The holy resurrection : a critical exposition of all that is told us in the New Testament narratives concerning the resurrection and ascension of Jesus

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Preface

Svt^IHE devout student sees harmonistic difficulties T- J -T^ in the narratives of the Resurrection, which f urther investigations may remove, but which 88 may not be fully cleared up this side of heaven. They lie not in the subject itself, but in the want of sufficient information upon it. But the great fact stands out as clear as the sun, and unshakable in its everlasting repose; Jesus actually arose from the dead. The honest student who has learning sufficient to judge intelligently, and time sufficient to go through all that has been written adversely to the narratives, or to the great fact they give, sees that the difficulties do not disturb the integrity of the narratives, nor the reality of the fact which they relate. The heaviest assaults have been made upon John's Gospel. But it remains irrefragible, and its testimony is conclusive.

The construction of a continuous narrative, that will be perfectly accurate, seems impossible. The one given in this work is the result of very careful study, and is, 1 hope, not far from correct. Its perusal may help to show more distinctly how the Conqueror of death conquered the unbelief of His disciples, and brought out, and completed, their faith. It may also give us livelier impressions of the infinite excellencies and fulness

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which are in Jesus, and cannot but strengthen our faith in the glorious fact,

"THE LOKD IS KISEN INDEED."

It would be tedious to mention all the books which I have examined in my investigations, I have weighed carefully the arguments of hostile, as of well as friendly, scholarship. This I have done, not for the purpose of combatting any one, but to see whether my faith in the Resurrection was futile, or was based upon a solid fact. I have also, at every step, examined all critical works, that would help to a clearer understanding of the original text, and I have aimed to let that text tell its own great story. For all the help which 1 have received from the great scholars who have gone over this field, I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness.

I give thanks to Almighty God for His blessing which has attended the previous publications of this series. To Him I commend this book. And if He be graciously pleased to use it, to Him be all the glory, for to Him it belongs.

A generous public will permit me to express my grateful recognition of the favor with which it has so kindly received the books already out. Each one has met a hearty welcome, a ready sale, and many readers. And many an expression of thanks has the author received for the instruction and comfort which the perusal has afforded. May this one have a like success with the former three, and be alike used in blessing.

Chicago, April, 1884. H. M. Paynter.

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PRELIMINARY STUDY.

On What Day Did Jesus Arise?

HE question concerning the day upon which Jesus was crucified, and hence the day upon which He arose from the dead, has lately been revived. Some of those agitating it are acting in the interests of truth; others merely to create a sensation; and others, still, evidently with the design to throw discredit upon the sacred Narratives, and thus weaken the hold of the facts upon the mind. It has been, because of these agitations, very strongly urged upon me, by gentlemen of high character and position, to give the results of my own studies on this subject in an opening section of this work. The literature upon the subject is very voluminous, and a review of it I leave to other and abler pens. All I propose to do is to bring together, in one view, and as clearly as possible, what it seems to me the sacred pages teach upon the various questions involved.

The following facts may be accepted as unquestionable: (a) that Jesus instituted His Supper on the same night in which He was betrayed; (b) that He was cru-

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cified on the following day; (c) that the whole history of the Supper, and of His betrayal, trials, crucifixion, death and burial, all occurred within the 24 hours beginning with the evening of His institution of the Supper; and (d) that He arose the first day of the week.

In the Narratives we find the phrases, "passover," "feast" and "day of unleavened bread." What? our first question is, is the import of these terms, as to the time of their observance?

1 — An examination of the terms in the O. T. show (a) that "to kill and eat the passover," was to kill and eat the paschal lamb; (Ex. xii, 11; Num. ix, 6; 2 Chron. xxx, 15); and (b) that the term, "passover," was used to embrace the other sacrifices offered in connection with the festival, and also the whole festival itself, of unleavened bread. (Lev. xxiii, 6; Num. ix, 3; Deut. xvi, 1-3; 2 Chron. xxx, 1, 13; xxxv, 1-17. And further, (c) the terms, "passover" and '^festival of unleavened bread," are, in some passages, expressly distinguished (as in Lev. xxiii, 5, 6; Num. xxviii, 16, IT, where the term, "passover," is limited to the paschal supper), and in other places are used interchangeably. The precise meaning must be determined by the context.

