Easter Gospels: The resurrection of Jesus according to the four evangelists

251 Pages·1983·19.446 MB·English

by  Robert H Smith

e a s t e R
O S P Q L S
The Resurrection of Jesus
According to the Four Evangelists
ROBERT H. SMITH
IUGSBURG Pti:>fishilg House'· Mimeapolis
EASTER GOSPELS
Copyright@) 1983 Augsburg Publishing House
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 83-70518
International Standard Book No. 0-8066-2024-2
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical articles or
reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without
prior written permission from the publisher .. Write to: Permissions,
Augsburg Publishing House, 426 S. Fifth St., Box 1209, Minneapolis MN
·55440.
Scripture quotations unless otherwise noted are from the Revised·
Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1946,1952, and 1971 by the Di
vision of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches.
Manufactured in the United States of America
....
contents
Acknow ledgmen ts page 5
List of Abbreviations page 6
Introduction page 7
Chapter 1 Mark ............................................................................. ,. ...... 17
The Setting: Persecution
The Original Ending of Mark
Mark 16:1-8: He Goes before You
Additional Note: Silence and the Women
Summary: Vindicated Leader of Disciples
Chapter 2 Matthew ............................................................................... 55
The Setting: Struggle for the Hig.her Righteousness
Matthew 27:62-66: Seal the Tomb
Matthew 28:1-10: He Has Been Raised
Matthew 28:11-15: Spread This Story
Matthew 28:16-20: I Am with You
Summary: Exalted Teacher of the Church
Chapter 3 Luke ...................................................................................... 93
The Setting: Roman Power and the Lordship of Christ
Luke: 23:56b-24:12: Angels at the Tomb
Luke: 24:13-35: On the Way to Emmaus
Luke: 24:36-53: Farewell
Summary with Comments on Acts 1-2:
This Jesus-Lord and Christ
Chapter 4 John ................................................ ~ ................................... 145
. The Setting: Excluded and Orphaned
John 20:1-18: Three Disciples
John 20:19-23: He Breathed on Them
John 20:24-31: My Lord and My God
John 21: The Editor's Conclusion
John 21:1-14: The Net Was Not Torn
John 21:15-25: We Know His Testimony is True
Summary: Glorified Son of God
Epilog page 199
Appendix: Other Ancient Endings of Mark page 203
Notes page 219
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Looking back over the whole process leading to the conclusion of
this manuscript, I realize that it would be impossible even to list the
names of all the people in whose debt I stand-countless generous
teachers and helpers, including family and students. (Perhaps some
would not even want to be named, lest they be associated with the
shortcomings of this work!)
Nevertheless, I must at the very least make explicit my gratitude
to the. good people at the Ecumenical Institute for Theological Studies
in Jerusalem (Tantur), where Meta, Maria, and I were so graciously
received in the fall of 1978, to Robert Fortna of Vassar College for gen
tle advice and encouragement in the early stages of research and writ-
. ingat Tantur, to Everett Kalin, colleague at Christ Seminary
Seminex for his painstaking and detailed critique of the manuscript in
its final stages, to Ralph Petering of St. Louis for his interest and
support, and to the Aid Association for Lutherans for a grant sup
porting a study leave.
At more than one level it seems appropriate to dedicate this work
to a woman witness: my mother Gertrude, my first teacher in the
many meanings of Easter.
St. Louis ROBERT SMITH
1983
5
ABBREVIATIONS
ASTI Annual of the Swedish Theological Institute.
BAGD W. Bauer, W. F. Arndt, F. W. Gingrich, and F. Danker, Q(is., A
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early
Christian Literature.
BDF F. Blass, A. Debrunner, and R. W. Funk, eds., A Greek Gram
mar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Litera
ture.
BZ Biblische Zeitschrift.
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly.
CTM Concordia Theological Monthly.
Currents Currents in Theology and Mission.
EphThLov Ephemerides Theologicae Lovaniensis.
EvTh Evangelische Theologie.
ExpT Expository Times.
IDB Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible.
IEJ Israel Exploration Journal.
Int Interpretation.
JAAR Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature.
JR Journal of Religion.
JTC Journal of Theology and the Church.
JTS Journal of Theological Studies.
NovT Novum Testamentum;
NTS New Testament Studies.
RB Revue Biblique.
SJT Scottish Journal of Theology.
ThS Theologische Studien.
ThZ Theologische Zeitschrift.
TLZ Theologische Literaturzeitung.
USQR Union Seminary Quarterly Review.
ZKG ' Zeitschrift fUr Kirchengeschichte.
ZNW Zeitschrift fUr die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft.
ZThK Zeitschrift fUr Theologie und Kirche.
6
..
Intuoo[Jction
Perhaps another book on Easter and the resurrection could be is
sued without apology, covered simply by passing reference to the in
trinsic importance of the subject matter. After all, Easter ranks with
Good Friday and Christmas in importance among the holy days of
Christendom. These days, and those events in heaven and on earth
which they celebrate, have always been the heart of the living body of
Christian imagination and devotion. Indeed, it would not be far from
the truth to declare that while these three abide, the greatest of them
is Easter. Paul Althaus has said that "there has never been a message
about the Christ that was not an Easter message."l
Of course, Althaus' statement is an extravagant hyperbole. It is
literally true only as long as one defines "message about the Christ" so
as to exclude as unorthodox, heretical, or un-Christian all those
documents, sermons, and platforms that have purported to be Chris
