Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§18.5 Et Resurrexit
regarding their current and future roles — Enoch as the 'scribe of
righteousness' 180 and Elijah's return. 181 Josephus also reports speculation regarding
Moses, whether he had died or been 'translated' (metastenai) by God to
himself (Ant. 3.96-97), or had gone back to the deity (pros to theion anachöresai)
(4.326). And within a few decades of Jesus' death we find Ezra and Baruch both
being spoken of as 'taken up' to live in heaven, 'until the times are ended' (4 Ezra
14.9), 'preserved until the end of times' (2 Bar. 13.3). 182
A crucial difference, of course, is that translation excluded death: neither
Enoch nor Elijah had died, and the speculation regarding Moses, Ezra, and
Baruch saw translation as an alternative to death. 183 But the death of Jesus is
central to the Jesus tradition. So a parallel here would not have been obvious;
translation in that form was not so much of an option. I only pause to observe
that it has been suggested as an option in the case of Mark's account of the
empty tomb (lacking any account of a resurrection appearance) 184 and was subsequently
drawn on (in effect) by the docetic claim that Christ had not in fact
been crucified. 185
(2) Vindication/exaltation. A much more likely category is that of the vindication
or exaltation of a dead man. 186 We have already referred to the hope entertained
by and for the righteous man, as classically expressed in Wis. 3.1-9 and
5.1-5 (§17.6a): he will be seen as numbered among the sons of God (5.5). Similarly
the manlike figure of Daniel 7 represented the hopes of 'the saints' for (final)
vindication before the throne of Yahweh. In 2 Mace. 15.13-14 Jeremiah appears
to Judas Maccabeus in 'a trustworthy dream' (15.11) 187 as a figure of
heavenly majesty. In T. Job 40.3 Job sees his dead children 'crowned with the
splendour of the heavenly one'. 188 In T. Abr. 11, Adam (Recension A) or Abel
(Recension B) is seen as sitting in final judgment. Jesus evidently reckoned that
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not (no longer?) dead but 'living' (Mark 12.26-
27 pars.).
172.
180. Jub. 4.17-19, 21-24; 1 En. 12.4; 15.1.
181. See above, §15.6a.
182. 4 Ezra 6.26; 14.9, 50; 2 Bar. 13.3; 43.2; 46.7; 48.30; 76.2; see Stone, Fourth Ezra
183. 4 Ezra 6.26; 2 Bar. 76.2.
184. See, e.g., E. Bickermann, 'Das leere Grab' (1924), in P. Hoffmann, ed., Zur
neutestamentlichen Überlieferung von der Auferstehung Jesu (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche
Buchgesellschaft, 1988) 271-84; Fuller, Formation 57; others in my Jesus and the Spirit 391
n. 113. Schillebeeckx sees the motif particularly in Luke's reuse of the Markan narrative (Jesus
340-44). See also Strecker, Theology 272-73.
185. Possibly implied already in 1 John 5.6-8, and probably in Gos. Pet. 5.19.
186. The difference in conceptualization between rapture and exaltation is not great.
187. Some textual witnesses add 'a sort of waking vision' (hypar ti).
188. See also Müller, Entstehung 62-63.
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