Swoon hypothesis
The swoon hypothesis is any of a number of ideas that aim to explain the resurrection of Jesus, proposing that Jesus did not die on the cross, but merely fell unconscious ("swooned"), and was later revived in the tomb. According to the proponents of the swoon hypothesis, the appearances of the risen Jesus to his disciples following his resurrection from the dead were merely perceived to be resurrection appearances by his followers; proponents of the swoon hypothesis believe that Jesus allegedly fell unconscious ("swooned") on the cross, survived the crucifixion, and then regained enough strength to appear before them while he was still alive. This and other similar theories about the resurrection of Jesus and witnesses to his resurrection became popular in the Western world after they were first proposed by some 18th–19th century Western authors and philosophers, including Oscar Wilde and Friedrich Schleiermacher; however, since the last decade of the 19th century, all of them have been discarded as baseless and unacceptable by the majority of biblical scholars and academics. This 200-year-old hypothesis continues to be the subject of debate in popular circles, but the biblical scholarly literature considers it uncontroversial that Jesus died during his crucifixion.
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