Resurrection

Where the supernatural is simply a natural phenomenon..

Paul Gustave Doré ( 1832 – 1883)

Η ΑΝΑΣΤΑΣΗ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΓΕΓΟΝΟΣ,ΚΑΙ ΣΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΖΩΗΣ ΜΑΣ,ΤΟ ΔΙΑΠΙΣΤΩΝΟΥΜΕ ΜΕ

TA MATIA ΤΗΣ ΨΥΧΗΣ ΜΑΣ.Η ΙΔΙΑ ΑΚΡΙΒΩΣ ΔΙΑΔΙΚΑΣIA,ΔΗΛΑΔΗ THN ΕΞΟΔΟ ΤΗΣ

ΨΥΧΗΣ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΝΕΚΡΟ ΜΑΣ ΣΩΜΑ.THN ΑΝΩΔΟ ΤΗΣ ΜΕΣΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ ΤΟΥΝΕΛ ΚΑΙ ΤΟ

ΠΕΡΑΣΜΑ ΤΗΣ META ΤΗΝ "ΠΥΛΗ" ΣΕ ΑΛΛΗ ΔΙΑΣΤΑΣΗ.

EKEI ΔΙΑΡΚΩΣ ΣΥΝΕΔΡΙΑΖΕΙ ΤΟ"ΑΝΩΔΙΚΕΙΟ"(Divine Judgment).

ΣΕ ΑΥΤΟ ΔΕΝ ΥΠΑΡΧΟΥΝ ΨΕΜΑΤΑ ΚΑΙ ΔΙΚΑΣΤΙΚΕΣ ΠΛΑΝΕΣ.

ΜΟΝΑΔΙΚΟΣ ΣΥΝΗΓΟΡΟΣ ΜΑΣ TOTE,θΑ ΕΙΝΑΙΟΙ ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ΜΑΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΓΗ,ΚΑΙ ΤΟ ΤΙ

ΕΧΕΙ ΑΠΟΜΕΙΝΕΙ ΑΠΟ ΤΟΝ ΑΓΓΕΛΟ,ΠΟΥ ΓΕΝΝΗΣΕ Η ΜΗΤΕΡΑ ΜΑΣ,ΣΤΗΝ ΕΞΩΠΟΡΤΑ

ΤΗΣ ΚΟΛΑΣΕΩΣ. ΚΑΙ ΟΙ ΠΛΕΟΝ ΔΥΣΠΙΣΤΟΙ ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΙ ΣΤΟ ΤΕΛΟΣ, ΘΑ ΠΙΣΤΟΥΝ ΓΙΑ ΤΟ ΦΑΙΝΟΜΕΝΟ ΑΥΤΟ. ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ !

by Jean Michel

Chapter 15

1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;

4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

5 And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve:

6 After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.

7 After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles.

8 And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

9 For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

11 Therefore whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed.

12 Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.

15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.

16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.

19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

20 But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

24 Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

25 For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.

26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

27 For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.

28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.

29 Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?

30 And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?

31 I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

32 If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.

33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.

34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.

35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

36 Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:

38 But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

39 All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

40 There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

41 There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

47 The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven.

48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye

know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/1_Corinthians#Chapter_15

Paul Gustave Doré ( 1832 – 1883)

Resurrection

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the resurrection of individual humans. For details of the resurrection of all mankind at the end of the world, see Resurrection of the dead. For the resurrection of deities, see Life-death-rebirth deity.

For other uses, see Resurrection (disambiguation).

Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures. The death and resurrection of Jesus is the central focus of Christianity.

The term, while acceptable in certain religious and spiritual contexts, is typically not used in medical circles to describe the return to life of one who was clinically dead, although rare extreme cases are properly classified scientifically as examples of the 'Lazarus syndrome', a term originating from the corresponding Biblical resurrection story.

Judaism

Main article: Jewish eschatology

There are three explicit examples in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) of people being resurrected from the dead:

  • The prophet Elijah prays and God raises a young boy from death (1 Kings 17:17-24)

  • Elisha raises the son of the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:32-37); this was the very same child whose birth he previously foretold (2 Kings 4:8-16)

  • A dead man's body that was thrown into the dead Elisha's tomb is resurrected when the body touches Elisha's bones (2 Kings 13:21)

Ancient religions in the Near East

See also: Life-death-rebirth deity

The concept of resurrection is found in the writings of some ancient non-Abrahamic religions in the Middle East. A few extant Egyptian and Canaanite writings allude to dying and rising gods such as Osiris and Baal. Sir James Frazer in his book The Golden Bough relates to these dying and rising gods,[1] but many of his examples, according to various scholars, distort the sources.[2] Taking a more positive position, Mettinger argues in his recent book that the category of rise and return to life is significant for the following deities: Ugaritic Baal, Melqart, Adonis, Eshmun, Osiris and Dumuzi.[3]

Ancient Greek religion

In ancient Greek religion, a number of men and women were made physically immortal as they were resurrected from the dead. Asclepius, was killed by Zeus only to be resurrected and transformed into a major deity. Achilles, after being killed, was snatched from his funeral pyre by his divine mother Thetis and resurrected, brought to an immortal existence in either Leuce, Elysian plains or the Islands of the Blessed. Memnon, who was killed by Achilles, seems to have a received a similar fate. Alcmene, Castor,Heracles, and Melicertes, were also among the figures sometimes considered to have been resurrected to physical immortality. According to Herodotus's Histories, the seventh century BC sage Aristeas of Proconnesus was first found dead, after which his body disappeared from a locked room. Later he found not only to have been resurrected but to have gained immortality.

