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Harmonising the Resurrection and Post-Resurrection Narratives

Anna_BaptistAnna_Baptist Shipmate
in Kerygmania
As suggested by Alien From Zog on the Harmonising the Birth Narrative thread.

So this is how I would harmonise the Resurrection (and Post-Resurrection) appearances according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts. I'm assuming that Mark ends at 16:8

1. Early on the Sunday morning some women come to the tomb (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:1, Luke 24:1,10, John 20:1)
2. The stone is rolled away (Matthew 28:2, Mark 16:4, Luke 24:2, John 20:1)
3. The Angels talk to the women (Matthew 28: 2, 6, Mark 16:4, Luke 24:2, John 20:1))
4. The Angels tell the women to go and tell the disciples (Matthew 28:7, Mark 16:7, Luke 24:5-8,)
5. The women run from the tomb (Matthew 28:8, Mark 16:8, John 20:2)
6. They meet Jesus and hold on to him. Then Jesus sends them on to the Disciples. (Matthew 28:9-10, John 20:2, 14-17)
7. The women tell the disciples (Luke 24: 9-11) OR the women don’t tell anyone (Mark 16:8)
8. The Guards tell the religious authorities what has happened (Matthew 28:11-15)
9. Some disciples go to the Tomb (Luke 24:12, John 20:3-10)
10. Jesus meets with Peter (Luke 24: 33-35)
11. Jesus meets with Cleopas and companion on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13-32)
12. Jesus meets with the Eleven (Luke 24: 36-49, John 20: 19-23)
13. Jesus meets with the Eleven with Thomas present (John 20:24-29)
14. Disciples go to Galilee and meet Jesus (Matthew 28:16-17, John 21:2)
15. Disciples go fishing and have a meal on the beach with Jesus, Jesus re-instates Peter (John 21)
16. Jesus gives them the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20)
17. Disciples return to Jerusalem, and they are told to remain there (Luke 24: 45-49, Acts 1: 3-5)
18. Jesus ascends to heaven (Luke 24: 50-52, Acts 1:9-11)

Issues

Who was at the tomb?
Was the stone rolled away in the presence of the women?
Angels or men and how many?
Did the women tell the disciples?
Which disciples went to the tomb?
When does Mary Magdalene meet Jesus?
When does Jesus say not to leave Jerusalem?

Comments

  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    I've got a small difference to start with. I think the women got to the tomb, saw that the stone was rolled away, and lost their heads--well, Mary Magdalene in particular, who took off running to let the disciples know. The others (possibly being older, or just less easily freaked out) stayed around the extra minute or so to meet the angels.

    Then, after getting her breath back, Mary has no real idea what to do other than return to the scene of the not-crime... So she sets out back to the tomb, following Peter and John but more slowly. They get there, see no angels but DO see the open tomb, and John believes... something, it's not clear what from his wording. Then they head home.

    Mary gets back there and has her famous encounter with Jesus, whom she doesn't recognize at first. Which sends her back to the city as the first witness of the risen Christ in person.

    But what about the other women? I think they must have been walking fairly slowly if they saw Christ en route but after Mary. Or possibly we've got it wrong and they were in fact the first to see him, and Mary alone was second. I can't recall if there's a place in the Bible that explicitly names Mary the first.

    Somebody--probably Dorothy L. Sayers--once said that it's pretty easy to harmonize the accounts if you stop for a minute to imagine the normal behavior of excited and scared people running around in the predawn twilight. Throw in the route they'd have to be following to get from the tomb to the city and back again, especially if there are alternate routes, and you have any amount of ways for people to miss each other in the back-and-forthing.
  • alienfromzogalienfromzog Shipmate
    Lamb Chopped wrote: »

    Somebody--probably Dorothy L. Sayers--once said that it's pretty easy to harmonize the accounts if you stop for a minute to imagine the normal behavior of excited and scared people running around in the predawn twilight. Throw in the route they'd have to be following to get from the tomb to the city and back again, especially if there are alternate routes, and you have any amount of ways for people to miss each other in the back-and-forthing.

