Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§18.4 Et Resurrexit
memories of what Jesus may have said 160 are not so precise as 'on the third day'
('after three days') and in the Passion predictions were amended to 'on the third
day' — presumably because what was remembered as having happened was remembered
as happening 'on the third day'. 161
If we are looking for 'core' elements in the traditions, then the first, third,
and fifth of those just listed could be fairly regarded as such. And as with the core
elements of the Jesus tradition proper we can be confident that these were part of
the tradition from the first, indeed, that the tradition first emerged as expression
of the impact made by the experiences enshrined in the core. 162 No one who has
studied the data can doubt that the Christian witness on this theme began from a
number of experiences understood as seeings of Jesus alive after he had been
dead. 163 It was not that some conviction regarding Jesus was subsequently cast in
the form of a resurrection experience story. The stories were remembered as visual
or visionary experiences, because that is how they were experienced; that
was the impact crystallized in the core tradition. They not only believed they had
seen the Lord, they had experienced a seeing of the Lord alive from the dead.
Moreover, the formative experiences were evidently also experiences of personal
encounter and communication. It came to them as a personal commissioning.
That was evidently how Paul experienced the appearance to him. 164 And presumably
it was the degree of conformity between his related experience and the earlier
appearance-experiences which persuaded the first disciples that their former archenemy
had indeed been converted, and not only so, but commissioned to join their
ranks as a proclaimer of the resurrection. How we interpret these experiences may
be another question. 165 What we should recognize as beyond reasonable doubt is
that the first believers experienced 'resurrection appearances' and that those expe-
dance with the Scriptures' refers to the 'he was raised . . .', rather than specifically to 'on the
third day'. See further Wedderburn, Beyond Resurrection 48-53.
160. Mark 8.31; 9.31; 10.34; 14.58.
161. See above, §17.4c(2).
162. Cf. Alsup's analysis in Post-Resurrection Appearance Stories ch. 3, which he summarizes
thus: 'although the appearance stories of the gospel tradition show an almost unprecedented
fluidity and proclivity to redactional freedom and variation a pre-redactional form with
constants of motif and theme is discernible behind that fluidity, a form fixed enough ... [to be
called] a NT Gattung' 'It would seem that the farthest point in the origins of the tradition to
which we may reach back is to the Gattung itself which declared that the risen Lord encountered
and re-established fellowship with his own and sent them out in his service' (213, 274).
163. E.g., Pannenberg cites J. Leipoldt: 'One cannot doubt that the disciples were convinced
that they had seen the resurrected Lord. Otherwise the origin of the community in Jerusalem
and with it of the church becomes an enigma' (Jesus 91).
164. It is for this reason that Paul's conversion may equally be described as a commissioning;
see again my Theology of Paul 177-79.
165. See further below, §18.6.
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