Very early next morning (Sunday, March 20, A.D. 29) Jesus arose alive from the tomb [see Resurrec- tion], which an angel opened, the guards swooning away at the sight (Matt, xxviii, 2-4, and parallel). The women soon appeared on the sfjot with the spices for completing the embalming, but, discovering the stone removed from the door, Mary Magdalene hastily return- ed to tell Peter, while the rest, entering, missed the body, but saw two angels at the entrance, who informed them of the resurrection of their jMaster, and. as they were re- turning to inform the disciples, they met Jesus himself; but the disciples, on their return, disbelieved their re- port (^lark xxi, 2-4 ; John xx, 2 ; Luke xxiv, 3-8 ; Matt, xxviii, 7-10; Luke xxiv, 9, 10; and parallels). The guard, however, had by this time recovered, and, on reporting to the hierarchy, they were bribed to circu- late a story of the abreption of the body during their sleep (Matt, xxxiii, 11-15). Marj^ Magdalene mean- while had roused Peter and John with the tidings of the absence of the body, and, on their hastening to the tomb, they both observed the state of things there, without arriving at any satisfactory explanation of it) ; but Ma- ry, who arrived soon after they had left, as she stood weeping, saw a person of whom, mistaking him for the keeper of the garden, she inquired for the body, but was soon made aware by his voice that it was Jesus himself, when she fell at his feet, being forbidden a nearer ap- proach, but bidden to announce his resurrection to the disciples (John xx, 11-18 ; Mark xvi, 1 1 ; and parallels). On the same day Jesus appeared to two of the disciples who were going to Emmaus, and disconrse^l to them re- specting the Christology of the Old Test., but they did not recognise him till they were partaking the meal to which, at their journey's end, they invited him, and then they immediately returned with the news to Jeru- salem, wliere they found that he had in the meanwhile a]ipeared also to Peter (Luke xxiv, 13-33, and parallels). At this moment Jesus himself appeared in their midst, and overcame their incredulity by showing them his wounds and eating before them, and then gave them instructions respecting their apostolical mission (Luke xxiv, 36-49; John xx, 21; Mark xvi, 15-18; John x, 4, 22, 23 ; and parallels). Thomas, who had been absent from this interview, and therefore refused to believe his associates' report, was also convinced, at the next ap- pearance of Jesus a week afterwards (Sunday evening, March 27, A.D. 29), by handling him personally (John
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XX, 24-29). Some time afterwards (prob, Wednesday, March 30, A.D. 29) Jesus again appeared to his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Tiberias, as they were fishing; and, after they had tal^en a preternatural quantity of fish at his direction, coming ashore, they jjartook of a meal which he had jjrepared, after which he tenderly reproved Peter for his unfaithfulness, and intimated to him his future martyrdom (Matt, xxviii, IG ; John xxi, 1-23). Soon afterwards (probably Thursday, March 31, A.D. 29) he appeared to some live hundred of his disci- ples (1 Cor. XV, 6) at an appointed meeting on a moun- tain in Galilee, where he commissioned his apostles afresh to their work (JNIatt. xxviii, 16-20). Next he appeared to James (1 Cor. xv, 7), and finally to all the apostles together [see Appeauanxe (of kisen Christ)], to whom, at the end of forty days from his passion (Thursday, April 28, A.D. 29), he now gave a general charge relative to their mission [sec Apostle], and, leading them towards Bethanj^ ^vhile blessing them he was suddenly carried up bodily into the sky [see Ascen- sion] and enfolded from their sight in a cloud [see Ix- TEitCESSiox], angels at the same time appearing and declaring to them, in their astonishment, his future re- turn in a similar manner (Acts i, 2-12, and parallels). (For a fuller explanation of the details of the foregoing narrative, see Strong's Ilurmomj and Exposilion of the Go.ipels, N. Y., 1852.) See Gosi-ei.s.
IV. Literutia-e. — JMuch of this has been cited under the foregoing heads. Wc present here a general sum- mary.
1. The efforts to produce a biography of the Saviour of mankind may be saiil to have begun with the at- tempts to combine and harmonize the statements of the evangelists (see Hase, Lehen Jesit, p. 20). See Haumo- NiES. The early Church contented itself simply with collating the narratives of the different apostles and an occasional comment on some passages. See Moxotes- SAitox. In tlic ^liddle Ages, as also later in the IJoman Catholic Church, the works written on the life of Christ were uncritical, fantastic, and fiction-like, being mere religious tracts (Hase, p. 26). Even after the Iveforma- tion had given rise to speculation and religious theory, the works on the life of Christ continued to be of a like character. It was not till near the close of the 18th century, when the Wolfenbiittel Fragmentists had at- tacked Christianity [see Lessinc; j, that the Apologists felt themselves constrained to treat tlic history of Clirist in his twofold nature, as God and also as man. This period was therefore the first in which the life of Christ was treated in a critical and pragmatical manner (comp. Strauss, Leben Jest/, 1864, p. 1). Soon, however, these efforts degenerated into humanitarianism, and even ])ro- fanitJ^ Herder, the great German poet and theologian, wrote distinct treatises on the life of " the Son of God" and on the life of " the Son of man." Some treated of the prophet of Nazareth (Bahrdt,Veuturini ; later Langs- dorf) ; others even instituted comparisons witli men like Socrates, oftentimes drawing the jiarallel in favor ratlier of the latter. Others (Paulus, Greiling), in order to suit the tendency of the age, hesitated not to strip the life of Christ of all the miraculous, and painted him simply as the humane and wise teacher. Such a theo- ry was, of course, " the reductio ad absiirdum of a ration- alism pure and simple" (compare Humptre, Christ and Christendom, Boyle Lect. 1866, p. 329). The more mod- ern theology (we refer here mainly to German theology since Schleiermacher) attempted to crowd forward the ideal. Thus Hase proposed for his task tlie treatment "how Jesus of Nazareth, according to divine jiredesti- nation, by the free exercise of his own mind, and by the will of his age, had become the Saviour of the world."