1B: Jesus - His Resurrection Flashcards
(88 cards)
1
Q
Chiasm
A
a style of writing that repeats similar ideas in reverse sequence (ABCBA)
2
Q
Apostle
A
‘the one who is sent’. name given to those in the early church who were sent by Jesus to preach the good news. amongst them were those who had been in Jesus’ group of disciples but joined early
3
Q
Paul
A
a first century apostle who preached Christianity mainly to the Gentiles. wrote many letters to the churches that had set up in Gentile regions
4
Q
Eschatology
A
study of the end times
5
Q
Realised eschatology
A
the idea that the quality of life normally associated with a relationship with God after death can be experienced now
6
Q
Immortal soul
A
idea associated with Plato. suggest there may be a kind of life after death but does not involve a body or a return to earth. if the soul is immortal it will reside forever in a non physical realm
7
Q
Jewish eschatology
A
there was no consensus on what to believe about death and the afterlife in the Jewish tradition at the time of Jesus. Pharisees did believe in some kind of life after death but Sadducees didn’t
8
Q
Rudolf Bultmann
A
German theologian who argued that the NT needs to be demythologise to be properly understood as an account of the theological beliefs of the early Church. described the resurrection narratives as ‘myths’
9
Q
Demythologisation
A
removing the supernatural elements of a text to reveal underlying beliefs that are being expeessed
10
Q
Existentialist
A
a philosopher who emphasises freedom of choice and personal responsibility but who regards human existence in a hostile universe as unexplainable
11
Q
NT Wright
A
modern English theologian who argues for the historicity of the bodily resurrection of Jesus
12
Q
Bad Arguments
A
the term used by Wright for arguments used by people who dispute the idea of Jesus’ resurrection being a historical and physical event (eg Swoon theory)
13
Q
What is the difference between resurrection and resuscitation?
A
resurrection: being restored to life after a period of being dead and being given a new body that has some continuity with the old one
resuscitation: being restored within ones original body shortly after death has occured. body is the exact same as it was beforehand
14
Q
What is meant by reincarnation?
A
- life after death is the re embodiment of a soul in a completely new body with no connection to the previous body
- example: a soul previously residing in a cat might be reincarnated in a human body
- found in many eastern religions eg Hinduism
15
Q
What is meant by immortal soul?
A
- suggest there may be some life after death but doesn’t involve a replacement body or a return to earth
- in this view the soul is immortal, and after separating at the death of the body, it will reside forever in a non physical realm
16
Q
What is meant by resurrection?
A
- comes from Latin word meaning to ‘live again’
- the Greek equivalent is specifically the word resurrection is used by Christianity to the even of Jesus rising from the dead
17
Q
Matthew 10:28
A
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell
18
Q
What does Matthew 10:28 suggest?
A
- Jesus had already told the disciples he would be killed and they should expect persecution
- they should not ‘fear those who can only kill the body’: implies that Jesus was hinting at some life after death
- death should not be feared; implies a dualist (idea that mind/soul and the body are two different things) understanding of human existence
- our souls may continue after our bodily death
19
Q
John 20-21
A
- Jesus seeks to overcome the disciples sorrow, fear and doubt in order to bring them to faith
- “he saw and believed”: believed in resurrection just because of the empty tomb, he did not need physical evidence
- “‘Jesus said to her, “Mary!” she turned and said to him in Hebrew “Rabbouni! (teacher)”: Mary believes when she hears Jesus call her name. needed physical evidence
- Jesus breathed on the disciples and said “receive the holy spirit”: the disciples recognise Jews and receive the Holy Spirit. most important point
- Jesus shows his wounds to thomas: he needed substantial evidence but believes Jesus when he can touch his wounds
- “Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name”: those who read the evidence will believe
20
Q
Which disciple believed as soon as he saw the empty tomb?
A
John (‘the disciple who Jesus loved’)
21
Q
How did Mary Magdalene recognise the risen Jesus in the garden?
