Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 173
It is like saying that every word of the Bible is the Word of God, when we know that in the latter there are borrowed teachings, the story of the Flood for example from the Epic of Gilgamesh, and Moses calling upon the Laws of king Hammurabi, who lived some six hundred years previously, for his ten commandments. We cannot write about Jesus without attempting to interpret the writings of St. Paul, without whom Christianity would not have survived. The apostles' dilemma now becomes obvious, for while knowing the true story they had yet to protect Jesus by remaining silent as to his whereabouts. And they had to preach the gospel of resurrection, as they were charged to do, still with no sign or proof to give to the people. Merely to teach that Jesus had survived the cross in accordance with the prophecies would have been over the heads of the people, for these had known other cases of men surviving crucifixion. Thus Paul writes, (1 Corinthians 15:12): Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised, and our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. Indeed the task becomes confusing, and leads to confusion. There may have been originally the idea of "Messianic expectation” in the minds of some of the disciples and they may have carried it to some extent to those they taught. It is apparent that Jesus had another kingdom in mind, the unseen one; and for Paul it is the same. The resurrection too of the body at some future time was not taught by Jesus in the same tradition as the Jewish fathers. Thus Paul writes (2 Corinthians 12:2): I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God 165