Catholic Studies Quiz #8

Pitre lists three things which the disciples did not mean when they claimed that Jesus had been resurrected. What are they?

1. They were not claiming that he had simply come back to ordinary earthly life.

2. They were not claiming his soul or spirit was “alive” with God.

3. They were not claiming that he was “exalted to heaven” after he died.

What three points “are essential for understanding what the disciples were actually claiming when they said that Jesus had been ‘raised from the dead’” (176)?

1.     The resurrected Jesus has a body.

2.     The resurrected Jesus has the same body that he had while he was alive.

3.     The resurrected Jesus has a transformed body. Although it is the same body, it now possesses new, extraordinary qualities.

What does Pitre say on the subject of the empty tomb?

It was very unlikely that the discovery of the empty tomb would be attributed to a woman (Mary Magdalene) if it was just a false tale that Jesus’ disciples were trying to give reliability to. In addition, the Jewish elders and the Romans do not deny the empty tomb, they just try to explain it in a different way.

What reasons do some scholars give for rejecting the historicity of the appearances of the resurrected Jesus? How does Pitre respond?

They reject them because “they differ in detail at almost every level.” Pitre says the presences of differences does not mean that the resurrected Jesus did not actually appear to his disciples, because it only matters that there are primary claims on which the eyewitnesses clearly agree.

The New Testament writings repeatedly insist that Jesus’ resurrection from the dead was the fulfillment of Jewish Scripture. What Scriptures did Jesus’ resurrection fulfill?

It fulfilled the sign of Jonah. Just like Jonah was in the belly of Sheol (Old Testament term for the realm of the dead) for three days and three nights, Jesus would be dead for three days before being resurrected.

“According to Jesus, it is not just his resurrection from the dead that will be a reason for believing in him” (189). What is the second reason?

The second reason is the inexplicable conversion of the pagan nations of the world. Countless Gentile nations, cities, and even empires would go on to repent, cast away their idols, and turn to the God of Israel, which is a point that many modern Christians have forgotten.

What five pieces of data does Dunn consider in reference to the resurrection?

1.     Reports of Jesus’ tomb being found empty

2.     Reported “sightings” of Jesus after his death

3.     Transformation of the first disciples and initial spread of the new faith

4.     The very high estimate of Jesus which soon became established in Christian faith

5.     Claims of believers since the beginning of Christianity to encounter Jesus alive here and now

What historical considerations favor the truth of the claim that Jesus’ tomb was empty?

1.     If the testimony was not based on fact, then the narrative would not have given the leading testimony to women, whom no one would believe.

2.     The lack of correlation between the Gospel accounts shows that it was not likely that one was contrived to bolster the other.

3.     Even a Jewish response to the Christian claim did not dispute the testimony about the tomb being empty. The controversy was not the emptiness of the tomb, but the explanation of why it was empty.

4.     Early Christians did not venerate Jesus’ tomb; they did not regard it with any significance because it did not contain Jesus’ earthly remains.

What does Dunn mean when he writes that the truth of the accounts of the Resurrection is supported by their lack of contrivance?

The lack of correlation between the Gospel accounts shows that it was not likely that one was contrived to bolster the other. The more unanimous the testimonies, the more we would conclude that they were all derived from a single source, which would mean that there would not be four testimonies, but one.

What does Dunn say about the alternative explanation that the resurrection appearances were just hallucinations?

1.     Unlike the visions of Isis and Asclepius, who were mythical figures from the dim past, Jesus was seen just days or weeks after his death.

2.     It is not the seeing of Jesus after he was dead which was so surprising in the context of the times, it was the conclusion to which the seeing led.

3.     If they were hallucinations, then we would expect them to be made up of images and symbols the disciples had gleaned from Jesus, like the image of him “coming on the clouds of glory.” However, there is nothing of this in the various accounts of resurrection appearances.

Why was the claim that Jesus was raised from the dead “odd”?

1.     There was a belief in resurrection at the time of Jesus, but it was a belief in the final resurrection at the end of history. Therefore, it was strange that Jesus alone had been raised before the end.

2.     The first Christians believed that Jesus’ resurrection began the general resurrection and the final events of history.