Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE CLIMAX OF JESUS' MISSION §18.4
could ask them for themselves. Their story could be told only by the witnesses
themselves. In contrast, the stories of the appearances to the women and to the
eleven in Galilee (Matthew) are vague and lacking in personal character. 173 Only
as such, lacking the force of personal testimony, could they be told as tradition.
And is this the reason that the stories of the appearances to Peter and James are
not told in the earliest accounts? Because Peter and James did not tell them: they
were too private and personal? The possibilities are intriguing, but at this stage
remain no more than that.
d. In Sum
In sum, what we have, then, are two distinct sets of traditions (empty tomb and
appearances) whose correlation in terms of resurrection rationale is evident, but
whose tradition history correlation is less clear. In tradition-historical terms the
probability is strong that the tradition of the empty tomb, including its discovery
'on the first day of the week', goes back to claims made by women. Despite
some uncertainty as to whether and how this information should be used, it was
in the event accepted, as signalled by the confirmatory report of some disciples
(Luke 24.24), identified by John as Peter and the beloved disciple (John 20.3-
10), though disregarded in the Pauline tradition (1 Cor. 15.3-5). This traditionhistorical
conclusion is strengthened by the historical probabilities regarding the
emptiness of the tomb (§18.2).
In the case of the resurrection appearance tradition we have to rely almost
exclusively on what can be gleaned from the traditions themselves. Here the personal
testimony of Paul is crucial. He not only attests the tradition already established
at the time of his conversion, within a year or two of the events themselves
(1 Cor. 15.3-5/6/7). 174 But he also tells us what was regarded as the crucial identifying
marks of a 'resurrection appearance' — a seeing of Jesus and a commissioning
by Jesus. It was because his 'resurrection appearance' conformed to what
was evidently already regarded as the 'norm' that his claim to a resurrection ap-
173. Cf. C. H. Dodd, 'The Appearances of the Risen Christ: An Essay in Form-Criticism
of the Gospels', in D. E. Nineham, ed., Studies in the Gospels: Essays in Memory of R. H.
Lightfoot (Oxford: Blackwell, 1955) 9-35. Dodd distinguishes 'concise' narratives (Matt. 28.8-
10, 16-20; John 20.19-21) from the other 'circumstantial' narratives, with the implication that
the former were 'drawn directly from the oral tradition handed down by the corporate memory
of the Church' (10). But he also comments that John 20.11-17 'has something indefinably firsthand
about it'; 'There is nothing quite like it in the Gospels. Is there anything quite like it in all
ancient literature?' (20).
174. Within 'two or three years at most' (Funk, Acts of Jesus 466, though see n. 129
above).
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