Many other figures, like a great part of those who fought in the Trojan and Theban wars, Menelaus, and the historical pugilist Cleomedes of Astupalaea, were also believed to have been made physically immortal, but without having died in the first place. Indeed, in Greek religion, immortality originally always included an eternal union of body and soul. The philosophical idea of an immortal soul was a later invention, which, although influential, never had a breakthrough in the Greek world. As may be witnessed even into the Christian era, not least by the complaints of various philosophers over popular beliefs, traditional Greek believers maintained the conviction that certain individuals were resurrected from the dead and made physically immortal and that for the rest of us, we could only look forward to an existence as disembodied and dead souls.[4]

This traditional religious belief in physical immortality was generally denied by the Greek philosophers. Writing his Lives of Illustrious Men (Parallel Lives) in the first century CE, the Middle Platonic philosopher Plutarch's chapter on Romulus gave an account of his mysterious disappearance and subsequent deification, comparing it to traditional Greek beliefs such as the resurrection and physical immortalization of Alcmene and Aristeas the Proconnesian, "for they say Aristeas died in a fuller's work-shop, and his friends coming to look for him, found his body vanished; and that some presently after, coming from abroad, said they met him traveling towards Croton." Plutarch openly scorned such beliefs held in traditional ancient Greek religion, writing, "many such improbabilities do your fabulous writers relate, deifying creatures naturally mortal."

The parallel between these traditional beliefs and the later resurrection of Jesus was not lost on the early Christians, as Justin Martyr argued: “when we say … Jesus Christ, our teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propose nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you consider sons of Zeus.” (1 Apol. 21). There is, however, no belief in a general resurrection in ancient Greek religion, as the Greeks held that not even the gods were able to recreate flesh that had been lost to decay, fire or consumption. The notion of a general resurrection of the dead was therefore apparently quite preposterous to the Greeks. This is made clear in Paul'sAreopagus discourse. After having first told about the resurrection of Jesus, which makes the Athenians interested to hear more, Paul goes on, relating how this event relates to a general resurrection of the dead:

"Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, `We shall hear you again concerning this.'"[5]

Christianity

In Christianity, resurrection most critically concerns the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also includes the resurrection of Judgment Day known as the Resurrection of the deadby those Christians who subscribe to the Nicene Creed (which is the majority or Mainstream Christianity), as well as the resurrection miracles done by Jesus and the prophets of the Old Testament.

Resurrection of Jesus

Main articles: Life-death-rebirth deity, Resurrection of Jesus, Easter, and Resurrection appearances of Jesus

Many Christians regard the resurrection of Jesus as the central doctrine in Christianity. Others take the Incarnation of Jesus to be more central; however, it is the miracles — and particularly his Resurrection — which provide validation of his incarnation. According to Paul, the entire Christian faith hinges upon the centrality of the resurrection of Jesus and the hope for a life after death. The Apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians:

"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 first fruits of those who have fallen asleep."[6]

Nearly all Christians - Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant and adherents of the Assyrian Church of the East - accept the resurrection of Jesus as a real historical event, and condemn the denial of the physical reality of the resurrection as a heresy. Docetism, the heresy that denied the death and subsequent resurrection of Jesus by emphasizing that Jesus was only God and not man, was condemned by Proto-orthodox Christianity[who?] in the late 1st to early 2nd century.

Resurrection miracles

Main article: Miracles of Jesus#Resurrection of the dead

During the Ministry of Jesus on earth, before his crucifixion, he commissioned his Twelve Apostles to, among other things, raise the dead.[7] In the New Testament of the Bible, Jesus is said to have raised several persons from death, but none of these became immortal in the process[citation needed]. These resurrections included the daughter of Jairus shortly after death, a young man in the midst of his own funeral procession, and Lazarus, who had been buried for four days. According to the Gospel of Matthew, after Jesus's resurrection, many of the dead saints came out of their tombs and entered Jerusalem, where they appeared to many.

Similar resurrections are credited to Christian apostles and saints. Peter allegedly raised a woman named Dorcas (called Tabitha), and Paul revived a man named Eutychus who had fallen asleep and fell from a window to his death, according to the book of Acts. Proceeding the apostolic era, many saints were said to resurrect the dead, as recorded in Orthodox Christian hagiographies.

Resurrection of the dead

Main article: Resurrection of the dead

Christianity started as a religious movement within 1st-century Judaism (late Second Temple Judaism), and it retains the Pharisaic belief in the resurrection of the dead. Whereas this belief was only one of many beliefs held about the world to come in Second Temple Judaism, and was notably rejected by the Sadducees, this belief became dominant within Early Christianity and soon included an insistence on the resurrection of the flesh, against gnostic teachings that flesh was evil. Most modern Christian churches continue to uphold the belief that there will be a general resurrection of the dead and "world to come", perhaps as prophesied by Paul when he said: "...he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world..." (Acts 17:31 KJV) and "...there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust." (Acts 24:15 KJV). Most also teach that it is only as a result of the atoning work of Christ, by grace through faith, that people are spared eternal punishment as judgment for their sins.

Belief in the resurrection of the dead, and Jesus Christ's role as judge, is codified in the Apostles' Creed, which is the fundamental creed of Christian baptismal faith. The Book of Revelation also makes many references about the Day of Judgment when the dead will be raised up.

Platonic philosophy

In Platonic philosophy and other Greek philosophical thought, at death the soul was said to leave the inferior body behind. The idea that Jesus was resurrected spiritually rather than physically even gained popularity among some Christian teachers, whom the author of 1 John declared to be antichrists. Similar beliefs appeared in the early church asGnosticism. However, in Luke 24:39, the resurrected Jesus expressly states "behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." For Greeks holding to more traditional ancient Greek religion, this insistence on the physical nature of the resurrection held a distinct appeal as they usually considered immortality to be dependent on an eternal union of body and soul.[citation needed]

Contemporary Biblical criticism

According to Herbert C. Brichtothe, writing in Reform Judaism's Hebrew Union College Annual, the family tomb is the central concept in understanding biblical views of the afterlife. Brichtothe states that it is "not mere sentimental respect for the physical remains that is...the motivation for the practice, but rather an assumed connection between proper sepulture and the condition of happiness of the deceased in the afterlife" According to Brichtothe, the early Israelites apparently believed that the graves of family, or tribe, united into one, and that this unified collectivity is to what the Biblical Hebrew term Sheol refers. Although not well defined in the Tanakh, Sheol in this view was a subterranean underworld where the souls of the dead went after the body died. The Babylonians had a similar underworld called Aralu, and the Greeks had one known as Hades. For biblical references to Sheol see Genesis 42:38, Isaiah 14:11, Psalm 141:7, Daniel 12:2, Proverbs 7:27 and Job 10:21,22, and 17:16, among others. According to Brichtothe, other Biblical names for Sheol were: Abaddon (ruin), found in Psalm 88:11, Job 28:22 and Proverbs 15:11; Bor (the pit), found in Isaiah 14:15, 24:22, Ezekiel 26:20; and Shakhat (corruption), found in Isaiah 38:17, Ezekiel 28:8.[8]

Zen Buddhism

There are stories in Buddhism where the power of resurrection was allegedly demonstrated in Chan or Zen tradition. One is the legend[unreliable source?] of Bodhidharma, the Indian master who brought the Ekayana school of India to China that subsequently became Chan Buddhism.

