Messianic Theology: Resurrection

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Article II - The Person of Jesus
Jesus the Messiah is the image of the invisible God, which is to say, He is Himself very God; He took upon Him our nature, being conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary; He died upon the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for the sin of the world; He arose from the dead in the body in which He was crucified; He ascended into heaven in that body glorified, where He is now, our interceding High Priest; He will come again personally and visibly to set up His kingdom and to judge the quick and the dead.
The Resurrection:
The resurrection of Jesus the Messiah is that central moment in human history that serves as the foundational doctrine of Messianic Theology. After having truly assumed human nature and submitted to an agonizing and shameful public death, the eternal Son of God was truly raised from the dead in his glorified physical body, no longer subject to decay and death. His resurrection validates his identity as the divine Son of God, demonstrates his irrevocable victory over death and the grave, and secures both the present salvation and future physical resurrection of believers.
Resurrection in Gelut (world outside of Israel)
Outside of Jewish people, nobody believed in resurrection. ‘Resurrection’ was not one way of describing what death consisted of. It was a way of describing something everyone knew did not happen: the idea that death could be reversed, undone, could (as it were) work backwards.
Egypt - afterlife was entered by ascending to the sky to join the gods, particularly the sun god in his journey across the sky.
Mesopotamia - unless you are a king or priest most people go to a netherworld where there are trials you must go through to reach comforts. In most of the ancient Near East the dead were cared for through occasional water libations and food scraps from regular family meals left at the grave.
Greek/Hellenized World - In so far as the ancient non-Jewish world had a Bible, its Old Testament was Homer. And in so far as Homer has anything to say about resurrection, he is quite blunt: it doesn’t happen.

The classic statement is that of Achilles as he addresses the grief-stricken Priam, mourning his son Hector whom Achilles has killed:

You must endure, and not be broken-hearted. Lamenting for your son will do no good at all. You will be dead yourself before you bring him back to life.

Nor, declares Hector’s mother, could Achilles raise up his dead companion Patroclus, despite dragging her son round his body.

The tradition is maintained unbroken through the hallowed Athenian dramatists. Here, from Aeschylus’ Eumenides, is Apollo, speaking at the foundation of the Athenian high court, the Areopagus:

Once a man has died, and the dust has soaked up his blood, there is no resurrection.

The Resurrection of the Dead is Strongly Affirmed in the Hebrew Bible.
The Torah affirms the Resurrection of the Dead.
Jesus says Moses Alludes to the Resurrection of the Dead (Luke 20:37; Exo 3:6)
Paul identifies it as a cardinal belief of the Pharisees (Acts 23:6-7) .
The Early first century Rabbis found many proofs for the resurrection of the dead in the Hebrew Bible (b. Sanh. 90B) and the Resurrection still remains a central doctrine for most of Judaism today.
The Encyclopaedia of Judaism The Return to Resurrection

Still another theological reaffirmation of the doctrine is in a monograph, “Resurrection,” by Morton Wyschogrod in Pro Ecclesia 1:1 (Fall, 1992), pp. 104–112. Wyschogrod echoes his colleagues in claiming that “… because God is a redeeming God, it follows that death cannot be the last word.… Either death wins or God saves.” Redemption marks God’s ability to transform “whatever bad things happen to people,” but the conquest of death is “… the one triumph of the negative over which we have not as yet seen any triumph” (p. 109). Wyschogrod makes the further claim that the major difference between Jewish and Christian eschatology lies in the fact that Christians can claim to have witnessed God’s triumph over death (in the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth), whereas Jews cannot.

The Prophets Affirm the Resurrection of Dead
Ezekiel 37 - describes Israel’s restoration from the Babylonian Exile as a bodily resurrection (cf. Isa 26:19)
Isa 25:8 - Isaiah foresaw an eschatological time when the Sovereign of life will destroy death.
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 - speaks vividly of the suffering, death, burial, and heavenly exaltation of the prophetic Servant of ADONAI.
Hosea 13:14 - Hosea mocked death in a setting where God judged Israel for rebellion against Him: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction.”
Daniel 12:2-3 - Daniel sees the ultimate development in Jewish religious thought; the individual as accountable for his own eternal destiny.

