Did Jews Expect the Messiah to Rise from the Dead?

Posted on March 21, 2008

 

The short answer is “No.” N.T. Wright explains why…

But it remains the case that resurrection, in the world of second-Temple Judaism, was about the restoration of Israel on the one hand and the newly embodied life of all YHWH’s people on the other, with close connections between the two; and that it was thought of as the great event that YHWH would accomplish at the very end of the ‘the present age’, the event which would constitute the ‘age to come’, ha ‘olam haba. Nobody imagined that any individuals had already been raised, or would be raised in advance of that great last day…There are no traditions about a Messiah being raised to life: most Jews of this period hoped for resurrection, many Jews of this period hoped for a Messiah, but nobody put those two hopes together until the early Christians did so. – N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God, 205

 

McGrath on the Resurrection

Posted on March 20, 2008

This Easter season I have been stirred by the reflective writing of Alister McGrath. As a historical and systematic theologian, McGrath is known for his academic works and the recent Dawkins Delusion. However, his Resurrection (Truth and Imagination) is an exception. Retaining his ability to stimulate the intellect, McGrath devotionally pushes into the imagination in his reflections on the resurrection of Jesus. After an extended essay on Jewish notions of the resurrection, Mary’s encounter with Jesus, and the artwork of Maurice Denis McGrath concludes:

The meaning of the resurrection is existential, not just cognitive. Or, to put it in plain English, the resurrection of Christ does not merely open up fresh ways of thinking; it opens up different ways of existing and living.