Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§18.4 Et Resurrexit
(1) A key element is that they 'saw' Jesus: Mary saw Jesus (John 20.14); he
appeared (öphthe) to Peter (Luke 24.34/1 Cor. 15.5) and the others listed in
1 Cor. 5.5-8; 147 Cleopas recognized Jesus at the last (Luke 24.31); Jesus showed
his wounds (Luke 24.40/John 20.20); they tell Thomas, 'We have seen the Lord'
(John 20.25), and Thomas believes because he saw (20.29); the eleven see Jesus
in Galilee (Matt. 28.17) and he shows himself to them (John 21.1); Paul 'saw' Jesus
on the road to Damascus. 148 This 'seeing' was evidently regarded as of first
importance, as both Luke (Acts 1.22) and Paul (1 Cor. 9.1) attest. No one could
be recognized as an 'apostle' who had not seen the Lord.
(2) Somewhat paradoxically, an almost equally attested motif is failure to
recognize Jesus. This failure is signalled in several of the most elaborate accounts
of appearances: to Mary (John 20.14-15), to Cleopas (Luke 24.16), and to
the seven on the lake (John 21.4). It is matched by the note of doubt and disbelief:
notably in the appearances to the eleven in Jerusalem (Luke 24.41), to
Thomas (John 20.24-29), and to the eleven in Galilee (Matt. 28.17). Whereas the
failure to recognize is remedied within the account and the doubt of Thomas is
carefully met, Matthew makes no attempt to indicate that the doubt of the eleven
in Galilee was removed. 149
(3) Another common motif is that of commission: the women (Mary) are to
tell the brothers (Matt. 28.10/John 20.17), Peter is to feed the sheep (John 21.15-
19), the commission to tell is implicit in Cleopas' haste to return to Jerusalem
when it was already evening (Luke 24.31-35), the eleven are explicitly commissioned
both in Jerusalem 150 and in Galilee (Matt. 28.19-20), and the appearance
to 'all the apostles' prior to the appearance to Paul was presumably what made
them apostles (1 Cor. 15.7). 151 As with the 'seeing', this element was evidently
crucial if one who 'saw the Lord' was to be recognized as an apostle. 152
(4) Less common, but a motif in several accounts is an appearance in the
147. It is important to observe, as Carnley reminds us {Structure 139-43), that the documentation
in 1 Cor. 15.5-7 is presented as evidence.
148. Acts 9.17, 27; 22.14-15; 26.16.
149. Cf. Jeremias: 'The characteristic feature of the earliest stratum of tradition is that it
still preserves a recollection of the overpowering, puzzling and mysterious nature of the events
. . . the same mysterious chiaroscuro . . .' (Proclamation 303).
150. Luke 24.47/John 20.21; Acts 1.8.
151. The seeing alone did not constitute apostleship, as the implied distinction between
the appearances to the 500-plus and to 'all the apostles' indicates; even so, the former are cited
as witnesses, most of whom were still alive (1 Cor. 15.6) and so (it is also implied) available to
be consulted as witnesses.
152. Acts 1.22; 1 Cor. 9.1-2; 15.8-11. This is the strength of U. Wilckens's categorisation
of these clauses as 'legitimation formulae' ('Tradition-History' 59-60; Resurrection 12-13,
114), even if he overdoes the point ('Tradition-History' 66). See further my Jesus and the Spirit
110-14, 128-32; Perkins, Resurrection 195-214.
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