இயேசுவின் உயிர்த்தெழுதல் வரலாற்று நிகழ்ச்சியா?[தொகு]

இயேசுவின் உயிர்த்தெழுதலை வரலாற்று அடிப்படையில் நிறுவ முடியுமா என்பது குறித்தும், அது காலம் கடந்த நிகழ்ச்சியாகக் கொள்ளப்பட வேண்டுமா என்பது குறித்தும் அறிஞர்களிடையே ஒருமித்த கருத்து இல்லை.^[3]

மேலும் காண்க[தொகு]

• உயிர்த்த ஞாயிறு
• பெரிய வியாழன்
• பெரிய வெள்ளி
• விண்ணேற்றப் பெருவிழா
• பாஸ்கா திருவிழிப்பு

ஆதாரங்கள்[தொகு]

Theological considerations[edit]

The earliest Jewish followers of Jesus (the Jewish Christians) understood him as the son of man in the Jewish sense, a human who, through his perfect obedience to God's will, was resurrected and exalted to heaven in readiness to return as the son of man (the figure from Daniel 7 13-14), ushering in and ruling over the Kingdom of God.^{[15][need quotation to verify]} Paul has already moved away from this apocalyptic tradition towards a position where Christology and soteriology take precedence: Jesus is no longer the one who proclaims the message of the imminently coming Kingdom, he actually is the kingdom, the one in whom the kingdom of God is already present.^[16] This is also the message of Mark, a gentile writing for a church of gentile Christians, for whom Jesus as "Son of God" has become a divine being whose suffering, death and resurrection are essential to God's plan for redemption.^[17]

Matthew presents Jesus' appearance in Galilee (Matthew 28:19-20) as a Greco-Roman apotheosis, the human body transformed to make it fitting for paradise.^[18] He goes beyond the ordinary Greco-Roman forms, however, by having Jesus claim "all authority ... in heaven and on earth" (28:18) – a claim no Roman hero would dare make – while charging the apostles to bring the whole world into a divine community of righteousness and compassion.^[19] Notable too is that the expectation of the imminent Second Coming has been delayed: it will still come about, but first the whole world must be gathered in.^[19]

In Paul and the first three gospels, and also in Revelation, Jesus is portrayed as having the highest status, but the Jewish commitment to monotheism prevents the authors from depicting him as fully one with God.^[20] This stage was reached first in the Christian community which produced the Johannine literature: only here in the New Testament does Jesus become God incarnate, the body of the resurrected Jesus bringing Doubting Thomas to exclaim, "My Lord and my God!"^[21][22]

Historicity[edit]

 

The miraculous catch of 153 fish by Duccio, 14th century. Jesus is standing on the left, in the fourth resurrection appearance in John's gospel.

Textual sources[edit]

The earliest mention of the resurrection is in the Pauline epistles, which tradition dates from between 50 and 58 AD.^[23][24]Paul shows very little interest in the teachings of Jesus, focusing attention instead on his role as the suffering, dying, resurrected Christ who would return at any moment to gather the elect and judge the world.^[25] In his first epistle to the Corinthians Paul passes on a creed that he says he received shortly after his conversion (1Co. 15:1-8).^[26] Christ, he says, was raised on the third day "according to the scriptures: and then appeared to various followers.^[a] He lists, apparently in chronological order, a first appearance to Peter, then to "the Twelve," then to five hundred at one time, then to James (presumably James the brother of Jesus), then to "all the Apostles," and last to Paul himself.^[26] Paul does not mention any appearances to women at the tomb, and other New Testament sources do not mention any appearance to a crowd of 500.^[26] There is general agreement that the list is pre-Pauline, but less on how much of it belongs to the tradition and how much is from Paul: most scholars feel that Peter and the Twelve are original, but not all believe the same of the appearances to the 500, James, and "all the Apostles".^[27]

The next texts that mention the resurrection are the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. These date from between 70 and 110 AD, and it is almost certain that none of them were written by eyewitnesses.^[28] Evidence of this can be seen in the conflicts between them: to take a few examples, according to the Synoptic GospelsJesus' mission took one year, was spent primarily in Galilee, and climaxed with a single visit to Jerusalem at which he cleansed the Temple of the money-changers, while in John, Jerusalem was the focus of Jesus' mission, he visited it three times (making his mission last three years rather than one), and the cleansing of the Temple took place at the beginning rather than the end of the ministry.^[29] Mark, written in the period 65-75 CE, originally contained no post-Resurrection appearances, although Mark 16:7, in which the young man discovered in the tomb instructs the women to tell "the disciples and Peter" that Jesus will see them again in Galilee, hints that the author may have known of the tradition.^[30]

