The Resurrection Accounts

Steph raised a very interesting question in the Easter entry comments. I started to blab on a bit there and realized this topic really involved more than enough for a separate entry. Voila!

The resurrection accounts are each notoriously unique in their approach to Jesus' appearances. For someone who needs very precise historicity, we can mostly fit them together if we suppose that the others just didn't mention all the events--like Steph's comment that John mentions only Mary Magdalene as going to the tomb and she alone sees Jesus (John 20:1, 10-18). Matthew tells us that Jesus appeared to both M. M. and "the other Mary" (Matt. 28:1), probably Mary the mother of James mentioned in Mark 16:1. Mark also mentions Salome.

If Mark 16 had an original ending that was lost, we can suppose that it came closest to Matthew's ending (since Matthew and Mark are without question the closest in presentation to each other overall). I suspect it at least included an appearance of Jesus in Galilee. Clayton Croy (Asbury grad) wrote a whole book on the subject, if you're interested: The Mutilation of Mark's Gospel. As it stands, there is nothing in Mark that is significantly incompatible with the other gospels (its tensions with Luke are no different from the tensions Matthew has with Luke).

Matthew presents an appearance of Jesus to two women at the tomb (Matt. 28:9), a claim that fits with John's presentation of the appearance to Mary Magdalene. In this case, I'm okay with the idea that John has omitted reference to Mary mother of James and that she also saw the risen Christ. I'm guessing that for whatever reason, Salome did not see Jesus on this occasion (Mark 16:1). Luke mentions a Joanna and others. I'm not too bothered about tensions in details like these. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

The Great Commission presents a couple of issues. On the one hand, its theology seems a bit advanced for this point in the life of the disciples. For example, it involves a commission to all nations and a "trinitarian" baptismal formula. I completely affirm everything in it. But if this is exactly what Jesus said, the disciples didn't seem to remember it for decades, if you know what I mean. Some wonder if Matthew is basically summarizing "the rest of the story" here, while the story itself took a lot longer to come to this understanding. I can't give you the answer. I believe Jesus appeared to the disciples in Galilee and commissioned them to spread the word.

This now leads us to Luke, in some ways the most unique. Luke tells us nothing of Galilee. If all we had was Luke, you would crucify me if I even suggested the content of Matthew and Mark! Here is a stern warning to those who think they are defending God with their zealous harmonizations and deChristianization of others for not holding a rigid, Chicago statement type version of inerrancy. If all we had was any one of the four gospel presentations, they would deChristianize someone for suggesting any of the other gospel versions! Since the other gospels are equally inspired, we must seriously doubt that such zealots are very good representatives of God on this issue. Like the pre-Christian apostle Paul, they have a zeal without knowledge.

The men on the road to Emmaus are unique to Luke (I've mentioned previously that I think the longer ending of Mark is basically summarizing Luke at this point). I don't doubt this story--maybe some early Christians did doubt these guys' story, which might explain why the other gospels don't include it.

Then Luke slips in a most surprising comment in 24:34: "The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon!" Why isn't this narrated anywhere? It is surely the most significant appearance of all, one that Paul mentions as the frontispiece in 1 Corinthians 15:5!

It seems to me that we must take one of two paths at this point.

1. We might suppose that it is at this point that Luke has omitted the appearances of Jesus in Galilee. This has the strength of fitting with the trajectories of Matthew and Mark, which both give us no reason to believe that Jesus ever appeared in Jerusalem to the disciples. On the other hand, both Luke and John tell us that Jesus appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem the night of the resurrection. To conclude otherwise requires us to sacrifice a major aspect of their historical portrayal (although not their theological portrayal).

This might not be too difficult if it were only Luke, since Luke seems to artfully arrange his material. E.g., compare the ending of Luke with Acts. Not only are there no appearances of Jesus in Galilee at all there, but the time connections would most naturally lead us to see Jesus rising and ascending to heaven on the same day (24:1, 9, 13, 33, 36, 50)! The only possible gap is at verse 50, and we wouldn't guess it unless we had Acts and the other gospels.

I conclude that Luke presents these events with artistry without in any way feeling it wrong to arrange things to make the message at hand as clear as possible. Thus his omission of any resurrection appearances in Galilee. His goal is to present the truth of the gospel as clearly as possible, not to present the most precise historical reconstruction possible.

By the way, one reason to suggest the downplaying of the appearence in Galilee (e.g., to Peter and the others) is precisely because of what Matthew 28:17 tells us... some of the disciples were not convinced by these appearances. What if the disciples rushed back to Jerusalem when some of them believed that Jesus had risen from the dead?

This seems a very tempting place to put the trip to Galilee, and it allows us to take the rest of the story in Luke at face value, the appearance to them in Jerusalem being the one that really convinced the other disciples! While Jesus is appearing to the men on the road to Emmaus, the other disciples are seeing him in Galilee. Then they all rush back to Jerusalem!

The biggest weakness to this theory is that John also tells us of Jesus' appearance that first night in Jerusalem (20:19-23). This fact significantly ups the historical ante, especially since so many think John is a witness independent of the other gospels. Therefore, most of us will feel more comfortable with option number 2.

2. The Galilee appearances took place during the 40 period mentioned in Acts one, after this evening appearance in Jerusalem.

This option has only the disadvantage of not explaining why some in Galilee still doubted in Matthew 28:17. Especially after the appearance to Thomas and such in John!

It seems to me that we have worked out at least two plausible explanations for the major issues of the gospel resurrection accounts. I do not believe you can remain sane and look at these four with a rigid, Chicago Statement, Southern Baptist inerrantist perspective. But we can plausibly fit the major aspects of these portrayals together--certainly enough to provide a plausible account of the resurrection, which is what is essential to Christian faith.

We have reconstructed the events like this:

1. Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene and Mary mother of James after they and other women find the tomb empty. Paul interestingly doesn't mention these in 1 Corinthians 15 (heh, heh, heh, women? ...)

2. Jesus appears to Peter, either somewhere near Jerusalem (Luke) or in Galilee.

3. Jesus appears to the disciples, either in Jerusalem the night of his resurrection (Luke, John) or in Galilee (Matthew, [Mark]), or both (adjusting the timing of Luke and John a little or placing it during the 40 days of Acts 1).

4. Jesus appears to over 500 brothers at once (before the ascension on the Mount of Olives?)

5. Jesus appears to James and others who the NT calls apostles, lastly including Paul.

I don't claim to have all the answers. But I am trying to take all the accounts seriously as individual accounts, rather than shoving one or another down the throats of all the others. Someone might argue that this latter practice comes from a high idea of Scripture. But in my view it shows no respect at all for the actual books of Scripture themselves. The books don't hurt after I'm done with them--only the theology of misguided zealots.