Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§18.3 Et Resurrexit
for eyewitness testimony (Luke 1.2)? 97 Why otherwise would he attribute the
first fully narrated appearance of the risen Jesus to two otherwise unknown and
relatively obscure disciples, only one of whom is named (Cleopas)? The story
cuts across the priority otherwise given to the appearances to Peter (despite
24.34) and to the twelve. So probably Luke took up the basic tradition simply be-
cause it was there, however awkwardly it fitted in with the overall schema.
(5) Appearances to the eleven in Jerusalem — Luke 24.36-49; John 20.19-
23; 1 Cor. 15.5.
Luke 24.36-49
36 While thev were talking about this. (Jesus) himself stood among
them and said to them. 'Peace be with you'. 37 Thev were startled
and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a spirit. 38 He said
to them, 'Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your
hearts? 39 Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch
me and see; for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see
that I have'. 40 And having said this, he showed them his hands
and his feet. 41 While in their joy thev were disbelieving and still
wondering, he said to them, 'Have you anything here to eat?' 42
They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in
their presence. 44 Then he said to them, 'These are my words that I
spoke to you while I was still with you — that everything written
about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be
fulfilled'. 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the
scriptures, 46 and he said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the
Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47
and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in
his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are
witnesses of these things. 49 And see, I am sending upon you what
my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been
clothed with power from on high'.
John 20.19-23
19 When it was evening on that
day, the first day of the week,
and the doors of the house
where the disciples had met
were locked for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood among
them and said, 'Peace be with
you'. 20 And having said this,
he showed them his hands and
his side. Then the disciples
rejoiced when they saw the
Lord. 21 Jesus said to them
again, 'Peace be with you. As
the Father has sent me, so I send
you'. 22 When he had said this,
he breathed on them and said to
them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.
23 If you forgive the sins of any,
they are forgiven them; if you
retain the sins of any, they are
retained'.
This is the closest we have in the resurrection appearance traditions to the
traditioning pattern so familiar in earlier chapters. We seem to have a common
core: 'Jesus stood among them and said "Peace be with you", and having said
this he showed them his hands and his feet/side' , 98 followed by a note of the dis-
ciples' joy. The fact that the core is evident in a Luke-John parallel rather than the
97. Byrskog, Story as History, surprisingly makes nothing of this possibility.
98. Luke 24.36b, 40 belong to the phenomenon known as 'Western non-interpolations'.
That is, they are absent from Western witnesses of the textual tradition, witnesses which more
commonly add to the traditional text. This raises the possibility that the references here have
been interpolated into Luke, presumably from the Johannine parallel. However, the theory of
Western non-interpolation has been undermined by the publication (1961) of the early (thirdcentury)
p 75 , which contains the passages in question, and the majority opinion now concludes
that they were all part of Luke's text. See again Metzger, Textual Commentary 186-87 (observing
that an interpolation would probably have read 'his side' rather than 'his feet'), 191-93;
Aland and Aland, Text of the New Testament 33, 37.
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