The Incredulity of Saint Thomas
Caravagio (1601-02)
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The Resurrection
Raising the Dead
A Physical Resuscitation
"The lexical evidence is conclusive: not 'resurrection' but 'resuscitation' is the only meaning possible for both these Aramaic words, one of which Jesus used. I am referring to the synonymous words achajuta [rise] and techijuta [come to life]. Both nouns are derived from the verb chaja, 'life', and consequently mean - I repeat - resuscitation and nothing else."
- Father Günther Schwartz, "Tod, Auferstehung, Gericht und ewiges Leben nach den ersten drei Evangelien"Via Mundi, 55 (1988)
"Even the Greek does not suggest the translations of the Aramaic original concept which are given in the Christian usage:
anasthqi means to 'awaken' (transitive), and to 'get up', 'come forth', 'present oneself' (intransitive; anastasis means 'rising up'. Only by the later Christian interpretation is
anasthqi made to mean 'raise from the dead' (transitive) and 'resurrect' (intransitive), and anastasis 'resurrection'."
- Holger Kersten & Elmar R. Gruber, The Jesus Conspiracy - The Turin Shroud & The Truth About the Resurrection (1992)
"Ancient Judaism did not know of an anticipated resurrection as an event of history. Nowhere does one find in the literature anything comparable to the resurrection of Jesus. Certainly resurrections of the dead were known, but these always concerned resuscitations, the return to the earthly life. In no place in the late Judaic literature does it concern a resurrection to
doxa ['glory'] as an event of history."
- Joachim Jeremias, "Die alteste Schicht der Osterberlieferungen," in Resurrexit ed. E. Dhanis, p.194
In all instances given by the Gospels of persons raised from the dead by Jesus, and no less in the case of the widow Dorcas raised from the dead by Peter (Act 9: 36-42), a return to normal existence is stated or implied."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
"Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, 'Tabitha [Hebrew 'gazelle'], get up.' She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive."
- Acts 9: 40-41
"In the account of the raising of Lazarus in John's Gospel, Jesus orders the removal of the stone sealing the entrance to the cave tomb. Only when this is done can he call on Lazarus to come forth (John 11:38-44)."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
"Mark apparently believed that the resurrected Jesus was a resuscitated corpse, who required that the stone be moved for him before he could leave the tomb, but Matthew's view was closer to Paul's - the resurrected Jesus had a spiritual body. Thus Matthew writes that the women came not to find that the stone had been rolled back already, but as they watched, the angel removed the stone from an already empty tomb, Jesus earlier having passed through the stone."
- Randal Helms, Gospel Fictions (1988) p. 137
Yet in Matthew, the others who had been resurrected had their tombs opened.
"According to Matthew, at the death of Jesus on the cross, there was an earthquake that opened many tombs."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
The Start of the General Resurrection
"The tendency to unite Jesus' resurrection with the general resurrection is exemplified in Matt 27:53 where we are told that after Jesus' resurrection many of the saints came out of their tombs and went into the holy city of Jerusalem and appeared to many"
- Raymond Edward Brown, The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesusp.76, n.129
"The tombs broke open and the bodies of many people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people."
- Matthew 27:52-53
"The bodies therefore must have been reintegrated. The Jewish rabbis claimed that no human body could be totally destroyed. Even if it was cremated, there would remain a minute bone called Luz, on the basis of which God would rebuild the entire frame and clothe it with flesh. Matthew asserts that, in the case of Jesus, an angel descended and rolled away the stone from the mouth of the his tomb. If the stone had not been removed, Jesus as a physical being raised from the dead could not have come out...although John does say that Jesus could pass through a closed door."
Jesus' resurrection "would be relevant only if he was wholly human, and has its context in the Pharisee-Essene faith in the resurrection of the dead in the Age to Come. In that Age, all the righteous would banquet with the Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who themselves would be alive again on earth. The Gospels make it clear that this view of resurrection was shared by Jesus."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
This view is also reiterated in Luke by the two men who spoke to the women at the tomb.
"...The men said to them, 'Why do you look for the living among the dead?"
- Luke 24:5b"But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."
- 1 Corinthians 15:12-20
"This tradition most likely dates to the early to middle 30's; it was most likely handed down to Paul by the time of Paul's two-week conference with Peter in AD 36 (Gal 1:18), roughly 14 years before the Jerusalem Council (Gal 2:1)."
