Resurrection

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History

Statue of Asclepius, found in a sanctuary dedicated to him in Epidauro (Greece). Sculpted in marble, dated from 160 AD, is a copy of an original of the centuryIVa. C. In the vicinity of the left leg, the remains of a snake, symbol of medicine and "hidden sciences", linked to the sources of life. National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Since ancient times, the resurrection was considered the most indisputable symbol of divine manifestation, since it was assumed that the secret of life can only belong to divinity. The "immortal sun" itself, which each night descended into the "kingdom of the dead," could take men with it and, when it set, kill them. But he could also guide souls through the infernal regions, "rising" into the light the next day, with the morning.

When Asclepius, son of Apollo and the mortal Coronide, demigod of medicine (whom the Romans called Aesculapius), instructed by the centaur Chiron in the art of curing diseases, reached such progress that he managed to be able to resurrect to the dead, their science reached the point of provoking the complaints of Hades. Zeus, fearing that Asclepius' art would upset the order of the world, struck down the doctor with lightning. The "science of resurrection" was therefore a forbidden science. The resurrection of a woman, who had not breathed for thirty days, is also attributed to the Greek philosopher Empedocles of Agrigento ( V century a C.), also deified by his followers.

The "mystery religions", in particular the Eleusinian mysteries, as well as Egyptian funerary ceremonies, testified to a lively human expectation of the resurrection. The initiation rites into the great mysteries were symbols of the resurrection awaited by the initiates.

The belief in Osiris attracted many followers and became the most important of the Ancient Egyptian religions: the one that, with his resurrection, defeated death, guaranteeing eternal life. This faith lasted for more than twenty centuries.

In the Bible

The concept of resurrection in the Bible is based on the idea that a divinity creates hybrid humans (part flesh and part spirit), the resurrection is taken as the basis of dogmas in the multitude of faiths around the world.

The Biblical conception of the term "resurrection", which experienced a slow revelation through the Hebrew Bible, the Greek books of the Old Testament and the New Testament, and which continues to be present in Judaism, Christianity and in Islam has no point of comparison with the ancient idea of typical immortality, for example, of the Greek conception. Understood in the Holy Scriptures first as a rescue from the šeol, in some cases as a return to the previous life, and then as a continuity in the eternal life of the entire human person, the word “resurrection” ends up assuming with Christianity its quintessential meaning: the resurrection of Jesus Christ, resulting from the experience of Easter, from which the resurrection of men follows by extension. This point, debated from the first communities that followed Jesus of Nazareth to the present day, is -without a doubt- the center and cornerstone of the Christian faith, as Paul of Tarsus expressly expressed it to the Greek community of Corinth, reluctant to believe in the resurrection of the dead: "If Christ be not risen, our preaching is empty, our faith is also empty" (I Corinthians 15:14).

The Resurrection in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament)

God as lord of life and death

God is considered to be "the sole lord of life and death":

“Yahvé gives death and life, brings down šeol and return" (1 Samuel 2:6).
"Now come that I, only I am, and that there is no other God beside me. I give death and give life, I hurt and heal myself (and there is none free of my hand)" (Deuteronomy 32:39).

According to the Bible, God has power over the šeol itself and rescues the soul from the pit:

"He who forgives all your faults, who heals all your infirmities, rescues your life from the pit, crowns you with love and tenderness" (Psalm 103[102]:3-4).

"That is why I rejoice in my heart, my bowels return, and even my flesh rests in safety; for you shall not abandon my soul to the šeolYou will not let your friend see the pit" (Psalm 16[15]:9-10).

No doubt, these expressions are understood in a hyperbolic way, to signify a temporary preservation from death.

Revival of the dead in the Hebrew Bible

"Elisha the prophet raises the son of the Shulamite." From Benjamin West (1738-1820), American painter.

The miracles of resurrection performed by Elijah and Elisha go even further: they show God reviving the dead themselves, taking them out of šeol, into which they had descended.