tian but which make no reference to Easter or even actually deny the
historical truth of Jesus' resurrection.
For example, the source document known as Q circulated in the
earliest days of the church before Matthew and Luke wrote their
gospels, and it contains no resurrection account. Furthermore, 2
Thessalonians, Philemon, Titus, 3 John, 2 Peter, James, and Jude are
New Testament writings entirely lacking in any overt reference to Je
.sus' resurrection. However, they do presuppose it. The writers of these
letters emphatically confess Jesus as the Lord in whom we live and as
the Savior whose glorious epiphany we await.
7
8 Introduction
Modern post-Enlightenment christologies represent a different
kind of challenge to the statement of Althaus. Serious moderns, hold
ing membership in almost every Christian denomination, have pic
tured Jesus as rabbi or mystic, pacifistic advocate of lost causes or
violent revolutionary, tragic hero or wandering charismatic, or~s the
embodiment of the ideals of a Victorian gentleman, the Boy Scout
movement, or big business. These modern christologies also do not
have Easter at the center of their messages. Nevertheless, Althaus is
correct when he effectively fixes attention on the fact that Jesus' res
urrection or exaltation climaxes the very earliest songs and creeds of
the church (e.g., 1 Cor. 15:3-5; Rom. 1:3-4; 4:25; 8:34; Phil. 2:6-11; Col.
1:15-20; 1 Tim. 3:16; 1 Peter 3:18-20), that it is the climax in each of our
canonical gospels, and that it is the presupposition of the very exist
ence of the early church and of the writings of the ear ly church.
Friends and foes alike acknowledge the centrality of the resurrec
tion in the New Testament and the church, and the present book,
without quibble about the relative brilliance of the resurrection in the
constellation of Christian convictions, appears under the assumption
that Easter is important enough and sufficiently strong to withstand
the assault of one more attempt at interpretation.
Defining the Present Work
While another study of the resurrection does not need justifying,
the scope, the aim, and the method of this study do. A beginning can
be made by declaring what this book does not intend to be or to do.
lt is not another attack upon, nor another apology for, the histor
ical reality of Jesus' resurrection or the reliability of the traditions of
his empty tomb and post-crucifixion appearances to his disciples.
From the beginning the resurrection has been doubted, denied,
mocked, and explained away by insiders as well as by outsiders. The
Easter narratives have suffered as outrageously as the heroes in the
roll call of Hebrews 11: tortured, banished, scourged,' chained, stoned,
sawn in two. .
Ancient and modern Christians, as well as old and new pagans,
have regarded the resurrection of Jesus as a willful deception, a mis
understanding based on a swoon and later spontaneous recovery, a
mistaken interpretation consequent upon the women's visit to the
wrong t0mb or their visit to the right tomb emptied by a gardener anx
ious to preserve his flowers and vegetables from the feet of the
curious, a projection of the myth-making and myth-needing heart of
the human animal. Learned literary analyses, focusing on discrepan-
Introduction
9
cy in the texts and working under the spell of the causal nexus of all
things with all things in the universe, have concluded that there really
never was a resurrection nor an empty tomb nor angels nor a garden
er; there were only visions of Jesus by Peter, or perhaps not a vision
but only a growing conviction of his continuing life, or a fresh perspec
tive on the majesty of his cross.
This book is not another attack, nor on the other hand is it one
more defense of the historical truth of Easter. There are many such
apologetic works, including works of dazzling and original scholar
ship. The reality or historicity of the resurrection has been defended
in many ways: as according neatly with modern anthropology and the
structure of human hope; as a real event but transcendent and there
fore visible only to the eye of faith; as a unique event without analogy
except in the future; as an event requiring a finer net of assumptions
than usual for its apprehension; as a dated experience affecting a his
torical figure of recent memory and so different from the return to life
of Attis, Adonis, and Osiris, whatever the formal resemblances may
be. The truth of the resurrection has been argued by pointing to the
rhythms of nature and to lesser transformations and victories of life
over decay, to parallels in the history of religions, and to the trustwor
thy character of the earliest witnesses. Reference has also been made
to the effects in early Christian history such as the observance of Sun
day by a band of religious Jews, the production of those vibrant writ
ings constituting the New Testament, the crossing of hard boundaries
and the inclusion of Gentiles into a new community, the celebration of
Baptism and Eucharist not merely as memorials, but as acts of incor
poration into the Christ. Additionally, the resurrection has been de
fended as a reality by reference to the transformation in ancients like
Peter and Paul and in mode~ns like Malcolm Muggeridge and Charles
Colson. It has, of course, also been defended by shouters venomously
. deriding doubters and unbelievers or simply thundering with convic- .
tion or anxiety, "It is written!"
Naturally not all books on Easter fall into the category of defense.
or assault. Many good or bad books attempt ~o state the meaning of
the resurrection for the New Testament as a whole or for contempora
ry Christian faith as a whole. Other books investigate the way to in
vestigate Easter or the ways Easter has been regarded in the past in
order to begin to make sense of the host of approaches and the many
tools, methods and assumptions with which investigators sift the data
and construct their hypotheses.