Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE CLIMAX OF JESUS' MISSION §18.4
context of or involving a meal in Luke, 153 in John 21.12-13, in the longer Markan
ending (Mark 16.14), and in Ignatius, Smyrn. 3.3. 154
(5) Not least of relevance is the tradition that Jesus first appeared 'on the
first day of the week' (Sunday) following his crucifixion and burial, explicit or
implicit in the first five of the appearances listed in §18.3. Here we should add
that 'on the first day of the week' was clearly part of the core tradition of the
discovery that the tomb was empty (§18.2). Furthermore it clearly accords with
the 'third day' tradition which was already firmly attached to the confessional
formula received by Paul after his conversion: 'that he was raised on the third
day in accordance with the Scriptures' (1 Cor. 15.4). Nor should we forget the
striking but often neglected fact that from as early as we can trace, Sunday had
become a day of special significance for Christians, 155 'the Lord's day', 156 precisely
because it was the day on which they celebrated the resurrection of the
Lord.
The emergence of this tradition could be explained as one of the fruits of
the search for proof from prophecy, 157 or even from the memory of something Jesus
had said. The only problem in the first case is that the one plausible Scripture
candidate is Hos. 6.2, 158 but no NT writer ever cites it as such a proof — a remarkable
fact, given the extensive use of Scripture consistently evident in NT
treatment of Jesus' death and resurrection. 159 And in the second, the earliest
153. Luke 24.30-31, 35, 41-43; Acts 1.4; 10.41.
154. Crossan adds in the earlier feeding miracles (Mark 6 and John 6), suggesting that
'Those bread and fish Eucharists and their institutionalization stories went back before anyone
ever thought of writing a biographical narrative of Jesus and hence of having to decide what
happened "before" and what "after" his death' (Historical Jesus 399). In contrast, Roloff observes
a tension between the meal traditions and the thrust of the resurrection kerygma
(Kerygma 263).
155. Acts 20.7; 1 Cor. 16.2.
156. Rev. 1.10; Did. 14.1; Ignatius, Magn. 9.1; Gos. Pet. 9.35; 12.50. For full discussion
see W. Rordorf, Sunday: The History of the Day of Rest and Worship in the Earliest Centuries
of the Christian Church (London: SCM, 1968).
157. Grass, Ostergeschehen 127-38; Evans, Resurrection 47-50, 75-76: 'not intended as
a chronological but as a theological statement' (48); Fuller, Formation 23-27; Lüdemann, Resurrection
47.
158. Hos. 6.1-2: 'Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he
has stricken, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will
raise us up, that we may live before him.' So most recently Evans, 'Did Jesus Predict?' 94-96.
The earlier attempts by Lehmann, Auferweckt 262-90, and H. K. McArthur, 'On the Third
Day', NTS 18 (1971-72) 81-86, to explain the reference from rabbinic interpretation of this
(and other) 'third day' passages do not carry much weight for such an early Christian credal
formula; but cf. Schräge, 1 Korinther 4.39-43.
159. Jeremias observes that Tertullian, Adv. Judaeos 13, is the first to cite Hos. 6.2 in
connection with the resurrection {Proclamation 304). It could be, of course, that the 'in accor-
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