The Resurrection of the Son of the Widow of Sarepta through the prophet Elijah (1Kings 17:17-23).
The resurrection of the son of the Shunamite through the prophet Elisha (2Kings 4:31-37).
Finally, a corpse that was rushed into the tomb of Elisha himself came back to life when he touched the bones of the prophet (2Kings 13:20-21).

This type of “resurrection”, not for eternal life, but as reanimation or return to the previous life, is repeated in the New Testament as detailed below.

“The resurrection” of the people of God

The Hebrew Bible also refers to "resurrection" in a metaphorical sense, implying true liberation. For example:

After living the proof of exile, the prophet announces that God will restore Israel. To this end, the image of the dried bones that are clothed with flesh and nerves and return to life is used (Ezekiel 37:1-14). The Bible of Jerusalem suggests that this passage first guides the idea of an individual resurrection of the flesh.

He will restore life to the dead, cause his corpses to rise, for those who are lying on the dust to wake up.Isaiah 26:19).

Individual resurrection

"The martyrdom of the seven Maccabees" (1863), by Antonio Ciseri. Oil on canvas located in S. Congratulations, Florence. The martyrdom of the seven Maccabean brothers in front of their own mother, martyred at the end, constitutes the dramatic background for the clarification in the Greek Bible of faith in the resurrection of the bodies.

On the occasion of the Maccabean crisis (2nd century BC), the persecution of Antiochus IV Epiphanes and From the experience of martyrdom, the issue of individual retribution is sharply raised. According to the Bible, at this stage it is already transmitted as a fundamental certainty that we must await the reign of God and the final triumph of his people. But what would become of the saints who died for the faith?

Daniel's apocalypse responds: "Many of those who sleep in the country of dust will wake up; some for eternal life; others, for the reproach, for eternal horror. The touches will shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who taught the multitude justice, as the stars for all eternity" (Is.Daniel 12:2-3). This is one of the most important texts on the resurrection of the dead in the Hebrew Bible, for many specialists the oldest, possibly composed during the Maccabean revolt (167-164 BC). This passage refers indisputable way to the individual resurrection, from death to eternal life.

The hope that holds the martyrs in the midst of their test is of such magnitude, that, even by breaking down the corporeal life, they trust that the God who created them will also be the one who raises them. Thus the concept of the "resurrection of the righteous" is explicitly presented in the Greek books (2 Maccabees 7:9.11.22). The concept of the resurrection of the body appears abundantly in this book. Since then, faith in the resurrection becomes the common heritage of Judaism.

The Resurrection in the New Testament

Jesus of Nazareth: "The Resurrection and Life"

In the New Testament writings, Jesus of Nazareth is not presented only as someone who believes in the resurrection of the just that would take place at the end of time. In the Gospels, he manifests power over life, bringing several dead people back to life for those who come to him to plead with him during his ministry:

"The Resurrection of Lazarus", by Caravaggio. Mesina Regional Museum, Italy.

The daughter of Jairo (Mark 5:21-42).
The son of the widow of Nain (Luke 7:11-17).
His friend Lazarus of Betania, for whom his sisters Martha and Mary plead (John 11:1-43).

In all these cases, the physical bodies would have returned to life, indistinguishable from their situation before death. These resurrections recall the prophetic miracles of the Old Testament and represent in the Scriptures the veiled announcement of a very different resurrection: that of Jesus himself.

Furthermore:

Jesus points out in the Gospel of John: "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever lives in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me, will never die" (John 11:25), thus implying that those who believe in him are already partakers of a new birth, which leads to a change and expect the resurrection eternal life.

Jesus adds precise predictions: He repeats on several occasions that the Son of Man will die and will rise on the third day (Marcos 8:31Marcos 9:31Marcos 10:33-34).

The Gospel of Matthew announces the death of Jesus with a parallel with the "signo of Jonah": just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days, the Son of man will be three days and three nights in the bosom of the earth (Matthew 12:38-40).

