1B Jesus: his resurrection

Question 1

What is the etymology of ‘resurrection’?

Answer 1

• Latin ‘resurrectio’, meaning ‘to rise again’

Question 2

For how many days did Jesus appear to his followers after his death?

Answer 2

• 40

Question 3

What is a chiasm? (used in John 20)

Answer 3

• A literary style when similar ideas are repeated in reverse sequence (ABCBA)

Question 4

What occurs in A of the chiasm? (John 20)

Answer 4

• People believe in the resurrection based on evidence such as the linen wrappings and the testimony of others

Question 5

What occurs in B of the chiasm? (John 20)

Answer 5

• Jesus appears to those that fail to recognise him (Mary and Thomas)

Question 6

What occurs in C (the centre) of the chiasm? Why is this important? (John 20)

Answer 6

• The Disciples recognise Jesus and “received the Holy Spirit”
• This unites them as brothers, bringing them into a new r.ship w/ God + each other
• Jesus breathed on his disciples, which is the same wording as Genesis 2:7, to describe G’s actions when he created man: “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”. This implies the beginning of a new creation, the Church.

Question 7

When does the Disciples’ mission begin? (John 20)

Answer 7

• At Pentecost, when the Spirit is outpoured

Question 8

How does John 20 end?

Answer 8

• With John’s statement that the purpose of his Gospel is to enable people to believe w/o having seen

Question 9

What are the three sections to John 21?

Answer 9

1) Jesus appears to the disciples by the Sea of Galilee (1-14)
2) Jesus commissions Peter to shepherd his people (15-23)
3) Jesus’ testimony confirmed (24)

Question 10

Elaborate on the first section of John 21 (1-14), when Jesus appears to the disciples by the Sea of Galilee.

Answer 10

• He mysteriously knows that there is an abundance of fish on the right of the boat

Question 11

Elaborate on the second section of John 21 (15-23), when Jesus commissions Peter to shepherd his people.

Answer 11

• Comprehensive imagery of shepherding: familiar way of describing G’s care for his ppl (J tells Simon: “Feed my lambs”, “Tend my sheep”, “Feed my sheep”)
• Jesus tells Peter the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God
- The tradition is that Peter was crucified head down in 67 AD (although, John’s Gospel was written in the late 1st C., so he would have known how Peter died)

Question 12

Elaborate on the third section of John 21 (24), when Jesus’ testimony is confirmed.

Answer 12

• Identifies the author as Joh, the Beloved Disciple, but that does not mean that John actually did the writing (it does mean that he was responsible for what was written
• Claims to be an eye-witness account, and the disciples assert that they know John’s testimony to be true (they were either also witnesses, or the HS confirmed John’s testimony to them)

Question 13

In which passage does Paul outline his understanding of the resurrection?

Answer 13

• 1 Corinthians 15

Question 14

What does Paul state in Philippians 1:21-24 about the outcome of the resurrection?

Answer 14

• “dying is gain”

* He longs “to be with Christ”, which suggests that after death, we are immediately w/ J

Question 15

Why does Paul accept the resurrection as an objective fact? (1 Corinthians 15)

Answer 15

• Due to his own exp. on the Road to Damascus: “he also appeared to me…the least of the apostles, unfit to be an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.”

Question 16

How does Paul discuss obedience in relation to the resurrection?

Answer 16

• The Fall: disobedience brought sin

* Jesus: total obedience brought resurrection

Question 17

What does Paul say about Heavenly and Earthly bodies?

Answer 17

• “the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another.”
• Seed analogy: the body “planted in the earth is perishable, weak, physical; the raised body is imperishable, strong, spiritual

Question 18

Why is resurrection not the same as resuscitation?

Answer 18

• When J resuscitated Jairus’ daughter or the widow’s son, they returned from the dead exactly as they were when they were alive
• J’s resurrected body ≠ the same as his earthly body; it is “in another form”
• Paul does not give any indication of how this change will be effected, nor is there any clear teaching on if it happens to all, or only believers, nor if it happens at each person’s death or collectively

Question 19

According to Rudolf Bultmann, all that is necessary for Christian belief is that…

Answer 19

• Jesus lived, preached, and died by crucifixion

Question 20

What was Bultmann convinced of?

