11 - The Gospel in Contrast to Paul’s Writings

The Gospels, created after the writings of Paul, portray the life of Jesus from the different perspectives of various writers. While they incorporate Paul’s synthesis of immortality and resurrection, they further the early church’s mission by battling to exclude extraneous concepts of the immortality of the soul from the story of Christ. A generally accepted formula did not emerge until a few centuries later. As noted in the previous chapter, Paul’s visionary revelations paralleled, and are indicative of the redemption of the world. The Gospels, in contrast, are principally concerned with the redemption of the world and less focused upon the inward spiritual life of believers. It was revealed to Paul that Jesus (and followers of Jesus) were resurrected into a spiritual body (soma pneumatikon), but the evangelists believed that Christ was raised into a revivified physical body. The Gospels are based on the eyewitness accounts of trustworthy people who had known Jesus rather than visions, as was the case with Paul. The Gospel writers, however, recognize the validity of visions as part of the conversion experience, as well as many other models which describe the radical conversions of men and women who decide to follow Jesus. These “testimonies” are an important component of the Gospel writers’ mission to win new converts.

Descriptions of the Eucharist in the Gospels are emblematic of the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Mark 14:22-15 is an example:

And he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them: and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many. Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the kingdom of God.

A parallel description found in Matthew 26:29 places believers in the kingdom of God by adding the word “you:”

But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.

The literal resurrection of Jesus’ body is the leitmotif of the central ritual of the Christian church, also known as the body of Christ. The Gospel of John, considered as the most “spiritual” of the four Gospels, surprisingly contains the most literal statements about the corporeal nature of a resurrected Christ. John 6:51-56 records words spoken by Jesus to the religious leaders of the Jews:

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.

Paul’s version of the first Lord’s supper, in contrast, modifies its literalness by placing it in a liturgical, symbolic context. Eucharist becomes an imaginative reenactment. Perception of the reality of the body of Christ is partly the responsibility of the participant. Paul places demands on communicants, and he notes that improper behavior can negate the efficacy of the outward, liturgical component of Holy communion. Differing interpretations of the meaning of this ritual presented no barrier to adherents of either viewpoint worshipping together. In every canonical Gospel, Christ is physically present in the bread and wine, a phenomenon that came to be termed transubstantiation.  

The doctrine of Christ’s literal, physical resurrection is also evident in Gospel accounts of the “empty tomb.” Mark 15:42-47 is one of four:

And now when the even was come, because it was the preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathaea, an honorable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God, came, and boldly went unto Pilate, and craved the body of Jesus. And Pilate marvelled if he were already dead, and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph. And he bought fine linen, and took him down, and wrapped him in the linen, and laid him in a sepulchre which was hewn out of a rock, and rolled a stone unto the door of the sepulchre. And Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses beheld where he was laid.

 The story is continued in Mark 16:1-16

And when the sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had brought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun. And they said among themselves, Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted. And he sayeth unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you. 

And they went out quickly, and fled from the sepulchre; for they trembled and were amazed: neither said they ant thing to any man; for they were afraid. Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils. And she went and told them that had been with them, as they mourned and wept. And they, when they had heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, believed not. After that he appeared in another form unto two of them, as they walked, and went into the country. And they went and told it unto the residue: neither believed they them. Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen. And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

The earliest extant Greek manuscripts of Mark, codices Vaticanus (which contains a large blank space in the column after 16:8) and Sinaiticus, end at Mark 16:8, with the women fleeing in fear from the empty tomb. Most recent scholars believe this to be the original ending, and that this is supported by statements from the early Church Fathers Eusebius and Jerome. The "shorter ending", found in a small number of manuscripts, tells how the women told "those around Peter" all that the angel had commanded and how the message of eternal life (or "proclamation of eternal salvation") was then sent out by Jesus himself; it differs from the rest of Mark both in style and in its understanding of Jesus and is almost universally considered an addition. An overwhelming majority of manuscripts have the "longer ending", with accounts of the resurrected Jesus, the commissioning of the disciples to proclaim the gospel, and Christ's ascension.