- Ryan Renn, "The Burial of Jesus - With Focus on the Views of the Jesus Seminar"
"It has often been said that Paul believed the end of the world was at hand. It is more accurate to say that he believed it had already begun, for that is his logic in the preceding passage. As a Pharisee he believed in the general resurrection at the end of time. But Jesus, he claims, has already risen as the start of the general resurrection. Notice his metaphor. Jesus is the 'firstfruits' - that is to say, the beginning of the harvest, the start of the general resurrection. That is why he can argue in either direction: no Jesus resurrection, no general resurrection; or, no general resurrection, no Jesus resurrection. They stand or fall together, and Paul presumes that only the mercy of God delays the final consummation, the ending of what has already started."
- John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994)
(2) The Tradition of Resurrection
The Jewish belief in the resurrection goes back to the Babylonian captivity and is enshrined in the Book of Isaiah. Later, during the Maccabee rebellion, Daniel tells that at the time of the deliverance, the dust of the earth would awaken and shine as bright stars. This belief was held popularly held in Judea, although not by the ruling Sadducees.
The apocryphal First Book of Enoch, which helped shape the expectations of the breakaway Yahad, prophesied that the Messiah himself would be resurrected.
"And the righteous one shall arise from sleep, [Shall arise] and walk in the paths of righteousness, And all his path and conversation shall be in eternal goodness and grace."
- 1 Enoch 92:3
"Resurrection and ascension had already entered Jewish thought in the century previous to Jesus, as a reward for the righteous martyrs of the Maccabean wars."
"But the idea of a crucified Messiah was unique. In such a situation, the Christians only did what other believing Jews did in similar circumstances; they turned to biblical prophecy for elucidation. No messianic text suggested itself as appropriate to the situation...[However] Psalm 110:1 could be combined easily with Daniel 7:9-13, the description of the enthronement of the 'son of man.' Daniel 7:9-13 seemed to describe the apposite scene of Christ's exaltation and ascension, because Jesus could be identified with the 'Son of Man,' the angelic figure."
- Alan F. Segal, "The Risen Christ and the Angelic Mediator Figures in Light of Qumran" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 321
"...There before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven..."
Daniel 7:13"The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'."
Psalm 110:1
A more explicit passage can be found in 1 Enoch where the Elect One, identified with the Son of Man, is enthroned by the Lord of Spirits:
"And the Elect One shall in those days sit on My throne..."
- 1 Enoch 51:3 (See also 1 Enoch 62:1-3.)
"Furthermore Daniel 12:2 promised astral immortality to those who taught wisdom, making plausible while it confirmed the entire set of expectations"
- Alan F. Segal, "The Risen Christ and the Angelic Mediator Figures in Light of Qumran" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 321
"Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt."
- Daniel 12:2"And the Lord of Spirits will abide over them,
And with that Son of Man shall they eat
And lie down and rise up for ever and ever."
- 1 Enoch 62:14
"The Christians identified the 'Son of Man': the human or angelic representation of God, with the risen Christ. Christians took the second 'Lord' of Psalm 110:1 to refer to Jesus and to signify the divine name Lord. Thereafter, the risen Christ was understood as an aspect of the divinity. Since the angel with the human figure was also divine himself, carrying the name YHWH (Ex 23:2 1), Jesus can be said to have attained to divinity. For the Gospel of John, Christ also was logos, God's intermediary form and light, which - was Philo's term for God's principal hypostasis as well. Christ ' as 'son' is said to be above the angels, just as Moses is enthroned and worshipped by the stars in Ezekiel the Tragedian's work. This is made explicit in the later document, Hebrews 1:8, where the 'son' is identified with the Elohim in Psalm 45:7."
- Alan F. Segal, "The Risen Christ and the Angelic Mediator Figures in Light of Qumran" in Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (James H. Charlesworth, Ed. - 1992), p. 322
"But about the Son he says, 'Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever, and righteousness will be the scepter of your kingdom'."
- Hebrews 1:8
(3) The Doubts
Missing Expectations
Evidently though, according to John, Jesus' followers did not share this expectation. When Peter and the other disciple saw the empty wrappings of the burial shroud in the tomb:
"(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to their homes."
- John 20:9-10
"Jesus' disciples "were not aware of any biblical prophecy interpreted to mean that the Messiah would die and rise again. Testimonies to this effect were adduced later."
"The common belief, based on the scriptures, was that the Messiah would abide forever (John 12:34), which is conveyed by Isaiah (9:7), and as regards Jesus, was communicated to his mother Mary by the angel Gabriel (Luke 1:32-33)."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
"Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever."
- Isaiah 9:7"The crowd spoke up, 'We have heard from the Law that the Christ [or Messiah] will remain forever, so how can you say, "The Son of Man must be lifted up"? Who is this "Son of Man"?'"
