The Resurrection of the Messiah by Christopher Bryan

by Christopher Bryan

In The Resurrection of the Messiah , Christopher Bryan combines literary, historical, and theological approaches in a study of the doctrine of the Resurrection. The book is divided into three parts. The first section provides a careful and sympathetic description of first-century Jewish and pagan opinions and beliefs about death and what might follow. This is followed by a presentation of a general account of early Christian claims about the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.The second part of the book offers a detailed, full-length commentary on and exegesis of the main New Testament texts that speak of Jesus' death and 1 Corinthians 15 and the narratives in the four canonical gospels. As a framework for this commentary, Bryan utilizes the pattern of apostolic preaching presented by Paul and then echoed by each of the four evangelists, namely the formula "Christ died, Christ was buried, Christ has been raised, Christ appeared."The final section of the book is spent discussing and evaluating various proposals that have been made by those attempting to explain the data in ways that differ from the traditional Christian explanation. Bryan also considers various theological and ethical implications of accepting the claim "Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead." Throughout his study, Bryan exhibits a willingness to face hard questions as well as an appropriate reverence for a faith that for almost two thousand years has enabled millions of people to lead lives of meaning and grace.

Hardcover

First published April 2, 2011

Reviews

[Derek DeMars · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the rare kind of book that hits all the right notes for me. Masterfully nuanced and abreast of all the critical scholarship, while also eminently readable and chock-full of deep insights. It's a tragedy this book isn't more well-known.

Sure, at the end of the day it is essentially another apologetic for the traditional Christian understanding of the resurrection of Jesus (in line with N. T. Wright and others, and over against those who would try to dismiss or allegorize the resurrection a la Bultmann, Crossan, etc.). But Bryan manages to strike a rare balance of presenting careful, nuanced arguments while also being mercifully brief (the main text of the book is only 234 pages, with the academic details and debates relegated to endnotes for those interested).

What's more, the way Bryan structures his work effectively takes readers on a comprehensive and enriching journey through the key ancient texts relevant to the question.

In Part One, he surveys the various perspectives on death and the afterlife in ancient Jewish, Greek, Egyptian, and Roman cultures to show both the uniqueness of the Christian claim as well as the fact that language was available if the early disciples wanted to depict their encounters of the risen Jesus as merely a spiritual/visionary experience or parable, but they explicitly and repeatedly do not.

In Part Two, he undertakes a deep-dive into the most important New Testament witnesses to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and the Christian claims about its implications (Paul in 1 Corinthians 15; Mark 15:37-16:8; Matthew 27:50-28:20; Luke 23:44-Acts 1:14; and John 19:25-21:2). It's essentially a verse-by-verse commentary on these passages, and Bryan offered many new and interesting connections and observations in his mining of the texts.

Part Three is the apologetic meat of the book, where Bryan shows the weaknesses of alternative modern explanations of the resurrection and explains why the traditional Christian Easter claim is the most plausible. Most helpfully, he also goes on to unpack the important implications of that claim for our lives, and then follows it up with a series of "Additional Notes" (basically short chapter essays) on important topics related to the discussion (like why we can trust the Gospels as historical accounts, why Paul's understanding of the resurrection is physical and not merely spiritual, etc.).

This book is beautiful. Go read it. Even if you aren't persuaded by his thesis, it's still just a treasure trove of knowledge and one of the finest articulations of the Christian faith. Plus Bryan does a remarkable job of modeling how to do careful scholarship in a way that incorporates his spirituality with both authenticity and humility.