Post by Josh on Jan 22, 2009 11:08:56 GMT -8
Matthew 12:39-40
39He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Critical scholars have long been skeptical of the many Gospel references to Jesus' own predictions about his suffering, death, and resurrection. It has often been claimed that such utterances are fanciful words put into the mouth of Jesus after the fact by his followers in order to bolster Christian claims about the resurrection.
Recently, an amazing discovery has come to light, a stone tablet from the Dead Sea region known as "Gabriel's Revelation". The tablet is dated without any current dissent to a handful of decades before Christ and contains an apocalyptic vision, said to come from Gabriel, of a suffering Messiah who would, if translated correctly, come to life after three days.
Needless to say, there are a whole lot of implications of this discovery for scholars and Christians-- some new puzzlements on all sides of the fence (for the skeptic and for the faithful and for those who are both ). But one idea that is clearly gaining ground is that there is indeed a tradition that can be traced from Isaiah and Daniel through the inter-testimental period on up to the time of Christ that emphasizes not only a victorious Messiah to come, but one who would suffer and die and rise again.
This was not a foreign concept to Jesus and his contemporaries- not something made up after the fact or from the influence of Greco-Roman cults. Jews who had pondered the writings of Isaiah and Daniel and the other prophets had put two and two together and were already speaking of a dying Messiah who would rise again.
Obviously, from the reactions to this idea we see in the Gospels, this was not a monolithic belief in Judaism. But the evidence strongly supports that there was a solid tradition in Jewish thought for a ressurected Messiah, planting, once again, Christianity directly in line with it's Jewish ancestry.
For a full article on the fascinating story, here's a link: www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/05/africa/06stone.php
I'm curious to explore the implications of this with others. I know it will change the shape of apologetic thinking on the subject of the historical reliability of the Gospels, early Christian theology (it's influences, what is truly novel, etc..). Fascinating.
39He answered, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Critical scholars have long been skeptical of the many Gospel references to Jesus' own predictions about his suffering, death, and resurrection. It has often been claimed that such utterances are fanciful words put into the mouth of Jesus after the fact by his followers in order to bolster Christian claims about the resurrection.
Recently, an amazing discovery has come to light, a stone tablet from the Dead Sea region known as "Gabriel's Revelation". The tablet is dated without any current dissent to a handful of decades before Christ and contains an apocalyptic vision, said to come from Gabriel, of a suffering Messiah who would, if translated correctly, come to life after three days.
Needless to say, there are a whole lot of implications of this discovery for scholars and Christians-- some new puzzlements on all sides of the fence (for the skeptic and for the faithful and for those who are both ). But one idea that is clearly gaining ground is that there is indeed a tradition that can be traced from Isaiah and Daniel through the inter-testimental period on up to the time of Christ that emphasizes not only a victorious Messiah to come, but one who would suffer and die and rise again.
This was not a foreign concept to Jesus and his contemporaries- not something made up after the fact or from the influence of Greco-Roman cults. Jews who had pondered the writings of Isaiah and Daniel and the other prophets had put two and two together and were already speaking of a dying Messiah who would rise again.
Obviously, from the reactions to this idea we see in the Gospels, this was not a monolithic belief in Judaism. But the evidence strongly supports that there was a solid tradition in Jewish thought for a ressurected Messiah, planting, once again, Christianity directly in line with it's Jewish ancestry.
For a full article on the fascinating story, here's a link: www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/05/africa/06stone.php
I'm curious to explore the implications of this with others. I know it will change the shape of apologetic thinking on the subject of the historical reliability of the Gospels, early Christian theology (it's influences, what is truly novel, etc..). Fascinating.