John 2:19 Research
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.iii.xi.v.iv.html#iii.xi.v.iv-p132.1 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.ix.iii.xxxii.html#vi.ix.iii.xxxii-p5.1 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.ix.viii.xix.html#vi.ix.viii.xix-p3.1 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iii.iv.ii.i.html#iii.iv.ii.i-p36.1 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.iii.iv.ii.i.html#iii.iv.ii.i-p36.1 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf05.vi.iii.xxii.html#vi.iii.xxii-p4.1 Nota bene: This is not the opportunity for a Trinity doctrine thread. I should add that the occurrences include allusions and not just quotations.
Showing posts with label resurrection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label resurrection. Show all posts
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Wednesday, September 18, 2024
In Defense of the Resurrection: Verses That Speak About Being Raised from the Dead
Verses about the resurrection from the dead:
Mark 16:6; John 5:28-29; Acts 24:15; Hebrews 6:1-2; 1 Corinthians 15:1-58; Acts 17:31 Hebrews 11:19
Daniel 12:2, 13
Isaiah 26:19
Hosea 13:14
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Compare Romans 6:9; Revelation 1:18
Wednesday, December 13, 2023
"If a man dies, shall he live again?"--Job and the Resurrection (Modified Talk)
The well-known "Collins Dictionary" defines death as "the permanent end of the life of a person or animal."
This definition ties in well with the title of our Treasures talk this week: If a man dies, can he live again?
That question, which comes from the book of Job, is a rhetorical question. As we know, rhetorical questions makes us think and they usually have a presupposed answer which is either yes or no. So what about the question, if a man dies, can he live again?
If we consider this question from the human angle, let's see what answer we get from Job 14:1,2, 4, 10. (Read)
Human life is temporary and uncertain like a shadow and it's filled with trouble; humans are powerless to prevent death and once a person dies, no mortal can restore his or her life.
The elixir of immortality: some alchemists in the past tried to produce elixirs that would produce immortality and the Chinese Taoists believed that they could change the body’s chemistry by means of meditation, breathing exercises, special dieting and thus produce human immortality or invulnerability. However, in harmony with the words of Job, none of these things worked. The miraculous fountain of life keeps eluding humanity's grasp, but does this mean that death is permanent as the Collins Dictionary says?
Looking at Job 14:7-9, we find a brighter prospect. (Read)
Maybe Job had the vibrant olive tree in mind when he spoke so assuredly about the dead coming back to life again. Job knew that Jehovah is the God who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:9). However, not only will Jehovah raise the dead, Job 14:14-15 tells us something else about our God.
After reading
If a man dies, can he live again? Jehovah loves and deeply appreciates his loyal ones: he has a special yearning to raise them from the dead.
The Hebrew word rendered "a yearning" is “unquestionably one of the strongest words to express the emotion of longing desires,” says one scholar. Yes, not only does Jehovah remember his worshippers but he longs to raise them from the dead.
As we think about our picture for tonight and meditation question, I believe we all can give a vibrant "yes" to the rhetorical question that Job posed. Jehovah will call the dead through his Son and the dead will answer by rising to life again.
This definition ties in well with the title of our Treasures talk this week: If a man dies, can he live again?
That question, which comes from the book of Job, is a rhetorical question. As we know, rhetorical questions makes us think and they usually have a presupposed answer which is either yes or no. So what about the question, if a man dies, can he live again?
If we consider this question from the human angle, let's see what answer we get from Job 14:1,2, 4, 10. (Read)
Human life is temporary and uncertain like a shadow and it's filled with trouble; humans are powerless to prevent death and once a person dies, no mortal can restore his or her life.
The elixir of immortality: some alchemists in the past tried to produce elixirs that would produce immortality and the Chinese Taoists believed that they could change the body’s chemistry by means of meditation, breathing exercises, special dieting and thus produce human immortality or invulnerability. However, in harmony with the words of Job, none of these things worked. The miraculous fountain of life keeps eluding humanity's grasp, but does this mean that death is permanent as the Collins Dictionary says?
Looking at Job 14:7-9, we find a brighter prospect. (Read)
Maybe Job had the vibrant olive tree in mind when he spoke so assuredly about the dead coming back to life again. Job knew that Jehovah is the God who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:9). However, not only will Jehovah raise the dead, Job 14:14-15 tells us something else about our God.
After reading
If a man dies, can he live again? Jehovah loves and deeply appreciates his loyal ones: he has a special yearning to raise them from the dead.
The Hebrew word rendered "a yearning" is “unquestionably one of the strongest words to express the emotion of longing desires,” says one scholar. Yes, not only does Jehovah remember his worshippers but he longs to raise them from the dead.
