Revisiting the Empty Tomb: The Early History of Easter

282 Pages·2010·17.72 MB·English

by  Daniel A. Smith

Revisiting the Empty Tomb
The Early History of Easter
Daniel A. Smith
FORTRESS PRESS
M I N N E A P O L I S
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For my teachers, especially
John P. Egan, S.J.†
John S. Kloppenborg
Richard N. Longenecker
REVISITING THE EMPTY TOMB
The Early History of Easter
Copyright © 2010 Fortress Press, an imprint of Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved. Except for
brief quotations in critical articles or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any man-
ner without prior written permission from the publisher. For more information visit: www.augsburg
fortress.org/copyrights or write to: Permissions, Augsburg Fortress, Box 1209, Minneapolis, MN
55440-1209.
Translations of biblical and other ancient texts are the author’s own unless otherwise noted.
“Side with the Seeds,” written by Jeff Tweedy and Mikael Jorgenson © 2007 WORDS AMPERSAND
MUSIC (BMI) AND JORGENSTORMUSIC (ASCAP)/Administered by BUG MUSIC. All rights
reserved. Used by permission.
Cover image: Ivory relief about 400 a.d. Bayerisches Nationalmuseum.
Cover design: Laurie Ingram
Book design: Michelle L. N. Cook
Smith, Daniel Alan, 1963-
Revisiting the empty tomb : the early history of Easter / Daniel A. Smith.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and indexes.
ISBN 978-0-8006-9701-3 (alk. paper)
1. Jesus Christ—Resurrection—Biblical teaching. 2. Holy Sepulcher—Biblical teaching.
3. Bible. N.T—History of Biblical events. I. Title.
BT482.S65 2010 2009044518
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard
for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z329.48-1984.
Manufactured in the U.S.A.
14 13 12 11 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
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Tires type black
Where the blacktop cracks
Weeds spark through
Dark green enough to be blue
When the mysteries we believe in
Aren’t dreamed enough to be true
Some side with the leaves
Some side with the seeds
—Wilco, “Side With The Seeds”
(written by Jeff Tweedy and Mikael Jorgensen)
What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And that
which you sow—you do not sow the body that is to come,
but a naked seed, perhaps of wheat, or of something else.
But God gives to that seed a body exactly as he wishes—and
he gives to each of the seeds its own particular body.
—1 Corinthians 15:36-38
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Contents
Preface vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction: Not Here but Risen: Seeing and Not Seeing
the Easter Jesus 1
Two Independent Traditions: The Disappearance and the Appearances of Jesus 2
Four Basic Reminiscences 8
1. When the Dead and/or Gone Appear to the Living 13
Apparitions of the Dead and/or Gone in Greco-Roman Literature 16
Apparitions of the Dead and/or Gone in Early Jewish and
Christian Literature 20
The Appearances of (the Risen) Jesus and the Origins of Belief in Jesus’
Resurrection 22
2. Paul: “Last of All, He Appeared Also to Me” 27
Paul and the Resurrection Kerygma 29
The Resurrection of the Dead and the Finer Points of Greek Anthropology 35
Paul and the Empty Tomb 40
Paul and the Two Traditions 43
3. Empty Tombs and Missing Bodies in Antiquity 47
Assumption in the Hebrew Bible, the Ancient Near East, and Early Jewish
Apocalypticism 49
Assumption in Greco-Roman Writings, Hellenistic Judaism, and Early
Christianity 53
Interpreting Empty Tombs and Missing Bodies 60
4. The Sayings Gospel Q: “You Will Not See Me” 63
The Trouble with Q 66
Q and the Postmortem Vindication of Jesus 67
To the Origins of the Empty Tomb Tradition 76
How Different Is Assumption? How Different Is Q? 78
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5. Mark: When the Bridegroom Is Taken Away 83
The Revelation of the Son of God 85
Seeing Mark 16:1-8 as the Conclusion of the Gospel 89
The Resurrection of the Son of Man 91
Assumption as Resurrection, and Resurrection as Assumption 97
6. Luke: “Why Do Doubts Arise in Your Hearts?” 99
How Luke Adapts the Empty Tomb Story 101
The Appearance to Simon (Peter) and His Visit to the Tomb 103
Are We Seeing a Pneuma? 106
Luke’s Apostolic Control of the Empty Tomb Story 112
Excursus: The Text of Luke 24 (Especially Luke 24:12) 115
7. Matthew: “And Behold, Jesus Met Them” 119
How Matthew Adapts the Empty Tomb Story 121
“And Behold, Jesus Met Them”: The Risen Jesus at the Tomb 126
“All Authority Is Given to Me”: The Risen Jesus as the Exalted Son of Man 132
8. John: “Where I Am Going, You Cannot Come” 137
How John Adapts the Empty Tomb Story 140
“I Have Seen the Lord”: Mary Magdalene’s Encounter with the Risen Jesus 144
Seeing Is Believing? The Resurrection of Jesus as the Eighth Sign 149
9. Rewriting the Empty Tomb: Early Christian Deployments and
Developments 153
The Additions to Mark 16 155