- John 12:34
"Thus, the possibility of resurrection was not at first entertained as an explanation when it was discovered that the body of Jesus was gone from the tomb. It was held that human hands had removed the corpse for some reason or other. As much as Jesus had been credited as the Savior by his devoted companions, it had to be admitted reluctantly that his death could only mean that he was not the Messiah after all."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
"...The conviction that Jesus had risen from the dead had already taken root by the time Paul was converted about 33 C.E. On the assumption that Jesus died about 30 C.E., the time for development was thus two or three years at most."
- Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus, p. 466
In order to lay a foundation for the resurrection of Jesus, the author of Acts has Peter quoting David, the first kingly Messiah:
"I saw the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will live in hope, because you will not abandon me to the grave [Hebrew 'Sheol'], nor will you let your Holy One [or 'your faithful one'] see decay. You have made [or 'will make'] known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence."
- 28 Psalms 16:8-11
Peter then says that David was not referring to himself but the resurrection of the future Messiah (Christ), a son of the House of David.
"Brothers, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath [Psalms 132:11-18] that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. Seeing what was ahead, he spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay. God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear."
- Acts 2:29-33
"...Luke has Peter quote, fairly loosely, as if from memory, the Septuagint Greek text of the Psalms (though the historical Peter spoke Aramaic and needed, Christian tradition tells us, a Greek interpreter); the point of Luke's interpretation depends on the Greek text of the verse, not on the Hebrew. The Hebrew text of Psalm 16: 10b has something like 'nor suffer thy faithful servant to see the pit,' which stands in simple parallelism to the first line of the distich, 'Thou wilt not abandon me to Sheol' that is, you will not allow me to die. The Greek text could, however, be taken to mean 'You win not let me remain in the grave, nor will you let me rot.' Peter's speech is an effective work of dramatic fiction, the culmination of a complex two-stage creative process."
- Randal Helms, Gospel Fictions (1988) p. 20
The Empty Tomb
"Perhaps most surprising of all the differences [between the Gospels and Paul's writings] is Paul's failure to mention the empty tomb, which was, for the writer of the earliest Gospel (Mark), the only public, visible evidence for the resurrection. Though Paul vigorously attempts to convince the Christians at Corinth, some of whom apparently doubted, that Jesus indeed rose from the dead ('if Christ was not raised, your faith has nothing in it' - 15:17), he never mentions this most striking piece of evidence."
- Randall Helms, Gospel Fictions
"...That he [Christ] was buried [ etafh], that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures..."
- 1 Corinthians 15:4
"Though some have suggested ambiguity in the word '
etafh' as to whether it implies a tomb burial, it should be remembered that (a) this is a very brief tradition, and thus it is not very verbose/detailed; and (b) since Paul elsewhere shows knowledge of the context of the Passion tradition (see, I Cor 11:23-26 and the allusion to Passover week in I Cor 5:7, as well as the 'third day' motif), if no serious competing burial tradition is found, it should be assumed that the tradition behind Paul's tradition is the same tradition which was behind that of the four Gospels."
- Ryan Renn, "The Burial of Jesus - With Focus on the Views of the Jesus Seminar"
Still, the conclusion that Paul and the synoptics drew from the same tradition is only an assumption, although supported by the kerygma shared by both 1 Corinthians and the Gospel of Mark.
"'...that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day...' implies that Jesus was 'un-buried.' What sort of tradition Paul may have had (e.g., burial by whom? what sort of burial?) in regards to the specifics...[is] technically open..."
- Ryan Renn, private correspondence
"If Jesus had a bandit's unceremonious interment, however, then Paul could have received a 'tradition' that Jesus was 'buried.' What happened to Jesus' physical corpse & skeleton could matter less to Paul, since his spiritual body view of resurrection is a theory of transformation that has nothing to do with the resuscitation of carcasses anyway."
- Mahlon H. Smith (Crosstalk)
"You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is NOT the body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or some other grain...So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable...It is sown an ensouled [ yucikon - 'physical'] body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is an ensouled body, there is also a spiritual one."
- 1 Corinthians 15:36-35, 42, 44
"Paul knew nothing of a resurrected corpse of Jesus. For he does not exempt Jesus from his general theory of resurrection. Once buried, Jesus' crucified carcass was bound to disintegrate (by whatever means). For Paul, what is important is Jesus' spirit which was freed from its earthly shell and came to animate another 'body': the Christian ekklesia. It is only gospel writers who did not share Paul's mystical perspective who needed an empty tomb as evidence of the resurrection."
- Mahlon H. Smith (Crosstalk)
To Paul, belief in Jesus' resurrection is absolutely necessary for the achievement of salvation.
