Seven last word of Jesus at the cross

1. "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)
2. "This day you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43)
3. "Woman, behold your son." (John 19:26-27)
4. "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46)
5. "I thirst." (John 19:28)
6. "It is finished." (John 19:30)
7. "Into your hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46)

Characters around the cross

Gospel of Matthew
According to this gospel, the various witnesses included Roman soldiers, Jewish officials,
passersby who mocked Jesus, and two men crucified at the same time. The only reference to
followers of Jesus is found in Matthew 27:55-56, which says that many women were "watching
from a distance", and specifically names "Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and
Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons." Unlike male followers, these women would probably
have been allowed to watch without being arrested, provided that they didn't try to interfere.

Gospel of Mark
The account in this gospel is very similar to that in Matthew. In fact most biblical scholars
believe that Matthew copied most of his account from Mark. In any case, Mark 15:40-41 also
says that many women watched from a distance and specifically mentions "Mary Magdalene,
Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome."

Gospel of Luke
The author of this gospel also apparently copied most of his account of the crucifixion from
Mark. The only mention of Jesus' followers is in Luke 23:49, which says that some of them
watched from a distance, but doesn't give any names.

Gospel of John
The account in this gospel differs considerably from the other three. It says that several women
and one disciple stood "near the cross", and that Jesus spoke to them from the cross. The
women are identified as Jesus' mother Mary, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clophas (or
Cleophas), and Mary Magdalene. The disciple is identified only as "the disciple whom Jesus
loved".
 Proof and Evidence of Resurrection
We believe Christ's resurrection can be proved with at least as much certainty as any universally believed
and well-documented event in ancient history. To prove this, we do not need to presuppose anything
controversial (e.g. that miracles happen). But the skeptic must also not presuppose anything (e.g. that they
do not). We do not need to presuppose that the New Testament is infallible, or divinely inspired or even
true. We do not need to presuppose that there really was an empty tomb or post-resurrection appearances,
as recorded. We need to presuppose only two things, both of which are hard data, empirical data, which
no one denies:  The existence of the New Testament texts as we have them, and the existence (but not
necessarily the truth) of the Christian religion as we find it today.

The question is this: Which theory about what really happened in Jerusalem on that first Easter Sunday
can account for the data?

There are five possible theories: Christianity, hallucination, myth, conspiracy and swoon.
Jesus died Jesus rose Christianity
2 Jesus died Jesus didn't rise—apostles deceived Hallucination
3 Jesus died Jesus didn't rise—apostles myth-makers Myth
4 Jesus died Jesus didn't rise—apostles deceivers Conspiracy
5 Jesus didn't die   Swoon

Theories 2 and 4 constitute a dilemma: if Jesus didn't rise, then the apostles, who taught that he did, were
either deceived (if they thought he did) or deceivers (if they knew he didn't). The Modernists could not
escape this dilemma until they came up with a middle category, myth. It is the most popular alternative
today.

Thus either (1) the resurrection really happened, (2) the apostles were deceived by a hallucination, (3)
the apostles created a myth, not meaning it literally, (4) the apostles were deceivers who conspired to
foist on the world the most famous and successful lie in history, or (5) Jesus only swooned and was
resuscitated, not resurrected. All five theories are logically possible, and therefore must be fairly
investigated—even (1)! They are also the only possibilities, unless we include really far-out ideas that
responsible historians have never taken seriously, such as that Jesus was really a Martian who came in a
flying saucer. Or that he never even existed; that the whole story was the world's greatest fantasy novel,
written by some simple fisherman; that he was a literary character whom everyone in history mistook
for a real person, including all Christians and their enemies, until some scholar many centuries later got
the real scoop from sources unnamed.

If we can refute all other theories (2-5), we will have proved the truth of the resurrection (1). The form
of the argument here is similar to that of most of the arguments for the existence of God. Neither God
nor the resurrection are directly observable, but from data that are directly observable we can argue
that the only possible adequate explanation of this data is the Christian one.

We shall take the four non-believing theories in the following order: from the simplest, least popular
and most easily refuted to the most confusing, most popular and most complexly refuted: first swoon,
then conspiracy, then hallucination and finally myth.