The longer ending of Mark reflects some material contained in the later Gospels, an indication that it was appended after the other three Synoptic Gospels were written. Mark 16:15 records Jesus’ commandment to “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” This admonition supports the church’s nascent mission to the gentiles. The longer ending also reveals that Christian proselytizers were healing others and performing miracles in the name of Jesus and may also reflect growing Jewish apocalyptic sentiments in the wake of the catastrophic siege of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. Mark 16:16-18 states:

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

The ascension and enthronement of Jesus that concludes the longer version of the Gospel of Mark is the fulfillment of prophecies contained in the books of Daniel and Psalms.

Daniel 7:13-14 states:

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

Psalms 110:4-6 states:

The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. The Lord at thy right hand shall strike through kings in the day of his wrath. He shall judge among the heathen, he shall fill the places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over many countries.

Mark 16:19-20 are the last two verses of this Gospel:

So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following. Amen.

The shorter version is believed to be more historically accurate, but barely touches upon the early church tradition of the empty tomb. It is Paul, rather, that provided the earliest form of the resurrection tradition, but he did not describe an empty tomb. First Corinthians 15:3-4 provides a concise summary:

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.

Paul may or may not have been aware of this tradition. Despite its enduring importance to humanity, the origin of the empty tomb tradition is a mystery. The absence of eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection created difficulties for the mission of the early church that the empty tomb tradition helps to offset. Some scholars, including the author, question the historical authenticity of a physically resurrected Jesus and compare stories of his being seen by his followers to the compelling visions of Christ experienced by Paul. Paul’s visions were intense, pure, and pious. They were accepted as authentic. Gentile converts following in Paul’s footsteps would have belieived that their visions were equally authentic.

The story of the empty tomb serves to offset potential misperceptions about Jesus having been resurrected as a spirit, or shade, or ghost. Postmortem existence as a disembodied soul was a belief common to both Jewish and Hellenistic cultures, so perceptions of Christ resurrected as a spirit would fail to distinguish him from any other person who may have died. A tangible risen Jesus was necessary to best suit the church's mission of conversion. This missionary impulse is reflected in the ritual life of the community.

The earliest writings of the church had not yet addressed the problems that Plato’s concept of the immortality of the soul would cause for Christianity. This vexatious issue was later addressed by the Church Fathers. Basic Christian doctrine asserts that Christ died an uncommon death, He died as a martyr and was resurrected as a martyr. He ascended to heaven to be exalted together with the “Son of Man,” an event which signaled the beginning of the end of time. An ethereal, Platonic resurrection could not contribute to our personal salvation. Christ must arise into a body, either the "spiritusl" body of Paul or the literal body of the Gospels.

The Gospel of Matthew fleshes out the skeletal narrative contained in Mark. It is the subject of Matthew 28:

In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre. And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it. His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow: And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men. And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him. Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

Now when they were going, behold, some of the watch came into the city, and shewed unto the chief priests all the things that were done. And when they were assembled with the elders, and had taken counsel, they gave large money unto the soldiers, Saying, Say ye, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept. And if this come to the governor's ears, we will persuade him, and secure you. So they took the money, and did as they were taught: and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

By the time the Gospel of Matthew was written both Jews and Christians were aware of the empty tomb tradition. Matthew offers a defense against claims that the tomb was empty because Christ’s body had been stolen. Reportedly, the leaders of the Jews entered into a conspiracy with the Roman guards to spread a rumor that Jesus’ disciples themselves had taken Jesus’ corpse. This detail can be described as anti-Semitic but does serve to offset the incredulity of non-Christian detractors. Whether this criticism originated from Jews or others, there is evidence that doubts about Christ’s resurrection existed. Paul writes the following in First Corinthians 1:23:

But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness.

Anti-Semitic overtones are also evident in Matthew 27:23-25, Pilate’s dialogue with a predominantly Jewish mob:

Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified. And the governor said, Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified. When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

The author believes that the empty tomb tradition is inadequate as a positive demonstration of faith, since doubts can be maintained by both Jews and Christians and are a potential barrier to effective missionary activity. Doubt can, regrettably, be exorcised through hatred of Jews, since it was the Jews that expressed these doubts in the first place. Using Jews as a scapegoat also tends to suppress, in an unwholesome and unchristian manner, doubt in a believer whose faith is wavering. It is this psychological phenomenon, rather than the Gospel narrative itself, that gives rise to hatred for Jews.