"And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man [Adam], the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man [the Messiah]."
- 1 Corinthians 17-21
"...For Paul, resurrection meant not the resuscitation of a corpse involving the removal of a stone and the emptying of a tomb, but a transformation from a dead physical body to a living spiritual one:"
- Randall Helms, Gospel Fictions
"Flesh and blood can never possess the kingdom of God."
- 1 Corinthians 15:50
"This eliminates him [Paul] as a witness to any physical resurrection of Jesus, since only if Jesus had returned from a state of death to resumed physical life would the term resurrection be appropriate."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
It is possible, however, to infer that Paul did mean physical resurrection where the body would be transformed like putting on a new garment. (See Clothed with Immortality.)
(4) Exalted to the Highest Place
"There are incredible parallels between the figure of the metamorphosed Enoch and early Christian descriptions of the resurrected Christ. The transfigured Enoch becomes the exact image of God (in fact he is called the lesser YHWH), is seated on the throne of glory, and is the sole gateway to and from the unseen Creator. The primordial sage and scribe becomes the source of all wisdom and judge over all powers in heaven and on earth. He is even identified as God's word. Here is an excerpt from my own translation of 3 Enoch 48c, which (I think) is one of the oldest sections of 3 Enoch."
- Mahlon H. Smith (Crosstalk)
YHWH himself describes Enoch:
"I made him high over all,
with (the knowledge of) secrets above and secrets below...
Upon him I placed (some) of my honor and (some) of my majesty
and (some) of my radiant glory
which is upon the Throne of Glory.
And I called him the lesser YHWH (YHWH ha qatan),
the Prince of the Presence and the Knower of Secrets.
And like a Father (Ab) I revealed all to him;
and every mystery I let him know with certainty.
I established his throne at the door of my palace
to prepare judgment over all the household of heaven.
And I set every prince [i.e., angel] opposite him
to receive from him authority to do his will.
I took 70 names from my names
and I called him by them to magnify his glory...
70 princes I put under (him) to teach them
the words I commanded in every language;
by his word, to humble the proud to the ground
and by the utterance of his mouth
to raise the humble to the heights;
to strike with his words to turn kings from their ways
and to establish rulers over their domains,
as it is said:
'he alters the times and seasons' (Dan 2:21a);
to give wisdom to all the wisemen of the world,
understanding and knowledge to those who understand KNOWLEDGE,
as it is said:
'and knowledge to those who know understanding' (Dan 2:21b);
to reveal to them the secrets of my Word (dabar)
and to teach them the decrees of my judge judgment
as it is said:
'So shall be my Word, which goes forth from my mouth:
HE shall not return to me empty but HE shall act' (Isa 55:11)."
- 3 Enoch 48c
Near the end of his career, Paul described the work of Jesus:
"And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted [ uperuywoen] him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name..."
- Philippians 2:8-9
The exultation and giving of a divine name in Hebrew tradition signifies that Jesus became identical with the divine form of God.
"In this passage Paul moved from death to exaltation into heaven. There was no Pauline mention of a resurrection back to this earth."
- John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 304
"But God found fault with the people and said: 'The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.'"
- Hebrews 8:8
Then the author of Hebrews (attributed to Paul but doubtful) "argued that the blood of Christ, that is, the cross by itself, secured this eternal redemption and made this Christ the mediator of the new covenant."
- John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 304
"He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption."
"For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant."
"For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence."
"Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."
- Hebrews 9:12, 15, 24, 27-28
"This remarkable book, difficult to date, but primitive and deeply Jewish in its structure, talked about Jesus as the divine agent of salvation, likened his cross to the sacrifices offered on the day of the atonement, and then, like Paul in Philippians, asserted he had been lifted to the right hand of God. All of this without ever mentioning a bodily resurrection from a grave of death."
"The essence of resurrection was not located in a man raised from the dead back into the life of this world. It was rather discovered when their eyes were opened to see who Jesus was and is, exalted to the right hand of God, the source of life-giving spirit, incarnate in each person as comforter and guide into all truth, enabling that person to live for others, to feed the sheep of Christ, to be an agent of the ongoing life of Christ."
- John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 304, 305
"What happened historically is that those who believed in Jesus before his execution continued to do so afterward. Easter is not about the start of a new faith but about the continuation of an old one. That is the only miracle and the only mystery, and it is more than enough of both."
"The Gospel of Thomas...uses only one title for Jesus. He is 'the living Jesus', who acts yesterday, today, and tomorrow as the Wisdom of God here on earth, and his missionaries participate in that divine Wisdom by how they live, not just by how they talk. They do not speak of resurrection but of unbroken and abiding presence."