A
she recognised him through his voice. (suggests there was discontinuity with his pre-crucfixion body since she didn’t recognise his appearance)
22
Q
What instructions did the risen Jesus give Mary Magdalene?
A
he tells her to not hold on to him because he has not ascended yet. he tells her to tell the disciples
23
Q
Which disciple needed to see Jesus’ wounds before he would believe in the resurrection?
A
Thomas
24
Q
To which disciple did Jesus say ‘feed my sheep’?
A
Simon Peter
25
Some similarities between Jesus' resurrection body and our bodies in John 20-21
- 20:13 Jesus shares a meal: normal behaviour, if he was a ghost why would he need to eat?
- 20:28 Jesus shows his wounds: physical evidence of his injuries from the crucifixion which have not healed and proves it's the same body
- 20:16 Jesus speaks and Mary recognises his voice: only alive humans can speak, and his voice is the same: continuity of the same body
- 20:27 Jesus can be touched: if he were a ghost this wouldn't be possible
26
Some dissimilarities between Jesus' resurrection body and our bodies in John 20-21
- 20:4 disciples did not recognise Jesus: might be because his body was in some kind of unrecognisable state or maybe too far away
- 20:22 Jesus breathes the holy spirit on then
- 20:17 Jesus told Mary not to cling to him: a ghost? or maybe he does not want Mary to cling to him because he is going to ascend
- appearing through locked walls
27
John 20 is structured as a chiasm. What does this mean?
- chiasm is a structural written form which repeats ideas in a reverse sequence with a single key idea in the middle (ABCBA)
- key idea is hidden: power of the Holy Spirit will help the ressurection
- A1: John sees the empty tomb and believes
- B1: Mary comes to believe when she hears Jesus call her name
- C: the disciples recognise jesus and receive the holy spirit
- B2: Thomas believes when he touches Jesus' wounds
- A2: Gospel writer emphasise everything he's written to encourage people to believe
28
What is redaction criticism?
a type of Biblical study used by scholars to consider the role of gospel writers and redactors/editors of their source materials. choosing how to structure the previously oral sources in written form allowed gospel writers to promote their theological concerns and write in a way which would engage their intended readers
29
What theological points might the writer of John 20 be making?
- emphasising the importance of believing
- presents different responses of mary and the various disciples in each of the encounters in chapter 20 and 21
- some believe easily whereas others need more evidence
- the writer states his purpose: to testify to the evidence so that people can believe
- central point in chiasm suggest the holy spirit will help people to believe: could emphasise the role of the Holy Spirit in the early church
30
1 Corinthians 15 key points
- relates to Paul’s conversion experience
- accepts the resurrection as an objective fact, believes it is essential to his belief
- if the resurrection was a lie then the entire religion was built on a lie
- analogy of the sunflower seed: a dead flower can grow into a new and living one "what you sow does not come to life unless it dies"
- we do not die, we change states "we will all be changed"
- the heavenly body is immortal and powerful, and will inherit God’s kingdom
- God had power of death
31
1 Corinthians 15:42:44 describe the resurrection body. What are its key features? (think PIGS)
- Powerful
- Imperishable
- Glorious
- Spiritual
32
1 Corinthians 15: Paul testifies to the resurrection appearances
- Jesus died for our sins and was buried, then raised after 3 days: appeared to more than 500 brothers and sisters - some dead, some alive
- appeared to all the apostles - Paul last because he persecuted the church of god
- Paul claimed he worked the hardest because the grace of god was with him
- gives the testimony of his own conversion: Jesus appeared to him even though he has persecuted the church
33
1 Corinthians 15: importance of the resurrection- if it doesn't happen then faith is pointless
- if the resurrection did not happen then the whole faith was built on a lie and therefore pointless
- because death came through a human, that means resurrection must have come through a human too
- he compares Adam, whose disobedience brought in death and sin to the world, with Jesus whose disobedience to god restored life for those who are in union with christ (v21-22)
- v23-28 suggest an order in which this happens, eg Christ is raised first and later believers will be raised
34
1 Corinthians 15: explaining what the resurrection body will be
- v35-37
- v37-39: Paul uses the analogy of a seed planted in the ground. the seed is dead and buried in the ground, but once planted in this way brings forth new life with a continuity with the old life from whence the seed came
- PIGS
- resurrected body excels over the earthly body just as the plant is more excellent than the seed
- Paul implies the man of (Jesus) excels over the man of earth (Adam)
35
Philippians 1:21-24 key points
- "my desire is to depart and be with christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you"
- he has the hope of resurrection life which he is excited for, but we shouldn't spend our lives looking forward to the resurrection
- living in the flesh is labour, life with Christ is better
- we should not fear death
36
What does St Paul teach about death and the resurrection in philippians 1:21-24?
