The Resurrection (2021-09-15) ​

0:00:13 the resurrection of jesus lies at the
0:00:15 heart of the message of christianity
0:00:19 what are we to make of this
0:00:20 extraordinary claim and i want to share
0:00:22 with you some words from giza vermesh
0:00:24 again he's a world-class biblical
0:00:27 scholar often acknowledged as one of the
0:00:29 great and experts on the historical
0:00:32 jesus he spent his life studying uh
0:00:35 these matters a professor at oxford
0:00:37 university a professor of jewish studies
0:00:40 so he's a specialist in a jewish
0:00:41 understanding of jesus who was himself
0:00:43 of course a jew who preached two jews
0:00:46 about his understanding of judaism in
0:00:48 his own day so it's going to share with
0:00:50 you a few words about the resurrection
0:00:53 because there are many insights into
0:00:55 this brief uh chapter which
0:00:58 will surprise people surprised me when i
0:01:00 first read them
0:01:02 so he writes on page 107 of his book the
0:01:05 real jesus
0:01:06 the resurrection of jesus lies at the
0:01:09 heart of the message of christianity
0:01:12 the chief herald of this message saint
0:01:14 paul
0:01:15 bluntly proclaims
0:01:17 if christ has not been raised your faith
0:01:21 is futile
0:01:22 so it's very very clear if there's no
0:01:24 resurrection of jesus that's it
0:01:26 christianity is basically lying about
0:01:29 god is a waste of time
0:01:31 but he believed he did rise from the
0:01:33 dead so how does his firm statement
0:01:37 reinforced by two millennia of
0:01:39 theological cognition
0:01:41 compared with what the gospels tell us
0:01:44 about the first easter
0:01:46 is it pure myth
0:01:48 or does it contain also a grain of
0:01:51 history
0:01:52 so giza vermich the historian looks at
0:01:54 our earliest sources or some of them in
0:01:57 the new testament in the gospels and
0:01:59 what do they tell us about this very
0:02:01 interesting insights here
0:02:03 but to begin with he looks at the
0:02:05 historical jewish context to begin with
0:02:09 resurrection was neither an old nor
0:02:12 widespread jewish doctrine in the age of
0:02:14 jesus interestingly
0:02:16 the concept of afterlife conceived
0:02:19 either as spiritual survival or as
0:02:22 rising from the dead first gained
0:02:25 prominence in the second century bc
0:02:29 the immortality of the soul was
0:02:31 championed by many jews living outside
0:02:33 the holy land and influenced by greek
0:02:36 culture as well as by the essene sect in
0:02:39 palestine
0:02:41 according to the first century jewish
0:02:43 historian flavius josephus
0:02:47 the conservative sadducees these figures
0:02:50 all appear in the gospels by the way the
0:02:51 sadducees the pharisees and so on the
0:02:54 conservative sadducees and the high
0:02:56 priestly allies
0:02:58 considered the idea of life after death
0:03:01 a departure from biblical faith
0:03:04 were where reward for virtue and
0:03:07 punishment for sin were expected in this
0:03:10 life
0:03:11 beyond the grave everybody shared the
0:03:14 same chilly and sleepy existence in the
0:03:17 hades of the hebrews and this is
0:03:19 normally how the old testament we have
0:03:21 now talks of post-mortem existence in a
0:03:24 very kind of gray
0:03:27 world where there's no kind of clear
0:03:29 heaven or clear
0:03:30 hell the principal innovators of this
0:03:34 idea of resurrection were the pharisees
0:03:36 another big group of people you see
0:03:38 frequently mentioned in very negative
0:03:40 terms in the gospels
0:03:42 they promoted the doctrine of
0:03:44 resurrection among urban jury
0:03:47 but the bulk of the rural population was
0:03:50 mostly confused
0:03:51 resurrection rarely figures on tomb