The Gospel of John reiterates it with the “sign of the Temple”: Jesus, questioned by the Jews, says: “Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days...”; now, “he spoke of the temple of his body.”John 2:18-22).

The proclamation of a "resurrection of the dead" becomes incomprehensible even to the group of "the Twelve Apostles" (The Twelve Apostles)Mark 9:9-10), and with more reason the enemies of Jesus, who take pretext of him to put guards in his tomb, after the death of Jesus (Matthew 27:62-66).

In the Bible the term means to come back to life or reanimate as a physical body (a widely accepted belief among the Israelites), the concept of body/soul union never appears. Later, other cases of resurrection are mentioned in the book of the Acts of the Apostles:

The Resurrection of Dorcas (Tabita) through Simon Peter (Acts 9:36-42).
The Resurrection of the Young Eutic by Paul of Tarsus (Acts 20:7-12).

The Easter experience of Jesus of Nazareth

The Gospels do not describe the moment of the resurrection, nor do they say that anyone saw Jesus rise from the dead. Instead, they describe different moments in which the risen Jesus manifests himself to chosen witnesses.

"Three unbeliever", the work of the painter Mathias Stomer (1590–1656). Museo del Prado, Madrid. According to the Gospels, the risen Jesus is not a ghost: his body is visible, and the wounds of his crucifixion are tangible.

The apostles «until then they had not understood that, according to Scripture, Jesus was to rise from the dead» (John 20:9); therefore the death of Jesus and his burial fills them with fear (John 20:19) and outstanding (Luke 24:21-23).

The experience of the empty tomb is not enough to convince them, and they think that women who announce that the tomb is empty are crazy (Luke 24:11).

Then the resurrected apparitions begin. Jesus appears “for many days” (Acts 13:31), “for forty days” (Acts 1:3). The stories underline the concrete nature of these manifestations: the one who appears is certainly Jesus of Nazareth.

Women see him and embrace his feet.Matthew 28:8-9).
The apostles see him, touch him and talk to him (Luke 24:36-40, John 20:19-23).
The apostles eat with him, and he performs gestures by which he is recognized (Luke 24:30-31, John 21:9-14).
Peter would later announce the same thing: they ate and drank with the risen Jesus (Acts 10:34-41).
Resurrected Jesus is not a ghost, because he appears with his own body, has “meat and bones”, and challenges Thomas the Apostle to prove the existence of his sores (John 20:24-27),
However, this body is subtracted from the usual conditions of earthly life: it does not recognize physical limits (John 20:19).

“The Resurrection” in the preaching of the Apostles

Saint Paul preaching in Athens (1515), work of Rafael Sanzio (1483-1520). Royal Collection of the United Kingdom. To the Athenians, who believed in the “immortality of the soul”, Paul of Tarsus preaches in the Areopagus the “resurrection of the dead”.

From the day of Pentecost, the resurrection becomes the center of apostolic preaching because, according to the disciples of Jesus, the fundamental object of the Christian faith is revealed in the resurrection (Acts 2:22-32). It is about the testimony that the apostles give to facts that they claim to have seen: that Jesus was crucified and died; but God raised him up. In correspondence with the above, they announce that, as happened with Jesus of Nazareth, the life of men does not end with death. Such is the preaching of Simon Peter to the Jews (Acts 3:11-15) and the testimony of Simon Peter and John the Apostle before the Great Sanhedrin (Acts 4:1-13). Such is the teaching of Paul of Tarsus to the Jews (Acts 13:26-33 Acts 17:1-3) and his confession before his judges (Acts 23:6). Paul's preaching to the Athenians also focuses on the resurrection, although for this he is rejected by most Greeks (Acts 17:22-34). For the apostles, all these preachings are nothing more than the content of the paschal experience of Jesus of Nazareth, which happened in accordance with the provisions of the Scriptures (1Corinthians 15:3-10).