2 — On the first day of the "seven days of unleavened bread," all leaven was put away before 3 P. M. (Ex. xii, 15). This first day is defined in Deut. xvi, 4, as the day on which the lamb was sacrificed, that is, 14th Nisan. (Ex. xii, 6, 18-20.) This day included, the festival continued eight days. (Jos. Ant., 2, 15, 1.)

3 — The paschal lamb was slain "between the two

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evenings," i. e., between 3 and 6 P. M., on the 14th Nisan (Abib, in the Pentateuch): "Ye shall kill it (the lamb) on the fourteenth day between the two evenings" (Ex. xii, 6) ; "thou shall sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun." (Deut. xvi, 6.)

4 — Immediately at sunset the paschal meal was eaten: "At even is the Lord's passover." (Lev. xxiii, 5. "Between the two evenings ye shall keep it in His appointed seasons." (Num. ix, 3; see also Ex. xii, 8-10.)

5 — "In the 14th of the first month, at even, is the Lord's passover. And on the 15th of the same month is the festival ot unleavened bread. Seven days ye must eat unleavened bread. In the first day (i. e., of the seven) ye shall have a holy convocation : ye shall do no servile work. And on the seventh day ye shall have a holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work." (Lev. xxiii, 5-7; Num. xxviii, 16-25; see also Ex. xii, 15-17; xiii, 6; xxiii, 15; xxxiv, 18; Jos. Ant. 3, 10, 15.) The 15th Nisan is evidently the first day of the feast.

6 — The Jews reckoned the day from sunset to sunset. "The evening and the morning was day one." Gen. i; see also Lev. xxiii, 32.) As the passover had to be killed, and then eaten on the 14th Nisan, it must have been at the close of that day. For if eaten at the opening ot it, the lamb must have been slain on the 13th, but the statute required it to be killed on the 14th day of the month. Clearly, the paschal meal was eaten at the close ot the 14th and the opening of the 15th Nisan, with which the first day of the festival began.

7 — This day, which began at sunset of the 14th, was

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the first day of heortee, the festival (i. e., annual festive commemoration,) of unleavened bread. And this festival began at the very time of eating the paschal meal. (Ex. xii, 18.) From the even of the 14th until the 21st day it continued.

8 — The paschal was the introductory meal of the seven days' festival. Josephus calls the 14th Xisan "the first day of the festival of unleavened bread." (B. J. 6. 3. 1.) And the whole festival was so called, because unleavened bread only could be used. The subjoined table (see next page) may help the reader to a clearer understanding of the subject.

Let us now turn to the N. T. narratives. All state expressly that Jesus arose during the first day of the week; that is, some time after the sunset of the seventh day, the close of the Sabbath, and the following morning. Two incidents are mentioned as occurring between His burial and resurrection; (a) certain women, when the Sabbath had passed, L e., after sunset of Saturday, or the seventh day, bought spices to anoint the body. (Mark xvi, 1) ; and (b) certain chief priests and Pharisees, either during; or after the close of the Sabbath, obtained from Pilate a guard to watch Jesus' tomb. (Matt, xxvii, 62.) The time when they made the request is called, by Matthew, "the morrow after teen paraskeueen." This word signifies preparation, (2 Mace, xv, 21, Sept.) Matthew (here) and John (xix, 31) use it without any adjunct, "the preparation." And John (xix, 42) calls it "the preparation of," i. e., one belonging to, "the Jews." Luke (xxiii, 54) defines it by

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day. the day was "preparation day."' In all the six places where it is found, it is used of a particular day upon which preparation was made for some particular observance. In John xix, 14. it is paraskeuee tou pascha, ••it was the preparation of the passover." This apparently indicates that it was the day preceding the passover, i. e., 13th Xisan. And this impression is strengthened by the phrase which refers to the same time, (John xviii. 28,) u 'lest they should be defiled, but that they might eat the passover." To know the import of the first, we must try and find out what ideas John intends to convey by the second, phrase.