0:03:54 inscriptions now this is amazing i had
0:03:57 no idea about this until i read that
0:03:59 sentence that if you look at first
0:04:01 century jewish palestinian palestinian
0:04:04 gravestones tomb inscriptions
0:04:07 you rarely ever find any reference to
0:04:09 the resurrection interesting
0:04:12 turning to the gospels resurrection is
0:04:15 not among the central tenets of the
0:04:17 teaching of jesus what
0:04:20 resurrection is not among the central
0:04:22 tenets of the teaching of jesus he was
0:04:24 more concerned with eternal life than
0:04:27 with the revival of dry bones if you
0:04:30 read the gospels this actually is true
0:04:32 one may also put a question mark to his
0:04:35 repeated annunciations of his death and
0:04:38 resurrection now i'm going to pause
0:04:40 there and i'm going to go to almost a
0:04:42 random example in my new revised
0:04:45 standard version bible
0:04:47 repeatedly in the gospels
0:04:49 jesus
0:04:51 forecasts predicts his death and
0:04:54 resurrection in some detail this is
0:04:56 really important so for example in luke
0:04:58 18 he says
0:05:00 um he took his twelve disciples aside
0:05:03 and said to them
0:05:05 that everything that is written about
0:05:06 the son of man
0:05:08 by the prophets will be accomplished for
0:05:10 he will be handed over to the gentiles
0:05:13 and he will be mocked and insulted and
0:05:16 spat upon
0:05:17 and after they have flocked him they
0:05:20 will kill him
0:05:21 and on the third day he will rise again
0:05:25 so these are very specific predictions
0:05:27 about someone called the son of man
0:05:30 and the the jesus as portrayed in luke
0:05:32 claims that this is all discussed or
0:05:35 foretold in great detail
0:05:37 in the prophets in the jewish bible
0:05:39 although personally i've never quite
0:05:41 come across any passages that say that
0:05:43 but be that as it may
0:05:45 so to come back to giza vermesh
0:05:48 so he rightly says
0:05:50 one may also put a question mark to his
0:05:53 repeated announcements of his death and
0:05:55 resurrection why
0:05:57 the fact that all his disciples
0:05:59 abandoned him when he was arrested and
0:06:03 no one expected his rising no one
0:06:06 expected it according to the gospels
0:06:08 suggests that these prophecies did not
0:06:11 originate with jesus but were added
0:06:14 later
0:06:16 we find no apostle comforting himself on
0:06:19 good friday saying let's wait three days
0:06:22 and all will be well
0:06:24 because you would logically think
0:06:25 wouldn't you if they had been drilled
0:06:27 with this idea that the messiah would
0:06:30 die
0:06:30 and be scourged and be spat upon and
0:06:33 crucified by the romans the gentiles and
0:06:36 on the third day he will rise from the
0:06:39 dead
0:06:40 well of course they're going to think
0:06:41 well yep it's happening it's happening
0:06:43 now just as jesus told us indeed let's
0:06:45 just wait three days and all will be
0:06:48 well
0:06:50 but that's not what happens if you look
0:06:51 again this is me digressing now if you
0:06:54 look at luke's gospel for example
0:06:58 in matthew sorry luke 24
0:07:01 on the first day of the week
0:07:03 some of the women go to the tomb
0:07:05 taking spices they had prepared
0:07:08 and they found the stone rolled away it
0:07:11 says and
0:07:12 someone perhaps
0:07:14 angels two men with dazzling clothes
0:07:17 stood beside them the women were
0:07:19 terrified because they weren't expecting
0:07:22 this
0:07:23 and the angels or the men uh say why are
0:07:26 you looking for uh for this person
0:07:28 amongst the dead he is not here he is
0:07:31 risen
0:07:33 um and then there and then these angels
0:07:35 or these figures refer to the uh
