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The Easter Story


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"Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it." -- Ecclesiastes 12:7

“The fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was buried, and rose again the third day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it.” -- Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 121

A good way to evaluate the historicity of a story is to check whether its constituent events match the chronological order in which they were first reported. Jesus’ crucifixion is followed by two decades of silence in the historical record. However, clues regarding the earliest apostolic teachings during this silent period can be found in the epistles of Paul. One important clue is the pre-Pauline creed recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:[1]

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

5 and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Paul “received” this “died... buried... raised... appeared” creed from Peter and James, “the Lord’s brother” at Jerusalem three years after his vision of Jesus on the road to Damascus (Galatians 1:18-19). Hence, these beliefs date to about 7 years after the crucifixion and constitute the views of at least two key eyewitnesses to the events surrounding Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul spent 15 days with Peter gathering the essential facts of the eyewitness accounts; thus, Paul’s teachings, as recorded in his epistles, should closely resemble the views of the original apostles.

So what were these earliest views?

Regarding Jesus’ burial, Paul taught that the Jewish authorities (i.e., the ones who had him executed) took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb.

Acts 13:28 And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed.

29 When they had carried out all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.

This is consistent with Mishnah Sanhedrin 6:5-6, which relates that the Sanhedrin had established two burial sites for the temporary placing of corpses of Jews executed as criminals. The corpses were later removed and reburied honorably by family members.

Regarding the resurrection, Paul taught that Jesus was the first person to be raised from the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:20 But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.

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

22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

23 But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming,

He preached that the resurrection applied only to our spirits, not to our physical bodies.

15:35 But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?”

36 You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies;

37 and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else.

In Paul’s view, we permanently dispose of our physical bodies at death and are raised again as purely spiritual beings; just as a seed planted in the Earth grows into a new plant.

15:42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body;

43 it is sown in dishonor, 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. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Furthermore, it is impossible for flesh-and-blood bodies to inherit the kingdom of God.

15:50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

In none of his writings does Paul mention the empty tomb, showing of wounds, eating of fish or any other bodily act of the resurrected Jesus.[2]

Paul died in the 60s, along with Peter and James, effectively bringing an end to the generation of contemporary witnesses.

In AD 70, Titus sacked Jerusalem, destroying the Jewish commonwealth along with the temple, which had served as the center of teaching and study for Jewish Christians. This forced an end to the traditional system of oral scholarship and ushered in a new era of written rabbinic discourse. Shortly after the destruction of Jerusalem, an anonymous Christian, not too familiar with the geography and customs of Galilee, took it upon himself to write down the key events of Jesus’ life and death. His story ends thus:[3]

Mark 16:1 And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him.

2 And very early on the first day of the week, they come to the tomb when the sun was risen.

3 And they were saying among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the tomb?

4 and looking up, they see that the stone is rolled back: for it was exceeding great.

5 And entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, arrayed in a white robe; and they were amazed.

6 And he saith unto them, Be not amazed: ye seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who hath been crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold, the place where they laid him!

7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, He goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.

8 And they went out, and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them: and they said nothing to any one; for they were afraid.

This is the first mention of the empty tomb in any canonical or non-canonical text. Mark deftly employs it as a powerful symbol for dramatic effect.[4] Jesus’ body is missing; however, it’s unclear whether it has reanimated, been moved or has simply evaporated (along with the linen burial wrappings). Indeed, it doesn’t seem to matter, since Mark’s only apparent purpose is to “sow” the “perishable” natural body to enable the “imperishable” spiritual body to rise from its seed. Of course, by introducing an empty tomb with a missing body, Mark creates the obvious question/objection: why didn’t Peter, Paul, James or any other apostles ever mention these things? Mark solves this problem by only having women present and by having them say “nothing to any one”. The Messianic Secret is thus preserved and the apostles never find out about the empty tomb or the young man in the white robe.

For at least a decade after Mark penned his gospel, church leaders continued to teach a spirit-only resurrection; e.g.,[5]

1 Peter 3:18 Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God; being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit;

1 Peter 4:6 For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God.

As post-Pauline leaders with new agendas took over, Christianity began to splinter into competing sects, largely divided along social status lines. Groups of elite Gnostics perpetuated Paul’s Orphic disdain for the flesh (Romans 7:18-8:18) by rejecting any idea of a physical resurrection. Their chief goal was to become free forever from the taint of matter and the shackles of the body, and to return to the heavenly realm as pure spirits. The uneducated masses however, were disturbed by the idea of losing their body. They were not impressed by highbrow arguments for a disembodied immortality; they just wanted to get their bodies back, which is what the Jewish sects and pagan cults offered.[6] As the Christian movement spread throughout the ancient world, it bumped up against these neighboring cults with their rival gods and competing mythologies.

