At Easter time, Brigham Young University emeritus professor Richard Neitzel Holzapfel often thinks about New Testament scholar N.T. Wright, who said:
“This is our greatest festival. Take Christmas away, and in biblical terms you lose two chapters at the front of Matthew and Luke, nothing else. Take Easter away, and you don’t have a New Testament; you don’t have a Christianity” (see “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church,” by N.T. Wright).
Holzapfel attended Hebrew Union College as a graduate student, taught at the BYU Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies and has written many books regarding history and the life of Jesus Christ. He is also a former mission president and Area Seventy. In an episode of the Church News podcast, he shared some insights about Holy Week and witnesses — both ancient and modern — of Jesus Christ’s Resurrection.