The General Resurrection in Matthew's Resurrection Theology
(avg. read time: 17–34 mins.)
My next two posts will be significantly overlapping because they represent two attempts to address similar subject matter. And they also represent possibilities of what I may address in my planned book. As I have not entirely settled on what will be included beyond chapters on synoptic comparison, and each Synoptic Gospel individually, I would like to present both versions of what I have written.
This particular piece is something I wrote during my doctoral program. It was a test of the feasibility of an idea I had for my Gospel of Matthew class with Dr. Craig Keener that I would begin the spring semester following when I wrote this in 2019. As such, some of it is not as developed around certain texts as it would be if I wrote it all recently. But there is also some unique material that is not reflected even in my updated paper for Dr. Keener. It also still serves as something of a preview for my planned work on resurrection in the Synoptic Gospels. Thus, it is fitting for content for my paid subscribers.
On multiple occasions, N. T. Wright has observed how Jesus’s resurrection introduced important theological mutations between Second Temple Judaism in all of its various forms (even if one restricts the scope to Pharisaism and apocalypticism, which seem to have been particularly influential forms of Judaism at the time) and the movement that would become known as Christianity. Such results of Jesus’s resurrection include resurrection moving to the center of the Christian worldview narrative, the eschatological resurrection event being split into (at least) two parts with Jesus coming before everyone else, resurrection becoming an important image for describing the Christian life, and, in contrast to all other expectations, the Messiah being resurrected. Another consequence of these shifts in resurrection belief is that the general resurrection was now conceived in connection with Jesus. I argue that, like the more concentrated presentation of 1 Cor 15, Matthew subtly connects Jesus’s resurrection and the general resurrection so that he presents the expectation of the latter in relation to the former. To demonstrate this point, I present an overview of resurrection theology in Matthew, place it in connection with other eschatological themes, and examine how this context shapes the understanding of the passages most relevant to the general resurrection in Matt 21:23–33 and 27:52–53.