Although the Gospel of John was developed independently, much of it is drawn from the Gospels of Mark and Luke, particularly its resurrection narrative. It also feature a literal, physical resurrection of Jesus. Below are all 33 verses of John 20:

The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre. And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie, And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself. Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed. For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again unto their own home.

But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her.

Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.

Although the Gospel of John may contain the first written allusion to the “stolen body” tradition, it is not polemically suited to counter Jewish skepticism. It is, rather, a logical conjecture based on the absence of a corpse. Other apologetic statements are made. Scriptural precedents for Christ’s resurrection are mentioned, but specific instances are not cited. John 20:9 states:

For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead.

Psalms 16:10 is an Old Testament reference to a pending resurrection:

For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

In addition, various passages emphasize that Jesus is now “Lord” and “God.” The important divine prerogative of forgiving sins is attributed to both Christ and the church in John 20:22-23:

And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

Each of the four Gospels, in various ways, works to counter criticism of the church by outsiders. No Gospel contains all of these arguments, and some seem to contradict others. A synthesis of all four Gospels is therefore impossible, but doctrinal consensus nonetheless emerges when these multifaceted portraits of Jesus are taken as a whole. Conceptions of Paul’s “spiritual body” and the Gospel writers’ “physical body” are synthesized in John’s account of Thomas’s incredulity. Jesus appears among his disciples, despite the door to their chamber being locked, an indisputably spiritual event. Thomas’s prodding of Christ’s body, by contrast, is very physical and demonstrates that Jesus resurrected was more than merely a shade or spirit. It will be seen that the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas offers an overtly visionary view of Christ’s resurrection.

John 6 links the resurrection to holy communion. John 6:31-35 states:

Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

John 6:51-57 states the matter more directly:

I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

John 6:60-66 reveals that some of Jesus’ disciples misunderstood the symbolic nature of their leader’s analogy:

Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

John strives to express the physical presence of Jesus in the celebration of communion, rather than the literal transformation of flesh into bread and blood into wine. In contrast to the other Gospel writers, John describes the resurrection of believers through the power of Christ, rather than God the Father.

The Gospel of Luke offers an anthology of Christ’s post-resurrection appearances. In Luke 24:36-43 a corporeal Jesus consumes physical sustenance:

And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.

While the other Gospels infer that Jesus ascended to heaven shortly after his resurrection, Luke records a forty-day interval between these two events. Luke 24:11-35 furnishes an important and revealing variant of the empty tomb tradition in the story of Christ’s appearance to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Verses 22-27 disclose a statement by one of the two disciples and a response from Jesus asserting that the empty tomb was not merely a rumor sustained by idle gossips:

Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre; And when they found not his body, they came, saying, that they had also seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive. And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre, and found it even so as the women had said: but him they saw not. Then he [Jesus] said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

The author proposes that, perhaps, uncertainty about the empty tomb tradition which prompted a protracted campaign to defend and explain it to believers was the reason that Paul chose to sidestep it in his own writings. The Gospel of Luke represents the final, and most comprehensive effort to buttress this tradition. It concludes with Luke 24:50-53, Christ’s ascension to heaven before the two disciples he had joined on the road to Emmaus:

And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy: And were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

In Luke, as well as the other Gospels and the Epistles of Paul, Jesus is proclaimed to be the enthroned Messiah whose resurrection and exaltation were proof of the final event in the divine plan, the end of the world. For Luke, this was the good news that early Christian missionaries labored to share with others. This message hinged on the presence of Jesus among the community in baptism, in the Lord’s Supper, and the gifts of the spirit which Luke describes as having been poured out upon the church at Pentecost. The Gospels reveal that to early Christians, Jesus was primarily a savior, and only secondarily a teacher of wisdom and morals. Another perception was based on Christ’s pre-crucifixion transfiguration, an event described in Luke 9:28-36:

And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias: Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: and when they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men that stood with him. And it came to pass, as they departed from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he said. While he thus spake, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.