This is the first biblical reference to a general resurrection of the righteous and the wicked. Justice mandated the resurrection, for it is the only answer for the death of the faithful servants of the covenantal God of Israel.

The Writings Affirm the Resurrection of Dead
Job 19:25–27 identifies the principle of hope and life in the presence of God: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end … I will see God” (Job 19:25–27).
In 2 Sam 12:23, David responds to the loss of his child by stating: “Now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me” (2 Sam 12:23). David bases this statement on Deut 32:39: “I myself am He. There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life” (compare 1 Sam 2:6).
Several stories recount individuals miraculously returned to life, including:
The widow’s son in Zarephath (1 Kgs 17:17–22)
The Shunammite’s son (2 Kgs 4:18–37)
The man thrown into Elisha’s grave (2 Kgs 13:20)
The Psalms continue the theme of God as the sovereign of life, but develop the promises of the living one and their applicability for messianic resurrection:
In Psa 88:4–5, the psalmist, who cries for deliverance from a terminal disease, identifies himself as one of “those who go down to the pit.”
In Psa 86:11–13, the psalmist praises God for “deliverance from the depths of the grave.”
In Psa 73:24, the psalmist testifies, “You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will take me into glory.” Comparing himself to a “brute beast” before You” (Psa 73:22), he extends the comfort of the Lord’s fellowship into His glorious presence beyond the grave. Both before and after death, he treasures his unending fellowship with his life-sustaining God.
Psalm 16 expresses joy and security in the Lord “who will not abandon me in the grave, nor will You let your Holy One see decay” (Psa 16:9–11).
The Second Temple (Intertestamental Books) Jewish Writings Continued to Affirm the Resurrection of the Dead.
The Lexham Bible Dictionary Intertestamental Views

The period between the testaments exhibited a variety of beliefs that imply resurrection, but they add little to the Old Testament (Nickelsburg, Resurrection, Immortality, and Eternal Life, 1972):

• Second Maccabees affirms the belief that God will vindicate the faithful by bringing their bodies to life (e.g., 2 Macc 14:46).

• Ethiopic Enoch 90:33 implies resurrection and describes the righteous as living with the Son of Man forever and ever.

• The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs affirm the resurrection of righteous Israelites (e.g., T. Jud. 25:1–4).

At the time of Jesus, the Sadducees believed that only the Torah was authoritative and denied the resurrection, which was not explicitly taught there. Thus, they opposed the Pharisees (compare Matt 22:23; Acts 24:20–21). The Essenes affirmed an immortality of the soul akin to Greek notions of the soul’s release from the fleshly body (Josephus, Jewish War 8, 11).

The Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible commonly called the Septuagint is critical to understand the importance of the Resurrection in Jewish thought in general and in the minds of the early followers of Jesus.
A Brief Background of the Septuagint
The Torah was originally translated in Alexandria, Egypt around the year 250 BCE, and the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures were translated within the following two or three centuries. Eygpt was controlled by Hellenized leaders called the Ptolemy dynasty.
According to an ancient document called the letter of Aristeas the translation was done by 72 Jewish scholars working independently of one another at Alexandria.
Invitation to the Septuagint The First Greek Translation

According to the author of the letter, the king’s librarian, Demetrius, requested the high priest of the temple in Jerusalem to send translators with the Hebrew Torah scrolls to Alexandria. The high priest complied, sending six men from each of the twelve tribes of Israel, that is, seventy-two translators, with a large escort carrying gifts for the king. The twelve tribes of Israel had long before been dispersed, so if there is any truth to this unlikely story, the number of people sent would have been merely a symbolic gesture. Aristeas was among the envoys.

