Gerd Lüdemann notes in one of his publications in recent years in spirit, he could not honestly be be more Christian, as backed up as should apply: Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee is not risen. The witnesses, who claimed that Paul and the Gospels, had been mistaken. They had been eating experience mental delusion or have cheated on purpose. Jesus was after his death on the cross in the grave or wherever just as westernized as any other human body.
Lüdemann is a considerable intellectual effort into the work of interpreting by 250 years of historical Jesus research against their own intention: namely, to bring in a little bit of rationality in the faith. Lüdemann argument has approximately the level of that old joke from the Soviet atheism, therefore there is no God in heaven, otherwise him the cosmonauts on their trips into space should have seen yes.
The myth of the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and a myth is, is the result of the grief work at least part of the Jesus movement, which was by the sudden and unexpected death of her master's deeply shaken and confused. The "resurrection faith" is first and foremost the result of a group-psychological process, which has certainly not taken place in three days, but extended over a period of several years. It flowed paranormal phenomena of individuals and groups as well as theological reflection within the meaning of rationalization as a psychological coping attempt.
The process is not unique. We know this kind to date in humans, who have lost a close relatives or friend, to which there was an intense emotional relationship. Even when you meet them for years after that time and again to the solid mental certainty that the deceased was a tangible, living reality which gives them strength, comfort and confidence in life. You have to do only once listen to the descriptions of mothers who have lost children.
had in a socio-cultural context of a traditional, pre-rational society such an individual and group believes a much larger reality content. Although in that case, the Outside world, the truth, doubt or deny such a claim might, such a possibility has been affirmed in principle anyway.
problem is such a belief only a post-rational thought, begins to distinguish a hierarchy of realities. Now is "really" only what to measure, weigh, and can count. All others are "only" realities "only" psychological, "only" an illusion, etc. The Resurrection According to such thinking has only become reality if it can be assumed with reasonable certainty that an empty grave may be presented in the evidence before has located the body of Jesus.
In the Gospels already limits the temptation to succumb to tangible evidence, as the story of the empty grave proves yes. The irony: behind the reports of the empty grave may hide quite historical reminiscences. Maybe women really are after the Sabbath came to the grave to keep the ritual of mourning. To their horror they are facing an empty grave! The report, as they provide with this message at the Jesus people in Jerusalem for excitement, sounds quite plausible.
But the good women stand up in the wrong grave! They did not know where they had placed Jesus. As a rule, were crucified after an agonizing death, which could often last for days, just left hanging on the cross, the vultures to eat. Or the Roman executioners they buried on the spot. Only when members had the necessary relationships and when money was flowing, it was occasionally to free a corpse for a proper burial.
more stood before the Sabbath and also the Passover, they wanted to speed up the grisly procedure revealed. It would be an outrageous affront to the Romans against the Jews was that executed on the hard days were left on the cross. So we crashed the crucified earlier than usual, the bones, causing relatively quick death by suffocation. For Jesus it was discovered that he was already dead, what unusual was. According to the testimony of the Passion, one should drink it with a sponge to have given in which he died. Obviously it had poisoned him.
certainly this was not an act of compassion, but somebody had bribed a soldier or his superiors. In the same way it was probably also, Jesus' body freizubekommen for a funeral. However, it must have acted with the supplicant to a person who had a certain immunity. You could even get into that is easily the smell of insubordination, if you stood up for a convicted rebel. Quite possible that this person referred to in the Passion Joseph of Arimathea and a member of the High Council was.
All this probably was arranged without the knowledge of the immediate followers of Jesus. The observation of the Passion story that had seen from afar at the crucifixion the women present, where Jesus' body was laid smells out for a protective claim. Fact was that nobody knew the grave in which Jesus was laid in a hurry.
course, this was a terrible idea for now. In the long run, however, was that fact by home conducive to the emergence of the resurrection myth. But who wants to make the "reality" behind the belief in the resurrection of Jesus only to the question of whether the decomposed body of Jesus is not it, that is the complexity of the experience of living beyond death as Jesus experienced not just. If someone is under the Jesus people to continue living master of an inner reality, faced with this question, we only had a horrified incomprehension picked over so much irreverence. Somewhat as if one were to remember a mother for the proximity of their deceased child is a comforting certainty, because the eat the dead body of the child straight in the cemetery of the worms will.