Most of the other gods, including the Jewish god, were able to raise people bodily from the dead. Indeed, physical resurrections were all the rage before and during the first century.[7] One Greek god in particular, Ἀσκληπιός Σωτήρ (Asclepius the Savior), was so adept at bringing people back from the dead that Hades feared no more dead spirits would come to the underworld.[8] Coincidentally, "Jesus" (properly, Yeshua) means "Savior" in Hebrew. This fact, combined with Jesus’ reputation as a “fisher of men”, made it only natural for first-century Christians to construct an acronym from the Greek word for “fish” (ΙΧΘΥΣ) in which Jesus, like Asclepius, was assigned the title of “Savior”; i.e., ΙΧΘΥΣ = Ἰησοῦς Χριστός, Θεοῦ Υἱός, Σωτήρ (Jesus Christ, God’s son, Savior). This acrostic became a confession of faith, in conjunction with the “friend or foe” fish symbol adapted from Greek and Roman pagans in response to persecutions, which had commenced under Nero (AD 64-68).

As large numbers of lower-class Jews and pagans streamed into the church, bringing their former beliefs along with them, a natural syncretism developed between Yahweh and several other gods.[9] Additionally, many Jewish Christians were of the opinion that Jesus was the earthly manifestation of Yahweh.[10] These two forces combined to imbue Jesus with popular features of several other deities, especially those of Asclepius.

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Asclepius heals a sick girl.

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Jesus heals a sick girl.

Asclepius was a 12th-century-BC physician, renowned for his miraculous healings. It was believed that he was born of a heavenly father and earthly mother. He restored sight to the blind, made the lame to walk, cast out demons, calmed the elements and prophesied the future.[11] He died a real death, then physically resurrected and ascended into heaven.

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Asclepius, a prophet like unto Moses

Church Father Justin Martyr pointed out to Antoninus Pius and his fellow pagans in the Roman senate that Jesus and Asclepius were nothing different and their deeds were essentially identical:

“And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, Jesus Christ, our teacher, was produced without sexual union, and that He was crucified and died, and rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing new and different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter… Asclepius, who, though he was a great healer, was struck by a thunderbolt, and ascended to heaven.” -- First Apology, 21:1-2.

“When we say that He [Jesus] made well the lame and the paralytic and those who were feeble from birth and that he resurrected the dead, we shall seem to be mentioning deeds similar to and even identical with those which were said to have been performed by Asclepius.” -- First Apology, 22:6.

Later, when Jewish critics pointed out that Jesus and Asclepius were too identical, Justin blamed it on the devil:

“And when he [the devil] brings forward Asclepius as the raiser of the dead and healer of all diseases, may I not say that in this matter likewise he has imitated the prophecies about Christ?” -- Dialogue with Trypho, 69.[12]

JesusandAsclepius.png

Jesus, a savior like unto Asclepius

Asclepius initially served to inspire Christianity but later turned into one of its chief rivals. For example, it was claimed that numerous people had seen the risen Asclepius:

“And again, when it is said of Asclepius that a great multitude both of Greeks and Barbarians acknowledge that they have frequently seen, and still see, no mere phantom, but Asclepius himself, healing and doing good, and foretelling the future; Celsus requires us to believe this, and finds no fault with the believers in Jesus, when we express our belief in such stories, but when we give our assent to the disciples, and eye-witnesses of the miracles of Jesus, who clearly manifest the honesty of their convictions (because we see their guilelessness, as far as it is possible to see the conscience revealed in writing), we are called by him a set of ‘silly’ individuals, although he cannot demonstrate that an incalculable number, as he asserts, of Greeks and Barbarians acknowledge the existence of Asclepius; while we, if we deem this a matter of importance, can clearly show a countless multitude of Greeks and Barbarians who acknowledge the existence of Jesus.” -- Origen, Contra Celsus, 3.24.

Whereas, the Jesus sightings were relatively few, and of only a shadow:

“But this low jester Celsus, omitting no species of mockery and ridicule which can be employed against us, mentions in his treatise the Dioscuri, and Hercules, and Asclepius, and Dionysus, who are believed by the Greeks to have become gods after being men, and says that ‘we cannot bear to call such beings gods, because they were at first men, and yet they manifested many noble qualifies, which were displayed for the benefit of mankind, while we assert that Jesus was seen after His death by His own followers;’ and he brings against us an additional charge, as if we said that ‘He was seen indeed, but was only a shadow!’” -- Contra Celsus, 3.22.

In the waning years of the first century, Mark’s gospel was found inadequate to compete with the Jewish sects and pagan cults; hence, new expanded narratives were needed. Accordingly, an anonymous Jewish Christian (Matthew) and an anonymous Gentile Christian (Luke) each took it upon himself to embellish Mark’s account. They both liked the bit about the empty tomb but apparently weren’t satisfied with the characters, dialogue or locales. The Christians needed more and Matthew and Luke were only too happy to oblige.