dying is to be with Christ. although a believer wants to live, they also desire death because they will be with Christ in the afterlife
37
What does Bultmann mean when he describes the death of Jesus as a victory?
argues the crucifixion showed the world that existential truth that people don't need to fear death. believed that there is a transcendence to the universe, something greater than our individual lives
38
In Greek thought what part of a person is only meant to be immortal?
the soul
- belief is often associated with Plato who held out the idea of possibility of afterlife for the soul but in a disembodied state
39
How are St Paul’s beliefs about life after death different from those in Greek thought?
he argues in Philippians 1 that afterlife for a believe is to be present with Christ in a resurrected body
- contradicts the platonic thought of immortality of only the soul
40
2 pieces of evidence in John 20-21 to support the belief that Jesus' body was in some way transformed after resurrection
1. we are told in various places the disciples did not recognise Jesus at first
2. ch20:19: Jesus "came and stood amongst them" even though the doors were locked
41
What does Thomas' encounter with Jesus suggest about the resurrected body?
that there was also some continuity with his pre res body- still bores the marks of crucifixion
42
What does St Paul teach about the nature of the resurrected body in 1 Corinthians 15?
- PIGS
- seed analogy explains idea of continuity between dead body and resurrected body
43
According to St Paul what is the difference between resuscitation of a human body and resurrection?
resurrection; old body is transformed, not simply brought back to life
44
Does St Paul clarify whether our bodies will be transformed individually at death or collectively at a point in the future?
no, there is no indication of how or when this change will be effected
45
According to St Paul what will happen to our old bodies at the point of resurrection?
they will be transformed and take on the 4 qualities - PIGS
46
According to St Paul what event guaranteed an after life for all christians?
the resurrection of Jesus
47
According to Wright were early Christian beliefs about the afterlife closer to Greek or Jewish ideas?
Jewish ideas: they accepted the idea of bodily resurrection, not just immortality of the soul
48
What are the first two stages of the resurrection according to St Paul?
1) the Messiah
2) at his coming, all people
(1 cor 15)
49
How did Bultmann define myth?
the report of an event/occurrence in which supernatural, superhuman powers/persons are at work
50
What did Bultmann state was the one necessary thing to believe in for Christian faith?
that Jesus lived, preached and died by crucifixion
51
What did Bultmann believe was needed to be done to the NT?
it needed to be demythologised
52
Example of a myth
three tiered universe
- Earth is a sphere, heaven above and hell beneath
53
What did Bultmann believe about the resurrection?
- it is a myth
- a story designed to sustain faith
- scientifically minded modern readers cannot believe in the resurrection of a corpse
54
Summary of Bultmann’s beliefs
- Jesus is the son of God, in the sense that he is the expression of god
- what God had to say he initiated in Jesus
- belief in the resurrection of Jesus' physical body is not necessary to Christian faith. it is actually contrary to faith
55
Quote from Bultmann about the resurrection
"what is decisive is not that Jesus came to life again but that he is, for you, the risen one"
56
What are modern Christians unable to accept the resurrection with integrity?