0:07:37 predictions
0:07:38 which i've already mentioned one of them
0:07:41 so they it says here they ran from the
0:07:44 tomb this is the women ran from the tomb
0:07:46 and told this to the eleven that these
0:07:48 are the apostles
0:07:50 and this was mary magdalene
0:07:53 and the other women who told this to the
0:07:55 apostles that's verse 10
0:07:58 and look what the response is in verse
0:08:00 11
0:08:01 but these words seem to them the
0:08:04 apostles an idle tale
0:08:06 and they did not believe them
0:08:08 and idle tell by the way an alternative
0:08:10 translation of the greek is nonsense
0:08:13 but in one word so the apostles having
0:08:16 been told reminded precisely what jesus
0:08:20 had told them repeatedly in great detail
0:08:22 when it actually happens
0:08:24 when the news is conveyed to them
0:08:28 they did not believe them quote unquote
0:08:31 and it these words seem to them an idle
0:08:34 tale that's how the nrsv
0:08:37 translates it
0:08:39 why why is it an idle tale why have they
0:08:42 no idea
0:08:44 no idea about this
0:08:46 you would expect them historically let's
0:08:49 wait three days and all will be well you
0:08:51 can spend to be waiting yeah yeah we
0:08:53 know we believe jesus words are true
0:08:55 because he did miracles he did signs and
0:08:57 wonders by the power of god
0:08:59 so this is something we should
0:09:00 reasonably expect to happen but when it
0:09:02 happens they don't believe it
0:09:05 it's nonsense so there's that's why uh
0:09:08 giza vermich and actually most
0:09:10 historians have concluded uh that this
0:09:13 uh these predictions did not originate
0:09:17 uh with jesus they were added
0:09:19 later these gospels of course are
0:09:20 written many many years after jesus life
0:09:24 in
0:09:25 the second generation of christians
0:09:26 towards the end of the first century
0:09:28 plenty of time for these stories to be
0:09:31 um carefully embellished
0:09:33 anyway
0:09:34 back to the story belief in the
0:09:36 resurrection of jesus consists in two
0:09:39 combined sets of stories about an empty
0:09:41 tomb and a series of apparitions now
0:09:44 this is the detail the devil's in the
0:09:46 detail as they say and gizavermish has
0:09:49 some fascinating observations i think to
0:09:51 make about these stories in the gospels
0:09:53 all four gospels report that the body of
0:09:56 jesus was missing from the grave when
0:09:59 one or several women visited it on early
0:10:03 on easter sunday
0:10:04 fair enough
0:10:05 the idea of resurrection comes from one
0:10:08 or two unknown men presumed to be angels
0:10:11 or dazzling clothes i mentioned that who
0:10:13 met the women in the tomb according to
0:10:15 mark matthew and luke
0:10:18 by contrast in john's gospel mary
0:10:21 magdalene suspects that jesus's remains
0:10:24 were removed by someone else not
0:10:26 connected with the apostles
0:10:28 she asked the unknown man standing close
0:10:32 by later identified as jesus where he
0:10:35 put the missing body
0:10:37 at the end the argument is seriously
0:10:39 weakened by the apostles rejection of
0:10:42 the women's report which they ridiculed
0:10:45 as an idle tale as we've already seen or
0:10:48 nonsense is a that's a another way of
0:10:51 translating it
0:10:53 the second type of evidence
0:10:55 the apparitions of the risen jesus to
0:10:57 his apostles
0:10:59 do not fare much better either the
0:11:01 oldest account we have now mark is
0:11:04 usually seen by virtually all scholars
0:11:06 now as the earliest gospel in the new
0:11:08 testament we have matthew first then
0:11:10 mark then john then luke then john but
0:11:12 for various reasons mark is the oldest
0:11:14 account and if you look at mark chapter
