"It is clear that the scriptural stories about this six-week period contradict one another egregiously with regard to the number and places of Jesus' appearances, the people who were on hand for such events, and even the date and the location of the ascension into heaven. Despite our best efforts above, the gospel accounts of Jesus' post mortem activities in fact cannot be harmonized into a consistent "Easter chronology." Nor need we bother to ask if the miraculous events of this Easter period could have been observed or recorded by cameras or tape recorders, had such devices been available. The reasons both for the patent inconsistencies and the physical unrecordability of these miraculous "events" come down to one thing: The gospel stories about Easter are not historical accounts but religious myths.
"I say this not at all out of disrespect for Christian faith or for the doctrines that it holds. Rather, I mean to indicate the general literary form of the Easter accounts. They are myths and legends; and it is absurd to take them literally and to create a chronology of preternatural events that supposedly occurred in Jerusalem and Galilee during the weeks after Jesus had died."
--Thomas Sheehan of the Religious Studies Department at Stanford. “The First Coming: How the Kingdom of God Became Christianity.”
From: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/ ... wo.html#e3
***
"If the resurrection of Jesus cannot be believed except by assenting to the fantastic descriptions included in the Gospels, then Christianity is doomed. For that view of resurrection is not believable, and if that is all there is, then Christianity, which depends upon the truth and authenticity of Jesus' resurrection, also is not believable. If that were the requirement of belief as a Christian, then I would sadly leave my house of faith. With me in that exodus from the Christian church, however, would be **every ranking New Testament scholar in the world--Catholic and Protestant alike**: E. C. Hoskyns, C. H. Dodd, Rudolf Bultmann, Reginald Fuller, Joseph Fitzmyer, W. E. Albright, Ray-mond Brown, Paul Minear, R. H. Lightfoot, Herman Hendrickx, Edward Schillebeeckx, Hans Kung, Karl Rahner, Phyllis Trible, Jane Schaberg, D. H. Nineham, Maurice Goguel, and countless others."
---Bishop John Shelby Spong, John Shelby Spong, Resurrection: Myth or Reality? A Bishop's Search for the Origins of Christianity (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1994), p. 238.
***
Some resurrection problems:
Was there or wasn't there a guard at the tomb?
(MT, yes; MK, LK, JN, no mention of a guard; in fact, there could not
have been a guard insofar as the women visitors were concerned in MK
& LK given that they were planning to anoint the body with spices.)
Exactly who were the first visitors to the tomb?
(MT, Mary Magdalene & the other Mary, i.e., two; MK, both of the
above, plus Salome, i.e., three; LK, Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the
mother of James, and other women, i.e., at least five; JN, Mary
Magdalene, i.e., one.)
Exactly what time of day was it when the first visitor(s) arrived.
(MT, toward dawn; MK, after sunrise; LK, early dawn; JN, still dark.)
Was there or wasn't there a stone still in place over the entrance to
the tomb when the first visitor(s) arrived?
(MT, still in place, rolled away later; MK, LK & JN, already rolled
or taken away.)
Was there or wasn't there an earthquake?
(MT, yes; MK, LK, JN, none mentioned.)
Was there or wasn't there an angel present? If so, how many?
(MT, one angel who rolled back the stone and then *sat* on it; MK,
one young man *sitting* inside the tomb; LK, men suddenly appear
*standing* inside the tomb; JN, two angels *sitting* inside the
tomb.)
What did the woman/women do immediately after finding (or being told)
that the tomb (was) empty?
(MT, ran to tell the disciples; MK, said nothing to anyone; LK, told
the eleven & all the rest; JN, the disciples returned home, Mary
remained outside weeping.)
Where was Jesus' first post-Resurrection appearance?
(MT, fairly near the tomb; LK, in the vicinity of Emmaus, seven miles
from Jerusalem; JN, right at the tomb.)
Did Jesus allow anyone to touch him prior to his Ascension?
(MT, he lets Mary Magdalene & the other Mary hold him by his feet.
JN, on his first appearance to Mary, he forbids her to touch him
because he has not yet ascended to his Father, yet he tells Thomas a
week later to touch him even though he hasn't yet ascended.)
Did those who first learned this story believe or disbelieve?
(MT, although some doubted, most believed because they followed the
revealed instructions; MK & LK, the initial reaction was one of
disbelief--all doubted.)
Exactly what was the order of post-Resurrection appearances?
(MT, Mary Magdalene, the other Mary, the eleven; MK Mary Magdalene,
two others, the eleven; LK, two, Simon (Peter?), the eleven; JN Mary
Magdalene, the disciples without Thomas, the disciples with Thomas,
then the eleven again; 1CO, Cephas (Peter?), the twelve [really? one
disciple was dead], 500+ brethren [120 in Acts], James, all the
Apostles, Paul.)
A few thoughts on Easter
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Barbara Fitzpatrick
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