Who wrote about the resurrection of Jesus?

Answer 1

The earliest written mention of the resurrection of Jesus was by the Apostle Paul, although some scholars say that he was writing of a purely spiritual resurrection.

The earliest gospel, that of Mark, was written approximately 70 CE and originally ended at verse 16:8, with the young man telling the women, "he is risen" and the women fled in terror, telling no one. This does imply a resurrection, but provides no evidence for one. The "long Ending" (verses 16:9-25) was added much later to correct the lack of resurrection appearances.

The authors of both Matthew and Luke relied on Mark for everything they knew about the life and mission of Jesus. On the one hand, it is most unlikely that either of them would have known of any resurrection appearances unknown to the author of Mark, but on the other hand they clearly knew that their readers needed to know more about the resurrection. Thus each author wrote an account of the appearances of the risen Jesus, although each account was of course completely different to the other.

The author of John's Gospel based his account loosely on Luke, but added additional material to suit his theological needs. All of the gospels were written anonymously and only attributed to the disciples whose names they now bear, later in the second century. We do not really know who wrote each account.