The faith of the early followers of Jesus to his life beyond death, deserve respect and reverent first Recognition. First, it is not about theology, but simply an existential need to deal with a profound sadness shock. must then be noted that the idea of a bodily resurrection from the original experience, which some people among the followers of Jesus after his death, is separate. The underlying experience was consistently in the fact that Jesus after his death "seen" was or that he "demonstrated" is. It would have lasted a long time before this "vision" and "To Show" was theologically interpreted as "resurrection".
While "seeing" a had direct experience, is the "resurrection" subsequent theological interpretation dar. The model of the scribes were among the people in parts of Jesus in front of contemporary Judaism, they did not have to invent the first place.
There is no denying, however, that the experience was a few from the circle of Jesus exploited very soon. While I believe that only a very small circle, probably the women around Mary Magdalene, the Lord "saw", was the experience in sealed very quickly, especially the leaders, for being able to rely on an appearance of Jesus after his death, gave authority. This went the extent that even in the most ancient Easter testimony that Paul quotes, women are missing entirely.
It also becomes apparent effort to substantiate the "reality content" of the resurrection of the fact that more new and "more tangible" added details were invented. As is the unmistakable signature of this second generation of Jesus people at work for the "resurrection" has no personal experience was more. Finally, and here is Paul, who was able to rely on their own experience with the living Jesus, the decisive role, are death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ or now, the foundation of Christian faith in general. Life, message and work of Jesus Nazareth connect on the other hand almost completely in the background.
one looks closer, however, show up in the New Testament. Certification mark that was in the early days after Jesus' death, resurrection myth used not quite as consistent interpretation of the continuous living Jesus. The model was "resurrection" to unique feature of the Christ-cult, it seems to some to have kept the predominantly Jewish Jesus movement Jesus in other ways in memory. In the Gospel of Q
saying that has been reconstructed from the Gospel of Matthew and Luke, there is little evidence of Jesus' death and the thought is completely absent in a resurrection. Here Jesus lives on as a teacher of wisdom and mythically inflated, the son of the divine wisdom. Jesus' death seems to have caused no such shock that the "group soul" had to resort to such an extraordinary counter-measure to meet it at the Q people.
the Q-people know and accept it, albeit with some bitterness that the wisdom to time where people will no dwelling, that the fate of prophets is often violent death. It does the credibility of the agent of God no harm. To his rehabilitation, it needs no subsequent intervention of God, as it is a resurrection from the dead. Similar is the Gospel of Thomas to say that large parts of the Gospel, saying it has absorbed. It speaks quite naturally of "living" of Jesus, without recourse to the resurrection myth.
for faith in Jesus of Nazareth, this offers the following consequence:
The talk of the resurrection deserves dignity and respect. It is an impressive attempt to deal with a group of friends and followers of Jesus, so hinüberretteten faith in their champion over the cruel failure.
The narrative and reflective design and development of the resurrection myth to be questioned but must be verified that this is still a useful vehicle is to preserve the memory of Jesus and his legacy alive. The decision for or against Jesus has to make every man for himself. The testimony of the past can help him only indirectly. Absolutely is not.
show the award and the Gospel of Thomas, that there certainly are other ways to live in the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, work and die. The resurrection myth may be essential for membership of the Christ-cult. For the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, he is not.
the critical back-reference also to the very first witness, it is time to look for innovative new designs of Jesus and follow Jesus-memory. This it is not about to preserve, a 2,000-year old Christianity or reform. What we need is to find a reply to the question of the Galilean Jew, Jesus of Nazareth from the first century after the turning point has something left, even in the 21.Jhdt. can be an inspiration and impetus for individual and social lives.
The question today is not: Is Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead? Rather, the question is: What can go impetus by a Jewish healer, exorcist and preacher of the time change today? Faith, trusting in God's acts in history does not always been the same. Christianity does so as if the answers people have found 2,000 years ago, would fit on the issues that afflict us today.
The question of the resurrection of Jesus 2000 years after Jesus' death, lost much of its explosive nature. Yes, it has become largely meaningless. The belief in the resurrection of their master by God was the psychological coping attempt to an existential shock of a small group of Jesus followers. In this respect, it is a reality, the psychological reality of a group of people who return with their help took back to life and set an impressive movement in motion. From the experience of a few is a myth created the Christ myth and the birth of a new religion. It seems as if this myth comes to an end.