In Matthew’s redaction of Mark, he deletes Salome, and turns the unremarkable “young man” into a blazing angel who introduces himself with a “great earthquake”, descends like lightning, paralyzes the guards, and rolls the stone away single-handedly.[13] (Matthew was apparently a man of action.) The angel sits down on top of the stone door but then changes his mind and takes the two women on a tour of the sepulchre, but they don’t seem to find any burial wrappings. He commands the women to tell the disciples that Jesus is risen and on his way to Galilee, where they will see him. In contrast to Mark’s women, who were frightened speechless, Matthew’s women depart with “great joy;” and “did run to bring his disciples word.” On their way they encounter Jesus himself, whereupon they hold his feet but don’t seem to notice any wounds. This, finally, is the first mention of any tangible aspect of Jesus’ resurrected body. Jesus confirms that he’s indeed on his way to Galilee and that his brethren will see him when he gets there. The eleven disciples go to a mountain in Galilee where Jesus appears to them but some doubt it’s really him. Except for the unwounded feet, Matthew gives no indication that that the resurrected Jesus has a physical body.

In contradistinction to Matthew, Luke replaces Salome with Joanna and some unspecified “other women”.[14] He trades the “young man”, already present when the women arrived, for “two men” in “dazzling clothing” who suddenly materialize inside the tomb while the women are perplexed about the situation. The men help the women remember Jesus’ earlier saying that he would rise again and the women go tell the apostles. Peter, the only one to believe them, rushes to the tomb and sees the linen wrappings. Unlike Mark and Matthew, who put the risen Jesus on the road to Galilee, Luke puts him on the road to Emmaus. He first appears incognito to Cleopas and his companion, and hints at his bodily form by reclining at their table and breaking bread, but then he suddenly vanishes. The men go to Jerusalem, where they find the Eleven and begin relating their recent experience to them. Suddenly Jesus materializes and everybody thinks he’s “a spirit.” Jesus shows them his wounds and declares, “a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” Then he further proves his physicality by eating a piece of a broiled fish. He commands them to “stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” and leads them to Bethany where he ascends into Heaven. The apostles return to Jerusalem without visiting any mountains in Galilee.

The radical differences between Matthew’s and Luke’s accounts were likely of little consequence to the early Christians, since they were received by separate audiences.[15] All that really mattered to the masses of illiterate converts who heard these stories were the additional proofs and witnesses they provided (according to ancient standards), which helped build their faith and strengthen their hand against rival religions.

Despite Matthew’s and Luke’s literary prowess, many people remained unimpressed. The risen Jesus was simply unremarkable compared to other resurrected heroes in popular mythology. For example, after rattling off a long list of resurrected man-gods, Celsus asks:[16]

“But the question is, whether anyone who was really dead ever rose with a veritable body. Or do you imagine the statements of others not only to be myths, but to have the appearance of such, while you have discovered a becoming and credible termination to your drama in the voice from the cross, when he breathed his last, and in the earthquake and the darkness? That while alive he was of no assistance to himself, but that when dead he rose again, and showed the marks of his punishment, and how his hands were pierced with nails: who beheld this? A hysterical woman, as you state, and some other one, perhaps, of those who were engaged in the same system of delusion, who had either dreamed so, owing to a peculiar state of mind, or under the influence of a wandering imagination had formed to himself an appearance according to his own wishes, which has been the case with numberless individuals; or, which is most probable, one who desired to impress others with this portent, and by such a falsehood to furnish an occasion to impostors like himself.” -- Contra Celsus, 2.55.

In order to compete successfully against neighboring sects and cults, the Christians needed to: A) strengthen the (non-hysterical) male witnesses, B) further verify the physical body of the risen Jesus, and C) increase Jesus’ powers above those of Asclepius et al. Sometime around the turn of the century, an anonymous Hellenistic philosopher (John) took up the cause.

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Jesus performs an Asclepeion foot washing for Simon Peter at the Last Supper.[17]