0:11:16 16 the last chapter verses one to eight
0:11:20 the inauthentic verses 9 to 20 which you
0:11:23 will find in all bibles are missing from
0:11:26 the best manuscripts
0:11:28 so all the bibles including the nrsv
0:11:31 that have those verses are not actually
0:11:33 um reproducing or printing uh the
0:11:36 earliest manuscripts these are later um
0:11:40 stories that were added to the gospel
0:11:43 what is interesting he says that the
0:11:45 oldest account mark 16 1-8 contains no
0:11:50 visions at all
0:11:53 okay
0:11:55 the earliest
0:11:56 gospel in the new testament has no
0:11:59 resurrection appearances at all
0:12:02 interesting
0:12:03 according to luke and john jesus was
0:12:06 seen by the apostles in jerusalem on
0:12:09 easter sunday
0:12:10 and luke mentions an account and
0:12:12 encounter with two disciples on the same
0:12:15 day some miles away in emmaus i was
0:12:18 going to pause there because if you look
0:12:20 at my trusty nrsv uh go back to luke's
0:12:24 gospel again
0:12:26 and there's a famous story of the walk
0:12:28 to emmaus that giza vermish alludes to
0:12:31 and what i find interesting there's a
0:12:33 little detail here which is not often
0:12:35 focused on so these these guys uh are
0:12:39 two of them uh walking uh to a village
0:12:41 called emmaus about several miles from
0:12:43 jerusalem and they're talking about
0:12:46 everything that's happened you know with
0:12:48 jesus and the jerusalem authorities and
0:12:50 so on and they're talking about them
0:12:52 about this then jesus himself comes
0:12:55 basically near them and walks with them
0:12:57 or they don't know who he is
0:12:59 um according to verse 16 of chapter 24
0:13:04 uh and then the the stranger who is
0:13:07 revealed later to be jesus said what are
0:13:09 you discussing with each other while
0:13:10 you're walking along yeah
0:13:12 and they stood still it says looking sad
0:13:16 then um
0:13:18 one of them said whose name was cleopas
0:13:20 are you the only stranger in jerusalem
0:13:22 who doesn't know the things that have
0:13:24 taken place there in these days
0:13:27 he asked them what things
0:13:29 and then they say this is a very
0:13:30 interesting thing they replied this is
0:13:33 verse 19 the things about jesus of
0:13:36 nazareth who was a prophet
0:13:38 mighty indeed
0:13:40 and word before god
0:13:42 and all the people
0:13:45 interesting so here are some followers
0:13:48 of jesus
0:13:49 who
0:13:50 well acquainted with what's been going
0:13:52 on and what do they call jesus who is
0:13:54 jesus he is a prophet
0:13:58 mighty in deed and word before god so
0:14:02 jesus and god are two separate things
0:14:04 they do not say what later christian
0:14:07 creeds affirm that jesus was the second
0:14:09 person of the trinity god incarnate a
0:14:12 divine being or jesus is god as
0:14:14 christians always say that jesus god
0:14:16 jesus is god according to
0:14:19 these people who knew who you know knew
0:14:21 what was going on jesus was a prophet
0:14:24 mighty indeed what other religion says
0:14:26 that i wonder
0:14:28 so coming back to uh giza vermish
0:14:31 matthew now moving on to matthew's
0:14:33 gospel in turn places the only meeting
0:14:36 of jesus with 11 apostles
0:14:40 with 11 apostles days later on a
0:14:43 galilean mountain so the only time in
0:14:47 matthew's version the apostles meet him
0:14:49 is on this galilean mountain john
0:14:51 asserts that seven apostles saw him by
0:14:54 the sea of tiberias
0:14:56 to model the story further luke's jesus
0:14:59 orders his disciples not to leave
0:15:01 jerusalem
0:15:02 until pentecost pentecost is an amazing
0:15:06 supernatural event that happens in acts
0:15:08 chapter 2.