The phrase, liina pJvagoozi to paseha, that they might eat the passover. if taken here in its restricted sense, must, like the equivalent phrases in Matt, xxvi? 17; Mark xiv, 12; Luke xxiii, 8, 15, be limited to the paschal meal.

"We have already seen that the term, '''passover," is used in the 0. T: in a restricted sense, of the paschal meal, and in a wider one, of the whole festival, embracing all the solemnities connected with the seven days. It is used in the Synoptists in the same way: in the restricted, in Matt, xxvi, 18, 19; Luke xxii, 8, 15; and in the wider, in Matt. xxvi. 2; Luke xxii, 1, 2, 41, comp. vs. 43. In which sense does John use it?

When the Synoptists wrote their narratives, Jerusalem was still standing, and all the passover solemnities were being observed; and hence, those writers spoke of both the whole festival and of its component parts. But when John wrote his Gospel, Jerusalem and its Temple were

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in ruins, and the passover could not be fully observed. To him all its significance, because fulhlled in Christ, had passed away. He, "our Passover, had been slain for us and His Supper had taken the place of it, and had become the true paschal meal. The Jews, whose deadly hostility to Jesus and His people still continued, were to him simply "the Jews," and their festivals, "festivals of the Jews." He speaks of them by this general term, without — unless some special feature had some special reference to Jesus' action, as in John vii, 37 — designating the particulars. This fact is apparent in all his allusions to the festivals (v, 1; vii, 2, 8, 10, 11, 14), and to the passover — which term he always uses in its largest sense as embracing the whole festival, whether mentioned, or not, by name, (ii, 13, 23; vi, 4; xi, 55; xii, 1; xiii, 1,) or simply called "the feast." (iv, 45; xi, 55; xii. 12, 20; xiii, 29.) Such is his uniform custom. Would he, then, without any intimation of the fact, and without giving any reason for the same, depart here from this custom? And must not the phrase, en to pascha, in xviii, 39, be used in its wider sense? "You have a custom," said Pilate, "that I release one unto you at (en, in, i. e., during) the passover." This could not have been spoken before the passover began. That began the 14th Xisan at even. But this was spoken during the following morning, and since, during the passover, on the 15th Xisan. And does not this fact show that John, in his use of the phrase, "eat the passover," (xviii, 28,) follows his uniform custom?

The reason why the Jews would not enter into the .

Xiv THE HOLY EESUERECTIOX.

hall was. -lest they should be defile:!." and so be unfitted* "to eat the passover." But (a) the defilement which would hinder from the paschal meal, would equally hinder from the succeeding parts of the festival; and (b) the time of this action was proai, very early m the morning, and the paschal meal was not eaten until alter sunset. If. therefore, this was the morning before the passover, they could be ceremonially cleansed before the meal. (Lightfoot, m loco.) But they could not be. if they had eaten it the evening before — for that would be a defilement of the festival then in continuance, and this would have kept them excluded from it during the remaining days of the festival.

Do not these considerations make it clear that John, in the phrase, "eat the passover,'" uses the term in the general sense of the whole festival? This leaves the question as to whether the paschal meal had been eaten, to be settled by other considerations, such as by (b) above, and by the import of the phrase, "preparation of the passover."

