Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

?17.6 Crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato
If Jesus did foresee suffering and rejection for himself and his disciples,
then, of course, he saw it not as catastrophe but as a gateway to the glory of
the coming kingdom. If he did call himself the Son of Man and connected the
title (sic) with his lowly state on earth as well as the glory to come, then he
must have expected something like his exaltation to the glory of God. 265
b. Hope of Resurrection?
Could it be that Jesus expressed his hope of vindication in terms of resurrection?
The Passion predictions certainly indicate so: 'and after three days/on the third
day he will rise again/be raised'. But we have already seen that their present form
shows clear signs of elaboration: the vaguer 'after three days' has become 'on the
third day'; the less explicit 'killed' has become 'crucified' (§ 17.4c). Moreover,
behind the sayings clarified in hindsight there may well be discerned a simpler
masal: 'the man is to be handed over to the men'. In this form there is-no expression
of vindication hope, of resurrection. Is then the expectation of resurrection
part of the post-Easter elaboration of the mashal?
The only reason for hesitating on the point is the fact that resurrection was
one form of vindication hope which had become prominent in late Second Temple
Judaism. It is most clearly indicated in what is usually reckoned a late (fourth
or third century BCE) addition to Isaiah (Isa. 24-27) and in Dan. 12.1-3. 266
Isa. 26 -i9Your dead shall live, their corpses shall rise. O dwellers in the dust,
awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a radiant dew, and the earth will give
birth to those long dead.
Dan. 12.1-3At that time Michael, the great prince, the protector of your people,
shall arise. There shall be a time of anguish, such as has never occurred
since nations first came into existence. But at that time your people shall be
delivered, everyone who is found written in the book. 2 Many of those who
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some
to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 Those who are wise shall shine like the
265. Schweizer, Lordship and Discipleship 36 (see further Erniedrigung 26-28, 31-33,
46-52); similarly Barrett, Jesus 76; Schillebeeckx, Jesus 284-91, 311 ('Jesus' whole life is the
hermeneusis of his death'); Beasley-Murray, Jesus and the Kingdom 245-46, 269-70.
266. For fuller review and discussion see H. C. C. Cavallin, Life after Death: Paul's Argument
for the Resurrection of the Dead in 1 Cor 15. Part I: An Enquiry into the Jewish Background
(Lund: Gleerup, 1974); Collins, Daniel 394-98; A. Chester, 'Resurrection and Transformation',
in Avemarie and Lichtenberger, Auferstehung 47'-77 (here 48-70), and Hengel,
'Begräbnis' in the same volume 150-72.
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