Robert Gundry’s Post and “Resurrection of the Dead”
Bruce Fisk has posted a thoughtful treatment of the view of Paul and other early Christians on the “physicality” of the notion of resurrection of the dead by Robert Gundry. Prof. Gundry focuses on the the issue of the resurrection of Jesus in particular, but then extends his analysis to cover Paul’s more general notion of the resurrection of those “dead in Christ” when he returns from heaven. Gundry offers a critical evaluation of my views as published in The Jesus Dynasty as well as here on my Blog. I appreciate the input and the respectful consideration and I want to take up some of the issues he raises in subsequent posts on this Blog.
I am in the process of writing a book on Paul (working title: The Paul Dynasty: A New Historical Invesigation of Paul’s Program of World Transformation) that will offer a sustained interpretation of Paul’s career, mission, and message, the outlines of which I hinted at in chapter 16 of The Jesus Dynasty, and the foundation of which I published in Things Unutterable (1986).
The issues that Prof. Gundry highlights relate directly to the notion of finding a Jesus Family tomb, including an ossuary with the bones of Jesus of Nazareth, and what that might say about the development of early Christian views of Jesus and the Messianic Kingdom that he intended to inaugurate. So much of this depends on how we can reconstruct the days and weeks following the death of Jesus. The amalgamated accounts of Luke and John, both of which stress “physical” (or quasi-physical) appearances of Jesus in Jerusalem to his disciples over a period of weeks following that fateful Passover, have become the unconscious master “Easter narrative” in our heads, much like conflated versions of the Christmas Story. Backing off a bit, and sorting things out, is difficult, but it can be done, if one gives careful attention to our sources, particularly Mark and Q, but also the development of the “resurrection” story in Matthew as well, as a backdrop to what we find in Paul.
I think a very plausible argument can be made that Jesus’ body was moved, possibly by Joseph of Arimathea, to a permanent rock hewn tomb, and that the messianic faith his community subsequently maintained, under the leadership of Jesus’ brother James, had nothing to do with a belief that his corpse had come to life, made various appearances, and then was taken physically into heaven.
In this regard Matthew 27:52-53 is a key passage in the development of this apologetic mythology, but one that is often ignored or overlooked. It has to do with resurrection of the dead and appearances “on the third day,” but not that of Jesus but of a whole group of folks. Notice:
When Jesus died Matthew tells us, “The earth shook, the rocks were split; the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.” This has to be one of the strangest passages in the gospels, related only here by Matthew. The Greek is a bit unclear but it sounds like these dead folk were revived when Jesus died, but then stayed in their tombs, or perhaps otherwise laid low, until “after his resurrection,” presumably Sunday morning, when there would have been “mass appearances,” not only that of Jesus, but of these many others.
This is a picture that I think very few have in their heads when it comes to the standard Easter story. Are we to imagine these were the corpses of those who had recently died, shrouded on various shelves and arcosolia in tombs, in various states of decomposition, who came to life and made their appearances? One can only try to imagine what state they would have been in but the scene as described sounds quite “physical.” Does Matthew have in mind actual bones, as in the visiion of Ezekiel, upon which tissue and organs suddenly formed, and reanimated persons emerged with breath and life? The entire scene is almost too bizzare to imagine (remember the Michael Jackson video?), but what it does show is that Matthew is interested in making an apologetic point. How do we know that the dead were raised? How can it be proven? We know that Matthew is dealing with certain “Jewish” opponents who are claiming that Jesus was simply reburied in another tomb. What he wants to affirm with this mass resurrection tale is that many others who were dead, not just Jesus, appeared to many people in the city (Gk emphanizo, cf. John 21:1), thus making the resurrection of the dead an event with a multiplicity of evidence. This claim of mass appearances is quite important in the development of the relatively late apologetically motivated testimony that the corpse of Jesus was also raised and physically “appeared to many.”
Paul’s view is quite different, and earlier, but more on that in subsequent posts.