The transfiguration features many of the characteristics of an apocalyptic/mystical theophany, a visible manifestation of God to humanity. It occurs during prayer, a significant convention for ecstatic experiences in Jewish apocalypticism. The mental states of the disciples is described as awake, but sleepy, which is often a a component of descriptions of ecstatic visions. The disciples are granted a vision of Christ’s glory described in terms similar to those used in Jewish writings. The reference to clouds is reminiscent of the arrival of the Son of Man in Daniel 7:13:

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

The voice that issues from the clouds at Christ’s transfiguration proclaims, “This is my beloved Son: hear him.” Luke 3:21-22 records similar words spoken by a similar or identical voice:

Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

 The heavens are opened when Jesus is baptized. The veil in the Temple that shrouds the Holy of Holies is ripped open when Jesus is crucified. Midway between these beginning and endpoints of Christ ministry, the transfiguration both looks back to his baptism and forward to his crucifixion. Most importantly, the voice from heaven commands listeners to obey Jesus, to “hear him” in the manner of the commandment spoken by God to the Hebrews that is located in Exodus 23:20-22:

Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries.

Luke’s description of the transfiguration not only identifies Jesus as the Son and Messiah, but also with the angelic messenger of Exodus 23 who carries and represents the name of God. The name given to this messenger by Jews who were contemporaries of Jesus is Kavad, meaning “the Glory.” Jesus is being acknowledged and affirmed as a human transformed into divinity, the principal angel of God who partakes in God’s name. The transfiguration could reflect ecstatic visions, similar to Paul’s, that were experienced by members of the earliest Christian church, a manifestation of the spirit comparable to that of speaking in an unknown tongue.

The resurrection tradition as described by the Gospels is connected to efforts to glorify the persecution of the faithful. A salient example of this the stoning of Stephen, whose trailblazing martyrdom is described by Luke in Acts 7. Most of this chapter is devoted to a final sermon preached by Stephen to a crowd determined to kill him. The transformative aspects of martyrdom are described in Luke’s narration of Stephen’s execution, Acts 7:54-56:

When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

Luke describes this scene in terms drawn from early Christian traditions based on Daniel 7:9-14. The “Glory of God” is identified with the Ancient of Days. Jesus is identified with the “Son of Man,” but rather than being seated beside the Ancient of Days, he is standing at the right hand of God to greet the martyr as he is exalted into heaven. Stephen’s death is described as “falling asleep,” a firm link to the promise of resurrection found in Daniel 12. Another connection to Daniel 12 is the prophetic promise that those who make others wise shall shine like stars. Martyred Stephen merited his transformation into an angelic luminary. Acts 6:15 describes his appearance during his trial:

And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

An atypical reference to the afterlife in the Gospel of Luke implies the existence of an intermediate stage between death and resurrection. Below is Luke 23:42-43:

And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

Some theologians interpret these anomalous verses as an indication that Platonic belief in the immortality of the soul was present in the early Christian church, but is more likely a reflection of Jewish conceptions of the nefesh (soul) or apocalyptic conceptions of souls being stored in heaven until the end-times began. When combined with Paul’s statement found in Second Corinthians 5:8 (We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord) an another statement found in Revelation 2:7 (He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God). it contributes to modern misconceptions that the dead are immediately whisked away either to heaven or to Hell. Eventually, it was not a handful of outlier verses, but the intentional infusion of Platonism into Christian doctrine that institutionalized this belief despite a preponderance of Bible verses that oppose it.

“Q” (standing for Quelle, the German word for source) is the designation for all traditions that are common to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke but are not found in Mark. Some scholars hypothesize that this represents a separate, lost document equal in importance for the early church to the Gospel of Mark. Q is believed to contain only the sayings of Jesus, which would explain differences in the Gospels written by Matthew and Luke. Advocates for Q were overjoyed when the Gospel of Thomas was discovered since it contains 114 sayings of Jesus, but barely any settings or narrative. It provided evidence that a ”sayings source” may have actually existed. Whether or not Q existed has no bearing on Christian beliefs about Christ’s resurrection. It is important, however, to study the Gospel of Thomas since it provides traditions about the resurrection that are different from the canonical Gospels.

