The early church felt that it had to "explain" the death of Jesus, but merely "proclaim" his resurrection. The death needed explaining: why would the Jewish religious leaders plot to and be involved in the death of Jesus, who Christians were claiming was THE religious leader? This took some explaining. However, the resurrection was much simpler. A member of early church was saying something like this: "I know this is an unusual claim, namely that Jesus who was dead was raised to life; however, if you don't believe me that Jesus was raised, go ask the chair of the theology department, the dean, the vice-president of academic affairs, and even Dr. Francis himself -- they all can tell you that they have seen him alive!" The eyewitnesses then are essential to the basic message about Jesus. What has happened, as St. Paul indicates in I Co 15:1-8 is that some the eyewitnesses are beginning to die. After forty years, many of the eyewitnesses were dying out and this is one reason the early church had to write down the gospels.