How the first Christians understood Jesus' resurrection

Easter Sunday represents the foundational claim of Christian faith, the highest day of the Christian year as celebration of Jesus' resurrection. But many Christians are unsure what the claim that Jesus had been raised to new life after being crucified actually means—while non-Christians often find the whole idea of resurrection bemusing and even ridiculous.

These differences over what Jesus' resurrection represents and discomfort with the whole idea are nothing new, however: Christians in the first few centuries also had difficulty embracing the idea of a real, bodily resurrection. Then, as now, resurrection was not the favored post-death existence—people much preferred to think that after dying, souls headed to some ethereal realm of light and tranquility. During the Roman period, many regarded the body as a pitiful thing at best and at worst a real drag upon the soul, even a kind of prison from which the soul was liberated at death. So, it's not surprising that there were Christians who simply found bodily resurrection stupid and repugnant. To make the idea palatable, they instead interpreted all references to Jesus' resurrection in strictly spiritual terms. Some thought of Jesus as having shed his earthly body in his death, assuming a purely spiritual state, and returning to his original status in the divine realm. In other cases, Jesus' earthly body and his death were even seen as illusory, the divine Christ merely appearing to have a normal body (rather like Clark Kent!).


Read the rest of Larry Hurtado's article Here

Top 10 Religious Mysteries and Miracles

1.Marian Apparitions
For centuries, visions of Mary, the mother of Jesus, have been reported around the world. Notable apparitions include: Guadalupe, Mexico (1531); Fatima, Portugal (1917); Lourdes, France (1858); Gietrzwald, Poland (1877); among others.

2.Angel Encounters
Scores of books have been written and countless stories have been told by people who believe they have had personal encounters with beings they say are angels.

3.Ark of the Covenant
The Old Testament book of Exodus describes in detail the box, overlayed with gold, that the Israelites built from God's instructions to contain the broken tablets on which were written the original Ten Commandments. Not only that, God also said, "And there I will meet with you, and I will speak with you ... about everything which I will give you in commandment to the children of Israel."

4.Incorruptibles
Incorruptibles are the bodies of saints that miraculously do not decay -- even after decades or even a century or more. The bodies often lie in public view in churches and shrines.

5.Stigmata
One of the more gruesome and controversial miracles is stigmata, when a person inexplicably is afflicted with Jesus's crucifixion wounds, usually on the palms of the hands and feet. The phenomenon dates back at least to St. Francis of Assisi (1186-1226) and has been claimed by numerous saints since.

6.Weeping and Bleeding Icons
Statues, paintings and other likenesses of Jesus, Mary and saints that appear to weep or even bleed are routinely reported around the world; there are numerous claims every year.

7.Healing Power of Prayer
There is an ongoing debate about the healing power of prayer. One month you'll see an article about an experiment that shows prayer was statistically relavant in healing patients, and the next month another experiment shows that it had no effect whatsoever.

8.Shroud of Turin
No matter how much scientific testing is done to the Shroud of Turin, the results will never be satisfying to everyone.

9.Papal Prophecies
Several Popes of the Catholic Church have not only been the subjects of prophecy, but have also been prophets.

10.Star of Bethlehem

While the faithful accept the New Testament Gospels as fact, religious scholars and scientists often seek a scientific basis for many of the events they describe.

Read in more dept on this on Stephen Wagner's Blog