Itching for some head-to-head competition, John sends Jesus to the Asclepium at Bethesda to steal a cultist right out from under his rival’s nose.[18] Then he leaves Lazarus in the grave for four days, thereby surpassing Asclepius’ resurrection of Tyndareus.[19] He deletes all of the “hysterical” women except Mary Magdalene, who finds a deserted tomb with no young man, no earthquake-inducing angel, no stone for the angel to roll away or sit upon, no guards to spook nor any pair of dazzling men. This time around, Mary Magdalene decides all by herself, without any instructions from men or angels, to run tell Peter and “the other disciple whom Jesus loved”[20] that the Lord is missing. The “other disciple” (John) beats Peter to the tomb and robs him of his previous victory in being the first person to behold the linen wrappings. Peter however, is consoled with the Luke-harmonization prize of being the first one to actually enter the tomb and see the previously unnoticed face-cloth, which had been conveniently rolled up and placed separately from the other wrappings. The second disciple enters the tomb, sees and believes, then he and Peter both go home, apparently without saying goodbye to Mary, who is still outside, weeping. As she weeps, she stoops down, looks into the tomb and sees “two angels in white sitting,” like the cherubim atop the Ark of the Covenant, “one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying.” They ask her why she’s weeping and she replies that they’ve taken her Lord away. Then she turns and sees Jesus but thinks he’s the gardener. He says, “Mary!” and she recognizes him. He forbids her from embracing him and commands her to go tell his brethren he’s about to ascend. That evening Jesus suddenly materializes behind shut doors, which must have been much thinner than the stone door to the tomb, since that one had to be rolled out of the way. He shows his wounds to his disciples and breathes on them but Thomas, the representative of all unbelievers, is absent. Eight days later, Jesus repeats the performance, this time inviting Thomas to reach his finger and hand directly into his wounds in an effort to quash allegations about him being “only a shadow” or a “mere phantom”.

John’s gospel brought the empty-tomb story into full bloom, giving Jesus all that could reasonably be expected of a resurrected deity. Nevertheless, controversies and rivalries between Christianity and its detractors persisted throughout the second and third centuries. Ultimately however, Christianity prevailed by drawing in the emperor of Rome. Today there are far more Christian churches than Asclepeion temples in the world.[21] There remain however, no unambiguous answers to the most fundamental questions regarding the resurrection; e.g.,

Who was there (besides Mary Magdalene)?

Did she/they witness the stone being rolled away?

Who appeared to her/them? A man? An angel? Two men? Two angels?

What did the man/men/angel/angels say to the woman/women and vice versa?

Were there linen burial wrappings in the tomb? If so, who saw them?

To whom did Jesus first appear?

Where did he first appear?

What was the first thing he said?

Did the eleven disciples see Jesus in Galilee or Jerusalem?

How does a glorified celestial body retain its wounds of death?

How is a wounded body “raised in incorruption”?

Etc., etc., etc.,

In retrospect, it appears that the sealed tomb was much like a can of worms. When Mark opened it, out spilled a tangled mess of logical inconsistencies that remain unresolved to this day.

What then are we to make of the wound-showing, bread-breaking, fish-eating, angel-announced resurrected body of Jesus preached in the post-Pauline gospels? Paul gave this advice to the Galatians:

1:8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!

Some tales get taller with each telling, like the one about the fish that got away.

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References:

[1] Paul spent 18 months founding the church in Corinth (Acts 18:1-17), then went to Ephesus (Acts 19:8, 19:10, 20:31), where he wrote this first epistle (16: 8 ) circa AD 53-57.

[2] Earlier in his epistle (1 Corinthians 12:12-27), Paul speaks of the “body of Christ” as metaphor for the church. His imagery here likely derives from his experience with the Temple of Asclepius in Corinth. Throughout his ministry Paul adapted local customs and symbols to his teachings; e.g., his use of the altar “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD” in preaching to the Athenians on Mars’ hill (Acts 17:22-23). Patients who came to the Corinthian Asclepium for healing left terra-cotta votive offerings of their wounded body parts: feet, hands, ears, eyes, heads etc. Paul contrasted the individual dismembered parts in the Asclepium with the saints’ membership in the whole body of Christ. -- Andrew E. Hill, “The Temple of Asclepius: An Alternative Source for Paul’s Body Theology?” Journal of Biblical Literature, 99, 437-439 (1980).

[3] Mark 16:9-20 were tacked onto the gospel roughly a century later.

[4] By disposing of the corruptible “mortal flesh of Jesus”, Mark enables him to “exchange qualities” and become a god like “Asclepius, or Dionysus, or Hercules”. -- Origen, Contra Celsus, 3.42. It was also necessary to empty Jesus’ tomb because some Christians were ridiculing worshipers of Jupiter by pointing to his tomb in the island of Crete. -- Contra Celsus, 3.43.

[5] The earliest date for the First Epistle of Peter is partly established by the sequence of provincial boundaries (1 Peter 1:1) set up by Emperor Vespasian in AD 72.

[6] Richard Carrier, Not the Impossible Faith: Why Christianity Didn’t Need a Miracle to Succeed, 3.2 (2006).

[7] Marcus Tullius Cicero reports, “...if we turn to Greece, they have there a number of gods who were once men, the Alabandi Alabandus, the people of Tenedos Tennes, and the whole nation Leucothea, whose mortal name was Ino, and her son Palæmon; while our own countrymen have Hercules, Asclepius, the Tyndaridæ, Romulus, and several others, who they think were received into heaven like new citizens added to the roll.” -- De Natura Deorum, 3.15 (45 BC).