Like the letters of Paul, the Gospel of Thomas portrays a spiritual, rather than a physical resurrection. Thomas declares that vision and knowledge (gnosis) can be sought, and when it is found can reveal the spiritual nature of one’s own salvation. This Gospel was written in Coptic, the last phase of the Egyptian language and the liturgical language of the Egyptian Coptic Church. Its discovery in 1945 provided much new information about early Egyptian Christianity and the evolution of a heresy currently termed Gnosticism, but whomever created the Gospel of Thomas would have seen themselves as orthodox Christians. This gospel describes a rarefied and spiritual Christianity that excludes any possibility of a physically resurrected Jesus. This may explain John’s story of disciple Thomas overcoming his doubts when he encounters his risen master as a polemic against the idea of a disembodied post-resurrection Christ described in the Gospel of Thomas. Below is a translation of Sayings 50 and 51:

Jesus said: If they say to you: Whence have you come?, say to them: We have come from the light, the place where the light came into being of itself. It [established itself], and it revealed itself in their image. If they say to you: Who are you?, say: We are his sons, and we are the elect of the living Father. If they ask you: What is the sign of your Father in you?, say to them: It is movement and rest. His disciples said to him: On what day will the rest of the dead come into being, and on what day will the new world come? He said to them: What you await has come, but you do not know it.

Rather than describing Jesus as the Messiah of Israel, the Gospel of Thomas portrays a revealer/savior who speaks paradoxes and conundrums which are puzzling to outsiders, but comprehensible for those possessed of knowledge, or gnosis. Humans are derived from light, and are destined to return to it once they recognize their heavenly origin. Light as the source of transformative knowledge is also found in the works of Philo and is characteristic of late pagan Neoplatonism and Hermetic writings (occult, theological, and philosophical Greek and Latin writings that probably date from the middle of the 1st to the end of the 3rd century). A similar position can be found in the Syriac Odes of Solomon, 1st century writings that some scholars regard as a combination of ideas from the Essene community with Christianity. Other scholars believe that the Odes reflect Gnostic values. 

Mystical speculation about light, in a Jewish context, is based on the creation story of Genesis 1 where light is created on the first day, prior to the creation of the sun or stars. This supernatural light is designated phōs (φῶς) in Greek translations of Genesis and can refer to either “light” or “man.” Jesus is equated with the manifestation of light and truth in the universe, and those enlightened by Jesus can become Sons of Light themselves, like the beliefs held by the Qumran community whose ritual purity qualified them to achieve angelic status. The Gospel of Thomas does not proclaim an entirely ethereal Jesus. Saying 28 states:

Jesus said: I stood in the midst of the world, and I appeared to them in the flesh. I found them all drunk; I found none of them thirsting, and my soul was afflicted for the sons of men; for they are blind in their heart, and they do not see that they came empty into the world, (and) empty they seek to leave the world again. But now they are drunk. When they have thrown off their wine, they will repent.

Saying 15, however, reveals that it is the spiritual, rather than the physical Christ that is essential to salvation:

Jesus said: When you see him who was not born of woman, fall down upon your faces and worship him; that one is your Father.

Unlike the writings of Paul, the Gospel of Thomas does not describe the apocalyptic end of the world, nor does it mention any need for a material or physical resurrection. Instead, it is progressive detachment from the flesh that leads to enlightenment. Saying 37 states:

His disciples said: On what day will you be revealed to us, and on what day shall we see you? Jesus said: When you unclothe yourselves and are not ashamed, and take your garments and lay them beneath your feet like the little children (and) trample on them, then [you will see] the Son of the Living One, and you will not be afraid.

Saying 84 is similar:

Jesus said: When you see your likeness, you rejoice. But when you see your images which came into existence before you, which neither die nor are made manifest, how much will you bear?

These verses seem to imply a baptism ritual that the removal of the fleshly aspects of life, much as a child’s clothing is removed prior to bathing, an image that recalls both innocence and rejuvenation. Enigmas presented by the individual sayings of the Gospel of Thomas can only be resolved by considering them within the entire context of the work. New Testament scholar April DeConick believes that Hellenistic, Neoplatonic, and Jewish mystical communities pursued similar spiritual goals. The Gospel of Thomas was valued by an ascetic community of monks who lived apart as monks but came together for meals and rituals. Their shared mystical vision dispensed with the need for an apocalypse since it granted them immediate access to the Savior, whom they strove to completely detach from the physical realm. One facet of this process was their personal detachment from sexuality. Saying 114 is a male-centric admonition:

Simon Peter said to them: Let Mariham go out from among us, for women are not worthy of the life. Jesus said: Look, I will lead her that I may make her male, in order that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who makes herself male will enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Females of the community could obtain eternal life if they emulated men by obeying monastic rules that proscribed luxury and sexuality, an approach that modern readers might be offended by. An angelic life required that sexuality be transcended, which was antithetical to Greco-Roman conceptions of the central role of women as wives and mothers. Asceticism was prerequisite for the reception of revelation through contemplation, and thus available to women willing to abandon their societal functions. Resurrection, a transformation from death to life, ideally takes place upon the earth. Divine power could be obtained by living disciples who had transcended gender distinctions that arose when Eve became separated from the body of Adam (“one” becoming “two”). Saying 11 notes:

Jesus said: This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away; and those who are dead are not alive, and those who are living will not die. In the days when you ate of what is dead, you made of it what is living. When you come to be light, what will you do? On the day when you were one, you became two. But when you have become two, what will you do?

Saying 106 is another example of the power and potential of a transformed, androgynous disciple:

Jesus said: When you make the two one, you will become sons of man, and when you say: Mountain, move away, it will move away.

Transformation required movement from the physical world to the spiritual world. Females were regarded as passive and irrational, symbolic of the body. Males were believed to be active, rational, and incorporeal, symbolic of the spirit. Neoplatonism, which influenced the Gospel of Thomas, divided the universe into a hierarchy of three levels of divine being: (1) the One, a derivative of Plato’s the Good, (2) the Divine Mind, and (3) the Soul. The material world exists below these upper tiers. In the Enneads, Plotinus suggested that in rising from the Divine Mind to the One, division and separation disappears. Differences between the knower and the known also vanish. The One remains unseen, and unknown, but transformed humans become entirely absorbed by it. In the Third Tractate of the Sixth Ennead, Plotinus describes the fall to earth that precedes ascending yet again to merge with the One:

The souls peering forth from the Intellectual Realm descend first to the heavens and there put on a body; this becomes at once the medium by which as they reach out more and more towards magnitude [physical extension] they proceed to bodies progressively more earthy. Some even plunge from heaven to the very lowest of corporeal forms; others pass, stage by stage, too feeble to lift towards the higher the burden they carry, weighed downwards by their heaviness and forgetfulness.

This is a description of the descending portion of a cyclical process of reincarnation. Plato believed that as bodies die, the soul is continually reborn (metempsychosis) in subsequent bodies. Neoplatonism preserved Plato’s ideas about reincarnation, but the writers of the Gospel of Thomas, like all other Christians, rejected them. They embraced,  however, Plato’s belief in the immortality of the soul. Plotinus's goal was like that of the Egyptian hermits, and many passages of the Ennead mirror the content of the preceding Gospel of Thomas. In those rare moments when the soul has attained to the highest, he writes, when all duality and distinction fade, the soul now scorns "all that she had welcomed of old; office, power, wealth, beauty, knowledge." One who has attained the final "mingling" with the supreme has "become the Unity, nothing within him or without inducing any diversity." There is no movement now, no passion, no outward desire; reasoning is in abeyance. "Utterly resting he has become very rest."

Faith, which is regarded as critical for salvation by Paul and the Gospels, is absent in the Gospel of Thomas. In its place is gnosis, saving knowledge attained by a mystic through visions. Christian visions that Paul ascribed to himself and a few selected prophets become the goal of every ascetic whose spiritual journey must be completed within their lifespan. Saying 59 of the Gospel of Thomas states:

Jesus said: Look upon the Living One so long as you live, that you may not die and seek to see him, and be unable to see him.

Faith as the principle of authority, for Paul, was faith that his vision was central to an understanding of the meaning of Christ’s resurrection. The Synoptic Gospels, in contrast, state that faith is predicated on acceptance of the teachings and authority of those who recorded the second and third-hand accounts of people who were personally acquainted with Jesus. Matthew, Mark, and Luke reflect generations of traditions that had been handed down from teacher to pupil. The point of departure for the writers of the Gospel of Thomas may have been identical to Paul’s, but the interpretations of their visions significantly diverged from those contained in Paul’s letters. They believed that only those who had experienced a vision of the savior would become transformed. For the Egyptian monastics who produced the Gospel of Thomas, it is knowledge, rather than faith, that leads to eternal salvation and the temporal achievement of angelic status.