Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§18.3 EtResurrexit
It was as an expression of shared experience that such tradition was first formulated.
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(6) Appearance to Thomas — John 20.24-29.
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with
them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, 'We have seen the
Lord'. But he said to them, 'Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands,
and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not
believe'. 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas
was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among
them and said, 'Peace be with you'. 27 Then he said to Thomas, 'Put your finger
here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not
doubt but believe'. 2 8Thomas answered him, 'My Lord and my God!' 29 Jesus
said to him, 'Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are
those who have not seen and yet have come to believe'.
This should probably just be regarded as a further variation on the basic appearance
to the eleven tradition. It has the same core features: Jesus (again) stood
among them and said, 'Peace be with you' (20.26), and having said this he
(again) showed them (Thomas) his hands and his side (20.27). The pericope's
function in John's Gospel is presumably to provide an answer to those who (like
Thomas, one of the twelve!) doubted the testimony to Jesus' resurrection
(20.25). 109 Significant is the fact that John does not actually describe Thomas as
putting finger or hand in Jesus' wounds. The seeing alone is sufficient for
Thomas to make a confession far beyond anything attested for the first disciples
at that stage (20.27-28). no And the final blessing is for those who believe simply
on the basis of the apostolic testimony without having even seen (let alone physically
checked) for themselves (20.29).
(7) Appearances in Jerusalem — Acts 1.3-11. The opening of the Acts account
is so much oriented to the plot of Acts that it is more appropriately considered
in volume 2 (as also Luke's ending of his Gospel — Luke 24.50-52). Here
more plausible that the initial talk of a group experience among those who participated in it
took a narrative form.
108. Cf. Theissen and Merz: 'The agreements are clear enough for it [to be] possible for
us to infer a real event behind the accounts. ... in our view there is no doubt that it really happened'
{Historical Jesus 496). What 'it'?
109. See particularly Brown, John 1031-33. The story of "doubting Thomas" deals
with the problems of the second Christian generation, which has the Easter testimony only in
the form of the Gospel of John' (Theissen and Merz, Historical Jesus 495).
110. The confession 'My Lord and my God' is the climax not only of John's high Christology
(cf. particularly 1.1, 18; 5.18; and 10.33) but of the second Christian generation's growing
perception of who Jesus really was (see my Partings of the Ways ch. 11).
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