- John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994)
Post-Burial Appearances
"Understand ye. The prophets, receiving grace from Him, prophesied concerning Him. But He Himself endured that He might destroy death and show forth the resurrection of the dead, for that He must needs be manifested in the flesh; that at the same time He might redeem the promise made to the fathers, and by preparing the new people for Himself might show, while He was on earth, that having brought about the resurrection He will Himself exercise judgment."
- Barnabas 5:6-7
(1) In the Synoptic Gospels
Varying Accounts
"...It is quite remarkable that an almost hour-by-hour remembrance prevailed for the death and burial of Jesus but an almost total discrepancy prevailed for what was, I would presume, even more important, namely, the extraordinary return of Jesus from beyond the grave to give the disciples their missionary mandate and apostolic commission."
"Between passion and Parousia was, for Jesus, the time of absence and nonintervention, and, for the community, the time of waiting in faith and suffering in imitation. There were to be no apparitions within that period, and to speak of them after the passion was to invite and commit the same mistake made by the falso prophets and false Christs of Mark 13:5-6 and 13:21-22. Instead, for Mark...Roman power believed not because of Jesus' resurrectional apparition,but because of Jesus' exemplary death..."
- John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus, The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant (1991)
"...What follows [Mark] 16:8 (the account of the post-burial appearances of Jesus) is non-Marcan; consequently the earliest form of the Gospel ended with the account of the empty tomb."
- Noel Currer-Briggs, The Shroud and the Grail - A Modern Quest for the True Grail
In the Gospel of Matthew, the two Marys at the tomb are the only people to encounter the resurrected Jesus until his commission to the eleven disciples in Galilee (where Matthew's account ends). The Gospel of Luke (covered below) also ends seven or eight days after Jesus' crucifixion. Acts states, however, that Jesus remained on earth for forty days after the crucifixion. In the Middle East, "forty days" meant "a long time", showing that the author of Acts did not have a definite time period in mind.
"After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God."
- Acts 1:3
"The appearances, approximately a dozen, show a definite pattern: Jesus visited small groups of people in a remote area of closeted indoors. Although these private rendezvous bolstered the faith of those who already believed in Jesus, as far as we know not a single unbeliever saw Jesus after his death."
- Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew (1995)
The Appearance at Emmaus
"Luke's Gospel makes it very clear that after his resurrection, Jesus gave his followers comprehensive and specific instructions in applying prophetic biblical passages of what would befall him.
"The first recipients of such enlightenment are two disciples who are overtaken by the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus, though they do not recognize him."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
"...Ever since H. Gunkel, commentators have noted that stories such as this are very similar formally to OT theophanies or angelophanies, in particular those of Gen 18-19; Judg 6, 13; Tobit 5-12. The following features are shared by Luke 24:13-35 and this OT genre.
1. The angel of the Lord appears unrecognised. Compare esp. Tobit 5-12 when he travels unrecognised.
2. The point of recognition is when the angel of the Lord disappears - see Judg 6:21; Tob 12:11-21 - the angel Raphael reveals himself and then disappears.
3. The breaking of bread in v. 30 may well allude to the Eucharist, in which case it acts as a typological reference to the sacrificial offering which the angel consumes in Jug 6.19f; 13.15f."
"Of the OT texts Genesis chs. 18-19 are of particular relevance..."
- Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis, "Oxford Christology Lecture nos. 3: Narrative Christologies: the
Transfiguration and Post-Resurrection stories"
"The LORD appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. "
- Genesis 18:1-2"The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground."
- Genesis 19:1"So he [Tobit] went to look for a man; and he found Raphael, who was an angel, but Tobias did not know it."
- Tobit 5:4"Now on that same day two of them [Cleopas and his companion] were going to a village called Emmaus, about sixty stadia from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him."
- Luke 24:13-16
"In response to his asking why they are so sad, they tell the stranger what had been their hopes of Jesus, how these wishes had been defeated by his unexpected death on the cross, and then how they had been puzzled by the reported disappearance of his body. The stranger then takes them to task:"
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
"He said to them, 'How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christ [or Messiah] have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?' And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself."
- Luke 24:25-27
"Verse 25 echoes a motif (the disciples are slow-witted) supplied by the author of Mark at a number of points in his gospel (8:17-18; 6:52; 4:40). Verse 26 is a Lukan theme: the events that have transpired were under divine mandate; they had to happen. The evangelists in both instances are inventing words for Jesus that express their own perspectives."
- Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels
"As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther."
- Luke 24:20
"Still, the two do not recognize him, and the story continues as they invite Jesus to dine with them in Emmaus."
