Second fact (L): Women/ladies found the tomb empty — criterion of embarrassment supports authenticity

Second point of the ALIVE acronym

Historians accept that Jesus was baptized by John as historically reliable, partly due to the criterion of embarrassment — early Christians would have had reason to explain away or omit a detail where Jesus submits to a baptism of repentance, suggesting it is not invented.

Women as witnesses - criterion of embarrassment in male-centered culture

Why early Christians would not invent women as the first witnesses

Joseph of Arimathea - multiply attested, named, testable, criterion of embarrassment

Joseph as historical figure validating burial account

Three embarrassing facts that authenticate the disciples' sincerity: Peter's denial, James's pre-resurrection unbelief, and Paul's role as persecutor of the church

The criterion of embarrassment applied to the three key witnesses

Empty tomb evidence — women as primary witnesses

McLatchie presents the role of women as primary witnesses to the empty tomb as evidence for its historicity.

Tacitus places Jesus's execution under Tiberius Caesar while Pontius Pilate was procurator; both Tacitus and Lucian are hostile to Christianity

Significance of hostile sources attesting to Jesus

Argument 3 — Criterion of embarrassment: Jesus's predictions include embarrassing elements the early church wouldn't invent. (a) Peter rebukes Jesus for predicting his death — then Jesus calls Peter "Satan" (Mark 8:33). The leader of the church being called Satan is not something the church would fabricate. (b) Disciples repeatedly fail to understand Jesus's predictions — they argue about who's greatest right after. The church wouldn't invent their founders' incompetence.

Argument 3 — criterion of embarrassment

The presence of women as the primary witnesses to the empty tomb was an embarrassment to the early church in first-century culture, where women's testimony was widely discredited. What was a liability then is actually strong evidence for historical reliability now — people don't fabricate stories that hurt their own credibility.

The criterion of embarrassment and the women witnesses; Celsius's criticism