The authors of Matthew (c.80-90 CE) and Luke/Acts (a two-part work by the same anonymous author, usually dated to around 80–90 CE) based their lives of Jesus on the Gospel of Mark^[31][32] but diverge widely after Mark 16:8, where Mark ends with the discovery of the empty tomb. Matthew has two post-Resurrection appearances, the first to Mary Magdalene and "the other Mary" at the tomb, and the second, based on Mark 16:7, to all the disciples on a mountain in Galilee, where Jesus claims authority over heaven and earth and commissions the disciples to preach the gospel to the whole world.^[33] Luke does not mention any of the appearances reported by Matthew,^[34] contradicts him regarding an appearance at the tomb (Luke 24:24), and replaces Galilee with Jerusalem as the sole location.^[35] In Luke, Jesus appears to Cleopas and an unnamed disciple on the road to Emmaus, to Peter (reported by the other apostles), and to the eleven remaining disciples at a meeting with others. The appearances reach their climax with the ascension of Jesus before the assembled disciples on a mountain outside Jerusalem. In addition, Acts has appearances to Paul on the road to Damascus, to the martyr Stephen, and to Peter, who hears the voice of Jesus.

The Gospel of John was written some time after 80 or 90 CE, and differs significantly from both Matthew and Luke.^[36] Here Jesus appears at the empty tomb to Mary Magdalene (who initially fails to recognise him), then to the disciples minus Thomas, then to all the disciples including Thomas (the "doubting Thomas" episode), finishing with an extended appearance in Galilee to Peter and six (not all) of the disciples.^[37] Chapter 21, the appearance in Galilee, is widely believed to be a later addition to the original gospel.^[38]

The empty tomb[edit]

 

5 part resurrection icon, Solovetsky Monastery, 17th century

There are various arguments against the historicity of the resurrection story. For example, the number of other historical figures and gods with similar death and resurrection accounts has been pointed out.^[39] However the majority consensus among biblical scholars is that the genre of the Gospels is a kind of ancient biography.^[41] Christ-myth theorist Robert M. Price claims that if the resurrection could, in fact, be proven through science or historical evidence, the event would lose its miraculous qualities.^[39]

New Testament historian Bart D. Ehrman recognizes that "Some scholars have argued that it's more plausible that in fact Jesus was placed in a common burial plot, which sometimes happened, or was, as many other crucified people, simply left to be eaten by scavenging animals." He further elaborates by saying: "[T]he accounts are fairly unanimous in saying (the earliest accounts we have are unanimous in saying) that Jesus was in fact buried by this fellow, Joseph of Arimathea, and so it's relatively reliable that that's what happened."^[42] He later changed his mind, stating that part of the crucifixion punishment was being "left to decompose and serve as food for scavenging animals", i.e. left without decent burial, since everyone wanted having a decent burial in the Antiquity.^[43]

Géza Vermes presents six valid possibilities to explain the empty tomb narrative: (1) The body was removed by someone unconnected with Jesus; (2) The body was stolen by the disciples; (3) The empty tomb (the tomb visited by the women) was not the tomb of Jesus; (4) Buried alive, Jesus later left the tomb; (5) Jesus recovered from a coma and departed Judea; (6) There was a spiritual, not bodily, resurrection. Vermes states that none of these six possibilities is likely to be historical.^[44] According to N. T. Wright in his book The Resurrection of the Son of God, "There can be no question: Paul is a firm believer in bodily resurrection. He stands with his fellow Jews against the massed ranks of pagans; with his fellow Pharisees against other Jews."^[45]

According to Gary Habermas, "Many other scholars have spoken in support of a bodily notion of Jesus’ resurrection."^[46] Habermas also points out three facts in support of Paul's belief in a physical resurrection body. (1) Paul is a Pharisee and therefore (unlike the Sadducees) believes in a physical resurrection. (2) In Philippians 3:11 Paul says "That I may attain to the ek anastasis (out-resurrection)" from the dead, which according to Habermas means that "What goes down is what comes up". And (3) In Philippians 3:20-21 "We look from heaven for Jesus who will change our vile soma (body) to be like unto his soma (body)". According to Habermas, if Paul meant that we would change into a spiritual body then Paul would have used the Greek pneuma instead of soma.^[47]

According to a rough estimate by scholar Gary Habermas, 75% of New Testament scholars are in favor of an empty tomb, while 25% reject an empty tomb.^[48]

References[edit]

Citations[edit]

Bibliography[edit]