[8] Aristides (530-468 BC) describes Asclepius as “the one who guides and rules the universe, the savior of the whole and the guardian of the immortals.” Julianus (AD 133-193) says “shall I now go on to tell you how Helius took thought for the health and safety of all by begetting Asclepius to be the savior of the whole world?” -- Quoted in Emma J. and Ludwig Edelstein, Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies 150-152 (1945, 1998).

[9] A second-century tablet from the Roman city of Asturica-Augusta bears the Greek inscription, “Zeus, Serapis and Yahweh are one.” -- Maureen W. Yeung, Faith in Jesus and Paul, 82 (2002). Archaeological evidence for Asclepius worship in first-century Syro-Palestine includes: Ascalon, Jerusalem, Samaria, Caesarea, Ptolemais, Gerasa, Gadara, Tiberias, Sidon and Berytus. -- A. Duprez, Jesus et les Dieux Guerisseurs: A Propos de Jean, V 64-79 (1970).

[10] In Hebrew, Jesus' name is spelled "Yeshua". The "Ye" in Yeshua is the abbreviated form of YHWH. "Shua" is from the Hebrew word for salvation, yasha. Jesus' name in Hebrew and Aramaic literally means "YHWH is salvation." While YHWH describes who God is, when it is combined with a verb it describes what God does. The name "Jesus" describes the fact that YHWH has become salvation.

[11] Edelstein, Asclepius, § 66-93, 232-56, 382-91, 443-54. Also, Derek Murphy, Jesus Potter, Harry Christ, Ch. 4, (2011).

[12] Like Justin Martyr, C.S. Lewis also accepted pagan Christs, but he didn’t blame them on the devil. Rather, he argued that the pagans derived them long ago from an ancient revelation from God.

[13] In having the women witness the stone being rolled away, Matthew responds to the allegation that the disciples had come by night and stolen the body (Matthew 28:11-15).

[14] Matthew and Luke may have deleted Salome because they identified her with the voluptuous girl who danced for her step-father, Herod Antipas, and requested the head of John the Baptist on a platter (Mark 6:21-25, Matthew 14:6-11). Josephus says that this Salome later married her grand-uncle, Philip the tetrarch, and after his death, Aristobulus of Lesser Armenia (Antiquities, XVIII, 5, 4). The Coptic Book of the Resurrection of Christ names the following women who went to the tomb: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Mary who ministered to him, Martha her sister, Joanna (Susanna) who renounced the marriage bed, and "Salome who tempted him". In the Gospel of the Egyptians a certain Salome appears as a disciple of Jesus. According to the Gospel of Thomas, Salome and Mary Magdalene became the disciples of Jesus when they transcended their human nature and “became male”. Jesus shares Salome's couch and during their discussion she declares “I am your disciple.” It would seem that some time after the dancing/beheading incident, Salome tried to seduce Jesus but instead became his disciple.

[15] The Correlation Committee wasn’t established until 1908.

[16] Although Celsus wrote in the second century (after Mark, Matthew, Luke and John), the pagan beliefs to which he refers go back several centuries prior. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the controversies he mentions pre-date the canonical gospels (just as it is reasonable to assume that modern evolutionism/creationism debates pre-date the 21st century). A. Duprez compares Jesus and the healing gods in first-century Palestine (Jesus, 79-85), and K. Rengstorf traces the origin of the controversy between the early Church and the Asclepius cult to the time of the writing of the Gospel of John -- Die Anfange der Auseinandersetzung zwischen Christusglaube und Asklepiosfrommigkeit (1953).

[17] John uses the Greek term goyein (13:10), which is a special term for washing in an Asclepium (Yeung, Faith, 79), rather than the Greek word used elsewhere in the Johannine text to describe washing - niptein. -- James H. Charlesworth, Jesus and archaeology, 560-566 (2006).

[18] John uses the Greek phrase hygies genesthai (5:6), which is not used anywhere in the Synoptic Gospels but appears frequently in ancient testimonies to the healing powers of Asclepius. -- Yeung, Faith, 79.

[19] Pliny the Elder reports, “In more recent times again, the same art has augmented its celebrity, at the cost perhaps of being charged with criminality, by devising the fable that Asclepius was struck by lightning for presuming to raise Tyndareus to life. And this example notwithstanding, it has not hesitated to relate how that others, through its agency, have since been restored to life.” -- Natural History 29.1.3 (AD 77-79). The resurrections of Lazarus (John 11:1-44), the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:21-43) and the young man from Nain (Luke 7:11-17), in the post-Pauline accounts, rob Jesus of his title “firstfruits of them that slept” (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).

[20] Here and elsewhere John places himself at the center of the action. This, of course, raises the question as to how an eyewitness writing around AD 100 could have lived so long. John (or, more likely, a later scribe, on account of the third-person reference) solves this problem by having Jesus grant him quasi-immortality (John 21:20-24).

