Cheyne, Bihle Prohlem.i, p. 110 If.). The OT hints and pre-Christian Messianic belief alone or com- bined with the predictions of Jesus, it is repre- sented, naturally took shape in the belief in the Resurrection on the third day, or were the pre- disposing cause for tliis belief. The belief createil the Resurrection rather than the Rcsmrectiou the belief. But what are the facts? The Gospels tell us unmistakably that the disciples had no antici- pation whatever of the resurrection of their cruel- tied Master. For all that, Jesus did predict His resurrection on the third day and represent this as foreshadowed in the Scriptures (Mt I6-' 17--'- 20"'- ", Mk 8" <J^' 10^, Lk 9" 18^' 24"-' ; cf. Lk 24«). The astonishment of the disciples at the empty tomb is explained by the rellexion that ' as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead ' (Jn 20"). So far from the victory of the Messiah over death through a resurrection being part of the current Jewish Messianic belief, the very idea of a suHering and dying Messiah m as ' to His disciples an inconceivable and enigmatical representation ' (Holsten, op. cit. p. 98 ; cf. Mt 16'-' 17-^). ' Suti'ering and death for the actual possessor of tlie Messianic dignity are in fact unimaginable, according to the testimony of the prophets' (Dal- nian. Words of Jesus, Eng. tr., Edinburgh, 1902, p. 265). Ts 16'" is the only passage which the NT writers quote as prophetic of the Resurrection, but it is clear that its Christian interpretation was by no means obvious before the event. The proof from Scripture prophecy of the Resurrection on the third day was thus an interpretation or confirma- tion after the event, and, under the influence of Jesus' post - Resurrection teaching, an ' after- thought, as Lake himself admits (p. 30). It is not the prophecies which suggest the fact, but the fact which extracts and explains the prophecies. The attempt to trace the belief in the event ' on the third day ' ultimately to Oriental sources will be more fully considered below (V. ii. 2). But mean- time the fact is to be emphasized that no detail is better attested in connexion with the Resurrection than the discovery of the empty tomb on the third day, and any criticism which ignores this cannot justly lay claim to be ' scientific'
It has often been pointed out that in the Gospels none of the witnesses claims to have seen our Lord leave the tomb. Of the Resurrection itself there was no eye-witness. This is some- times adduced in disparagement of the Gospel evidence. But this very silence of the narratives is a significant corroboration of their historical trustworthiness. If the accounts of the events at the empty grave were as legendary as some recent criticism would represent, the silence is almost inexplicable. ' A faith that was capable of creating, with absolutely no basis in fact, so circumstantial an account of the emptiness of the Tomb, would assuredly not have left without a witness the one moment on which the significance of its whole creation seems to depend ' (Cainbridfie Theot. Essat/s, p. 332J. A comparison with the account given in the apocryphal Gospel of Feler brings into clear relief the self-restraint of the canonical Gospels (cf. Orr, Resurrection of Jesus, p. 260 f.).
(b) The post -Resurrection appearances. — Though the empty grave on the third day is thus ade- quately attested, this, according to the evidence, was not in and by itself the cause of the di.sciples' belief in the Resurrection. According to the Evan- gelists, it was not simply the fact of the empty tomb, not even this supplemented by the angelic proclamation that the Lord had risen, which pro- duced in the disciples the conviction that tlieir crucified Master was indeed risen from the dead. The women returned, as they were bidden, to tell the disciples what they had seen and heard at the empty grave, but 'this story of the women seemed in their opinion to be nonsense (\Tipoi) ; they would not believe .them ' (Lk 24" [Moffatt] ; cf. Mk 16"- ■'■ '•", Jn 20'-', ou /CiT) iriiTTetiirw. For a whole week Thomas refused to believe). Peter and John go to the giave and find the condition of things as the women had said. They stoop down and enter in and
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find the firave-dothes lying whore the hody 1"m1 rested, with the head-eluth foUled np by itself, in- stead of lyin^' l)eside the other bandages, and tliev return home 'wondering wliat had liappened' (Lk 24''-[Mollatl]), perplex ed and unalile to ex phiinwliat thej" .saw. Jolm indeed, writing many years after. Bays of himself that lie ' saw and believed ' (Jn 20", clSe Kai (TidTfvaff). The meaning of these words is doubtf\iI. It has been suggested that, from the manner in whieh the grave-clothes lay folded, .Jolin W'as led not merely to lielieve in the emptiness of the grave, but to the idea of resurrection. So, e.g., Cyril of Alexandria : ' Ex involutis linteaminibus resurrectionem coUigunt,' as the Latin version renders it (Migne, PG Ixxiv. 683, quoted by W. J. S. Simpson in DCG ii. 507°); cl. Latham, Jiiscii Mi(.itcr, and Dods, EOT, in loc. But if such was the case, it does not appear tliat he said any- thing to the others on the subject. On the other hand, to say that he ' believed here means simjily 'became convinced' that the grave was enii)ty and the bodj' removed may be saying too little. Prob- ably it is nearest the truth to say with Swete : ' There arose in his [John's] mind at that moment a nascent conlidence that in some way as yet unknown tlieir darkness would be turned to light, and the victory of the Christ be secured. For the inesent, however, the mystery remained unsolved ; they seemed to have exh.austed their means of getting at the truth, and both men went home again ' (Appearances, p. 6). Even as regards the women themselves, the chief impression we receive of their mental condition from the narratives is that of terrorized amazement. The dazzling vision and the voice from the grave filled them with dis- may. They tied from the sepulchre, and on their way hack to the city they spoke not a word, so great was their terror. 'They were seized with terror and beside themselves' (Mk 16* [Moli'att]). Not the empty grave, therefore, and not the angelic report merely, but these followed by and in essen- tial connexion with the subsequent self-revelation of the risen living Lord in the shape of manifesta- tions or appearings of Himself to them (or what were taken to be such), were what, according to the narratives, gave rise to the apostles' belief in the Resurrection.