The entourage from Jerusalem was welcomed to Alexandria with a royal banquet lasting several days, during which time the king and the envoys from the high priest discussed questions of theology and ethics. Finally, the translators were escorted to an island called Pharos, connected by a causeway to Alexandria. Working there for seventy-two days, they produced the first Greek translation of the Pentateuch. When the translation was complete, it was read to an assembly of the Jews of Alexandria, who enthusiastically received it and gave the translators a great ovation. The Jews asked the king’s librarian to make a copy of the new translation for use in their community. To ensure that the original words of the translators would be preserved in perpetuity, the priests and elders pronounced a curse on anyone who should later change the text in any way.

The Septuagint stand behind most of the quotes in the New Testament from the Torah, Prophets, and Writings.
The Influence of the Septuagint on Deuteronomy 18:15
Deuteronomy 18:15 HCSB
“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.
The Hebrew phrase “will raise up” (קום) does not specifically have a connection to the language of resurrection and most often just means to establish or confirm something or to simply “arise” in the sense of appearing.
The Septuagint Uses a Word that lends itself to the language of resurrection in Deuteronomy 18:15.
Deut 18:15
Deuteronomy 18:15 LXXIntRahlfs
προφήτην ἐκ τῶν ἀδελφῶν σου ὡς ἐμὲ ἀναστήσει σοι κύριος ὁ θεός σου, αὐτοῦ ἀκούσεσθε
prophētēn ek tōn adelphōn sou hōs eme anastēsei soi kyrios ho theos sou, autou akousesthe
The Lord your God will resurrect (anastēsei, ἀναστήσει) a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.
The Lexical Background: To Raise from the Dead
Lexham Theological Wordbook ἀνίστημι

ἀνίστημι (anistēmi). vb. arise. The action of arising or standing up, even out of death.

Although it is more commonly used with its core meaning “to stand up” (e.g., Acts 26:16, 30), anistēmi is also used specifically for the resurrection of Jesus (e.g., Luke 24:7, 46; Acts 2:24, 32) or the general resurrection (e.g., Eph 5:14; 1 Thess 4:14, 16). The word is also used for other miraculous risings in the NT: Peter told Dorcus/Tabitha to “arise (anistēmi),” and she revived (Acts 9:40); similarly, Jesus told a girl to “arise (egeirō)” and she arose (anistēmi) from death (Mark 5:41–2; Luke 8:54–55).

The Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament ἀνάστασις, εως, ἡ

It appears 42 times in the NT, always, apart from Luke 2:34 (→ 2), in conformity with the technical use of the vb., i.e., in the sense of the raising up or the resurrection of the dead (→ 3, 5).

Peter Quotes from the Septuagint in His famous Healing Sermon and shows that he and other Jewish people believed the prophet who would fulfill Deut 18:15 had to be a resurrected Prophet.
Acts 3:13 The God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His Servant Yeshua—the One you handed over and disowned before Pilate, though he had decided to release Him. 14 But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. 15 You killed the Author of life—the One God raised from the dead! We are witnesses of it.
Acts 3:19 - Repent, therefore, and return—so your sins might be blotted out, 20 so times of relief might come from the presence of Adonai and He might send Jesus, the Messiah appointed for you. 21 Heaven must receive Him, until the time of the restoration of all the things that God spoke about long ago through the mouth of His holy prophets. 22 Moses said, ‘Adonai your God will raise up (anastēsei, ἀναστήσει) for you a Prophet like me from among your brothers. Hear and obey Him in all that He shall say to you. 23And it shall be that every soul that will not listen to that Prophet shall be completely cut off from the people.’
24 Indeed, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel on have announced these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and also of the covenant that God cut with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘In your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26 God raised (anastēsas, ἀναστήσας) up His Servant and sent Him first to you, to bless you all by turning each of you from your wicked ways.”
N.T Wright on Deuteronomy 18:15 and Peter’s Sermon

