"May Adonai bless you and protect you! May Adonai deal kindly and graciously with you! May Adonai lift up his countenance upon you and grant you peace!" (Torah, Numbers 6:24-26) And Jesus said, "Allow the little children to come unto me. Forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of God. Truly, I say unto you, unless you receive the Kingdom of God as a little child does, you shall not enter therein." (New Testament, Mark 10:14-16)

Sojourning at an Oasis Paradise

My purpose for living this life, and for writing this blog, is to understand the faith that links us to God. I wish to explore and discuss the reality at the heart of all of the world's religions. This is an immense task, but I know that God also has faith in us, trusting that we do desire the truth, as well as freedom, love and wisdom. Thus, as always, He meets us halfway. Even as God has given us individual souls, so we must each of us trace out an individual pathway to God. Whether we reside in the cities of orthodox religion, or wend our solitary ways through the barren wastelands, God watches over us and offers us guidance and sustenance for the journey.


Most of what you will see here is the result of extensive personal study, combined with some careful speculation. Occasionally, I may simply offer some Scripture or an inspirational text. I am a wide reader, and the connection of some topics and ideas to matters of faith and religion may not seem immediately obvious, but perhaps I may spell it out in the end... or maybe, you will decide that it was just a tangent. Anyway, I hope that you will find my meanderings to be spiritually enlightening, intellectually stimulating, or at least somewhat entertaining.

Sunday, September 1, 2019

What was the scene at Jesus' resurrection?

This narrative is based on the four canonical Gospels and the partial gospel of Peter. Mark wrote his gospel according to the story that Peter shared with him through the years they were together. Most likely, he also listened  to as many of the original disciples as were available, in accord with a strict set of criteria, preferring eye witnesses. Yet he remained a bit sceptical of the average person's ability to believe in visions, so he was careful to consider whether he should use Peter's own resurrection story as direct source material.

Setting:
1. It is in a high class cemetery, with tombs cut from the rock. This one was cut for a member of the Sanhedrin, Joseph of Arimathea, and his wife.
2. The burial had been done in haste, only quickly washed and lacking preparation, since a holy day was fast approaching.
3. The tomb was closed by rolling a large stone across the entrance, and sealed to reveal any tampering.
4. There were a handful of Temple guards, some elders, and a centurion with a few Roman soldiers who were sent to watch the tomb. These were keeping vigil to prevent anyone from moving the body.

Action:
1. The guards are bored, but unwilling to seem less than vigilant, as they are also watching each other.
2. In the darkest part of the night, they hear a noise, like thunder. There comes an intensely bright light, shining around two figures who approach the tomb. They are very hard to look at.
3. The guards fear to accost these figures, and retreat quickly, agreeing to say they were surprised and overwhelmed.
4. The two figures, they are angels, roll away the stone blocking the door of the tomb, and enter.
5. The angels find Jesus sitting up, on the second shelf in the small room. His burial shroud is arrayed on his own spot.
6. Together, three persons emerge from the tomb, glowing brightly in the darkness.  Jesus appears as he had to his disciples when he was transfigured and spoke to Moses and Elijah.
7. Jesus and the angels appear to expand, growing taller and somehow translucent, until they fade into the pre-dawn sky.
8. Then one angel returns, growing dim and goes to wait in the tomb, as he knows there will be visitors coming to dress the body and perform the rituals of mourning.
9. Three women soon arrive, and are dismayed to find an empty tomb being tended by a "gardener" who says Jesus is gone, risen from the dead.
10. The women run back to find the disciples and tell them what they have seen.
11. Peter and John race back to the tomb, and see that it is really empty, and view the shelf where Jesus had lain with the shroud and face cloth neatly folded and rolled. They return to tell the others.
12. The women follow, returning to the tomb, and collect the burial cloths.

Conclusion:
Soon, Jesus will appear to his disciples, where they are still hiding from the authorities. They have been accused of stealing his body, but none of them have any idea of what to think of all that has happened.

Later, when Joseph of Arimathea joins them, he tells what the elders and guards had seen at the tomb. He is amazed, but quite certain that Jesus has accomplished what he had predicted would happen.

Over the next few weeks, Jesus leads his disciples to gather crowds of his followers along his path back to Galilee. At several points he stops to reiterate his teachings, and add some interpretations. Then he says that he must return to his Father in Heaven, and the disciples should wait in Jerusalem for the fullness of the Holy Spirit to descend upon them. Then he ascended to Heaven in full view of a large crowd, appearing to expand and fade into the sky just as he had done on the night of his resurrection. There is nothing left behind but his clothes.

Oddly, no one chooses to describe this in detail, as it is judged too incredible unless actually witnessed, and we are left to our own imagination.

Peter decides that he needs to make notes to guide what he will tell those who have not heard the whole story before, so that he won't leave out any important points, and the story will stay consistent. He feels it would be redundant to describe the ascension.

Peter passes his notes to Mark, when they are in Rome, who actually does find the "expand & fade" description unconvincing, and drops it as an unreliable secondhand story. Mark wants to stay as close to a factual eyewitness account as he can, dropping anything that feels "too mystical" and so chooses to forego a description of the resurrection and subsequent appearances. He expects others to fill in this gap with, hopefully, better witnesses.

Notes:
Peter's story of Passion and Resurrection, and Paul's report of his own vision on the road to Damascus are the earliest extant accounts of Jesus' story that we have today. There were a few collections of his teachings and sayings, but these were used as sources for the Gospels we have, and then lost.

The traditions preserving the more esoteric secret teachings of Jesus were suppressed, due to their elitist tendencies, and the good chance that they would be corrupted by additional material supposedly dictated by the Holy Spirit. The Gospel of Thomas is a first case example, containing some early teachings, but aggregated with other cryptic gnostic writings. Thomas' gospel contains nothing relevant to the foregoing narrative.

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