously most strictly secular historians are not willing to say even that much. But, in refusing to do so they cannot come up with any other reasonable explanation for the Jesus movement, which eventually became the Christian movement. The thing is, Jesus' disciples did not base their claims about the resurrection on the empty tomb or the absence of a corpse. They, rather, claimed that they saw their risen Lord. Something happened.