The other is the passing of Chinese Chan master Puhua (J., Fuke) and is recounted in the Record of Linji[unreliable source?] (J., Rinzai). Puhua was known for his unusual behavior and teaching style so it is no wonder that he is associated with an event that breaks the usual prohibition on displaying such powers. Here is the account from Irmgard Schloegl's "The Zen Teaching of Rinzai".

65. One day at the street market Fuke was begging all and sundry to give him a robe. Everybody offered him one, but he did not want any of them. The master [Linji] made the superior buy a coffin, and when Fuke returned, said to him: "There, I had this robe made for you." Fuke shouldered the coffin, and went back to the street market, calling loudly: "Rinzai had this robe made for me! I am off to the East Gate to enter transformation" (to die)." The people of the market crowded after him, eager to look. Fuke said: "No, not today. Tomorrow, I shall go to the South Gate to enter transformation." And so for three days. Nobody believed it any longer. On the fourth day, and now without any spectators, Fuke went alone outside the city walls, and laid himself into the coffin. He asked a traveler who chanced by to nail down the lid. The news spread at once, and the people of the market rushed there. On opening the coffin, they found that the body had vanished, but from high up in the sky they heard the ring of his hand bell.[9]

Disappearances (as distinct from Resurrection)

See also: ascension, assumption, and translation

As knowledge of different religions has grown, so have claims of bodily disappearance of some religious and mythological figures. In ancient Greek religion, this was a way the gods made some physically immortal, including such figures as Cleitus, Ganymede, Menelaus, and Tithonus.[10] In his chapter on Romulus from Parallel Lives, Plutarchcriticises the continuous belief in such disappearances, referring e.g. to the allegedly miraculous disappearance of the historical figures of Romulus, Cleomedes of Astypalaea, and Croesus. In ancient times pagan similarities were explained by the early Christian writers, such as Justin Martyr, as the work of demons and Satan, with the intention of leading Christians astray.[11]

In somewhat recent years it has been learned that Gesar, the Savior of Tibet, at the end, chants on a mountain top and his clothes fall empty to the ground.[12] The body of the first Guru of Sikhs Guru Nanak Dev is said to have disappeared and flowers were left in place of his dead body. There is a traditional spot in Jerusalem whence, the ProphetMuhammad mounted the steed Al-Buraq and ascended to Heaven in the night.

Lord Raglan's Hero Pattern lists many religious figures whose bodies disappear, or have more than one sepulchre.[13] B. Traven, author of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, wrote that the Inca Virococha, walked away on the top of the sea and vanished.[14] It has been thought that teachings regarding the purity and incorruptibility of the hero's human body are linked to this phenomenon. Perhaps, this is also to deter the practice of disturbing and collecting the hero's remains. They are safely protected if they have disappeared.[15]

In Deuteronomy (34:6) Moses is secretly buried. Elijah vanishes in a whirlwind 2 Kings (2:11). After hundreds of years these two earlier Biblical heroes suddenly reappear, and are seen walking with Jesus. Then again they vanish. Mark (9:2-8), Matthew (17:1-8) and Luke (9:28-33). The last time he is seen, Luke (24:51) alone tells of Jesus leaving his disciples, by ascending into the sky. But again, these are disappearances, and are thus distinctly different from resurrection. The first such case mentioned in the Bible is that ofEnoch (son of Jared, great-grandfather of Noah, and father of Methuselah). Enoch is said to have lived a life where he "walked with God", afterwhich "he was not, for God took him". (Genesis 5:1-18)[16] He is also represented in the Book of Enoch, which formed part of the Dead Sea Scrolls collection.

Zombies

Main article: Zombie

A zombie (Haitian Creole: zonbi; North Mbundu: nzumbe) can be either a fictional undead monster or a person in an entranced state believed to be controlled by a bokor or wizard. These latter are the original zombies, occurring in the West African Vodun religion and its American offshoots Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo.

Zombies became a popular device in modern horror fiction, largely because of the success of George A. Romero's 1968 film Night of the Living Dead[17] and they have appeared as plot devices in various books, films and in television shows. Zombie fiction is now a sizeable sub-genre of horror, usually describing a breakdown of civilization occurring when most of the population become flesh-eating zombies – a zombie apocalypse. The monsters are usually hungry for human flesh, often specifically brains. Sometimes they are victims of a fictional pandemic illness causing the dead to reanimate or the living to behave this way, but often no cause is given in the story.

See also

References

  1. ^ Sir James Frazer (1922). The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion Ware: Wordsworth 1993.

  2. ^ Jonathan Z. Smith “Dying and Rising Gods” in Mircea Eliade (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Religion: Vol. 3. New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan 1995: 521-27.

  3. ^ Mettinger, Riddle of Resurrection, 55-222.

  4. ^ Erwin Rohde Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the Greeks. New York: Harper & Row 1925 [1921]; Dag Øistein Endsjø. Greek Resurrection Beliefs and the Success of Christianity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2009.

  5. ^ Acts 17:30-32

  6. ^ Corinthians 15:19-20

  7. ^ Not in the Great Commission of the resurrected Jesus, but only in the so-called Lesser Commission of Matthew, specifically Matthew 10:8.