- it cannot be proved
- even if it could be proved, it could not in itself give meaning to the event of the crucifixion
57
What is the resurrection in its demythologised form?
- the realisation that the cross of Christ was a victory and not a defeat
- the disciples realised that when he died, Jesus was already the son of god
- therefore his death by itself was a victory over the power of death
- the Lord of life had given himself over to death, meaning that he conquered it
- the crucifixion contained the resurrection within it, there was no second historical event
- the victory comes through the cross
- faith in the resurrection is the same as faith in the saving efficacy of the cross
58
What is the saving efficacy of the cross?
comes through faith 'in the word of preaching'
59
Where does preaching originate from?
rise of belief in the disciples
60
How do people receive illumination?
through preaching, not any historical event
61
What does Bultmann believe about the supernatural aspects of the gospels?
they are a part of a metaphysical view of the universe which is no longer relevant
62
What does reductionist mean?
simplifying an idea
63
Why does Bultmann say we cannot simply strip away the myths?
because it is too reductionist, and it makes Jesus no more than an ethical teacher who lived, taught and died
64
What does kerygma mean?
preaching/proclamation of the Christian gospel
65
Why does the kerygma tell us that we have an inauthentic existence?
because we cling to the past and rely on our own efforts
66
What does the kerygma proclaim God's gift of salvation through Christ has done?
enabled human freedom to be authentic
67
What are the 3 ways that Bultmann states a modern Christian thinker can choose to understand the resurrection story?
1. retreat into this mythological world
2. find all passage in the NT which are not loaded with these mythological presuppositions, reducing the Christian message to the ethical preaching of Jesus
3. find a deeper meaning in the passage (recommended)
68
According to Bultmann, was the resurrection a historical event?
no
- he says "if the resurrection were a historical fact, faith would become superfluous"
- it was something that happened in the mind of the disciples (a religious experience???)
- it wasn't a physical event that really happened
69
According to Bultmann how should Christians understand the resurrection in a demythologised sense?
- the cross of christ was a victory, not a defeat
- it was a victory over the power of death
- the resurrection was a 'repression of god' all along
- refers to the rising of faith as the disciples had their personal religious experience of realising existential truth
70
According to Bultmann, did the gospel writers and St Paul believe that the resurrection was true?
- yes
- he says that the 'resurrection itself is not an event of past history. all that historical critics can establish is that the disciples came to believe in the resurrection'
71
What is the name of NT Wrights book?
The Resurrection of the Son of God
72
Who is NT Wright?
An English theologian
73
What is Greek belief about life after death and resurrection?
- dualist concept of a soul
- there is no evidence in greek philosophy of any belief in bodily resurrection
- the poet Homer believed that Hades, the home of the dead, is a place of shadows
- Plato holds out the possibility of an afterlife for the soul but not a bodily return to the present world
- a play by Euripides; Hercules rescues alcestis from the god of death, but plays deals with mythology
74
What is Jewish belief about life after death and resurrection?
- in OT, the belief in resurrection is 'vague and unfocused'
- the Hebrew Sheol (the place of the dead) is similar to Homer’s Hades. people are asleep there and to wake them up is dangerous and forbidden
- Isaiah 26 and Ezekiel 37: resurrection is part of hope for the whole nation, it will happen to all of gods people at the same time
- Israelites believed in physical resurrection but did not agree as to whether the resurrected body would be like the former body or different
- in post Biblical Judaism people do not pass directly from death to resurrection but go through an interim period, after which the death of the body will be reversed so resurrection refers to the undoing of death
75
What did Wright believe the resurrection to be?
