Why do the first Christians believe that Jesus was raised?
There were three major reasons that the early Christians gave for believing the Resurrection:
1. The empty tomb
2. The appearances of the risen Jesus
3. The fulfillment of Scripture
The problem with number 3, the fulfillment of Scripture, is that there is no explicit prophecy in the prophets that says that the Messiah will be raised on the third day, yet many of the New Testament writers say that Jesus was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. So what exactly are they talking about?
The answer is in the book of Jonah, which Jesus himself alludes to in Matthew 12 when he says “for as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40). So why does Jesus allude to Jonah as a sign of his resurrection?