  8. ^ Herbert Chanon Brichto "Kin, Cult, Land and Afterlife - A Biblical Complex", Hebrew Union College Annual 44, p.8 (1973)

  9. ^ Schloegl, Irmgard; tr. "The Zen Teaching of Rinzai". Shambhala Publications, Inc., Berkeley, 1976. Page 76. ISBN 0-87773-087-3.

  10. ^ Erwin Rohde Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the Greeks. New York: Harper & Row 1966.[1921]; Dag Øistein Endsjø. Greek Resurrection Beliefs and the Success of Christianity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan 2009.

  11. ^ Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho (ca 147-161 A.D.) Catholic University Press, 2003

  12. ^ Alexandra David-Neel,and Lama Yongden, The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling, Rider, 1933, While still in oral tradition, it is recorded for the first time by an early European traveler.

  13. ^ Otto Rank, Lord Raglan, and Alan Dundes, In Quest of the Hero, Princeton University Press, 1990

  14. ^ B. Traven, The Creation of the Sun and Moon, Lawerence Hill Books, 1977

  15. ^ See: Michael Paterniti, Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain, The Dial Press, 2000

  16. ^ Genesis 5:18-24

  17. ^ Smith, Neil (March 7, 2008). "Zombie maestro lays down the lore". London: BBC News. Retrieved 2009-10-01.

Further reading

  • Dag Øistein Endsjø. Greek Resurrection Beliefs and the Success of Christianity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

  • Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov. Philosophy of Physical Resurrection 1906.

  • Edwin Hatch. Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christian Church (1888 Hibbert Lectures).

  • Lange, Dierk. "The dying and the rising God in the New Year Festival of Ife", in: Lange, Ancient Kingdoms of West Africa, Dettelbach: Röll Vlg. 2004, pp. 343–376.

  • Richard Longenecker, editor. Life in the Face of Death: The Resurrection Message of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998.

  • Tryggve Mettinger. The Riddle of Resurrection: "Dying and Rising Gods" in the Ancient Near East, Stockholm: Almqvist 2001.

  • Markus Mühling. Grundinformation Eschatologie. Systematische Theologie aus der Perspektive der Hoffnung. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8252-2918-4, 242–262.

  • George Nickelsburg. Resurrection, Immortality, and Eternal Life in Intertestmental Judaism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972.

  • Pheme Perkins. "Resurrection: New Testament Witness and Contemporary Reflection." Garden City: Doubleday & Company, 1984.

  • Erwin Rohde Psyche: The Cult of Souls and Belief in Immortality among the Greeks. New York: Harper & Row, 1925 [1921].

  • Charles H. Talbert. The Concept of Immortals in Mediterranian Antiquity, Journal of Biblical Literature, Volume 94, 1975, pp 419–436

  • Charles H. Talbert. The Myth of a Descending-Ascending Redeemer in Mediterranian Antiquity, New Testament Studies, 22, 1975/76, pp 418–440

  • Father Alfred J Hebert. Raised from the Dead: True Stories of 400 Resurrection Miracles

External links

Categories: Miracles | Mythemes | Afterlife | Religious belief and doctrine | Science fiction themes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection

The Resurrection of Lazarus, painting by Leon Bonnat, France, 1857.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Resurrection

Paul Gustave Doré ( 1832 – 1883)

Resurrection appearances of Jesus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The major Resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Canonical gospels (and to a lesser extent other books of the New Testament) are reported to have occurred after his death, burial and resurrection, but prior to hisAscension.[1] Among these primary sources, most scholars believe First Corinthians was written first,[2] authored by Paul of Tarsus along with Sosthenes circa AD 55.[3] Finally, the Gospel of the Hebrews‎ recounts the Resurrection appearance to James the brother of Jesus.[4]

Paul lists several resurrection appearances of Jesus to various "men" [5] but doesn't describe them. In Matthew, Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene and another Mary at his empty tomb. Later, the eleven disciples go to a mountain in Galilee to meet Jesus, who appears to them and commissions them to baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to make disciples of all people (the Great Commission).

In Luke, Jesus appears to the disciples and eats with them, demonstrating that he is flesh and bones,[6] not a ghost. He tells them to wait in Jerusalem for the start of their mission to the world, and then he ascends into the heavens. In Acts, written by the same author as Luke, Jesus appears to his disciples after his death and stays with them for 40 days before ascending to heaven. Acts also describes Jesus' appearance to Paul, in which a voice speaks to Paul and a light blinds him while he's on the road to Damascus. In John, Mary alone finds Jesus at the empty tomb, and he tells her not to touch him because he has not yet ascended to the Father. Later, he appears to the disciples. He moves through a closed door and has "doubting Thomas" touch his wounds to demonstrate that he is flesh and bones. In a later appearance, Jesus assigns Peter the role of tending to Jesus' sheep, that is, leading Jesus' followers. The traditional ending of Mark summarizes resurrection appearances from Matthew and Luke.

Supper at Emmaus, Caravaggio depicted the moment the disciples recognize Jesus.

Appearances reported in the gospels

Matthew 28

Luke 24

    • In the Road to Emmaus appearance to Cleopas and one other disciple as they walked toEmmaus. At first "their eyes were holden" so that they could not recognize him. Later while having supper at Emmaus "their eyes were opened" and they recognized him.

    • To "Simon." This appearance is not described directly by Luke but it is reported by the other apostles. It is not clear whether this happened before or after the appearance at Emmaus.

    • To the eleven, together with some others (including Cleopas and his companion), in Jerusalem.

In Luke 24:13-32 Cleopas and his companion relate how Jesus was made known to them "in the breaking of bread". B. P. Robinson argues that this means the recognition occurred in the course of the meal,[7] but Raymond Blacketer notes that "Many, perhaps even most, commentators, ancient and modern and in-between, have seen the revelation of Jesus' identity in the breaking of bread as having some kind of eucharistic referent or implication."[8]

John 20–21

    • To Mary of Magdala. At first she did not recognize him and thought that he was a gardener. When he said her name, she recognized him.

    • To the disciples (not including Thomas) on that same day. They were indoors "for fear of the Jews." Jesus entered and stood in their midst while the doors were shut.

