Geza Vermes on The Resurrection

The Resurrection is the final instalment of Geza Vermes's Jesus trilogy, which began with The Passion and The Nativity. Vermes again adopts his trademark forensic textual analysis to separate fact from myth: "I wanted to explain exactly what the New Testament does tell us about the resurrection. People usually rely on others to interpret the gospels for them and St Paul's assertion of the physical resurrection has become a cornerstone of Christianity for many people. If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then faith is rubbish.

"Yet if you look at what Jesus actually said, then you get a different picture. If he did talk about the resurrection, he forgot to write it down; so it's more likely he didn't. And if he did, then why did his resurrection come as such a surprise to the apostles? No one said, 'Of course, Jesus said it would be like this' when his tomb was found to be empty; even Mary Magdalene assumed that someone must have moved the body. Nobody's reactions correspond to the expectation of a resurrection."

Vermes goes on to argue that subsequent sightings of Jesus are best understood as visions in which the apostles felt his charisma working as it had done when he was alive. "Jesus had promised to be with them and he was," he argues. "It's a resurrection of the spirit in the hearts of believers. The idea of an afterlife predates the Christian era and the preaching of eternal life is well attested; a physical resurrection is not essential to a belief in spiritual survival."

from an interview in The Guardian - read the rest here

Comments

[(still) hopefulamphibian]

It's really well worth reading Tom Wright's recent "Surprised by Hope" which critiques the kind of unhistorical argument presented by Vermes - and also explains exactly why nobody expected Jesus to rise again - resurrection, it was believed, was what would happen for all the righteous at the end of the age, not for one human being now, in the present.

[Quixie]

To the amphibian commenter:

So . . . then you admit that Jesus never predicted his own individual physical resurrection?

:)

Ó