[21] It could be argued that there are many Asclepeion temples in the world today but we call them "hospitals".

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Fortunately, I have the Book of Mormon- so, I know that Jesus did, indeed, rise from the grave and not only showed Himself to those at Jerusalem, but to the believers gathered in Bountiful, on Joseph's Promised Land.

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Fortunately, I have the Book of Mormon- so, I know that Jesus did, indeed, rise from the grave and not only showed Himself to those at Jerusalem, but to the believers gathered in Bountiful, on Joseph's Promised Land.

Does the Book of Mormon answer the questions I listed?

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You are correct mercy. I've edited the OP accordingly.

So the question is why Paul would suddenly reject a physical resurrection. Certainly he was familiar with Isaiah 29:16 (together with my dead body shall they arise). What changed?

Not that it will surprise you, but I think this verse from Philippians 3 indicates that Paul was describing something more than spirit:

Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

I also think it's significant that in 1 Corinthians 15:51 Paul says we shall all be changed rather than released. He doesn't say we'll be freed from corruptibility but that we will put on incorruptibility. In other words, the change is much more than simply releasing the spirit from a physical prison. In this context, Paul seems to say that resurrection involves a new state, coupled with eternal glory.

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In regards to Paul's distinction between physical and spiritual bodies,

"The first word, psychikos, does not in any case mean anything like "physical" in our sense. For Greek speakers of Paul's day, the psyche, from which the word derives, means the soul, not the body. But the deeper, underlying point is that adjectives of this type, Greek adjectives ending in -ikos, describe not the material out of which things are made but the power or energy that animates them. It is the difference between asking, on the one hand, "Is it a wooden ship or an iron ship?" (the material from which it is made) and asking, on the other, "Is this a steamship or a sailing ship?" (the energy that powers it). Paul is talking about the present body, which is animated by the normal human psyche (the life force we all possess here and now, which gets us through the present life but is ultimately powerless against illness, injury, decay, and death), and the future body, which is animated by God's pneuma, God's breath of new life, the energizing power of God's new creation." (N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Missio of the Church, HarperOne, 2008: 155-156).

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In regards to Paul's distinction between physical and spiritual bodies,

"The first word, psychikos, does not in any case mean anything like "physical" in our sense. For Greek speakers of Paul's day, the psyche, from which the word derives, means the soul, not the body. But the deeper, underlying point is that adjectives of this type, Greek adjectives ending in -ikos, describe not the material out of which things are made but the power or energy that animates them. It is the difference between asking, on the one hand, "Is it a wooden ship or an iron ship?" (the material from which it is made) and asking, on the other, "Is this a steamship or a sailing ship?" (the energy that powers it). Paul is talking about the present body, which is animated by the normal human psyche (the life force we all possess here and now, which gets us through the present life but is ultimately powerless against illness, injury, decay, and death), and the future body, which is animated by God's pneuma, God's breath of new life, the energizing power of God's new creation." (N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Missio of the Church, HarperOne, 2008: 155-156).

It is also odd that Paul would expend so much energy, space, and writing materials (which weren't the cheapest commodity on the planet) trying to convince the Corinthians saints of something they already believed.

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Resurrection was a doctrine of Second Temple Judaism already. But as Wright says, "Apart from occasional highlights like 2 Maccabees 7, resurrection is a peripheral topic. But in early Christianity resurrection moved from the circumference to the center." (pg. 42)

Some worthwhile material on the Resurrection:

William Lane Craig, "The Historicity of the Empty Tomb of Jesus," New Testament Studies 31 (1985).

Gary R. Habermas, "Experiences of the Risen Jesus: The Foundational Historical Issue in the Early Proclamation of the Resurrection," Dialog: A Journal of Theology 45:3 (Fall 2006).

Larry W. Hurtado, "Religious Experience and Religious Innovation in the New Testament," Journal of Religion 80:2 (2000).

These next three are meant to be read together:

N.T. Wright, "Christian Origins and the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resurrection of Jesus as a Historical Problem," Sewanee Theological Review 41:2 (1998).

Wright, "Early Traditions and the Origins of Christianity," STR 41:2 (1998).

Wright, "The Resurrection and the Postmodern Dilemma," STR 41:2 (1998).

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And I doubt that the talmudic sages were the first to notice that the vision of the dry bones made an admirable prooftext for the doctrine of bodily resurrection.

Also, Luke indicates that the sign of Jonah was Jonah himself.

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And I doubt that the talmudic sages were the first to notice that the vision of the dry bones made an admirable prooftext for the doctrine of bodily resurrection.

Also, Luke indicates that the sign of Jonah was Jonah himself.

Post some more on the Jonah traditions. You said there was more in the other thread, but that "bedtime beckoned." I'm anxious to read about them.

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So the question is why Paul would suddenly reject a physical resurrection.