In the Jewish tradition

At the time of Jesus of Nazareth, Jews largely believed in the future resurrection of the dead at the end of time, although attitudes differed and it was the subject of debate (Matthew 22:23-33). Indeed, both the Pharisees and the Essenes maintained their strong support for the afterlife, while the Sadducees denied it. From the recent publication of fragments of available scrolls from the 1950s, it is clear that hope and The Essenes' belief in an afterlife and resurrection are explicit in some Dead Sea Scrolls found in the Qumran caves. The New Testament and the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus greatly expand the number of allusions to the resurrection. To the manuscripts of the time, other types of evidence can be added, such as epigraphy. There are numerous epitaphs on Jewish tombs of the time that evidence the already established belief in the resurrection of the dead.

As it was derived from Jewish sources, it should be noted that Judaism also has as its principle of faith the resurrection of the dead. A famous Jewish authority, Maimonides, indicated thirteen principles of the Jewish faith, and the resurrection is one of them, printed in the rabbinical prayer book. It is the thirteenth principle and states:

I believe with sincere faith that the dead will rise, when God (blessed), desires it. Be the blessed Name (of God), and His remembrance is lifted for the centuries."

The Resurrection and Myths: Opinions in the 19th and 20th Centuries

See also: Jesus Christ in Comparative Mythology

Those who rejected or reject that Jesus is a historical figure also deny the resurrection. Charles-François Dupuis (1742–1809), who was completely opposed to the historicity of Jesus, held that Jewish and Christian scriptures can be interpreted according to the "pattern of solar energy": the fall of man in Genesis it would be an allegory for the hardships caused by winter, and the resurrection of Jesus would represent the growth of the sun's strength in the sign of Aries at the vernal equinox.

James George Frazer, author of "Golden Bough».

The theme of "the dying and rising gods" is often associated with the analysis of James George Frazer, in his work The Golden Bough ("Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion", first published in 1890). of fertility, which dies after a year and – then – resurrects like the grain to reign again. Although this system of "myth-ritual" would be represented particularly by gods such as Attis, Adonis and Osiris, Frazer considered that it is general to all religions and, although he did not make direct reference to the accounts of the death and resurrection of Jesus, it was taken as an antecedent by all those who considered it a myth.

Almost no one disputes that the naturist cults of the Ancient East assigned a position of importance to the myth of a dead and resurrected god, which seemed to be nothing more than a dramatic translation of the experience that men live: that of the resurgence of life in spring, after the melancholic tone of autumn, and the anguish of winter. Osiris in Egypt, Tammuz in Asiatic Mesopotamia, Baal in Canaan, were gods of this genre. Although the debate focuses on the presumed influence or not of ancient myths on the New Testament documents referring to the risen Jesus. While, as will be seen below, some atheists, agnostics, or believers in other religions suggest the influence of ancient myths on the accounts of the risen Jesus, Christians in general maintain the absence of any projection of mythological accounts of the resurrection. of Jesus which they recognize, not only as a real fact, but as a central fact in the history of Humanity: the return of all creation to God, through Jesus Christ.

Joseph McCabe.

That is why Joseph McCabe (1867–1955), a rationalist atheist writer, documented in his work «The Myth of the Resurrection» of 1925 (republished together with other works of his in the book «The Myth of the Resurrection and Other Essays” in 1993) what he believed were similarities between the “resurrection of Jesus” and some pagan myths such as the Egyptian myth of Osiris, the Sumerian myth of Tammuz and that of Attis of Phrygia: "It is a very important feature of our history that this legend of a dead and risen god arose in very different parts of the ancient civilized world. Tammuz, Attis and Osiris are three separate and independent creations of the myth-making imagination' (p. 45). McCabe noted that these similarly themed pagan stories were not reproductions of one another, taken from a single older source, but appeared separately and independently: "For some reason... the mind of man in most the places of the world came to conceive a legend of death and resurrection [...] In fact, in one form or another there was a universal belief that the god or a representative of the god (king, prisoner, effigy, etc.) died, or that he had to die every year» (pp. 52-53). McCabe intuited in his own terms the existence of a "universal belief in a dead and risen god", which would imply the existence of "a universal mental structure" on the subject of resurrection (p. 63). McCabe's intention was undoubtedly to associate this "universal mental structure" with the Judeo-Christian vision. With variations, this position is still supported by some agnostic thinkers who point out that Christianity would have appropriated this type of myth to elaborate its "resurrection story".