"What, then, was "the preparation," which belonged

to the passover? Does it indicate the time when the

preparations were made for the paschal meal? Then,

since it is evident from John's narrative that the term

embraces the earliest hours of the day, and so must,

from the Jewish reckoning of time, go back to the night

before, and since the day preceding the passover was

the 13th Xisan. it follows that that day (13th Nisan)

was the day of Jesus' death. But with what fact in the

narrative can this suggestion be made to agree? Fur- ©© ©

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XV trier, according to the authority of Bochart (Hieroz, pg. 567), Reland, Tholuck (in loco), Hengstenberg, {Dr. Schatr.) no where, in either the O. T. or Rabbinical writings, is there any mention of a preparation day before the pas sorer, or before any of the Jewish festivals, save the Sabbath. The day of the passover was fixed by Divine appointment on the 14th Nisan. This fact was universally recognized. The observance of it by the pious Jews at the legal time would be a matter of conscience. If, then, John uses the phrase, ''preparation of the passover," to designate the time before it, he uses one nowhere else found. And if he applies it to the day itself, he confuses the minds of his readers, and displaces the Divinely given name for one of his own.

But further, he, in vs. 31 of the same chapter, speaking of the same day, says: "Epei (conjunction of cause, or motive) because, paraskeuee een, it was the preparation, and in order that the bodies should not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day (for that Sabbath day was an high day), &c. Here, John declares "the preparation" to be essentially connected with the Sabbath. He uses the same words precisely as those used by Mark in the verse where he gives the meaning of paraskeuee (xv, 42), and he assigns it as a reason for a certain action of the Jews, as Mark does for a certain action of Joseph. The object in both cases had respect to the Sabbath. Xaked corpses hanging on the cross during that day would be a defilement of its sanctity. They must hence be taken down before it began. Had

Xvi THE HOLY RESURRECTION.

this been "the preparation day" of the passover, it, and not the Sabbath, would have been assigned as the motive for the action of those parties. But it was the Sabbath, and a high or double Sabbath, (because falling in the festival week, and being the second day of holy convocation, it and the Sabbath were coincident), and this gave additional emphasis to the request of the Jews.

It is too large a demand upon one's intelligence to ask him to believe that John contradicted himself within a few verses. And since the passover and the weekly Sabbath did not, that year, fall upon the same day, and since, in vs. 31, he conveys the same impression of the day as that given in the Synoptists, we are bound in all candor to believe that he, in vs. 14, uses the phrase, "preparation of passover," as conveying an idea perfectly consistent with what he says in vs. 31, and also in vs. 42, where manifestly (from the close connection of vs. 42 with xx, 1,) it continues to near the close of the sixth day of the week. And this can only be the paschal preparation day for the Sabbath — so the sixth day of the week — or that preparation for the Sabbath which fell in the paschal week. And it would be perfectly proper for him to designate that part of the feast yet remaining, by the whole, especially when his object was to show how completely, when they should have been engaged in their holy duties* they gave themselves up to the work of carrying out their wicked designs.*

[*Tliis is the view of Olshausen, Lange, Norton, Tholuck, Wieseler, Andrews (Life of Our Lord).]

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!No mention is made in the O. T. of a "prepai*ation day 1 ' for the Sabbath. But such a day is mentioned by Josephus: who says that it began at the ninth hour of the sixth day, and was sanctioned by Imperial authority (Ant, 16. 6. 2.): by the Kabbins; and by the Synoptists (Matt, xxvii, 62; Luke xxii, 54; Mark xv, 42): ••that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on," because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath. Mark calls this "preparation day" prosabbaton — a term which he uses to explain to non- Jewish readers the meaning of the word, proseukee : the jyroseukee, preparation, is equivalent to pro sabbat on, the fore-sabbath, or the day before the Sabbath. And surely, John uses the term in the same way.

The connection in which the phrase is found is remarkable: "It was the preparation of the passover, and about the sixth hour." This statement is made in connection with Pilate's word, "Behold your King!" "Why mention these two things together? They have no bearing upon the conduct of either Pilate or Jesus. They are not given, as is the former phrase — "prep, of pass." vs. 31 — as a motive for the action of the Jews. It is a remark of John, calling attention to the close connection between these two facts, taken together, and the Jews' rejection of Jesus' Kingship: "Away with Him! Crucify Him! We have no King but Caesar." There must then be very much more in the phrase, "prep, of pass." than merely the getting ready for its celebration, provided there be any point in it as connected with the solemnity of the crisis. But say that it was the fore-

Xviii THE HOLY RESURRECTION.

