LrrERATURE.— See Literature of art. Parousia, and, in addition, F. C. Burkitt, Jewish and Christian Apocalypses (Sctiweich Lectures for 1914), London, 1914 ; R. H. Charles, Studies in the Apocalypse, Edinburgh, 1913 ; W. O. E. Oesterley, The Books of the Apocrypha, London, 1914. S. H. HOOKE.
RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.
L The place of the Resurrection of Christ in the Apostolic Church.
II. The apostolic evidence for the fact.
i. The primary evidence. ii. The documentary evidence. I. The witness of St. Paul, (a) The empty grave. (6) The appearinj;8 of the Risen Christ, a. The witness of the Gospels, (a) The empty grave. (6) The appearings.
III. The nature of Christ's Resurrection-Body.
i. The Gospel witness. ii. The witness of St. Paul.
IV. The significance of the ResurrectioD of Ohriflt for Apostolic Christianity.
i. Evidential significance — in respect of
I. The Person of Christ.
a. His work.
3- The Christian hope, ii. Essential or constitutive significance — for
1. Christ Himself.
2. Christian life and experience in all its forms.
(a) Justification.
(6) Sanctification.
(c) Bodily resurrection.
3. The consummation of the Kingdom of God.
V. Attempted naturahstic or semi-naturalistic explanations of the apostolic belief.
i. Older forma.
1. The swoon theory.
2. The theft or fraud theory.
3. The subjective vision or mental hallucination
theory.
4. The objective vision or telegram theory. ii. More recent forms.
1. The psychological or psychical research theory.
2. The mytholof^ical theory.
3. The spiritual significance theory.
4. The ' Bupernatural-without-miracle ' theory.
I. The place of the Resurrection of CnRisTiN THE Apostolic Church.— The funda-
mental fact on which the Apostolic Church rests is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. What lies at the basis of everything else determining the whole round of ajjostolic thought and life is the conviction that the Jesus who was crucified was raised from the grave by the |)Ower of God and is now the Kxalted and Sovereign Lord. Apart from this the very existence of Apostolic Christianity as exhibited in the NT is unintelligilile and inexplicable. Three aspects of this fundami^ntal significance of the Kesiirrection may here be indicated.
(a) It is the fontal source or spring of the apo- stolic faith, that which brought the Church into existence and set it moving with that wonderful vitality and power which lie before us in the NT. Much of modern historical criticism attempts to find the impulse which constitutes Christianity in the impression of the life and teaching of .lesns on His disciples. But so far as that went, and if that were all, there would have been no such thing as the Christianity of the apostles. There might have been memoirs of Him, there might have been a school of thought founded on His teaching, hut there would have been no living faith, no Christian gospel, no Apostolic Church. He had spoken as no man had ever spoken ; He had done many mighty works, ' works which none other man did ' (Jn 15-^). And more than what He said and did was what He was — the unique impression of His lite and personality, whereby He nuule men feel that in Him they were face to face w itli one who was none other than the great Promised One of God, 'the Christ' (Mk 8», Mt 16'«, Lk 9-"), 'the Holy One of God' (Jn 6«»; cf. Ac 3", 'the Holy and Righteous One').
Yet the faith called forth by the life of Christ was a faith which broke into fragments under the crash of the Cross. The creative force or dynamic of Christianity has, as a matter of history, to be found in an event that carries us beyond the limits of the earthly life. It was the Resurrection, viewed as a great declaratory act of God, the fact that God ' raised him from tlie dead, and made him to sit at his right hand' (Eph 1'-"), that re-interpreted and re-established the faith evoked by the Life, and for the first time gave Him His true place as Lord and Christ in their lives. This is best seen by reference to the rejiorts of St. Peter's speeches in the Acts, in which, Ity general consent, we have a true representation of the earliest Christian preaching. In these speeches St. Peter starts indeed from the historical Person of Jesus and from facts well known to his hearers regarding His life on earth : 'Jesus of Nazareth, a man accredited to you by God through miracles and wonders and signs which God performed by him among you, as you yourselves know ' (Ac 2--) ; ' anointed with the Holy Ghost and w ith power : who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil ; for God was with him' (10^*).
This Divine approval of Jesns on earth, as certified by His works, was, however, apparently contradicted and denied by His death on the Cross, which to the Jew was the symbol of Divine re- jection (5'° 10S» ; cf. Dt 2\^). But the difiiculty thus presented to faith by His death was re- moved or annulled by the Resurrection on ' the third day' (U)'"), which is represented as a great historical act on the part of (Jod, who thereby re- versed Israel's act of rejecti(m ami vindicated the claim of Jesus to be the Christ, ' whom ye crucified, whom God raised' (4'"; cf. 2=^- '- ^ .S").'