I don't think there was anything "sudden" about it. He couldn't reject a belief he never held in the first place. Plenty of people in the early first century did not believe in physical resurrection. Saul of Tarsus appears to have been a proto-Gnostic Platonist.

Certainly he was familiar with Isaiah 29:16 (together with my dead body shall they arise). What changed?

I'm sure the Sadducees and Essenes were familiar with that passage as well.

Not that it will surprise you, but I think this verse from Philippians 3 indicates that Paul was describing something more than spirit:

Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

His reasoning here extends from verse 3:

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

I also think it's significant that in 1 Corinthians 15:51 Paul says we shall all be changed rather than released. He doesn't say we'll be freed from corruptibility but that we will put on incorruptibility. In other words, the change is much more than simply releasing the spirit from a physical prison. In this context, Paul seems to say that resurrection involves a new state, coupled with eternal glory.

I don't think ἀλλαγησόμεθα has quite that definite meaning, sufficient to discriminate this verse. And I don't think that in the very next verse he would change his mind about flesh and blood inheriting the kingdom of God.

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Resurrection was a doctrine of Second Temple Judaism already. But as Wright says, "Apart from occasional highlights like 2 Maccabees 7, resurrection is a peripheral topic. But in early Christianity resurrection moved from the circumference to the center." (pg. 42)

Some worthwhile material on the Resurrection:

William Lane Craig, "The Historicity of the Empty Tomb of Jesus," New Testament Studies 31 (1985).

Gary R. Habermas, "Experiences of the Risen Jesus: The Foundational Historical Issue in the Early Proclamation of the Resurrection," Dialog: A Journal of Theology 45:3 (Fall 2006).

Larry W. Hurtado, "Religious Experience and Religious Innovation in the New Testament," Journal of Religion 80:2 (2000).

These next three are meant to be read together:

N.T. Wright, "Christian Origins and the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resurrection of Jesus as a Historical Problem," Sewanee Theological Review 41:2 (1998).

Wright, "Early Traditions and the Origins of Christianity," STR 41:2 (1998).

Wright, "The Resurrection and the Postmodern Dilemma," STR 41:2 (1998).

Thanks for the references WW. Is there something in particular you're trying to argue as it relates to the OP?

In addition to discussing Paul's beliefs, I'd be interested in hearing answers to the questions near the end of the OP.

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And I doubt that the talmudic sages were the first to notice that the vision of the dry bones made an admirable prooftext for the doctrine of bodily resurrection.

Also, Luke indicates that the sign of Jonah was Jonah himself.

Of course, Lazarus beat Jonah by a day.

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Thanks for the references WW. Is there something in particular you're trying to argue as it relates to the OP?

In addition to discussing Paul's beliefs, I'd be interested in hearing answers to the questions near the end of the OP.

I would add Richard Bauckham, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony (Eerdmans, 2006).

As for your question, a number of things. For example, Paul and the tradition of the empty tomb, the female witnesses, etc.

I think the main problem is the assumption that Paul didn't have a physical resurrection in mind. Wright's analysis should clarify that. That and the entire resurrection seems to be removed from its Jewish context.

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Ugh. I just typed this huge response with supporting citations and links and then promptly exited the page on accident. I'm out of time to redo everything so I'll post a quick response and come back and fill in references later - okay?

I don't think there was anything "sudden" about it. He couldn't reject a belief he never held in the first place. Plenty of people in the early first century did not believe in physical resurrection. Saul of Tarsus appears to have been a proto-Gnostic Platonist.

Paul (if you believe Acts) was a Pharisee on trial specifically for his hope in the resurrection(Acts 23:6, iirc).

I'm sure the Sadducees and Essenes were familiar with that passage as well.

True but again, Paul was a Pharisee and Pharisees (if my google source is accurate) believe in a literal physical resurrection.

Among the Jews the Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the physical body after death. "In classical Judaism, resurrection of the dead was a central belief, essential to defining oneself as a Jew. “Today,” writes Jon D. Levenson in Resurrection and the Restoration of Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life (Yale University Press, 2006)., professor of Jewish studies at Harvard, that fact “comes as a shock to most Jews and Christians alike.” (The Case for What ‘Comes as a Shock to Most Jews and Christians Alike’ by Peter Steinfels.)

The Jewish people believed that God created the world. Our physical world is God's creation, and it is good. The Pharisees, in contrast to the Greco-Roman religious beliefs, vigorously affirmed the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. The Pharisees stressed a literal resurrection of the physical body, which would be reunited with the spirit of an individual. Their worldview embraced a future restoration of God's original design for his world. The Pharisees envisioned a time of redemption in which God would realign the physical creation with the ethereal realm. -Brad H. Young, Paul, The Jewish Theologian, at 123

.

