Zone1 Is Eternal Life a Necessary Ingredient?

[Cassandro]

Judaism’s concept of resurrection is the physical revival of the dead during the Messianic Age, a future time of perfect peace and prosperity. Orthodox Jews uphold this as a core tenet of faith, while other Jewish movements have different interpretations, with Reform Judaism largely rejecting it and Conservative Judaism viewing it allegorically. This belief involves the reunion of the soul with a resurrected, transformed body, often linked to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem and the ingathering of the Jewish people.

Core Beliefs

• Physical Resurrection:The core of the belief is that the dead will be physically brought back to life.
• Messianic Age:This resurrection is a central event of the future Messianic Age, a time of universal peace and justice ushered in by the coming of the Messiah.
• Soul and Body Reunion:The soul, which is believed to return to God at death, will be reunited with its resurrected body.
• Glorified Body:The resurrected body is often understood to be transformed, or glorified, to become fit for eternal habitation.
• Praise in Prayer:The belief is incorporated into the daily liturgy of traditional Jewish prayer, with a blessing for God as the "Resurrector of the dead".

Differing Interpretations

• Orthodox Judaism:Acknowledges the literal, bodily resurrection of the dead as a fundamental principle of faith.
• Conservative Judaism:Includes the resurrection in its liturgy but tends to interpret it allegorically or metaphorically, sometimes translating the blessing as "who gives eternal life" instead of explicitly referencing resurrection.
• Reform Judaism:Rejects the belief entirely, removing references to it from its liturgy in favor of a belief in the immortal soul.

Historical and Scriptural Basis

• Biblical References:The concept is supported by passages in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), particularly in Isaiah 26:19, Daniel 12, and Ezekiel 37.
• Maimonides:The medieval philosopher Maimonides included belief in the resurrection of the dead as one of the 13 Principles of Jewish Faith.
• Mishnah:The Mishnah states that those who do not believe in resurrection have no share in the world to come, underscoring its importance in traditional thought.

How does that differ from Christian theology, other than the personage of Jesus?

 

[ding]

How does that differ from Christian theology, other than the personage of Jesus?

I’m glad you asked.

From N.T. Wright’s Two Arguments for the Historicity of Jesus’ Resurrection.

The Christian Mutation of Second Temple Judaism

Wright’s second and more extensive argument for the historicity of the resurrection appearances stems from several Christian mutations of the Jewish doctrine of resurrection prevalent at the time of Jesus (Second-Temple Judaism). He shows through a study of the New Testament (particularly the Letters of Paul and the Gospel narratives of the resurrection appearances) that Christianity changed the dominant Jewish view of “resurrection” in five major ways:

1. The Jewish picture of resurrection was a return to the same kind of bodily life as the one experienced before death (except in a new world with the righteous). Christian views always entailed transformation into a very different kind of life – incorruptible, glorious, and spiritual while still maintaining embodiment.35 The Christian view is so different from the Jewish one that Paul has to develop a new term to speak about it – “body spiritual” (soma pneumatikon). In 1 Corinthians 15:44-46 he makes every effort to distinguish the Christian doctrine from the Jewish one: “It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body,and there is a spiritual body…..However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.”

2. In Second Temple Judaism, no one was expected to rise from the dead before the initiation of the final age by Yahweh, however Christians claimed that this occurred with Jesus.36

3. No one connected the Messiah to the resurrection or the Jewish doctrine of resurrection to the Messiah prior to Christianity: “There are no traditions about a Messiah being raised to life: most Jews of this period hoped for resurrection, many Jews of this period hoped for a Messiah, but nobody put those two hopes together until the early Christians did so.”37

4. For the Jewish people, the eschatological age was in the future; for Christians the eschatological age had already arrived (and would be completed in the future).38

5. The doctrine of resurrection is central to the earliest writings of Christianity (e.g., all 9 of the early kerygmas), central to the writings of Paul39 and all the Gospel writers,40 and is the interconnecting theme among early Christian doctrines. The doctrine of the resurrection grounds Christology, particularly the doctrine of Christ’s glorification and, in part, the doctrine of Christ’s divinity; it grounds the Christian doctrine of soteriology – “for if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised” (1Cor 15:16); it shows God’s vindication of Jesus’ teaching; it grounds Christian eschatology; and is, in every respect, central to all other doctrines.

Second Temple Judaism does not place the resurrection in any such central role, and does not use it as an interconnecting theme for its doctrines. It is almost secondary in importance to other doctrines concerned with the law and prayer.

So what could explain this radical change? The preaching of Jesus? This is not tenable because Jesus does not put the resurrection at the center of His doctrine, but rather the arrival of the kingdom. Furthermore, He does not connect the resurrection to His Messiahship, and He certainly does not talk about the resurrection being transformed embodiment (or spiritual embodiment, or glorified embodiment), which is evident in the early Christian doctrine. The obvious explanation would be that the many witnesses (e.g., Peter, the Twelve, the 500 disciples, James, the early missionaries to the Gentile Church, and Paul himself) saw the risen Jesus in a transformed embodied state (manifesting at once a spiritual transformation which had the appearance of divine glory and power, and some form of embodiment which was continuous with Jesus’ embodiment in His ministry). This would easily explain all five of the above-mentioned mutations.