The Resurrection According to the Scriptures
Posted by BryanOct 20
I’ve been reading Chris Wright’s book Knowing Jesus through the Old Testament, and have been enjoying it quite a bit. I’m usually on par with everything that has been said thus far, and really enjoyed the chapter on prediction and promise. At one point in the book, Wright discusses 1 Corinthians 15:3,4 and how both the death and resurrection of Christ is “according to the Scriptures.” I enjoyed what he had to say about it, but would like to bring the question to you all.
Where in the Scriptures is the death and resurrection of the Messiah found?
Paul usually uses this term for the Old Testament Scriptures, which I assume is the meaning here, but he also uses it in a quotation of the Gospel of Luke. In 1 Cor 15, is he talking about the Old Testament, or the possibly the Gospels? If the Old, where is it and how should we look to understand how Christ fulfills them? If the New, and Paul wrote 1 Corinthians between 51-55 AD, what does this say about our dating of the Gospels (particularly whichever Gospel we hold in priority).
6 comments
Comment by Damian on October 21, 2008 at 5:25 am
It’s unfortunate nobody’s commented here, Bryan – I was looking forward to the discussion. I assume that Paul was referring the the OT, and I’ve heard about the death and resurrection being according to scripture, but I’m not aware of the verses myself. I assume they’re in the latter prophets.
Comment by Bryan on October 21, 2008 at 6:23 am
Damian-
I agree. I was hoping for some good discussion
I’ll wait to see if anyone else jumps in before I give my answer, which, if you know Jim Hamilton’s answer and (as far as I can tell) Christopher Wright’s answer, then you know mine. I’ll give it a day or two.
Comment by Brian LePort on October 29, 2008 at 4:52 am
I haven’t read Wright’s answer, but I am wondering if Paul understood fulfilling the Scriptures as meaning a particular quotation, or a theme seen through the Christ-event (like Matthew re-reading Israel’s history through the life of Christ)?
Comment by Bryan on October 29, 2008 at 11:04 am
Brian
I take it that Paul is utilizing a theme, particularly the theme of events that occur with the mentioning of 3 days. Certainly, the Servant Songs, as read through the NT, point to Christ being Israel himself, while also ministering “to” Israel. I think it’s this that is in view.
Wright points, correctly I think, to Hosea 6:1ef, which says:
“After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us
that we may live in his presence.”
Originally national in scope, he links it to Jesus’ identity as Israel, in that in his “restoration” on the third day there is fulfillment, but there is also fulfillment in that the mission to the Gentiles starts after the national restoration, and that is what we see in the early church in Acts.
Comment by Jonathan Perreault on October 31, 2008 at 8:27 pm
Bryan,
From the research that I’ve done on this question, the “according to the Scriptures” phrase in 1 Cor. 15:3,4 has reference to the Old Testament Scriptures as a whole, not necessarily one particular Scripture.
Comment by Ephrem Hagos on May 18, 2009 at 12:58 pm
First referred to by Jesus Christ and very gradually understood by the Apostles as defining the very hard to understand meaning of the “Resurrection”, the phrase “according to the Scriptures” strongly suggests a pattern of God’s self-revelation developed in the Books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets (Luke 24:25-27; John 20:9; Acts 2: 23-28; 1 Cor. 15: 3-4). Accordingly, one can trace the thread of bipolar functions between, on the one hand, the live and quickening Spirit; and, on the other hand, extinct matter (man’s power or flesh), defining the First Law of Life (John 6: 62-63) in the following incidents/passages: in the “tree of life” (Gen. 2:9); the “bush on fire but not burning” (Ex. 3: 1-15); the “lifting of the bronze snake on a pole in the desert” (Num. 21: 4-9); the terms and seal of the “new covenant” (Jer. 31: 31-34; Matt. 26: 26-29 ff); and the baptism in the Holy Spirit by Jesus Christ in his diacritical death of self-revelation, i.e., resurrection (John 3: 1-21; 7: 37-39; 8: 21-28; 12: 23-33; 14: 1-21; 16: 5: 33; 17: 1-5; 19: 30-37). Is it any wonder that the time of observance for the Resurrection by the early better-knowing Jewish Christians was determined by the date of the Hebrew Passover festival? (International Standard bible Encyclopedia, Vol. II, page 6)