    • To the disciples including Thomas, called Didymus. This was a week later, again indoors, and resulted in the famousdoubting Thomas conversation.

    • To "Simon Peter, Thomas called Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, Zebedee's sons and two other of his disciples", by Lake Tiberias, which led to the miraculous catch of 153 fish. The disciple whom Jesus loved was present in this group.

Mark 16

See also: Mark 16

The so-called "longer ending of Mark" contains three appearances:

    • To Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome.

    • To two of Jesus's followers as they were walking in the countryside (Jesus appeared to them in "another form").

    • To the eleven while they were dining.

The ending of Mark varies substantially between ancient manuscripts, and scholars are in near universal agreement that the final portion of the traditional ending, in which all Mark's resurrection appearances occur, is a later addition not present in the original version of Mark's gospel.[9] Most scholars view the lack of a resurrection appearance as having theological significance. Richard Burridge compares the ending of Mark to its beginning:

Gospel harmony

A sample Gospel harmony for the appearances based on the list of key episodes in the Canonical Gospels is presented in the table below. For the sake of consistency, this table is automatically sub-selected from the main harmony table in the Gospel harmony article, based on the list of key episodes in the Canonical Gospels.

Supper at Emmaus by Matthias Stom, c 1633-1639. Note the "breaking of bread" as the precise moment of the disciples' recognition.

Mark's narrative as we have it now ends as abruptly as it began. There was no introduction or background to Jesus' arrival, and none for his departure. No one knew where he came from; no one knows where he has gone; and not many understood him when he was here.[10]

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The miraculous catch of 153 fish by Duccio, 14th century. Jesus is standing on the left, in the fourth resurrection appearance in John's gospel.

Number

Event

Matthew

Mark

Luke

John

Appearances reported elsewhere in the New Testament

Acts

1 Corinthians 15

Paul's account in 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 seems to represent a pre-Pauline credal statement derived from the first Christian community:[11]

The antiquity of the creed has been established by many biblical scholars as dating to less than a decade after Jesus' death, originating from the Jerusalem apostolic community.[12] Concerning this creed, Campenhausen wrote, "This account meets all the demands of historical reliability that could possibly be made of such a text,"[13]whilst A. M. Hunter said, "The passage therefore preserves uniquely early and verifiable testimony. It meets every reasonable demand of historical reliability."[14] Robert M. Price and Hermann Detering asserted that 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 was not an early Christian creed but a post-Pauline interpretation.[15][16] However, according to Geza Vermes in The Resurrection (2008) these verses are not interpolated but were written by Paul in the early 50's AD. Vermes says that the words of Paul are "a tradition he has inherited from his seniors in the faith concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus".[17] According Paul's Epistle to the Galatians he had previously met two of the people mentioned in these verses as witnesses of the resurrection: James the Just and Cephas/Peter:

Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord's brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. —Paul of Tarsus[Gal 1:18-20]

Revelation

Main article: John's vision of the Son of Man

John of Patmos experienced a vision of the resurrected Christ described in 1:12-20. According to 1:11, the Son of Man whom John sees is the one writing the letters to theseven churches in chapters 2 and 3. In 2:8, meanwhile, he calls himself "the First and the Last, who died and came to life again."

The appearance to Mary Magdalene

While Mark doesn't mention when the incident occurred, Matthew states that Jesus appeared to Mary and Mary while they were returning to tell the disciples what they had seen. John, on the other hand, presents a completely different incident. John's account parallels the synoptic accounts of Mary's first visit to the tomb, though in John, Mary has already been to the tomb once, and Peter has already inspected it. Unlike the first visit, the second, in John, is much more similar to the synoptic account of the empty tomb, with Mary peering into the tomb and witnessing two angels inside dressed in shining white. Having been questioned by the angels about her concern for the tomb's emptiness, Mary turns and sees Jesus, according to John.

Why John describes Mary as loitering outside the tomb is unknown, though Augustine of Hippo proposed that when the men went away, a stronger affection kept the weaker sex firmly in place. Bruce suggested that Mary was hoping someone would pass by who could give her some information, though why Mary does not seek out Joseph of Arimathea, the owner of the tomb, for information is an obvious question. One theory is that Joseph was so far above Mary's in terms of social class that it would not be right for her to disturb him, but a more obvious solution is presented by Schnackenberg—the Codex Sinaiticus version of John has Mary waiting inside rather than outside, and this may be the original form—though again this still raises the question of why she was waiting at all.

John depicts Mary as weeping, ultimately causing her name to be associated with Maudlin (a corruption of Magdalen, "typifying tearful repentance").[18] Both the angels address Mary as woman, and then ask why she had been crying. This is not as uncouth as it first appears, since the underlying Greek term—gynai—was, in Greek, the polite way to address an adult female. While the synoptic Gospels demonstrate an awareness of Jewish beliefs, and people there are presented as being shocked and afraid of angels, John demonstrates no such awareness, instead presenting Mary as responding nonchalantly, and while some believe that this is due to Mary not recognising the figures as angels, due to grief or tears, some scholars tend to see this as owing to issues surrounding the author of John. The conversation itself differs considerably from the one reported by the synoptics, and the angels are brief and do not give any hint of resurrection having happened, which Calvin attempted to justify by arguing that John was only including what was necessary to back up the resurrection. At this point the angels abruptly disappear from the narrative, and John and the synoptics begin to share the order of events again.

Mark mentions Mary's post-tomb encounter with Jesus but gives no details, though he does remark that Jesus had cast seven devils out from her, presumably indicating anexorcism. Matthew instead reports that Jesus met Mary and Mary as they were returning to the other disciples; that they fell at his feet and worshipped him; and that he instructed them to tell the disciples that they would see him in Galilee.