Sabbath of the paschal week, then the passover solemnities were going on. Then it was about the hour when the peace- offerings were being voluntarily presented. In that hour, when the priests should have been presenting the morning sacrifices, and along with them the offerings voluntarily presented in token of deliverance from Egypt (Ex. xxiii, 15), they were engaged in the awful and self- destructive work of rejecting their King, sent to them from heaven.

These are all the places where the word is found. It seems certain that in them all it refers to the sixth day of the week, corresponding to our Friday. The term is so rendered in the Syriac version, and is the name by which Friday is generally known in Asia.

Going backward, we see that the series of events from the time of Jesus' death to His betrayal, and from the betrayal to the institution of the Supper, is a closely connected one, and is confined within twenty-fourh ours. This brings us to the fifth day of the Jewish week, our Thursday. We have, in connection with the institution of the Supper, the following facts: (a) Mark's historic narrative, '-After two days was the to pascha,' the passover, Tcai ta azuma, and the unleavened loaves. (xiv, 1.) Matthew gives Jesus' words spoken at the time, "After two days is the passover, and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified." This anticipation was, at that very time passing into history. The Sanhedrim's decision not to take Jesus en tee heortee, during the festival, was changed by Judas' proffer to deliver Him then, if possible. On the morning of the

THE HOLY RESURRECTION. xix

day when they met at this table, Jesus asked two of His disciples to "prepare the passover." And when the hour — surely the legal one for its observance — was come, He sat down with the twelve, and said, "I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer."

All the terms used point to, and only to, the passover and its accompanying festival. It is called a the passover and unleavened bread," "the first day of unleavened bread when the passover must be killed," "the feast of the passover" (Matt, xxvi, 2; Mark xiv, 1; Luke xxii, 7; John xiii, 1). The whole festival was called « e the days of unleavened bread" (Acts xii, 3; xx, 6), and the first day of it when the passover must be killed can be only the close of the 14th, and the opening of the 15th Xisan. jS"ow, could all these writers have had no more accurate knowledge of the passover than to have used these terms inaccurately ? Was not Jesus thoroughly acquainted with every fact belonging to the passover, the legal time of its celebration included ? Did He not observe every previous one in the legal time and way? Would He deviate at this great crisis of His history? He had ever obeyed all the Divine requirements ; would He disregard any of them now? There is not one single fact or proof furnished by any writer to show that He delayed the observance an hour. All is conjecture. And though some able scholars have supported the idea that He anticipated it, yet the objections to this are too weighty to allow it to be generally received by those whose only dependence for knowledge on the subject is the New Testament alone. It is brought forward to v

XX THE HOLY RESURRECTION.

remove the supposed discrepancy between John and the Synoptists; but even could it do this (which it cannot), it would do so at the expense of Jesus' uniform conduct towards the Divine enactments, and of His own direct statements concerning this special feast.

Within twenty-four hours of this sunset Jesus was in the tomb. He died at 3 P. M. of the day which began at the previous 6 P. M. (generally). The twenty-four honrs beginning at 3 P. M. 14th Nisan (the time of the beginning of the two evenings during which the lamb was slain), would not close until 3 P. M. 15th Nisan, at which hour He died — thus dying within the hours of the true legal passover day. This well agrees with Pilate's word, spoken before 12 M. of that day, "I release one unto you en to pascha," in, or during the passover, i. e., while the passover festival was going on. And, further, the paschal meal and festival began really at the opening of the 15th Nisan, i. e., at the close of sunset of the 14th. And as the preparations for both meal and festival were made during the 14th Nisan, it was called the first day of the festival. (Ex. xii, 15, 19, 20. Lightfoot, Temp., Ser. xii, § 1; Peruehin, i, 14; Andrews' Life of Our Lord, pg. 434.) This popular usage appears in the Synoptists. The phrase, "prepare for Thee to eat the passover," was spoken on "the day when the passover must be killed," and on "the first day of the festival of unleavened bread."

