Further reflections on the resurrection of Jesus

David has provided a very nice commentary on my previous post about the resurrection of Jesus on the third day. He has made it clear that he gets the main contention about the historical framing: “Too often we read the New Testament as if it dropped out of the sky rather than emerging from a real story, rooted in Israel and moving outward into the world.” But he pushes back at a number of points. He insists that the resurrection of Jesus in the New Testament is treated not merely as a moment in Jewish history but as an event of universal human significance. I have highlighted his main concerns and responded.

[The article] risks diminishing something that Paul treats as absolutely central: the decisive, world-altering victory of God over death itself.

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He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures
If we think that the resurrection of Jesus is the climactic event in the testimony of the early church, constituting the triumph of life over death for all humanity, we are missing the point.At the beginning of an extensive discussion of resurrection, Paul recapitulates the “gospel” which he had… ( | 3 comments)
Joel Green on the kingdom of God, part 4
In a fourth piece on the kingdom of God, Joel Green argues that the kingdom of God is a “master lens through which the nature of reality is disclosed and by which all rival accounts of reality are measured.” It is not a doctrine, it is a way of seeing. That sounds like a very modern notion. Is it… ()
Joel Green on the kingdom of God, part 3
In his rather short third post on the kingdom of God, Joel Green begins by asking what we can learn about God’s royal rule by examining how the expression is used in the Gospels. He summarises the various contexts: the kingdom of God is entered, proclaimed, possessed, has drawn near, etc. Then he… ()
Vessels of wrath prepared for destruction
This is a rather technical examination of Jason Staples’ argument in Paul and the Resurrection of Israel: Jews, Former Gentiles, Israelites that when Paul speaks of Israel as “vessels of wrath,” he does not mean that the people are are the objects of God’s wrath; rather they are… ()
Joel Green on the kingdom of God, part 2
Joel Green’s second post on the kingdom of God begins with an excellent thought attributed to Marianne Meye Thompson: Jesus did not bring the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God brought Jesus. Very good! ()
Joel Green on the kingdom of God, part 1
Joel Green is doing a series of posts on the kingdom of God on Substack. He has some good things to say about how narrative works, but his argument about the kingdom of God doesn’t escape the gravitational pull of planet theology. I will summarise his posts and try to show where and why and… ()
A rhetorical approach to the christological crux in Romans 9:5
In Romans 9:4-5 Paul lists the several prerogatives of his own people, the Jews, the last being that from them is “the messiah according to the flesh.” Then comes this clause: “the one being over all God blessed forever, amen.”Here we have the christological crux.Do we put a period after “according… ( | 2 comments)