John presents a far more elaborate conversation. According to John, once Mary has explained to the angels about her concern at the emptiness of the tomb, she turns and suddenly sees Jesus, but mistakes him for a gardener (the word gardener is a hapax legomenon in the Bible). In John's account of the conversation, Jesus repeats the angels' question of why Mary is weeping, and Mary responds similarly, by requesting to know what Jesus (whom she has mistaken for someone else) has done with Jesus' body. After this response, John states that Jesus says Mary's name, she turns, and apparently realises who he is, whereupon Jesus enigmatically tells her to Touch [him] not, for [he is] not yet ascended to [his] father (see Noli me tangere) and then to inform the disciples. To resolve the differences between the Gospels, some inerrantist commentators like Norman Geisler believe that after the events recounted by John, Mary runs into another group of women, whereupon the events of the synoptic accounts occur, though there is no evidence whatsoever for such a conclusion from John itself.

Rembrandt's perception of the moment when Mary turns her head and sees the newly-risen Jesus. He is holding a spade to explain her initial belief that he was a gardener

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Death and resurrection of Jesus

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Other Views

Miscellaneous

Hypotheses

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Gnostic significance of Mary Magdalene

That three of the Gospels portray Mary Magdalene as the first to see Jesus post-death, is generally considered to be of significance. Mary Magdalene was a major figure in Gnosticism, and one of the main teachers besides Jesus, the only other of similar significance being Thomas Didymus. Supporters of Gnostic priority (that Gnosticism is the original form of Christianity) see this as clear evidence that Mark, and hence, due to Markan priority, the entire resurrection narrative, was intended to be interpreted gnostically. Though owing to intrinsic beliefs about the nature of the physical world, Gnosticism generally viewed women as equals, in Judaism of the era women were not considered valid legal witnesses. Westcott, and other supporters of John's authenticity, sometimes use this to argue that the narratives must be factual, since someone faking it would be more likely to use a prominent and respected witness.

Why John portrays Mary as initially not recognising Jesus, even though she had known him well for a long time, is something of much debate. One theory is that, since Luke records two disciples as failing to recognise a post-death appearance of Jesus, the physical form of Jesus after resurrection must have been different, either due to the resurrection process itself, or due to the ordeal of crucifixion. More down-to-earth explanations have also been advanced, the most prominent being that Mary's tears had clouded her vision, or alternately that she is so focused on recovering Jesus' body, that she is temporarily blind to its being in front of her. However, John Calvin, and many other Christians, read this as a metaphor: that Mary's blindness despite seeing Jesus represents the blindness, according to Christians, of non-Christians who have already been informed about Jesus. Why Jesus initially encourages Mary's lack of recognition is also something of a mystery, though Dibelius sees it as a literary conceit, since the tropeof a returning hero being unrecognised or disguised dates back at least as far as Homer's Odyssey, and André Feuillet sees echoes of the Song of Solomon in this passage.

Noli me tangere

Main article: Noli me tangere

What is meant by Jesus telling Mary (in older Bible translations) to Touch [him] not, for [he is] not yet ascended to [his] father,[Jn 20:17] has been the subject of debate. The Latin phrase, Noli me tangere ("Touch me not"), became well-known as a reference to these words found in translations of the Gospel of John, words that appear to be at odds with Jesus' invitation, later in the same chapter of John, to Thomas Didymus to touch his hands and side[Jn 20:27] and to the account in Matthew 28:1-9 of Mary Magdalene "and the other Mary" taking hold of his feet.

There are a wide variety of proposed solutions, perhaps the most facile being suggestions of textual corruption, with some saying that the word not was not originally there, while W.E.P Cotter proposed that the text originally said fear rather than touch (i.e., do not fear me), and W.D. Morris has proposed it originally said fear to touch (i.e., do not fear to touch me).

There is, however, no manuscript evidence for these suggestions, and so most scholars concentrate on non-textual arguments. Kraft proposes that it was against ritual to touch a corpse, and Jesus wished to enforce this, regarding himself as dead, while C. Spicq proposes that Jesus saw himself as a (Jewish) high priest, who was not meant to be sullied by physical contact, and others still have proposed that Mary is being ordered to have faith and not seek physical proof.

These non-textual solutions neglect the fact that John later describes Thomas Didymus as being encouraged to touch Jesus' wounds, apparently contradicting the prior arguments. Consequently, other proposals hinge on portraying Jesus as upholding some form of propriety, with Chrysostom[19] and Theophylact arguing that Jesus was asking that more respect be shown to him. The notion of "propriety" held by some is linked to the idea that, while it was inappropriate for a woman to touch Jesus, it was fine for a man like Thomas. Kastner has argued that Jesus was naked, since the grave clothes were left in the tomb, and so that John portrays Jesus as being concerned with Mary being tempted by his body.

H.C.G. Moule suggested that Jesus is merely reassuring Mary that he is firmly on Earth and she need carry out no investigation, and others have suggested that Jesus is merely concerned with staying on-topic, essentially instructing Mary "don't waste time touching me, go and tell the disciples". Barrett has suggested that as Jesus prohibits Mary by arguing that he "has not ascended to [his] father", he could have ascended to heaven before meeting Thomas (and after meeting Mary), returning for the meeting with Thomas, though this view implies that the meeting with Thomas is some form of second visit to Earth, hence raising several theological issues, including that of a second coming, and is consequently unfavourably viewed by most Christians. John Calvinargued that Mary Magdalene (and the other Mary) had started to cling to Jesus, as if trying to hold him down on Earth, and so Jesus told her to give up.[20] Some say Jesus was willing to provide Thomas with sufficient evidence to overcome his unbelief, whereas this was not a problem for Mary. In the case of Mary, she had evidently loved Jesus deeply, not surprising in view of her deliverance ,[Mk 16:9] and was reluctant for Jesus to leave her now that he had returned. This shows Jesus' ability to penetrate beneath the surface and understand each individual's deepest motivations.

The phrase formed one of the main arguments in the early debate on Christology, seemingly suggesting some form of intangibility—a view shared in the modern era by Bultmann—and hence appearing to advocate docetism (a view where Jesus' body is not resurrected as a physical object—do not touch me because you can't). This is quite at odds with John's general emphasis elsewhere against docetism, and so those who regard John as deliberate polemic tend instead to see this verse as an attack on Mary. Gnostics frequently viewed Mary Magdalene as being greater than the other disciples, and much closer to Jesus on both a spiritual and personal level, and hence Jesus treating Mary with disdain would question the respect and emphasis that gnosticism placed on her, much in the same way that Thomas Didymus is presented as doubting Jesus is physically there until he actually confirms it, while Gnostics viewed Thomas as a great teacher who had many revelations, and advocated docetism.