Answer 20

• The need to demythologise the NT and interpret it in terms that modern readers can understand
- As the NT used mythological terminology of the time, it is impossible for modern readers to believe accounts w/o discarding all modern intellect
∴ Bultmann attempts to interpret NT so that the mythological essence is changed but retains meaning

Question 21

How does Bultmann define myths?

Answer 21

• “Report of an event or occurrence in which supernatural, superhuman powers or persons are at work”

Question 22

What do myths provide us with, according to Bultmann?

Answer 22

• A way to explain the world in which we live

* A way to explain the divine in human terms

Question 23

Give three examples of myths, according to Bultmann.

Answer 23

• Virgin birth
• Resurrection
• Three-tiered universe

Question 24

What does N.T. Wright argue in ‘The Resurrection of the Son of God’ (2003)?

Answer 24

• That J’s res. = beginning of a restoration of creation that he will complete upon his return

Question 25

According to Wright, what did the Greeks believe about life after death and resurrection?

Answer 25

• There is no evi. in Greek philosophy of any belief in bodily res.
• Plato holds out the poss. of an afterlife for the soul, but not a bodily return to the present world

Question 26

According to Wright, what did the Jews believe about life after death and resurrection?

Answer 26

• The OT belief in res. = “vague and unfocused”
• Sheol, place of the dead, = similar to Homer’s Hades, the place of shadows
• Unlike Platonists, who spoke of immortality of the soul, Israelites believed in a physical res. but did not agree as to whether the res. body would be different to the former body
• Post-biblical Judaism: believed in an interim period - do not pass directly from death to res. ∴ res. = undoing of death
• “It is vital to help people understand that ‘resurrection’ does not mean ‘life after death’ but ‘life AFTER’ life after death”

Question 27

According to Wright, what was the early Christian belief in the resurrection?

Answer 27

• Ultimate hope = res. of the body
• Belief in res. = more sharply focused than in Judaism
• Res. = new act of creation, not a simple return to the same body as before: a new body w/ different properties
• Paul believed that the res. = split in two
- 1st phase = the Messiah
- 2nd = all his ppl
• Jews = interim state; C.tians = “asleep in Christ”

Question 28

What does Wright believe is the reason for the early Christian belief, and the meaning of J’s resurrection?

Answer 28

• Q: Why did they believe he was the Messiah? He had not won a decisive victory over Israel’s enemies, nor restored the temple, nor est. G’s reign in the world (there had been other failed Messiahs, e.g Judas the Galilean, 6 CE)
• A: J was bodily res.d from dead on the third day ∴ res. constitutes Messiahship
- Other Jews had died promising the res (e.g. 2 Maccabees 7) but hadn’t been res.d
- John’s Gospel: disciples touched J; he moved through walls - diff. body

Question 29

According to Wright, how do you counter the following theory that rejects the resurrection: Jesus somehow survived the resurrection.

Answer 29

• Roman soldiers knew how to kill people

Question 30

According to Wright, how do you counter the following theory that rejects the resurrection: the tomb was empty, but nothing else happened.

Answer 30

• Faced w/ an empty tomb + no other evi., disciples would have assumed that the body had been stolen, not that J had been res.d

Question 31

According to Wright, how do you counter the following theory that rejects the resurrection: the disciples simply had visions of Jesus.

Answer 31

• Visions of recently dead ppl = common, but they do not cause ppl to claim that the person had been raised from the dead

Question 32

What does Wright conclude?

Answer 32

• The tomb was empty
• The disciples met someone they were convinced was the same Jesus, bodily alive in a new, transformed fashion
• The disciples derived this conclusion despite being cautious and doubting
• All other historical explanations for the origins of C.ty are less convincing than that J really did rise from the dead
- “The best historical explanation is the one which inevitably raises all kinds of theological questions.”