The conclusion to which all these facts bring the mind is that John and the Synoptists agree as to the

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xxi time, and that the Synoptists intend to tell us that Jesus observed, at this time, as always, the passover at the regular time and in the regular way. And this was the only course consistent with His uniform custom, and with His avowed purpose to fulfill the law.* His death, hence, occurred on the 15th Kisan, but within the twenty-four hours, commencing 3 P. M. on the 14th. The paschal lamb was slain at the beginning. Jesus, the true Passover, during the continuance, •And died at the close of, these twenty-four hours.**

The following table (see next page) presents the subject in one view.

One question remains. How do these computations of time accord with the words of Jesus, in Matt, xii, 40: *'The Son of Man shall be three davs and three nights

[*The remark in Ex. xii, 22, "No one go out of the house until the morning," referred only to the night of its first observance, for which a special reason was given. There is nothing in the O. T., nor in Jewish writings, to show that it was ever regarded as an essential feature of the feast. Sec Otho's Lex. Art. Pascha.]

[**It may be added that ihe Jews had repeatedly attempted to seize Jesus on Sabbaths, or festival days. See Luke iv, 26-29; John vii, 30, 32 (see vs. 14), 37, 44, 45; x, 22, 39.]

On the supposition that this was the 14th Nisan, the disciples' conjectures as to the reason for Judas' sudden departure are easily explained. (John xiii , 28.) Preparation of food was allowed on the loth Nitan (Ex. xii, 16), and the purchase of it as well, under certain restrictions. (Tholuck, in loco ; Wiesler, Chron., 3, 44, 366; Lntharjit, in loco, ii, 286. Mishna.) Had this been the evening of the 13th Xisan, no necessity to go out to buy provisions, for he had the whole day before him, and, for the same reason, he was not likely to seek the poor at that hour of the night. But in the paschal night, when the great Temple gates were opened at midnight, to begtfn early preparations lor the offerings of Chagigah which were not voluntary, but due, it was quite natural to suppose that Judas was going to make such preparation. And equally to suppose that he was going to give something to the poor, gathered around the Temple to seek help frpm the charitable. (Eidenshiem.)

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in the heart of the earth?" The present discussion is not concerned with the meaning of the phrase,"heart of the earth:" which more probably means the grave — as analogous to Jonah's living sepulchre, which he calls "the belly of Hades," Jon.ii, 2, Heb., than Hades: but with the time. What are we to understand by "the three days and three nights?" Plainly, they must agree with Jesus' own later words, elsewhere spoken, concerning the same fact. He says (John ii, 19), "in three days I will raise it (i. e., his body) up." "After three days I will rise again," (Mark viii, 31); "be raised the third day" (Matt, xvi, 31; Luke ix, 22); "the third day shall rise again" (Matt, xvii, 23; xx, 19; Mark x, 34). These words were spoken before His death, and in all His later utterances the word is, "the third day." And that the impression left upon the mind was resurrection, not after three full days, but in or after the third day, is evident from the remark of His enemies on the day after His death: "He said, after three days I will rise again;" and that of His friends on the day of His resurrection: "He is now in the third day since these things were done" (Luke xxiv, 21, Grk). This, also, is the interpretation of His words given by the angel to the women at the tomb, "the third day rise again." and by Himself to His disciples, "rise from the dead the third day" (Luke xxiv, 7, 46). And both Peter and Paul declared that "He arose the third day." (Actsx, 20; 1 Cor. xv, 4.) There can be no doubt, alter the examation of all these passages, that Jesus intended to arise, and arose in, or during, the third day; and that He