KESUKRECTION OF CHRIST
KESUKRECTIUX OF CHRIST 335
those 'more than five hundred' were still livintr and could he interrogated by his readers for tliemselves as he hud douhtless interroi,'atoii them. Of this appearance the Apostle makes nuich, im:ludin}j; it even in a summary list ; as well indeed he nnght, for, even if the Kleven could he deceived or deceivers, was it credible that their error or their fraud would he sliared by so large a company ? ' Some there must have been among them who, as the days went on, would have exposed the im- posture or betrajed their doubts. But if any ooubts of this kind had arisen, it would have been dangerous for the Apostle to iivtiH'al to tlie survivors of the five hundred in a letter written to Corinth, where he hati enemies who were in frequent com- munication with Jerusalem ' (Swete, Appearances, p. S3f.).
(iv.) 'Then he appeared to James.' Of this appearance we have no notice in the Gospels. An extra-canonical account of it is found in the fragment of the Gospel according to the Hebrews preserved by Jerome (rff Vir, Hi. 2), *a Palestinian work of the end of the 1st or beginning of the 2nd century. 'The Lord . . . went to James and appeared to him, for James had sworn that he would not eat bread from the hour in which he had drunk the cup of the lx)rd until he saw Him raised from the dead. . . . Hriiig, the Lord said, a table and bread. . . . He brought bread, and (Jesus) blessed and brake it and gave it to James the Just and said to him, My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of Man has risen from the dead." This cannot, however, ' with any confidence be connected with the appearance to James the Lord's brother of which S. Paul speaks ' (Swete, p. 89 f. ; cf. J. B. Mayor, Kjyistle of Si. James^, lyotidoii, 1910. p. xxvii). Though not thus referred to else- where in the NT, corroboration of the fact may be derived from the light thrown by it on what we are told of the Lord's brethren after the Kesurrection. That they did not believe in Him during the days of His public ministry is recorded in the Fourth Gospel (Jn 7^ ; c£ Mk 321). After the AsceTision, how- ever, we find them included among the little company of believers (Ac l^-*); and within a short time we find St. James in particular president of the Jerusalem Church (Ac 151^). The natural explanation of the cliange is c-ontained in St. Paul's assertion ' He appeared to James.' It seems impossible to doubt that St. Paul derived his information direct from St. James himself during his fortnight's visit to Jerusalem (Gal 1'**) ; and this appearance is included in the sunmiary because of the special value attached to the testimony of St. James from the fact that he was the eldest brother of the Lord and head of the Jerusalem fitother Church, as well as from the fact of his previous unbelief.
(v.) * Then to all the apostles.' The appearances in this list being set down in chronological order, the incident to which St. Paul here refers may with a reasonable degree of probability be identified with the appearance of Christ to the Eleven before the Ascension, more circumstantially narrated by Luke (245"f-, Ac !*"• ; cf- Mk IG'-^f-)- Ac 1^-, which speaks of those who had companied with the Eleven from the beginning until 'the day that he was received up,' would support the contention of those who hold that on the occasion of this appearance others were present besides the Eleven, and that St. Paul means to convey this by distinguishing an appearance of 'all the apostles' from an a()pearance to ' the twehe.' St. Paul's wider usage of the term aTrdo-ToAos makes such an interpretation possible.
The appearances recorded by St. Paul may thus be hekl to correspond to appearances recorded in tlie Gospels, with the one exception of that to St. James, ^vluch we have seen reason to assume he obtained at hr.st hand during his visit to Jerusalem. The further appearances of the Risen Christ re- corded in the Gospels of which there is no mention in St. Paul's summary — the appearance to the women, to Mary Magdalene, to the travellers to Emmaus, to the .seven at the Sea of Tiberias — may have been omitted for the reason already indicated, viz. that they were of less interest for the purpose in view, having little moi'e than a private signili- cance, St. Paul's list, therefore, helps us to verify, and at one or two points to supplement, the nar- rative of the Gospels. The significance of this has to be noted. It has often been asserted that the Gospel story of the Resurrection was not com- mitted to writing till thirty or forty years after the events recoi'ded, and that this period allows time for the incorporation of details whicli may be nothing more than tradition. Hut here we have written down within twenty-two or twenty-three years of the event (taking the date of 1 Cor. as A.D. 55) a list of witnesses expressly attirmed to be part of the tradition which St. Paul had received either at his conversion (A.D. 31 or 33) or, at latest, during his visit to Jerusalem three years later, from first-hand sources, thus taking us back to within a few years of the event. And how remarkable a list it is — 'Cephas,' * James,' * tlie twelve,* * more than hve hundred brethren,' and