Earl Doherty states in «The Jesus Puzzle» (2005) that Jesus originated as a myth derived from Middle Platonism, with some influence from Jewish mysticism. According to Doherty, belief in Jesus arose only among Christian communities in the 2nd century century. Doherty states that Theophilus of Antioch (c. 163-182), Athenagoras of Athens (c. 133-190), Tatian the Syrian (c. 120-180), and Marcus Minucius Felix (who wrote between 150 and 170) offer no indication that they believed in a crucified and resurrected historical figure, and that the name of Jesus does not appear on any of them. But it turns out that Athenagoras of Athens was a Greek philosopher before his conversion to Christianity, Tatian joined a heretical sect, Marco Minucius Felix was a Roman lawyer before his conversion (his work was in the form of a dialogue between a Christian and a pagan), and Theophilus of Antioch converted at a mature age and only three books of him are preserved, in which he did It refers to the resurrection. In theorizing that early Christianity was a sectarian Jewish version of this kind of widespread belief system, Doherty disregards not only the New Testament writings, but all the underlying patristic evidence (Clement of Rome, Papias of Hierapolis, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, Justin Martyr, Meliton of Sardes, Irenaeus of Lyon, Clement of Alexandria, to name some representatives of the same period), who embody the living testimony of the Christian communities of the first two centuries.

These alleged parallels between mythology and the resurrection of Jesus were intensely contested from different angles by specialists from different schools of thought. According to academic specialists in mythology, the sources are distorted to force the comparison of the mythological accounts with the accounts of the risen Jesus. The specialist in comparative religions Jonathan Z. Smith and the scholar of ancient Semitism in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University, Mark S. Smith declared the so-called "myth of The Death and Resurrection of the Gods," which they viewed as the product of an uncritical comparison, rather than a careful examination of the evidence.

For their part, there are very few biblical scholars who do not reject the concept of uniformity in reference to the "death and resurrection of the gods", and who maintain that the stories about the risen Jesus have a mythical character. The vast majority of exegetes of the Holy Scriptures point out that the books of the Bible developed in a totally different environment from that which fostered the spread of ancient myths about the resurrection. Tryggve Mettinger, a former professor of the Hebrew Bible at Lund University, is one of the scholars who supports the existence of the myth of the "death and resurrection of the gods", but he argues that Jesus does not fit that pattern.

Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932), Protestant Old Testament professor in Berlin, who denied the existence of myths proper in the Bible.

In the "St. Jerome's Biblical Commentary", a work directed by the biblical scholar Raymond E. Brown and collaborators, recognized for its rigor, it is commented that "the critics of the 19th century, who denied all scientific historicity to biblical documents, they saw myths everywhere” (op. cit., p. 264). And he adds: «Of all the reactions to classical methodology in the 19th century, the history of forms by Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932) was the most notable. Gunkel denied the existence of myths as such in the Bible. Although mythical elements abound in the legends, Israelite monotheism rendered them harmless and eliminated their grosser aspects. According to Raymond E. Brown, "current criticism suggests that the myth refers more to the mode of thought than to its content" (op. cit., p. 264). In the same work, John L. McKenzie commented on the theme of myth among the different aspects of Old Testament thought, in the following terms:

Most of its critics have tried to measurate the myth according to the schemes of the discursive logic and have found it deficient; but in cultures that lack a discursive thought developed, mythical thinking is the only way that the mind has to address certain problems that fall beyond the sensitive experience. These problems involve some of the most important issues that may arise: the origin of the world and of man, the nature of divinity, the relations of man with nature and with divinity, the origins of society and social institutions, the ultimate validation of moral principles, the object and the ultimate end of human existence. These problems can also be addressed through discursive reasoning with their own methods and principles. The myth does not really solve these problems, but it expresses the attitude of man to the mystery; it is doubtful that the discursive reasoning achieves much more.
John L. McKenzie; in: Raymond E. Brown et al., p. 618

The resurrection: a myth come true? The views of Tolkien and Lewis

From another angle, the academic discussion about the "myth of the resurrection" perhaps obscures another possible relationship between the ancient myths and the resurrection of Christ, which J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973), writer, could well intuit "poetically" poet, philologist and university professor. In fact, the famous novelist C. S. Lewis, who in his youth was an atheist interested in mythology and the occult, owed his final conversion to Christianity to this interpretation of his friend Tolkien. According to Walter Hooper, a friend and biographer of writer C. S. Lewis, the realization of the truth in the mythologies triggered Lewis's conversion.

Magdalen College (Oxford).

The lengthy exchange between C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson (all three members of the coterie known as the Inklings) that would later have a revolutionary impact on Lewis's life, unfolded in the framework of a meeting held on September 19, 1931, after Lewis invited Tolkien and Dyson to dine in his rooms at Magdalen College, Oxford. The talk lasted until four in the morning, and was reported by Humphrey Carpenter in J. R. R. Tolkien, a biography. Beginning with Carpenter's book, the dialogue between Tolkien and Lewis was reproduced and commented on by various other writers, including Joseph Pearce.

After dinner the three men went for a walk along the river and discussed the nature and purpose of the myth. Lewis explained that he felt the power of the myths but that they were ultimately false, or, as he put it to Tolkien:

"But myths are lies, even though these lies are whispered through silver. "Myths are lies, even though lies breathed through silver»). "No," Tolkien said. They're not.
Humphrey Carpenter, «J. R. R. Tolkien, a biography»

Tolkien resumed the conversation by arguing that myths, far from being lies, were the best way to convey otherwise inexpressible truths. Pointing to the branches of the great trees of Magdalen Grove bent by the wind, he began a new argument.

"You call a tree to a tree," he said, "without stopping you to think it wasn't a tree until someone gave it that name. You call a star, and you say it's just a matter ball describing a mathematical course. But that's just how you see them. By naming and describing things you are nothing but inventing your own terms. And just as [in this sense] language is invention of objects and ideas, myth is invention of truth. We come from God—Tolkien continued—and inevitably the myths we knit, though they contain errors, also reflect a fragmented fragment of true light, the eternal truth of God. Just developing myths, just becoming a sub-creator and inventing stories, can aspire man to the state of perfection he met before the Fall. Our myths can be mistaken... however, they drive in a trembling way to the port of truth...
Humphrey Carpenter, J. R. R. Tolkien, a biography

Joseph Pearce comments:

Listening almost as hechized while Tolkien exposed his myth philosophy, Lewis felt that the foundations of his own theistic philosophy were crumbling to dust in front of the strength of his friend's arguments. [...]Tolkien developed his argument to explain that the history of Christ is the true myth, a myth that works in the same way as others, but a myth that really happened - a myth that existed in the realm of facts, as well as in the realm of truth. Just as men unravel the truth through the fabric of a narrative, God reveals the truth through the fabric of history. [...] Tolkien [...] had shown that the pagan myths were, in fact, God himself expressing himself through the mind of the poets, using the images of his mythopoeia to reveal fragments of his eternal truth. However, the most surprising thing was that Tolkien argued that Christianity was exactly the same except for the huge difference that the poet who invented it was the same God, and that the images he used were real men and real history.
Joseph Pearce