As we think about our picture for tonight and meditation question, I believe we all can give a vibrant "yes" to the rhetorical question that Job posed. Jehovah will call the dead through his Son and the dead will answer by rising to life again.
Monday, December 04, 2023
2 Corinthians 1:9-'the God who raises up the dead"
Greek (NA28)-2 Corinthians 1:9: ἀλλ᾽ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἑαυτοῖς τὸ ἀπόκριμα τοῦ θανάτου ἐσχήκαμεν, ἵνα μὴ πεποιθότες ὦμεν ἐφ᾽ ἑαυτοῖς ἀλλ᾽ ἐπὶ τῷ θεῷ τῷ ἐγείροντι τοὺς νεκρούς·
In 2 Corinthians 1:8, after a discussion about Jehovah being the God of all comfort and the Father of tender mercies (1:3-4), the inspired apostle then recounts how that he and his co-workers faced perilous danger when they first entered Asia Minor. It sounds like Paul and his fellow laborers nearly died, but this happened with God's permission. Yet why did he allow them to hover over the abyss of death?
In order that their trust might be ἐπὶ τῷ θεῷ τῷ ἐγείροντι τοὺς νεκρούς
What does this part of the verse signify? Here are some possibilities.
Alfred Plummer (2 Corinthians in the ICC Series, page 19):
Ben Witherington III (2 Corinthians): "There is some question as to how we should translate apokrima in 1:9. The word occurs nowhere else in the NT. In secular Greek it refers to a decree, verdict, or decision that settles a matter.4 Here we are told that it was a decree or verdict of death. But Paul says that he has received this verdict within himself, which leads to the suggestion that he is talking about some sort of illness. He knows that there is no cure, short of resurrection, for the terminal illness by which all, as fallen creatures, die. He believes in a God who raises the dead and so is able to talk of hope beyond and triumphing over death, not of a hope that seeks somehow to bypass death. Paul acquired this death sentence in himself (cf. the 'thorn in the flesh' in 12:7) so that he would not trust in his own strength but in God who raises the dead. But Paul has received a stay of execution. He has been rescued from imminent danger in Asia (1:8, 10), and he believes that ultimately God will rescue him, and so he fixes his hope on God. In v. 11 he speaks of the partnership he and the Corinthians have. They can both pray and give thanks for one another."
Despite making different things their focus, both commentators agree that Paul is referencing the God who raises up the dead. That precious resurrection gives us hope and keeps Christians steadfast especially when enduring severe trial.
In 2 Corinthians 1:8, after a discussion about Jehovah being the God of all comfort and the Father of tender mercies (1:3-4), the inspired apostle then recounts how that he and his co-workers faced perilous danger when they first entered Asia Minor. It sounds like Paul and his fellow laborers nearly died, but this happened with God's permission. Yet why did he allow them to hover over the abyss of death?
In order that their trust might be ἐπὶ τῷ θεῷ τῷ ἐγείροντι τοὺς νεκρούς
What does this part of the verse signify? Here are some possibilities.
Alfred Plummer (2 Corinthians in the ICC Series, page 19):
Ben Witherington III (2 Corinthians): "There is some question as to how we should translate apokrima in 1:9. The word occurs nowhere else in the NT. In secular Greek it refers to a decree, verdict, or decision that settles a matter.4 Here we are told that it was a decree or verdict of death. But Paul says that he has received this verdict within himself, which leads to the suggestion that he is talking about some sort of illness. He knows that there is no cure, short of resurrection, for the terminal illness by which all, as fallen creatures, die. He believes in a God who raises the dead and so is able to talk of hope beyond and triumphing over death, not of a hope that seeks somehow to bypass death. Paul acquired this death sentence in himself (cf. the 'thorn in the flesh' in 12:7) so that he would not trust in his own strength but in God who raises the dead. But Paul has received a stay of execution. He has been rescued from imminent danger in Asia (1:8, 10), and he believes that ultimately God will rescue him, and so he fixes his hope on God. In v. 11 he speaks of the partnership he and the Corinthians have. They can both pray and give thanks for one another."
Despite making different things their focus, both commentators agree that Paul is referencing the God who raises up the dead. That precious resurrection gives us hope and keeps Christians steadfast especially when enduring severe trial.
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
Will This Exact Body Be Raised From Death?
The majority of NT commentators/scholars I've consulted think that our current physical bodies--these exact identical bodies or their form (morphe/forma)--will be glorified one day if we've taken the requisite steps to "get right with God," (become Christian believers or something to that effect) but I've never seen a satisfactory explanation for how that's going to happen when we know that our current bodies decompose postmortem.