Narrative Expansions of the Empty Tomb Story 158
The Empty Tomb Story and Early Christian Apologetic 164
Empty Tomb Motifs in Early Christian Hagiography 166
Visiting the Empty Tomb at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre 170
Uneasy Easter Stories 173
10. Revisiting the Empty Tomb: Why Beginnings Matter 177
Beginnings That Converge Narratively 179
Beginnings That Converge Theologically 182
Notes 185
Bibliography 235
Index of Selected Subjects 251
Index of Modern Authors 254
Index of Ancient Texts 257
vi Revisiting the Empty Tomb
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Preface
Over the course of this project, from its inception to its completion, many indi-
viduals have offered important support and encouragement in various ways, and
I wish to offer them my thanks. First, I want to thank those who kindly agreed at
various stages of this project to read individual chapters and to provide feedback,
in particular John Kloppenborg, Agnes Choi, Darrell Reimer, and Timothy Con-
nor. I am especially grateful to those who agreed to read the book as it was being
prepared for publication: Dale Allison, Wendy Cotter, John Kloppenborg, and
Amy-Jill Levine.
Some of the material contained in this book was presented, at earlier stages
and in very different forms, at annual meetings of the Canadian Society of Bibli-
cal Studies. I am especially grateful to the CSBS, not only for the feedback and
advice I received from those who patiently endured my several papers on the
empty tomb stories, but especially for the generous and collegial forum the Soci-
ety provides.
I also wish to express my gratitude to the library staff at Huron University
College, in particular Bice Schmitz du Moulin, who was always willing to rush a
new volume through the cataloging process so that I could use it. Thanks are also
due to the Huron University College Faculty of Theology, particularly to Rev. Dr.
William Danaher (Dean of Theology), and to Rt. Rev. Dr. John Chapman (for-
mer Dean), for support given to my work; I also wish to thank Jennifer Martin
for the help she gave me as my research assistant during the summer of 2008.
I am also grateful to the Venerable Dr. Timothy Connor and the wardens at
St George’s Anglican Church in London, Ontario, for their permission to use the
image of the stained-glass window that appears in the introduction. I also thank
Evan Agnew, who took the picture.
I am very grateful to the editorial staff at Fortress Press, in particular Neil
Elliott, who took an interest in this project and was very supportive and helpful
in the process of bringing the book to publication.
Above all, I thank my wife, Patricia, and our sons, Matthew and James. My
family was a great source of encouragement especially in the final stages of this
project, when I was not often absent, but often absentminded; without their lov-
ing support I could not have completed this book.
Finally, I wish to express my indebtedness to my teachers, in particular Fr.
John Egan, John Kloppenborg, and Richard Longenecker, who invested their
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time and energy in my formation as a student of Christian origins, not only dur-
ing my doctoral program, but also in the years since, whether by their example
or direct involvement. More than any method, hypothesis, or fact, what I learned
particularly from these three was careful devotion to the study of the texts of early
Christianity. This book is dedicated to them with gratitude and admiration.
viii Preface
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Abbreviations
AB Anchor Bible
ABD Anchor Bible Dictionary. Edited by D. N. Freedman. 6 vols. New
York: Doubleday, 1992.
ABRL Anchor Bible Reference Library
AGJU Arbeiten zur Geschichte des antiken Judentums und des
Urchristentums
AnBib Analecta biblica
ANF Ante-Nicene Fathers
AR Archiv für Religionswissenschaft
BAR Biblical Archaeology Review
BBR Bulletin for Biblical Research
BDAG W. Bauer, F. W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich. Greek-
English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian
Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
BDF F. Blass, A. Debrunner, and R. W. Funk. A Greek Grammar of the
New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1961.
BETL Bibliotheca ephemeridum theologicarum lovaniensium
BNTC Black’s New Testament Commentaries
BR Biblical Research
BZNW Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CCSL Corpus Christianorum, series latina
CEJL Commentaries on Early Jewish Literature
CH Church History
CIG Corpus inscriptionum graecarum. Edited by A. Böckh. 4 vols.
Berlin: G. Reimer, 1828–77.
ConBNT Coniectanea biblica, New Testament Series
CSCO Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium
CSHJ Chicago Studies in the History of Judaism
CTR Criswell Theological Review
CW Classical World
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