- Maria M. Oberg , "The Mystery of the Testimonium Flavianum"
"My Lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant."
- Abraham to his visitor(s), Genesis 18:3"But he [Lot] insisted so strongly that they [the angels] did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate."
- Genesis 19:3"But they urged him strongly, 'Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.' So he went in to stay with them. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them."
- Luke 24:29-30
"Arriving at their home, Jesus was reluctant to come in, but, like Lot, they constrained him. Thus they too proceeded to entertain a divine presence unawares. Finally, Jesus' divine nature was made known to them in the breaking of the bread, that is, when they ate together."
- John Shelby Spong, Liberating the Gospels, p. 136-137
"With the tip of the staff that was in his hand, the angel of the LORD touched the meat and the unleavened bread. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the LORD disappeared."
- Judges 6:21"Then they stood up; but they saw him [the angel Raphael] no more. So they confessed the great and wonderful works of God, and acknowledged that the angel of the Lord had appeared to them."
- Tobit 12:21-22"Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, 'Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?'"
- Luke 24:30-32
"There is a similar recognition scene in Ovid's tale of Philemon and Baucis (Book 8 of the Metamorphoses), who entertain the gods Jupiter and Mercury without knowing it. They provide the best hospitality their limited means afford. Only when the flagon of wine continues to replenish itself do they recognize their visitors as gods, who had come to punish the neighborhood.
"Recognition scenes, it seems, often occur while a host is offering hospitality to a stranger. That is the basis of the piece of folk wisdom formulated in Heb 13:2:"
- Robert Funk (Editor), Jesus Seminar, The Acts of Jesus: The Search for the Authentic Deeds of Jesus, p. 455
"Remember to be hospitable. By so doing some have entertained angels unawares."
- Hebrews 13:2
The Competing Claim of Simon Peter
"Returning at once to Jerusalem, they [Cleopas and his companion] discover the eleven apostles already in excitement over a report that Jesus had appeared to one of them (Simon Peter)."
- Maria M. Oberg , "The Mystery of the Testimonium Flavianum"
"They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, 'It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.'"
- Luke 24:33-34
This is the only such reference in the gospels, although Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:5 also mentions that Simon Peter was the first to witness the risen Jesus. (See Paul's testimony.)
"For Luke, then, Cleopas and his companion were the very first people to see the resurrected Jesus. This disagrees with the other gospels. The name Cleopas appears no where else in the New Testament, and the only parallel to the Emmaus story is a brief note in Mark 16:12-13 [below] -- that is generally suspected of being based on Luke (falling in the so-called 'longer ending' of Mark)."
"Furthermore, the competing claim by the apostles that Simon was the first witness is not given much weight by Luke only, who only deigns to report the appearance at secondhand, literally as hearsay. Somehow, for Luke, this odd story of Cleopas and his friend is more important -- more authentic -- than what the eleven apostles had to say."
- Maria M. Oberg , "The Mystery of the Testimonium Flavianum"
| Luke's Emmaus story and Josephus' Testimonium Flavianum may have shared a common source. |
In the attached ending to the gospel of Mark, two disciples also fail to recognize Jesus when he appears "in a different form".
"Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen."
- Pseudo Mark 16:12-14
According to Luke, "later, apparently the next day, Jesus appears in his own form to the company of his disciples in Jerusalem, convincing them he is no ghost by eating some broiled fish and a piece of honeycomb."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
"At first Jesus appears from nowhere; he is angelic and not surprisingly the disciples think he is a spirit (within Luke a near synonym for angel). Jesus 'proves' he is more human than a spirit by having them touch his body and eating some fish before their eyes. The later action relies on the widespread contemporary belief that angels do not eat - or at least they don't eat ordinary food."
- Crispin H.T. Fletcher-Louis, "Oxford Christology Lecture nos. 3: Narrative Christologies: the
Transfiguration and Post-Resurrection stories"
Commission to the Disciples
"He [one like a son of man] was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed."
- Daniel 7:14
Matthew has combined different Greek versions of Daniel:
| "Edothe moi pasa exousia auto edothe he arche...he exousia auto" "Given to me all authority to him given the rule...the authority of him" - Daniel 7:14 LXX
"exousia en ourano kai epi tes ges exousian echein panton ton en to ourano"
"[sunteleian hemeron]"
|
"Full authority in heaven and on earth has been committed to me. Go therefore and make all nations my disciples; baptize men everywhere in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. And be assured, I am with you always, to the end of time [ego meth humon eimi pasas tas hemeras heios tes sunteleias tou aionos]."