- a real, historical event
- life after 'life after death' - a new life after a period of being bodily dead
76
What did Platonists believe about the resurrection?
immortality for only the soul
77
What did Israelites believe about the resurrection?
physical, did not agree if the body would resurrect into former body or a different body
78
Early Christian belief about life after death and resurrection
- belongs within the Jewish spectrum
- ultimate hope was the bodily resurrection
- some in Corinthians denied the future resurrection but paul put them straight
- 2 people in 2 Timothy 2:18 say the resurrection has already happened but stand out by their oddity
- belief in resurrection is much more sharply focused than in Judaism
- resurrection will be an act of new creation, not a simple return to the same body as before
- will involve the gift of a new body with different properties
- new identity is at present kept safe by God in heaven to earth, renewed bodies need a renewed earth (God keeps new identities safe in heaven until it is time for resurrection, then he brings it to earth)
- splits the resurrection in two phases (Paul): the Messiah and then his coming all his people
79
The reason for early Christian belief, and the meaning of Jesus' resurrection
- believed Jesus was the messiah because Jesus had not done what the Messiah was supposed to do (he had not won a decisive victory over israel's enemies, nor restored the temple, nor established God’s reign in the world)
- there had been other failed Messiahs eg Judah the Galilean in 6CE, bar-Kochbar in 135) but the first task of those who tried to carry on their work after their death was to find another Messiah
- Jesus' resurrection is what made him the Messiah
- other Jews had died promising resurrection, their followers believed they would be raised from the dead but nobody said they had been, for the obvious reason that they hadn't
- it is clear that the gospel accounts of the resurrection are about an event which happened at some interval after Jesus' death
- Jesus was exalted to heaven forty days after the resurrection
- in the gospel narratives we find that Jesus' body is not merely a 'spiritual' presence , nor merely resuscitated but transformed
- Jesus' body had new properties eg walking through locked doors
80
How might theories that reject the resurrection be countered?
1) Jesus somehow survived the crucifixion (but roman soldiers knew how to kill people)
2) the tomb was empty, but nothing else happened (the disciples would have assumed Jesus body had been stolen, not resurrected)
3) the disciples simply had visions of Jesus (visions of someone recently dead do not cause people to claim that the departed person has been raised from the dead)
4) they lived in prescientific times (ancient writings show clear evidence of understanding that dead people stay dead)
81
According to Wright, was there an expectation in Greek culture of a bodily resurrection?
No
- in his book he surveys both Greek and Jewish beliefs about afterlife at and before the time of the early church
- he concludes there is no evidence in Greek philosophy of any belief in bodily resurrection
- Plato argued the soul is immortal but the body is not
82
Old Testament evidence for a belief in resurrection
- some Psalms (73) express hope that there is something good after death
- Isaiah (26) and Ezekiel (37) both have an idea of the 'resurrection of the nation' - implying it would happen to everyone togethe
83
Old Testament evidence that there was no belief in resurrection
- vague and unfocused ideas
- Sheol (place of the dead) was similar to Homer’s idea of Hades
- the full spectrum of belief in resurrection - Sadducees denied it
84
For the early Christians what did the resurrection prove?
it proved that Jesus was the 'Messiah'
85
Outline early Christian beliefs about life after death and resurrection (Wright)
Wright argues that the resurrection cannot have been a myth invented by the early Christian community because the idea of the Messiah dying and being bodily resurrected to eternal life was completely unexpected in Jewish theology and therefore would not have been invented as it wouldn't have persuaded anyone
86
According to Wright what sets Jesus apart from the other men who had claimed to be the Messiah?
Wright argues that other failed messiahs, such as Judas the Galilean, were abandoned by their followers when they died
- the followers simply moved on to the next potential Messiah
- however Jesus' followers did not do so
- Wright argues the gospel accounts of an empty tomb and resurrection appearances are best explained by the claim that the disciples made (eg that Jesus has risen from the dead)
87
Counter argument from Wright that Jesus somehow survived the crucifixion
- this is 'swoon theory'
- Wright says it can be discounted: Roman soldiers know how to kill people
88
Who was Rudolf Bultmann?
A German theologian
