The purpose of a creed is to be memorable and easy to pass on to future generations. This means being brief and including what was absolutely necessary. Only the most important details were included within it to preserve the essential outline of what happened. Ehrman wishes Paul mentioned much more in his recounting of what the Corinthian Christians already knew. Fair enough. But this is no argument that Paul was unaware of the Jesus burial tradition.
Why does Paul mention the burial of Jesus at all in verse 4? Why not skip it entirely? The fact that the burial was included in this extremely primitive creed should strike us as not only important to Paul, but also historically plausible considering how old this tradition is. James D. G. Dunn posits that this tradition was likely composed within months of the death (and resurrection?) of Jesus. (J. D. G. Dunn, Jesus Remembered, vol. 1, pg. 855). If so, this is extremely early tradition that should not be discarded too quickly
It is very likely that this was the meeting where Paul received the creedal tradition(s)37 he cites in 1 Corinthians 15:3–7, among other traditions and hymns concerning the historical Jesus. “Creedal tradition” is a phrase that means this section is, first, pre-Pauline tradition, and second, was composed in the form of a creed (whether oral or written). Scholars are unanimous that this creedal tradition originated at the latest within a decade of Jesus’ death and at the earliest “months” after Jesus’ death.
If Paul received this creedal tradition sometime in the mid-30s AD, then it must have been composed sometime before he received it, and of course after Jesus was crucified in AD 30 or 33.42 This is what leads to the agreement among scholars that this creedal tradition should be dated no later than a decade after Jesus’ crucifixion. Some scholars even date its composition to within months of Jesus’ death, going back to the very “pillars” themselves: Peter, James (Jesus’ brother), John, and possibly others of the Twelve. Dale Allison writes, “Indeed, Paul knew Peter and James and presumably others who claimed to have seen the risen Jesus. First Corinthians 15:3–8 is not folklore.”43 The creedal tradition found in 1 Corinthians 15:3–8 is the bedrock source for all the bedrock facts we will be discussing in this book concerning Jesus’ death, resurrection, and appearances.
Now let us behold the bedrock, most ancient source of Christianity, which is unanimously dated on average within five years of Jesus’ death: That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time … then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared to me also.44 Even though we don’t know everything about this meeting between Peter and Paul that we would like, the fruit of this meeting, represented in Paul’s receiving some or all of the traditions behind 1 Corinthians 15:3–7, forms the unalterable bedrock source of Christianity.
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