John describes the crucifixion as taking place in a garden in which the tomb used for Christ's burial also is located. The two angels which Mary Magdalene later sees in this tomb are described as sitting on stone bench on which Christ's body had lain in terms reminiscent of the Cherubim on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant. Thus, through Christ's resurrection the his burial place as the place of ultimate defilement has been transformed into the very Holy of Holies; the burial bench with the Mercy Seat; his body with the Shekinah, the visible form of the Divine Presence. In this light, Christ's words to Mary Magdalene could indeed represent the fact that as the heavenly high priest he is not to be touched until he has entered the heavenly Holy of Holies to appear before "my God and your God" (i.e., indicative of the human relation to God he shares with Mary Magdalene and his disciples) and "my Father and your Father" (i.e., indicative of the his divine relation to God which he shares with Mary Magdalene and his disciples as the first-born of an new humanity). Like the Jewish high priest on the Day of Atonement and the angels in resurrection narratives he would not have been naked, but clothed in a radiant white garment, the same garment of white light in which he appeared at his Transfiguration.[citation needed]

Mary's report

Mark reports merely that Jesus met Mary, and Luke doesn't even report this, but Matthew reports Jesus as instructing Mary to arrange for the disciples to meet him, while John has Jesus giving Mary a specific message to deliver—that he ascend[s] to [his] father and [her] Father, and to [his] God and [her] God. Matthew also reports that while Mary and Mary were returning to the disciples, the watchmen of the city informed the chief priests of "the things that were done", and theSanhedrin gave money to the soldiers to spread the message that Jesus' corpse had been stolen by his disciples. Matthew mentions that this had become a common claim of the Jews.

Other views

Critics have suggested that Jesus may have existed and the events chronicled in the Bible may have happened but were misinterpreted by his followers. James A. Keller questions the reliability of the resurrection appearances, claiming: "All we have is other people's accounts of what the eyewitnesses purportedly saw, and these accounts are typically sketchy and were written many years later. Thus, the historian who wants to understand what the resurrection event was must use later, sketchy, second-hand accounts of what the eyewitnesses saw, and from these accounts he must try to determine what the resurrection event was."[21]

Liturgical use

In the Orthodox Church, the Resurrection appearances of Jesus which are found in the four Gospels are read at Matins in an eleven-week cycle of Gospel readings, known as The Eleven Matins Gospels.

Appearances reported outside the New Testament

Gospel of the Hebrews

In the Gospel of the Hebrews, Jesus appears to James the Just.[22]

The Book of Mormon

In the theology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jesus appeared to the inhabitants of the Americas following his resurrection in Jerusalem, as recounted inThe Book of Mormon (starting in 3 Nephi 11).

Post Ascension appearances and Roman Catholicism

Main article: Visions of Jesus and Mary

With the possible exceptions of the appearances to Paul and Ananias in Acts 9, Acts 22, Acts 26 and to Peter in Acts 10,Acts 11 and to John of Patmos in Revelation 1, the Bible only records pre-Ascension appearances of Christ. Yet a number of post-Ascension visions of Jesus and Mary have been reported long after the Book of Revelation was written, some as recently as this century. The Holy See endorses but a fraction of these claims, yet some of these visionaries have received beatification and some have achieved sainthood. However, Catholics are not required to believe in these visions.

And, despite the expected controversies, the post-Ascension visions of Jesus and the Virgin Mary have, in fact, played a key role in the direction of the Catholic Church, e.g. the formation of the Franciscan order, the devotions to the Holy Rosary, the Holy Face of Jesus and the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (As an example of a recent reported appearance, see: Artemio Félix Amero, Cordoba Argentina.) [23]

The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith at the Vatican has a published and detailed set of steps for “Judging Alleged Apparitions and Revelations" that claim supernatural origin. The Holy See does, in fact, recognize a few post-Ascension conversations with Jesus. For instance, the Vatican biography of Saint Teresa of Avila clearly refers to her gift of interior locutionand her conversations with Jesus.[24] The Vatican biography of Saint Faustina Kowalska goes further in that it not only refers to her conversations with Jesus, but quotes some of these conversations[25]

The post-Ascension appearances may be classified into three groups: interior locutions where no visual contact is reported (e.g. Saint Teresa of Avila), visions where visual (and at times physical) contact is claimed (e.g. Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque) anddictations where large amounts of text is produced (e.g. Maria Valtorta). Saint Juan Diego's reported vision of the Virgin Maryproduced a physical artifact, but (apart from stigmata) there are no reported physical artifacts from post-Ascension appearances of Jesus.

As a historical pattern, Vatican approval of a vision seems to have followed general acceptance of the vision by well over a century in most cases. However, some recent Catholic devotions have had an accelerated path. For instance the Holy Face Medal is based on a vision reported as recently as 1936 by Sister Maria Pierina and was approved by Pope Pius XII in 1958.

See also

References

    1. ^ These are: Matthew 28:8–20, Mark 16:9–20 (see also the article on Mark 16),Luke 24:13–49, John 20:11–21:25, Acts 1:1–11, and 1 Corinthians 15:3–9.

    2. ^ Harris, Murray J. The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Vol. 10, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976, p. 307

    3. ^ [1] The First Letter to the Corinthians

    4. '^ Also, 'the Gospel called of the Hebrews', recently translated by me into Greek and Latin, which Origen often uses, states, after the Resurrection of the Saviour: “Now the Lord, after he had given His grave clothes to the servant of the priest, appeared to James, for James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour in which he had drunk the Lord’s cup until he should see Him risen from the dead.” And a little further on the Lord says, “‘bring a table and bread.’” And immediately it is added, “He took bread and blessed and broke and gave it to James the Just and said to him, ‘My brother, eat your bread, for the Son of Man is risen from the dead.’”Jerome, Vir.ill., 2 Google Link

    5. ^ Women were not able be witnesses

    6. ^ Google Link

    7. ^ B. P. Robinson, "The Place of the Emmaus Story in Luke-Acts," NTS 30 [1984], 484.

