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The resurrection of Jesus is the Christian belief that Jesus Christ miraculously returned to life on the Sunday following the Friday on which he was executed by crucifixion. It is the central tenet of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures".[1][2] In the New Testament, after the Romans crucify Jesus, he is anointed and buried in a new tomb by Joseph of Arimathea but God raises him from the dead[3] and he appears to many people over a span of forty days before his ascension to Heaven, to sit at the Right Hand of God. Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday, the third day after Good Friday, the day of his crucifixion. Easter's date corresponds roughly with Passover, the Jewish observance associated with the Exodus, that is fixed for the night of the Full moon near the time of the spring equinox.[4] The Apostle Paul wrote that "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures".[1 Cor. 15:3b-4] Thus the death and resurrection of Christ were proclaimed as belonging together at the very heart of the gospel, forcefully placing "the full weight of faith on both the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ"[5] by stating, "if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith".[1 Cor. 15:14] In fact, Paul further claims that belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus is so central to salvation that "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.[1 Cor. 15:17-19] Skeptical biblical scholars have questioned the historicity of the resurrection story for centuries; for example, "nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century biblical scholarship dismissed resurrection narratives as late, legendary accounts".[6] Some scholars consider the biblical accounts of Jesus' resurrection as derived from the experiences of Jesus' followers and of Apostle Paul.[7]

E.P. Sanders concludes "that Jesus’ followers (and later Paul) had resurrection experiences is, in my judgment, a fact". He writes that when Jesus was executed, his followers fled or hid, but their hopes were renewed when they saw him alive again.[8]:p.58