    I like this. It is my experience that so often critics complain about narratives not agreeing 100% which would of course make them much less credible and compound this error by ignoring what is well known about human behaviour in stressful situations. I'm going to enjoy looking at the 4 (5...) accounts in detail again, thinking specifically about how these jigsaw pieces might fit.

    AFZ

  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Here we go again, getting into the weeds. The ultimate question is did Jesus rise from the dead or didn't he? If you believe he did, then it all makes sense. If you don't none of it makes sense.

    I will just go to the Mark story. Mark clearly says when the women entered the tomb they found a young man in a white robe who told them Jesus had risen. There is no indication this young man was and angel. The white robe did not dazzle.

    If you look at Mark story of the man who was called Legion you find after the exorcism, the man is calmy setting with Jesus fully clothed and in his right mind.

    I would argue the two men were one and the same. The man in Mark 5 had been living among the tombs. The man in Mark 16 is among the tombs. The man in Mark 5 is actually the only man commissioned by Jesus to tell the good news. All the other encounters Jesus had with people he tells them to tell no one.

    I will even go so far as to say, this man was likely the man who wrote the Gospel we know as Mark. Or at least he could have been the source for the two stories of Mark 5 and 16.

    Mark ends with the women running away and telling no one. I find it an odd ending. Other than being a part of a secrecy motif that runs through Mark. Seems like Mark wants us to dwell in the mystery.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    Wait a minute. The guy living among the tombs with the whole Legion thing was by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus' tomb was just outside Jerusalem. There's a considerable distance between the two locations, and no reason to identify the two people or conflate the stories at all.
  • questioningquestioning Shipmate
    alienfromzog wrote: »
    Lamb Chopped wrote: »

    Somebody--probably Dorothy L. Sayers--once said that it's pretty easy to harmonize the accounts if you stop for a minute to imagine the normal behavior of excited and scared people running around in the predawn twilight. Throw in the route they'd have to be following to get from the tomb to the city and back again, especially if there are alternate routes, and you have any amount of ways for people to miss each other in the back-and-forthing.

    I like this. It is my experience that so often critics complain about narratives not agreeing 100% which would of course make them much less credible and compound this error by ignoring what is well known about human behaviour in stressful situations. I'm going to enjoy looking at the 4 (5...) accounts in detail again, thinking specifically about how these jigsaw pieces might fit.

    AFZ

    [tangent]

    In light of all the reading and learning I've been doing about trauma-informed practices of various sorts, this is an especially helpful comment for me. People tend not to be accurate reporters after a startling or traumatic event -- not out of ill will, malice, or any other motivation, but just because that's how our brains work.

    Personally, I don't feel any great need to harmonize the accounts, but I still find @alienfromzog's comment enlightening in general. Thanks!

    [/tangent]
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    Lamb Chopped wrote: »
    Wait a minute. The guy living among the tombs with the whole Legion thing was by the Sea of Galilee. Jesus' tomb was just outside Jerusalem. There's a considerable distance between the two locations, and no reason to identify the two people or conflate the stories at all.

    Mark says the formally demon possessed man went through the area of the Decapolis telling everyone what he experienced. But, remember, the man wanted to go with Jesus.

    Since Jesus ministry lasted three years, the man could have doubled back and followed Jesus, say in the last year of his ministry.

    This is the stuff PhD dissertations are written on.
  • Lamb ChoppedLamb Chopped Shipmate
    Having done that, i must agree that there are topics in my field which are equally flimsy and forced. I still don’t see this working. It’s a large jump in booth time and space, not to mention the probable culture gap between Jerusalemites and a (likely) gentile.

  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    I’d class it in a category along the lines of “pious legend.” It’s the sort of thing about which I might say “I like to think that . . . ,” or “I can’t help but wonder if . . . .” But to take it any further than that, or to say it’s likely the case, seems to me to be completely unwarranted.

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