    8. ^ Raymond A. Blacketer, "Word and Sacrament on the Road to Emmaus: Homiletical Reflections on Luke 24:13-35," CTJ 38 [2003], 323.

    9. ^ D. C. Parker, The Living Text of the Gospels (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 125; a twelfth century commentary on Matthew and Mark also ends at 16:8.

    10. ^ Richard A. Burridge, Four Gospels, One Jesus? A Symbolic Reading (2nd ed., Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005), 64-65.

    11. ^ Neufeld, The Earliest Christian Confessions (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964) p. 47; Reginald Fuller, The Formation of the Resurrection Narratives (New York: Macmillan, 1971) p. 10; Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus—God and Man translated Lewis Wilkins and Duane Pribe (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968) p. 90; Oscar Cullmann, The Early Church: Studies in Early Christian History and Theology, ed. A. J. B. Higgins (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966) p. 64; Hans Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, translated James W. Leitch (Philadelphia: Fortress 1969) p. 251; Bultmann, Theology of the New Testament vol. 1 pp. 45, 80–82, 293; R. E. Brown,The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus (New York: Paulist Press, 1973) pp. 81, 92

    12. ^ see Wolfhart Pannenberg, Jesus—God and Man translated Lewis Wilkins and Duane Pribe (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1968) p. 90; Oscar Cullmann, The Early church: Studies in Early Christian History and Theology, ed. A. J. B. Higgins (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1966) p. 66–66; R. E. Brown, The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus (New York: Paulist Press, 1973) pp. 81; Thomas Sheehan, First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity (New York: Random House, 1986) pp. 110, 118; Ulrich Wilckens, Resurrection translated A. M. Stewart (Edinburgh: Saint Andrew, 1977) p. 2; Hans Grass, Ostergeschen und Osterberichte, Second Edition (Gottingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht, 1962) p. 96; Grass favors the origin in Damascus.

    13. ^ Hans von Campenhausen, "The Events of Easter and the Empty Tomb," inTradition and Life in the Church (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1968) p. 44

    14. ^ Archibald Hunter, Works and Words of Jesus (1973) p. 100

    15. ^ http://depts.drew.edu/jhc/rp1cor15.html. 'Apocryphal Apparitions:1 Corinthians 15:3-11 as a Post-Pauline Interpolation' by Robert M Price

    16. ^ The Falsified Paul; pg 3 Herman Detering

    17. ^ Geza Vermes (2008) The Resurrection. London, Penguin: 121-2

    18. ^ Morris, William, ed. (1973), "s.v., maudlin", The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Boston: American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., SBN 395-09066-0

    19. ^ Chrysostom's idea differs from any notion of merely human "propriety": he pictures Jesus as telling Mary not to hold him as if he were still as he had been before his resurrection (Homily 86 on the Gospel of John).

    20. ^ If Calvin used the word "cling" or its equivalent, he was translating more exactly the original text of John 20:17, which uses the form of the verb (Greek present imperative) that indicates a prolonged action, in contrast to the Greek aoristimperative used in John 20:27 to indicate the proposed momentary touching action of Thomas. Modern translations such as the New American Standard Bible, New International Reader's Version, New International Version, New Life Version, New Living Translation, New Revised Standard Version and the Revised Standard Version itself (and including Catholic versions such as the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible, the New American Bible) and even the New King James Bible use "cling" or "hold" to translate the original verb in this verse, since in English "touch" usually refers to a merely momentary action.

    21. ^ Keller, James A. "Contemporary Doubts About the Resurrection." Faith and Philosophy 5 (1988): 40-60.

    22. ^ Kirby, Peter (2001), "The Gospel of the Hebrews", Early Christian Writings: New Testament, Apocrypha, Gnostics, Church Fathers, www.earlychristianwritings.com, retrieved 2007-08-13

    23. ^ Interview in Spanish with pictures,http://www.enriquecoria.com.ar/entrevistas/entrevistaamero.html

    24. ^ Vatican Biography of St. Teresa of Avilahttp://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_19930321_teresa-de-jesus_en.html

    25. ^ Vatican Biography of St. Faustyna Kowalskahttp://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20000430_faustina_en.html

Bibliography

    • Barrett, C.K. The Gospel According to John, 2nd Edition. London:SPCK, 1978.

    • Brown, Raymond E. "The Gospel According to John: XIII-XI" The Anchor Bible Series Volume 29A New York: Doubleday & Company, 1970.

    • Bruce, F.F. The Gospel According to John. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1983.

    • Leonard, W. "St. John." A Catholic Commentary on the Bible. B. Orchard ed. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1953.

    • Schnackenburg, Rudolf . The Gospel According to St. John: Volume III. Crossroad, 1990.

    • Tilborg, Sj. van and P. Chatelion Counet. Jesus' Appearances and Disappearances in Luke 24, Leiden etc.: Brill, 2000.

    • Wesley, John. The Wesleyan Bible Commentary. Ralph Earle ed. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1964.

    • Westcott, B.F. The Gospel of St. John. London: John Murray, 1889.

External links

Jesus represented as telling Mary not to touch him, by Hans Holbein the Younger.

Jesus Appearing to the Magdalene by Fra Angelico. Jesus is shown holding an adze, symbolizing Mary's thinking of him as a gardener

Icon used on the Sunday of theMyrrhbearers, illustrating one of the Resurrection appearances of Jesus. The two Marys are in the center with the two angels at either side, in the foreground is theHoly Sepulchre with the winding sheet andnapkin.

Resurrection appearances. Clockwise from bottom: Resurrection, Noli me tangere,Ascension, Pentecost (Meister desSchöppinger, c. 1449, Pfarrkirche,Westfalen).

Saint Mary Magdalene approaching the Sepulchre by Gian Girolamo Savoldo.