0:15:11 so
0:15:12 as for the identity of the appearing
0:15:15 person mary magdalene took him for the
0:15:18 gardener the emma's disciples for an
0:15:21 unknown passer-by and the jerusalem
0:15:23 apostles for a ghost
0:15:27 so no one quite agrees with who this
0:15:29 person is
0:15:30 so he concludes vermish there are four
0:15:33 rational ways for explaining away the
0:15:35 resurrection conundrum so here we have a
0:15:37 series of
0:15:38 uh very very loose ends and he offers
0:15:41 four theories four possible explanations
0:15:44 as to how to explain away this this
0:15:47 problem how do we understand it
0:15:49 rationally so the first
0:15:51 the body was not found by the women
0:15:53 because the guardian of the cemetery
0:15:56 used the first opportunity to move the
0:15:58 body of jesus out of the grave which had
0:16:01 been prepared for someone else
0:16:04 that's the first possibility second
0:16:06 possibility
0:16:07 in the darkness the women lost their way
0:16:09 and went to the wrong tomb
0:16:12 the uncertainty in both cases
0:16:14 could have easily had been dispelled by
0:16:17 consulting the owner of the tomb jesus
0:16:20 friend joseph of arimathea but no one
0:16:23 seems to have thought of it
0:16:26 three third possibility
0:16:28 the apostles stole the corpse as was
0:16:31 alleged by the priestly leaders
0:16:33 but since nobody expected jesus to rise
0:16:36 again
0:16:37 why should anyone fake his resurrection
0:16:40 notice no one expected him to rise
0:16:43 strange given the gospels are full of
0:16:45 predictions of precisely that event
0:16:47 and fourthly
0:16:49 this is most the most fruity one
0:16:51 jesus was buried alive and later woke up
0:16:55 to live and left to live happily for a
0:16:57 time if not ever after
0:16:59 this modern concoction
0:17:02 popularized by the da vinci code the
0:17:04 famous novel and film
0:17:06 is unsupported by ancient evidence
0:17:09 though we know that recovery from
0:17:11 crucifixion was possible
0:17:14 this is particularly gory
0:17:16 flavius josephus uh he's a really famous
0:17:19 jewish historian from jerusalem at the
0:17:21 time
0:17:23 just slightly after jesus time
0:17:25 he mentions that three of his friends
0:17:28 were taken off the cross in a.d 70 and
0:17:32 were attended by roman physicians and
0:17:34 that one of them survived
0:17:37 can you believe it having survived a
0:17:38 crucifixion
0:17:40 in this class of literature jesus
0:17:42 usually marries mary magdalene and
0:17:45 settles somewhere away from judea in the
0:17:48 south of france nice place
0:17:50 or in rome
0:17:52 but
0:17:52 and according to the 19th century
0:17:55 islamic sect
0:17:57 the ahmadiyya
0:17:58 he journeyed instead to the east in
0:18:01 search of the lost jewish tribes and
0:18:04 died in india
0:18:06 so take your pick
0:18:07 so those are the four options as giza
0:18:09 vermich says he concludes
0:18:11 with quite a extraordinary
0:18:14 statement
0:18:15 neither positive nor negative reasoning
0:18:18 leads anywhere because the resurrection
0:18:21 of jesus cannot be compared to events
0:18:23 belonging to history
0:18:25 there is however one phenomenon that may
0:18:28 lead us out of this maze
0:18:31 the transformation of the apostles
0:18:35 it was not due to the apparitions of
0:18:37 jesus says giza varmish
0:18:40 they remain frightened the apostles
0:18:42 remain frightened and continue to hide
0:18:45 for another seven weeks after easter
0:18:47 that's easter sunday
0:18:49 what capitulated them into action was
0:18:52 pentecost mentions in acts 2 the
0:18:55 metamorphosis achieved by the inward
0:18:58 experience of the spirit
0:19:01 miscellaneous men became spiritual
0:19:04 warriors
0:19:05 the charismatic potency imparted to them
0:19:08 by jesus during his ministry and the
0:19:11 recollection of his powerful teaching
0:19:14 resulted again in mighty words and deeds
0:19:19 they felt their master close to them he
0:19:22 rose in their hearts
0:19:24 this is the historical element in the
0:19:27 resurrection saga
0:19:30 end quote
0:19:32 so interesting interesting so basically
0:19:35 the sheer power of jesus personality his
0:19:39 charisma
0:19:41 the impact of his ministry
0:19:43 on their lives over several years
0:19:46 continued beyond
0:19:49 his apparent death and resurrection
0:19:51 shall we say but it wasn't really a
0:19:53 resurrection that they believed in they
0:19:55 believed in uh he rose in their hearts
0:19:59 they chose to continue his ministry
0:20:01 basically proclaiming the kingdom of god
0:20:05 now of course this is not what paul
0:20:06 believed it's not what the apostle paul
0:20:08 taught but that's a different subject
0:20:10 so there we go uh that's the
0:20:13 resurrection according to giza vermish i
0:20:16 do recommend this book in general if you
0:20:18 want to
0:20:19 read about
0:20:20 jesus the dead sea scrolls um
0:20:24 all sorts of things and the way the
0:20:25 church has
0:20:27 transformed the message of jesus into a
0:20:29 very different religion which today we
0:20:32 call christianity
0:20:34 till next time