- Matthew 28:18-20 |
"Jesus' command to 'make all nations my disciples' is Matthew's rendering of Daniel's 'All nations, tribes, and languages shall serve him.' Since Matthew regarded the risen Jesus as the soon-to-return Son of Man, it seemed appropriate to him to construct this speech on Daniel's description there of the coming of the Son of Man to assume the everlasting kingdom. The trinitarian baptismal formula in the next part of Jesus' speech seems an interpolation into the text of Matthew. According to Acts 2:38, the first-century baptismal formula was 'in the name of Jesus the Messiah', even in the late third century Eusebius, quoting Matthew 28:19, wrote, 'Make disciples of all nations in my name.'"
- Randal Helms, Gospel Fictions (1988) p. 139
| "I will declare thy name to my brothers (tois adelphois mou)."
- Psalm 21 [22]:22 LXX |
"Take word to my brothers (apaggeilate tois adelphois mou) to go to Galilee; there they will see me."
- Matthew 28:10 |
"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. You are to go make followers of all peoples....I'll be with you day in and day out, as you'll see, so long as this world continues its course.'"
- Matthew 28:16-20
"All four gospels describe Jesus...appearing to the full group of disciples, but while Matthew and Mark set these appearances in Galilee, the Luke and John gospels suggest that the setting was Jerusalem."
- Ian Wilson, Jesus, The Evidence
"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'Your God reigns!'"
- Isaiah 52:7"He told them, 'This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.'"
- Luke 24:46-48
"This is what John the Baptist proclaimed (Luke 3:3, 7)....Luke's commission, like those found in Matthew and John, are the work of the individual evangelists or the communities in which they lived."
- Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in [or 'into' see Acts 8:16; 19:5; Romans 6:3; 1 Corinthians 1:13; 10:2 and Galatians 3:27] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
- Matthew 28:19-20
"These commissions have little in common...As a consequence, they cannot be traced back to Jesus."
- Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels
(2) In the Gospel of John
Sending the Spirit of Peace
According to John, after being seen by Mary Magdalene in the garden, Jesus next appears in a house where all his disciples are assembled.
"On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!'"
- John 20:19
"Besides making Jesus promise to send 'the sprit of truth' into his disciples, John reported that after his resurrection he sent 'the holy spirit into them by blowing on them."Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) p. 149
"After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, 'Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.' And with that he breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'"
- John 20:20-22
The notion that spirits can be blown can be found in magical texts of the time.
"When you exorcise, blow once, drawing the breath up to our face form the tips of your toes, and the demon will be expelled. Keep it [for times when you are] pure, for the spell is Hebrew and has been kept by pure men."
- 1st c. Egyptian exorcism
Unlike Jesus, the OT prophets did not "command spirits and send them about, or into people....At most we hear that Joshua 'was full of the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him' (Dt. 34.9), and there are stories of Yahweh taking some of the spirit that was on M oses and putting it on the elders, and of Elisha getting twice as much spirit as Elijah had (not through Elijah's doing, he could not promise it) (Num. 11.24ff; II Kings 2.9-15)."
- Morton Smith, Jesus the Magician: Charlatan or Son of God? (1978) p. 313
Doubting Thomas
"Whereas Luke's version delays the gift of the Holy Spirit some seven weeks [see Pentecost, John's shows it happening on the first Easter Sunday, during the second resurrection appearance:"
- Randal Helms, Gospel Fictions (1988) p. 147
"Do not be afraid; peace be with you (me phobeisthe, eirene humin)."
- Tobit 12:16 LXX"On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!' [Eirene humin]! After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord."
- John 20:19-20
"When Darius learned that Daniel was alive he 'was overjoyed' (Dan. 6:23); when Tobit and his son learned that their helper was in fact the angel Raphael, they were at first 'fearful, and fell upon their faces,' but on being reassured, Tobit composed a 'prayer of rejoicing' (Tob. 12:16; 13:1)."
- Randal Helms, Gospel Fictions (1988) p. 147
"Then he breathed on them, saying, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'"
- John 20:22
"John's third resurrection appearance story is the beautiful and touching account of doubting Thomas..."
- Randal Helms, Gospel Fictions (1988) p. 147
"The Beloved Disciple saw only empty cloths and empty grave but believed; Thomas needed to see and even wanted to touch the risen Jesus himself."
- John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994)
"A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!' Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.'
Thomas said to him, 'My Lord and my God [Ho kurios mou kai ho theos mou]!'"
- John 20:26-28
Thomas "responds with Tobit's words upon learning that his helper is Raphael: 'our Lord, and God our Father' (Kurios humin, kai Theos autos pater hemon - Tob. 13:4)..."