C. S. Lewis expressed the later conception of it in the following words:

[...] the pagan stories are God himself expressing himself through the mind of the poets, using the images he found there, while Christianity is God Himself expressing itself through what we call "real things". Therefore, they are true, not in the sense of being a "description" of God (that no finite mind can grasp), but in the sense of being the way God chooses (or can) appear to our faculties. The "doctrines" we extract from the true myth are, of course, less true: it is about translations into our concepts and ideas of what God has already expressed in a more appropriate language, that is, the real incarnation, the crucifixion and the resurrection.
C.S. Lewis

“Resurrection of the flesh”: Christian analysis of the expression

Corinto, located in Greece 8 km from the isthmus and the current channel, was the capital of the Senate province of Acaya, ruled by a proconsul. In that place the so-called “Chinese Church” was developed (Acts 18:1-11).

The "resurrection of the flesh" in the First Epistle to the Corinthians

In First Corinthians 15, Paul of Tarsus develops a detailed explanation of the subject of the resurrection of the dead, including:

the “Avangelio” of the Resurrection (1Corinthians 15:1-11);
the inconsistencies of some Christian corinthians who denied the resurrection of the dead (1Corinthians 15:12-19), which would imply denying the resurrection of Christ, which would entail the inutility of the Christian faith (1Corinthians 15:14; 1Corinthians 15:17);
the Resurrection as incorporation into the same mystery of Christ (1Corinthians 15:20-28);
the inutility of the Christian sacrifice if there is no resurrection of the dead (1Corinthians 15:29-34); all Christian rites suppose resurrection, without which it is better to live as the pagans live. This is summed up in the famous phrase used by Paul of Tarsus: if there is no resurrection of the dead, "we eat and drink that tomorrow we will die."1Corinthians 15:32);
the answer to the question “How do the dead rise?”, using comparisons developed from the natural knowledge of the time (1Corinthians 15:35-49);
the final victory of the resurrection, presented as an hymn (1Corinthians 15:55-57), known by his phrase: “Where is your victory, O death?”, followed by an exhortation to Christian work, “knowing that your work in the Lord is not vain” (cf.1Corinthians 15:58).

Dag Øistein Endsjø points out that the disbelief shown in First Corinthians towards the idea of the resurrection of the body is not really about the "resurrection of Christ", but about the "general resurrection of the dead".. According to Endsjø, this dilemma cannot be explained by reference to Platonic beliefs, where all forms of bodily resurrection were considered equally absurd, or to Jewish tradition, which knew of no resurrection and subsequent immortalization of a single individual before the end of time. world. Returning to the more traditional Greek material, however, one finds that the idea of bodily resurrection was by no means unknown. But there was always an objection to the "continuity" of the body. No body or body part that had been annihilated could be "recreated." As such, this may explain why Paul's opponents in 1 Corinthians did not consider the resurrection of Christ controversial, but rejected the idea of a general resurrection of the dead.

Linguistic metonymy

It could be said that the expression «resurrection of the flesh» is a linguistic metonymy, as when we speak of a «herd of four hundred heads»: the part is taken for the whole. But not just any part, but precisely the most vulnerable and ephemeral: meat, that which would seem less recoverable because it is more perishable. Something very similar occurs when, to say that "the Son of God became man", it is said that "he became flesh": the most visible, palpable and precarious part of his humanity is mentioned, in contrast to the transcendence of the divine..

In both cases, the «choice of the weak element» is very significant. This emphasis, this will to emphasize so deliberately, obeys in both cases the same purpose. The Gospel of John insisted on the "incarnation": "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14a). In the same way, compared to the Greeks of the Areopagus who exalted the soul to the detriment of the flesh, Saint Paul, when referring to the future life, does not even mention the immortality of the soul: he deals only with the "resurrection of the dead" (Acts 17:16-34).

The man, more than "the sum of body and spirit"

But, when speaking of «resurrection of the flesh» from the Christian point of view, it can only be said that it is a metonymy (of the whole and its parts) in an improper sense, because the body does not constitute «a part of man."

