In the Christian Gospels, the Resurrection of Jesus was the return to bodily life of Jesus after his death by crucifixion. Christian doctrine, ritual and theology are based on the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus being actual events in history. Most Christians accept the New Testament chronicle in all four Gospels as a historical account of Jesus' resurrection which is central to their faith. The New Testament states that after Jesus was executed by Roman crucifixion and entombed, he then was raised from the dead on the third day. His empty tomb was found by his followers. He appeared to many people over a span of forty days before his return to heaven (Ascension). Christians commemorate these events annually from Easter Sunday to Ascension Day.
Background
In the Torah, the Jewish scriptures and the Old Testament of the Bible, an important concept sets the background for the significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was the promise of God to provide an eternal liberating king in the line of King David of Bethlehem. This was the reasoning that the Apostle Peter used in his first public defense for the historicity and significance of the resurrection.
In the First Century BC, there were debates between the Pharisees who believed in the future Resurrection, and the Sadducees who did not. The Sadducees did not believe in an afterlife, but the Pharisees believed in a literal resurrection of the body. The Sadducees, politically powerful religious leaders, took a literal view of the Torah, rejecting the Pharisees' oral law, afterlife, angels, and demons. The Pharisees, whose views became Rabbinic Judaism, eventually won (or at least survived) this debate. The promise of a future resurrection appears in certain Jewish works, such as the Life of Adam and Eve, c 100 BC, and the Pharisaic book 2 Maccabees, c 124 BC.
Significance
Early Christians wrote of the power of the resurrection of Jesus. Earliest resurrection texts speak about a "revolutionary change of history in the direction of justice." The New Testament claims that only if the resurrection of Christ is real is Christian faith and the forgiveness of sin "not an illusion."
As Paul the Apostle, an early proponent of Christianity, contended, "If Christ was not raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your trust in God is useless." The death and resurrection of Jesus are the most important events in Christian Theology. They form the point in scripture where Jesus gives his ultimate demonstration that he has power over life and death, thus he has the ability to give people eternal life. According to the Bible, "God raised him from the dead," he ascended to heaven, to the "right hand of God," and will return again to fulfill the rest of Messianic prophecy such as the Resurrection of the dead, the Last Judgment and establishment of the Kingdom of God; see also Messianism and Messianic Age.
The following passage is Paul the Apostle's apologetic (defence) of the resurrection of Christ:
If it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep
– 1 Corinthians 15:12-20, NRSV
This box: view • talk • edit Some modern scholars use the belief of Jesus' followers in the resurrection as a point of departure for establishing the continuity of the historical Jesus and the proclamation of the early church. Most non-Christians do not accept the bodily resurrection of Jesus, considering it a myth without historical precedent. Carl Jung suggests that the crucifixion-resurrection account was the forceful spiritual symbol of, literally, God-as-Yahweh becoming God-as-Job.
According to international scholar Thorwald Lorenzen, the first Easter led to a shift in emphasis from faith "in God" to faith "in Christ." Today, Lorenzen finds "a strange silence about the resurrection in many pulpits." He writes that among some Christians, minsters, and professors, it seems to have to have become "a cause for embarrassment or the topic of apologetics.". It has been argued that many Christians neglect the resurrection because of their understandable pre-occupation with the Cross. However, the belief in Jesus physical resurrection remains the single doctrine most accepted by Christians of all denominational backgrounds.
Groups such as Jews, Muslims, Bahá'ís, and other non-Christians, as well as some liberal Christians, dispute whether Jesus actually rose from the dead. Arguments over death and resurrection claims occur at many religious debates and interfaith dialogues.
Records
Early creeds
The earliest written records of the death and resurrection of Jesus are the letters of Paul, which were written around two decades after the death of Jesus, and show that within this timeframe Christians believed that it had happened. Some scholars suppose that these contain early Christian creeds and creedal hymns, which were included in several of the New Testament texts and that some of these creeds date to within a few years of Jesus' death and were developed within the Christian community in Jerusalem. Though embedded within the texts of the New Testament, these creeds are a distinct source for early Christianity.
- 1 Cor. 15:3-4 reads: "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures." This contains a Christian creed of pre-Pauline origin. The antiquity of the creed has been located by many biblical scholars to less than a decade after Jesus' death, originating from the Jerusalem apostolic community. Concerning this creed, Campenhausen wrote, "This account meets all the demands of historical reliability that could possibly be made of such a text," whilst A. M. Hunter said, "The passage therefore preserves uniquely early and verifiable testimony. It meets every reasonable demand of historical reliability."
- Romans 1:3–4 : "...concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord."
- 2 Tim. 2:8 : "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, this is my Gospel."
Gospel narratives
According to the Gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. The Gospel of Matthew states that after an earthquake an angel appeared near the tomb of Jesus and announced his resurrection to Mary Magdalene and "another Mary" who had arrived to anoint the body. According to Luke there were two angels. According to Mark there was a youth dressed in white. The last section of Mark, which is considered a later addition by most biblical scholars (see Mark 16), states that on the morning of his resurrection, Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene. John states that when Mary looked into the tomb, two angels asked her why she was crying; and as she turned round she initially failed to recognize Jesus until he spoke her name.
The Acts of the Apostles state that Jesus appeared to various people in various places over the next forty days. Hours after his resurrection, he appeared to two travellers on the road to Emmaus. To his assembled disciples he showed himself on the evening after his resurrection. Although his own ministry had been specifically to Jews, according to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is said to have sent his apostles to the Gentiles with the Great Commission and ascended to heaven while a cloud concealed him from their sight. Acco
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