Resurrection Flashcards
Jesus’ resurrection
Defining features of Christianity
-Three of the Gospels describe episodes where the risen Jesus appeared to his disciples
-All four Gospels say…one the third day after his death, Jesus’ tomb was found empty
-It is clear that they knew it was Jesus, but that he was in some ways different to the person with whom they had spent three years
-He ate normal food with them, and showed his disciples the injuries he received at the crucifixion, but he was able to appear and disappear at will, and in the story of his appearance on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), some of his followers did not recognise him during the course of a long conversation.
What does Jesus’ resurrection actually mean?
Christianity teaches that Jesus rose from the dead.
This does not mean that he was merely revived or resuscitated, but that through the power of God, he overcame the power of death, and appeared to his disciples full of life from God.
No human has ever experienced this: even those whom Jesus brought to life in his healings would go on to die a normal death at the end of their lives, for example, Lazarus (John 11:1-57).
The resurrection of Jesus is symbolic for Christians of the everlasting life that comes from God the source of all life. Jesus’ resurrection shows that death, a consequence of the sin in the world can be overcome through the power of God.
The death of Jesus Christ on the cross has cancelled out the consequences of sin for human beings and the possibility of eternal life is available to everyone.
Where does the concept of the soul come from?
The Christian concept of soul comes from both Judaism and ancient Greek philosophy.
In Judaism, the physical body is infused with the ‘breath of life which comes from God.
Where does the concept of the soul appear?
This concept appears in Genesis 2:7, where God formed the man, Adam, from the dust of the ground, and ‘breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so that he became a nephesh hayyah - ‘a living being’.
SOUL - words
-Life is not only a quality of humans: for Jews, everything that breathes has the spirit of God within them.
-Nephesh in Genesis 2:7 is usually translated as ‘soul, and this is the existence that a creature has as a result of receiving the breath of life from God.
-Another word with similar meaning is ruach (similar to Greek psyche), so that in Genesis 1:2, the ruach elohim - the Spirit of God was moving over the primeval waters during creation.
Old Testament
In early Old Testament Judaism, people did not believe in life after death, but in the period leading up to the time of Jesus, some had come to believe that since God is eternal, human life which comes from God might not end at death.
Book of Daniel
-Something of the person might live on after the death of the physical body.
-The book of Daniel, written in the second century BCE, contains prophecies about the end of time, including:
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.”
(Daniel 12:2)”
Greek philosopher plato
-The Greek philosopher Plato and his later followers believed that there were two modes of existence.
-The physical world that we see around us is a reflection of a deeper reality which he called the world of Form
-The world of Forms is made up of perfect ideas, and the things in the physical world are imperfect copies of the perfect ideas.
-So, for example, the chair you are sitting on is one of many chairs in the physical world, but in the world of Forms, there is one perfect idea of a chair and all physical chairs are reflections of this idea.
Plato on dualism
-Plato believed that the human soul separates from the body at death and goes to the world of Forms, and there contemplates the Form of the Good into the physical world in a human womb.
-This world view is called ‘dualism’, so ‘soul’ is usually a dualistic idea - humans have two aspects: the physical body and the spiritual soul. Plato believed that the soul eternally pre-existed human life and is immortal in its own right.
-ability to know what things are, he suggested, is the result of the fact that the soul belongs to the world of Forms. Because the soul is familiar with the perfect idea for each thing, it can recognise the imperfect copies in the physical world.
Resurrection of the flesh as expressed i n the writings of augustine
-For Christians, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the event which made it possible for all people to have life after death.
-By overcoming death on the cross, he restored to humankind the hope of resurrection and eternal life that had been lost through original sin.
-However, the exact nature of the hoped-for resurrection was not at all clear.
-St Augustine of Hippo (354-430CE) St Augustine tackled the question of resurrection head on, and his theology continues to inform Catholic teaching today.
-Born in what is now Algeria, he lost his father as a teenager and had a few wayward years before turning to religion.
-As priest and then bishop, he wrote with great scholarship, but also with wisdom and insight into human nature. His two most famous books are Confessions, an account of his own conversion, and City of God.
What did augustine believe about sin?
-Augustine believed that sin, caused by the fall of Adam and Eve, had an effect on every human being born, both spiritually and physically.
-People’s souls were stained with sin, and their bodies, senses and desires were also tainted with sinfulness.
-If the resurrection of Christ offered hope for the resurrection of humans, Augustine was sure that this resurrection must be a bodily, physical resurrection where both the spiritual and physical effects of sin would be removed.
What does augustine say about Jesus rising from the dead?
-In other words, it is Augustine’s understanding that Jesus Christ rose from the dead in a wholly physical way, and then ascended to heaven in a physical form.
-If it is possible for this to happen to Jesus Christ, then surely God can perform the same miracle for anything that has been created with a soul?
What does the resurrection of Jesus mean for catholics?
-For Christians, the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the event which made it possible for all people to have life after death.
-By overcoming death on the cross, he restored to humankind the hope of resurrection and eternal life that had been lost through original sin.
-However, the exact nature of the hoped-for resurrection was not at all clear.
Augustine quote
God who has created such beings wills this also, what is to hinder the earthly body from being raised to a heavenly body,