According to José María Cabodevilla, and with him, a large number of contemporary theologians and biblical scholars, man is not a "sum" of body and spirit, but an "indivisible totality": a everything, which we call "spirit" because it possesses such an "interiority" that it overflows the "physical-biological" reality, and we call it "body" inasmuch as that same everything is visible, locatable, historical.

Moreover, for Christianity, the body belongs to the very definition of the “human spirit”: the spirit is “human” because it is incarnated, because it is corporeal. Man does not "have" a body, he "is" a body: all of him "is body", just as all of him "is soul" For this reason, the message of the Gospels (unlike Greek philosophy) never mentions the " immortality of the soul. But he confesses his faith in the "resurrection of the dead," that is, his faith that "man, as a complete entity, will rise again."

The “resurrection” and science

For Christians, the resurrected body is a fact of faith. The revelation does not offer any scientific explanation in this regard and there are no scientific works on the subject of any nature. Within this framework, José María Cabodevilla (1928-2003) writes in his book Heaven in Earthly Words on the subject of the resurrection:

Is this a limit transformation of matter into energy? Current science has a very elastic concept of matter: this can be immeasurable, imponderable, inexpensive. The great variety of beings that populate the world is due only to how to combine their elemental particles; everything is reduced to structure. These same components can be presented here as square brackets and there as waves. Like immaterial waves? Inevitably we tend to think that in order for the waves there has to be something that waves, that is, a support or driver of such waves, the same thing that requires the vibrating rope of a violin to have vibrations. Modern physics denies such need. Koestler challenged his listeners to imagine a vibration of the rope but without string, a wave of water but without water, the smile of Alicia's cat but without cat. The truth is, there's no need for anything to be imaginable for it to be true. The degree required for something to be considered real, so that we can claim that it has a material entity, has fallen below a minimum. Nothing wider, nothing more flexible and comfortable than the current concept of matter. We would say that the border between what we call material and what we call immaterial has been made not only blurry, but even permeable.
José María Cabodevilla, Heaven in earthly words

Can science be expected to confirm the resurrection? Cabodevilla responds in the negative.

"The Resurrection" (1532), by Michelangelo Buonarotti. Royal Collection, London.
Of course, as revelation does not provide any scientific explanation, we should not expect science to confirm or clarify the revealed facts. But it can be said, at least, that the theories of modern physics are so surprising, so strange to the common sense, as unlikely as a dogma of faith. Nothing imaginable or unimaginable contradicts yours to the laws of nature, but only the exiguous knowledge that we may have of them. Nothing violates the laws of nature, but only against the calculation of probability.
Today we are having fun or irritating certain issues that the former scholastic used to raise about the glorified bodies. [...] Today there are those who try to show that the relationship between wave and corpuscule is more than a metaphor of the relationship between soul and body, and there are issues that tomorrow themselves must have fun or irritate posterity. They should already know that metaphysics die almost always because of their physics and that beliefs lose vigor as long as they are looking for a palpable test where to assert themselves. In reality it is something totally alien to faith, in a way opposed to faith. Those who continue to worry about physical problems remember those women of the gospel who went with their perfumes to the tomb of Jesus: they wondered how they could move the slab.
José María Cabodevilla, Heaven in Earth Words

Without giving up thinking about the subject of the resurrection, Cabodevilla points out that man's imaginative effort is in vain.

Matter, without failing to be matter, is assumed in life, and life, without failing to be life, is assumed in thought. In man there are thoughts, there are organic functions, and there is a certain amount of carbon, hydrogen, calcium. Couldn't you think of a new level where all that was present and at the same time transformed? [...] The glorious body and the earth body are as different and as similar as a ground body and its shadow. In a rose there are no other elements other than those that already exist on the ground where the rose is rooted. They are the same substances, but confined and refined and transmuted. From those dark, heavy earthly bodies, we vainly try to imagine what it will be like, what Rilke called the “flowering of the flesh”.
José María Cabodevilla, Heaven in earthly words

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