Peter van Inwagen sets forth one potential way to get around the decomposition problem, especially if one is a materialist. He offers this observation in the "Possibility of Resurrection":
"Perhaps at the moment of each man’s death, God removes his corpse and replaces it with a simulacrum which is what is burned or rots. Or perhaps God is not quite so wholesale as this: perhaps He removes for 'safekeeping' only the 'core person'--the brain and central nervous system--or even some special part of it. These are details."
Philosophers customarily have panned this suggestion, but there have been vigorous defenses of van Inwagen's simulacrum concept despite its apparent implausibility (by his own admission). See https://philpapers.org/rec/STERVI-3
On the other hand, Thomas Aquinas believes that resurrection of the dead is the uniting of our bodies with our putative souls. But how does God unite a body that's undergone decomposition with a soul that allegedly survives the death of the body? It seems like Aquinas imputes some type of miraculous work to God in this respect, and he reckons that all of our corporeal members will be restored in the resurrection even if they are not used by the resurrected "blessed ones." It appears that the resurrected body will even contain blood and normal organs, but that raises further questions.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.XP_Q80_A1.html
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.TP_Q54_A3.html
N.T. Wright posits a transphysical body in the case of Jesus and I suppose for resurrected followers of Christ too. He contends:
Wright, N. T. Resurrection Son of God V3: Christian Origins and the Question of God (pp. 477-478). Fortress Press. Kindle Edition.
Whether it's the suggestion offered by van Inwagen, Aquinas or Wright, I personally take them all with a heaping grain of salt (cum grano salis). It is still not clear to me how personal identity can be preserved by either of the aforementioned accounts.
Peter van Inwagen sets forth one potential way to get around the decomposition problem, especially if one is a materialist. He offers this observation in the "Possibility of Resurrection":
"Perhaps at the moment of each man’s death, God removes his corpse and replaces it with a simulacrum which is what is burned or rots. Or perhaps God is not quite so wholesale as this: perhaps He removes for 'safekeeping' only the 'core person'--the brain and central nervous system--or even some special part of it. These are details."
Philosophers customarily have panned this suggestion, but there have been vigorous defenses of van Inwagen's simulacrum concept despite its apparent implausibility (by his own admission). See https://philpapers.org/rec/STERVI-3
On the other hand, Thomas Aquinas believes that resurrection of the dead is the uniting of our bodies with our putative souls. But how does God unite a body that's undergone decomposition with a soul that allegedly survives the death of the body? It seems like Aquinas imputes some type of miraculous work to God in this respect, and he reckons that all of our corporeal members will be restored in the resurrection even if they are not used by the resurrected "blessed ones." It appears that the resurrected body will even contain blood and normal organs, but that raises further questions.
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.XP_Q80_A1.html
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.TP_Q54_A3.html
N.T. Wright posits a transphysical body in the case of Jesus and I suppose for resurrected followers of Christ too. He contends:
The resurrection, as the eschatological event, has split into two (first Jesus, then, at his return, all his people—the further subdivision of the latter moment by Revelation 20 does not affect the present point).70 (2) The nature of the future resurrection body is further clarified: it will be incapable of dying or decaying, thus requiring a transformation not only for those already dead but for those still alive. This new mode of embodiment is hard to describe, but we can at least propose a label for it. The word ‘transphysical’ seems not to exist, surprisingly enough (one might have thought some enterprising ontologist would have employed it long since), and I proffer it for inclusion between transphosphorylation and transpicuous in the Oxford English Dictionary.71 The ‘trans’ is intended as a shortening of ‘transformed’. ‘Transphysical’ is not meant to describe in detail what sort of a body it was that the early Christians supposed Jesus already had, and believed that they themselves would eventually have. Nor indeed does it claim to explain how such a thing can come to be. It merely, but I hope usefully, puts a label on the demonstrable fact that the early Christians envisaged a body which was still robustly physical but also significantly different from the present one.
Whether it's the suggestion offered by van Inwagen, Aquinas or Wright, I personally take them all with a heaping grain of salt (cum grano salis). It is still not clear to me how personal identity can be preserved by either of the aforementioned accounts.
Friday, June 23, 2023
Select Bibliography for 1 Corinthians 15:35-58 (Will Be Updated Accordingly)
James Ware. "Paul's Understanding of the Resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:36–54." Journal of Biblical Literature. Vol. 133, No. 4 (Winter 2014), pp. 809-835.
https://www.academia.edu/39791974/_WE_SHALL_ALL_BE_CHANGED_1_Cor_15_51c_TRANSFORMATION_OF_THE_LIVING_AT_THE_PAROUSIA_OF_CHRIST_An_Exegetico_Rhetorical_Study_of_1_Cor_15_50_57
Jeffrey R. Asher. Polarity and Change in I Corinthians 15: A Study of Metaphysics, Rhetoric, and Resurrection. HUT 42; Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 2000.