- Randal Helms, Gospel Fictions (1988) p. 147
"John is the only gospel to report this incident. It is typical of John's gospel to reprimand those who must literally see to believe; only those who believe without having to 'see' are to be congratulated. The evangelist again employs the word 'see' in the special sense of 'to have insight, to perceive the reality behind appearances'."
- Robert W. Funk, Roy W. Hoover, and the Jesus Seminar, The Five Gospels
"Despite two previous introductions as 'Thomas called the Twin' in John 11:16 and 14:15, he is only now identified as 'one of the twelve.' And his skepticism diverts attention from Jesus' spiritual empowerment of the disciples. His demand for empirical evidence indicates a failure of the original accounts of Jesus' appearances to Mary and the disciples to convince the fourth gospel's audience that the crucified Jesus had in fact been raised.
"Besides from a thematic viewpoint John 20:22 is a better conclusion to a gospel that has repeatedly insisted that Jesus is the greater one that John the Baptist predicted. For it is the only evidence in the gospels that Jesus himself communicated the Holy Spirit to others. Ergo, John 20:24-29 is probably a secondary addition to the original core of the Gospel of John."
- Mahlon H. Smith (Crosstalk)
"Early in the second century, however, certain Christians to whom the gospels of Matthew and Luke were important, recognized that both these earlier works stress, in opposition to John, that the resurrection appearances occurred in Galilee as well as Jerusalem. They took it upon themselves to reconcile John with the others by adding a twenty-first chapter. That this section is not by the author of the rest of the Gospel is clear from the prominence it gives to the 'sons of Zebedee' (John 21:2), who are mentioned by this name nowhere else in the Fourth Gospel, though they are central figures in the Synoptics."
- Randal Helms, Gospel Fictions (1988) p. 148
"That saying of Jesus became current in the brotherhood, and was taken to mean that the disciple would not die. But in fact Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said 'If it should be my will that he should wait until I come, what is that to you?"
- John 21:21-23
These verses solved the apologetic problem of the immanent return of Jesus expected by the first generation of followers (Mark 9:1) who had now all passed away.
Jesus' Appearance by the Sea
"The entire twenty-first chapter of the Gospel of John, which contains the appearance of Jesus by the Sea of Tiberias, has been added by a different author."
- Holger Kersten & Elmar R. Gruber, The Jesus Conspiracy - The Turin Shroud & The Truth About the Resurrection (1992)
"In an appended chapter, the disciples are on a fishing expedition, when in the dawn light they perceive a man standing on the shore. This, of course, is Jesus; but, we are told, 'the disciples knew not that it was Jesus.' No fish had been caught during the night; but now the man tells them where to cast their net to find fish."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
"Afterward Jesus appeared again to his disciples, by the Sea of Tiberias [that is, Sea of Galilee.]. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. 'I'm going out to fish,' Simon Peter told them, and they said, 'We'll go with you.' So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus. He called out to them, 'Friends, haven't you any fish?'
'No,' they answered.
He said, 'Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.' When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, 'It is the Lord!' As soon as Simon Peter heard him say, 'It is the Lord,' he wrapped his outer garment around him (for he had taken it off) and jumped into the water."
- John 21:1-6
"When the catch has been landed the disciples discover that the stranger is already cooking fish over a fire. He greets them, 'Come and dine'. When we read the extraordinary words, 'And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who are thou? knowing it was the Lord' (21:12).
"Peter and the others could not have possibly mistaken the man had he been the real Jesus; they knew his face too well. Against the evidence of their own senses, they are inducted by John to acknowledge the total stranger as Jesus. Strangely, and perhaps deliberately, no account has survived of the appearance of Jesus first to Peter, as alleged by Paul and Luke (1 Corinthians 15:5; Luke 24:34)."
- Hugh J. Schonfield, After the Cross
"The miraculous catch is but a variant of Luke 5:4-9a, as can be seen from both the general structural similarity as well as the particular use of the name of Simon Peter in Luke 5:8 and John 21:7."
- John Dominic Crossan, The Historical Jesus, The Life of a Mediterranean Peasant (1991)
"When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, 'Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.' Simon answered, 'Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.' When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, 'Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!' For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken..."
- Luke 5:4-9
"We have seen the exaltation of specific leader [in this case Peter] over leadership group [the disciples] and of each over the general community throughout the...conjunction of nature miracle and risen apparition. Those stories were not concerned with control over nature before Jesus' death or with entranced apparitions after it; rather, they were quite dramatic and symbolic narratives about power and authority in the earliest Christian communities. That is what they were intended to be, and that is how we should read them."
- John Dominic Crossan, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography (1994)