Source: http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/pecorip/SCCCWEB/ETEXTS/PHIL_of_RELIGION_TEXT/CHAPTER_7_SOULS/Resurrection.htm

His reasoning here extends from verse 3:

For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Fair enough. But if Paul took his cue from Peter, why did he disregard the Peter's day of Pentecost teachings about Christ's physical uncorrupted body? (Acts 2:29-31 ish)

I don't think ἀλλαγησόμεθα has quite that definite meaning, sufficient to discriminate this verse. And I don't think that in the very next verse he would change his mind about flesh and blood inheriting the kingdom of God.

I hate being dependent on a thesaurus and various Biblical translations. Oh how I wish I could read the text in Greek.... :( I think that the whole of Paul's writings support the idea of an incorruptible, glorious body. Whether it is flesh and blood, I don't know, but resurrection seems to be more than simply being raised in spirit. Even though Paul writes of the bondage of the flesh, he equates that with slavery to the corruptibility of our present state. Perhaps his promise of a quickening of our mortal bodies through spiritual renewal also points to his believe in a physical resurrection.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

* PS Hopefully these questions aren't too stupid :pardon:. Lacking formal training, I'm left to my scriptures and google. LOL. I appreciate your responses as they give me more to study and research!

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Ugh. I just typed this huge response with supporting citations and links and then promptly exited the page on accident.

Boy I hear ya. I’ve wanted to smash my screen sometimes. Nowadays I compose lengthy posts in Word or else copy them into another window as I go along.

I'm out of time to redo everything so I'll post a quick response and come back and fill in references later - okay?

I look forward to it. :)

Paul (if you believe Acts) was a Pharisee on trial specifically for his hope in the resurrection(Acts 23:6, iirc).

...

Paul was a Pharisee and Pharisees (if my google source is accurate) believe in a literal physical resurrection.

Maybe Paul’s Pharisaic beliefs were like my Mormon beliefs. Paul was tutored by Gamaliel the Elder but apparently displayed “impudence in matters of learning” and claimed to have “advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries”. The intellectual environment of Tarsus probably colored his pre-conversion views. But whatever those view were, they are far less important than his post-conversion views, which underwent radical transformation on the road to Damascus. It was a shared vision but his companions’ experience was very different from his. This would be difficult to explain if Jesus was physical being with a real flesh-and-blood body but makes sense if he was a purely spiritual being.

if Paul took his cue from Peter, why did he disregard the Peter's day of Pentecost teachings about Christ's physical uncorrupted body? (Acts 2:29-31 ish)

Good question. Peter appears to have stated that Jesus’ “soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption.” Or, from an alternate translation, that “he was not abandoned to the grave, nor did his body see decay.” If Peter really did say this, it flies in the face of Paul’s teachings that flesh is “corrupt” and/or “perishable”.

Keep in mind that Acts was written after the Gospel of Luke, by the same author; so we shouldn’t be surprised if they expound similar views regarding bodily resurrection. Acts is often contradictory; e.g., did Paul’s companions hear a voice but not see anyone or did they see the light but not hear the voice?

There is nothing prior to Luke and Matthew to suggest that Peter believed Jesus was bodily resurrected.

Oh how I wish I could read the text in Greek....

I hear ya. I served a Greek-speaking mission but that was modern Greek and many years ago...

I think that the whole of Paul's writings support the idea of an incorruptible, glorious body. Whether it is flesh and blood, I don't know, but resurrection seems to be more than simply being raised in spirit. Even though Paul writes of the bondage of the flesh, he equates that with slavery to the corruptibility of our present state. Perhaps his promise of a quickening of our mortal bodies through spiritual renewal also points to his believe in a physical resurrection.

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

This verse in a vacuum could hint at a physical resurrection but in full context I don’t think so.

Hopefully these questions aren't too stupid.

Heck no, they are excellent questions. I appreciate the thought and effort you’ve put into them.

Lacking formal training, I'm left to my scriptures and google. LOL. I appreciate your responses as they give me more to study and research!

I’m not trying to set myself up as an expert. I’m just calling it like I see it.

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Paul was tutored by Gamaliel the Elder but apparently displayed “impudence in matters of learning” and claimed to have “advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries”.

First of all, it is a huge assumption to make that we are dealing with Paul in the talmudic anecdote. Second, Gamaliel would not have been considered his contemporary, but his master.

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First of all, it is a huge assumption to make that we are dealing with Paul in the talmudic anecdote. Second, Gamaliel would not have been considered his contemporary, but his master.

Yeah, there's an assumption there but it's a minor point.

Care to answer the questions listed in the OP?

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Yeah, there's an assumption there but it's a minor point.

Perhaps, but it is indicative of the quality of your OP.

Care to answer the questions listed in the OP?

Sure. I'll take this one.

How is a wounded body “raised in incorruption”?

One has nothing to do with the other. Corruption ment a state where something rotted away until it ceased to exist in that form.

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