B. Schmisek. (2015). "The 'Spiritual Body' as Oxymoron in 1 Corinthians 15:44." Biblical Theology Bulletin, 45(4), 230–238. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146107915608597
Anthony C. Thiselton. The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Koshi Usami. " 'How Are the Dead Raised?' (1 Corinthians 15:35-58)." Biblica 57 (1976): 468-493.
Albert V. Garcilazo. The Corinthian Dissenters and the Stoics. New York: Peter Lang, 2007.
https://www.academia.edu/39791974/_WE_SHALL_ALL_BE_CHANGED_1_Cor_15_51c_TRANSFORMATION_OF_THE_LIVING_AT_THE_PAROUSIA_OF_CHRIST_An_Exegetico_Rhetorical_Study_of_1_Cor_15_50_57
Jeffrey R. Asher. Polarity and Change in I Corinthians 15: A Study of Metaphysics, Rhetoric, and Resurrection. HUT 42; Tübingen: Mohr [Siebeck], 2000.
B. Schmisek. (2015). "The 'Spiritual Body' as Oxymoron in 1 Corinthians 15:44." Biblical Theology Bulletin, 45(4), 230–238. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146107915608597
Anthony C. Thiselton. The First Epistle to the Corinthians: A Commentary on the Greek Text. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
Koshi Usami. " 'How Are the Dead Raised?' (1 Corinthians 15:35-58)." Biblica 57 (1976): 468-493.
Albert V. Garcilazo. The Corinthian Dissenters and the Stoics. New York: Peter Lang, 2007.
Monday, July 15, 2019
STEP Bible Textual Notes for Revelation 20:5
Revelation of John 20:5
οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν νεκρῶν οὐκ ἔζησαν ἄχρι τελεσθῇ τὰ χίλια ἔτη.] (Byz) (ς) WH
omit] א 2030 2053 2062 2377 al syrph Victorinus-Pettau Beatus
οἱ] A 1611 itgig WH NR CEI Riv TILC NM
καὶ οἱ] 046 051 1006 1841 1854 2050 (2329) Byz itar vgmss syrh copbo
οἱ δὲ] pc ς ND Dio Nv
νεκρῶν] A Byz ς WH
ἀνθρώπων] pc
ἔζησαν ἄχρι] A Byz WH
ἀνέζησαν ἄχρι] pc
ἀνέζησαν ἕως] pc ς
See https://www.stepbible.org/?q=version=VarApp|reference=Rev.20.5&options=GNHVU
οἱ λοιποὶ τῶν νεκρῶν οὐκ ἔζησαν ἄχρι τελεσθῇ τὰ χίλια ἔτη.] (Byz) (ς) WH
omit] א 2030 2053 2062 2377 al syrph Victorinus-Pettau Beatus
οἱ] A 1611 itgig WH NR CEI Riv TILC NM
καὶ οἱ] 046 051 1006 1841 1854 2050 (2329) Byz itar vgmss syrh copbo
οἱ δὲ] pc ς ND Dio Nv
νεκρῶν] A Byz ς WH
ἀνθρώπων] pc
ἔζησαν ἄχρι] A Byz WH
ἀνέζησαν ἄχρι] pc
ἀνέζησαν ἕως] pc ς
See https://www.stepbible.org/?q=version=VarApp|reference=Rev.20.5&options=GNHVU
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 and the Rapture
(1) First, let me say that Jehovah's Witnesses believe there are two hopes or eternal destinies for the righteous: some of the righteous will live forever on earth, while others (the 144,000) will reign immortally in heaven. It is my belief that 1 Thess. 4:13-18 refers to those who will dwell in the heavens of God's presence for all eternity.
(2) I understand the Rapture to be an event in which God removes His church from earth to heaven bodily apart from the experience of physical death. Thus, while I certainly profess that certain Christians (i.e., the 144,000) will be snatched up to meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the air, I do not agree that this seizing will be "bodily" (that is, the physical body will not be taken upward); nor does it appear that those taken up to meet Christ will bypass physical death.
(3) 1 Thess. 4:13-18 has reference to the resurrection which occurs during the parousia of Christ. That is why Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to comfort one another with the words found chapter four of that letter. Finally, 1 Cor. 15:35ff indicates that Christians who will reside in heaven forever must undergo the experience of physical death: Jehovah God imparts the heavenly inheritance to certain humans via spiritual resurrection.
Someone asked about those members of the 144,000 who are living when God executes judgment upon this evil age (Gal. 1:4; 2 Thess. 1:6-9). Will they too have to undergo the experience of physical death. It is not wise to be dogmatic here, but the biblical account of Enoch may suggest that God Jehovah will shorten the lives of the 144,000 who are living when Christ reveals himself in all his glory.
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