We note here in passing the use of a text from Deuteronomy (18:15) which, containing the word anastesei in the LXX, lent itself easily to being a proof of the special resurrection of the prophet-Messiah Jesus.8 This too appears as an innovation from within the Jewish tradition: the explanation of what had happened to Jesus, and what it all meant, is only comprehensible within Judaism, but nobody had thought of it like this before the early Christians did. And, within the interval between Jesus’ resurrection and the apokatastasis, a new life was available, with new possibilities of healing, for those who would believe. God’s raising of Jesus from the dead is the sign that salvation is found in him alone, which in turn is the explanation for the remarkable healing performed by Peter and John (4:5–12). The whole early Christian message can be summed up in the phrase ‘this life’ (5:20). When we find, in this context, that Peter raises a widow from the dead, and that Paul likewise restores to life an apparently dead boy, the reader of Acts is bound to feel that such incidents cohere with the underlying theological message—and with events reported in the gospels. This is a time of life, of restoration, of resurrection.

There is a good case to be made that Jesus was alluding to Hosea 5:15-6:3 when He said he would destroy the Temple and Rebuild it in three days.
The Context of Hosea 4:15-5:15 is the destruction of Israel’s Temple and God departing to His Heavenly abode.
Hosea 5:15
Hosea 5:15 HCSB
I will depart and return to My place until they recognize their guilt and seek My face; they will search for Me in their distress.
Midrash Rabbah, Lamentations XXIV.
… at the time when the Holy One, blessed be He, sought to destroy the Temple, He said, ‘So long as I am in its midst, the nations of the world will not touch it; but I will close My eyes so as not to see it, and swear that I will not attach Myself to it until the time of the end arrives.’ Then came the enemy and destroyed it. Forthwith the Holy One, blessed be He, swore by His right hand and placed it behind Him. So it is written, He hath drawn back His right hand from before the enemy (ib. II, 3). At that time the enemy entered the Temple and burnt it. When it was burnt, the Holy One, blessed be He, said, ‘I no longer have a dwelling-place in this land; I will withdraw My Shechinah from it and ascend to My former habitation; so it is written, I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge their guilt, and seek My face’ (Hos. v, 15).
The Hebrew Text talks about a time of being raised up or restored that will take place after Israel’s national repentance but the Septuagint speaks specifically about a resurrection of the dead.
Hosea 6:2 - Hebrew Text in English
Hosea 6:2 HCSB
He will revive us after two days, and on the third day He will raise us up so we can live in His presence.
Hosea 6:2 - Septuagint Text

He will restore us to health after two days;

on the third day we will rise and live before him

John 2:19-20
John 2:19–20 HCSB
Jesus answered, “Destroy this sanctuary, and I will raise it up in three days.” Therefore the Jews said, “This sanctuary took 46 years to build, and will You raise it up in three days?”
Luke 24:45-47
Luke 24:45–47 HCSB
Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. He also said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Jesus is echoing Hosea’s prediction about the future restoration of Israel’s true worship in God’s presence being accomplished by His resurrection. He was the first of what would be many “we.”
The evidence of the Septuagint, then, is worth pondering, especially when we consider what, granted certain regular scholarly assumptions, we might have thought we were going to find. After all, here is a Hebrew text being translated into Greek—in Egypt, most likely. We might have expected that every reference to resurrection would have been flattened out into something more Platonic.
All the indications are that those who translated the Septuagint, and those who read it thereafter (i.e. most Jews, in both Palestine and the Diaspora), would have understood the key Old Testament passages in terms of a more definite ‘resurrection’ sense than the Hebrew would necessarily warrant, and might very likely have heard overtones of ‘resurrection’ in many places where the Hebrew would not have suggested it. When, in this context, we find stories about those who suffered and died in loyalty to God and his law, we should not be surprised to hear that they spoke boldly about the newly embodied hope that would await them in the future.
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