Saturday, December 08, 2012

Bishop NT Wright lectures on the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth

A food for thought video lecture [HT, WK]:



(This transcript may be helpful.)

WK gives a summary:
…the foundation of my argument for what happened at Easter is the reflection that this Jewish hope has undergone remarkable modifications or mutations within early Christianity, which can be plotted consistently right across the first two centuries. And these mutations are so striking, in an area of human experience where societies tend to be very conservative, that they force the historian… to ask, Why did they occur?
The mutations occur within a strictly Jewish context. The early Christians held firmly, like most of their Jewish contemporaries, to a two-step belief about the future: first, death and whatever lies immediately beyond; second, a new bodily existence in a newly remade world. ‘Resurrection’ is not a fancy word for ‘life after death’; it denotes life after ‘life after death’.
 Food for thought. END

F/N: The earlier KF blog post on the minimal facts on the passion and resurrection of Jesus, here, may be helpful. Take particular note of the table of alternatives.