Vision hypothesis
Encyclopedia
- This is a sub-article of Crucifixion of JesusCrucifixion of JesusThe crucifixion of Jesus and his ensuing death is an event that occurred during the 1st century AD. Jesus, who Christians believe is the Son of God as well as the Messiah, was arrested, tried, and sentenced by Pontius Pilate to be scourged, and finally executed on a cross...
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The vision hypothesis is a term used to cover a range of theories that question the physical resurrection of Jesus
Resurrection of Jesus
The Christian belief in the resurrection of Jesus states that Jesus returned to bodily life on the third day following his death by crucifixion. It is a key element of Christian faith and theology and part of the Nicene Creed: "On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures"...
, and suggest that sightings of a risen Jesus were visionary experiences. As the literal bodily resurrection of Jesus is a cornerstone of Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
belief, the vision hypothesis is controversial. It is not accepted by many Christians. Christian apologist
Christian apologetics
Christian apologetics is a field of Christian theology that aims to present a rational basis for the Christian faith, defend the faith against objections, and expose the perceived flaws of other world views...
scholars Gary Habermas
Gary Habermas
Gary Robert Habermas is an American evangelical Christian apologist, historian, and philosopher of religion. He is a prolific author, lecturer, and debater on the topic of the Resurrection of Jesus...
and William Lane Craig
William Lane Craig
William Lane Craig is an American analytic philosopher, philosophical theologian, and Christian apologist. He is known for his work on the philosophy of time and the philosophy of religion, specifically the existence of God and the defense of Christian theism...
question the vision explanations for the resurrection.http://www.equip.org/free/DJ923.htm http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/visions.htmlhttp://www.wcg.org/lit/jesus/hist-res.htm However, for example, it is accepted by the Jesus Seminar
Jesus Seminar
The Jesus Seminar is a group of about 150 critical scholars and laymen founded in 1985 by Robert Funk under the auspices of the Westar Institute....
.
Visionary experiences in the New Testament
According to , JesusJesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
"first appeared to Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
". However, the earliest versions of the Gospel of Mark
Gospel of Mark
The Gospel According to Mark , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Mark or simply Mark, is the second book of the New Testament. This canonical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is one of the three synoptic gospels. It was thought to be an epitome, which accounts for its place as the second...
end at 16:8, see Mark 16
Mark 16
Mark 16 is the final chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It begins with the discovery of the empty tomb by Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome — there they encounter a man dressed in white who announces the Resurrection of Jesus.Verse 8 ends...
. According to , Mary, and the other women, saw "a vision of angels who said that He was alive". According to they saw a young man in a white robe who told them Jesus had risen and they would see him in Galilee
Galilee
Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...
. According to "a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow." According to , Mary saw "two angels in white", "she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus ... Supposing Him to be the gardener", but when Jesus said "Mary!", she called him Rabboni.
According to , Saint Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
"became hungry ... fell into a trance" and saw "an object like a great sheet" from Heaven
Heaven
Heaven, the Heavens or Seven Heavens, is a common religious cosmological or metaphysical term for the physical or transcendent place from which heavenly beings originate, are enthroned or inhabit...
that contained "all kinds of four-footed animals ... crawling creatures ... and birds ... A voice came to him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat!"" Peter replied that he'd never eaten anything impure, presumably nothing not kosher, as he was a Jewish Christian. The voice said "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." This repeated three times and then the sheet was gone. repeats the story. In an "angel of the Lord" helped Peter escape from prison, he "thought he was seeing a vision".
The primary vision of Paul of Tarsus
Paul of Tarsus
Paul the Apostle , also known as Saul of Tarsus, is described in the Christian New Testament as one of the most influential early Christian missionaries, with the writings ascribed to him by the church forming a considerable portion of the New Testament...
is in his Road to Damascus conversion experience. In addition, records his vision of "a man of Macedonia" and in the Lord spoke to Paul "by a vision" and in Jesus spoke to Paul when he "fell into a trance". In Paul wrote that Jesus was "raised on the third day", that "He appeared to Cephas", then to the Twelve Apostles, then to "more than five hundred brethren at one time", then to James the Just
James the Just
James , first Bishop of Jerusalem, who died in 62 AD, was an important figure in Early Christianity...
, then to the rest of the apostles, and last of all, to Paul.
Apocryphal Gospels
In several passages of the Christian Bible (e.g. Mark 16:1), Mary MagdaleneMary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
is reported to be amongst the first women to see the risen Jesus. The early Christian
Early Christianity
Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....
Gospel of Mary Magdalene, describes Mary as having a divine vision
- "(Mary) said, ‘I saw the Lord in a vision and I said to him, ‘Lord, I saw you today in a vision.’ He answered and said to me: “Blessed are you, that you did not waver at the sight of me. For where the mind is, there is the treasure.’ I said to him, ‘So now, Lord, does a person who sees a vision see it
the soul through the spirit?'":
However, its dating to the mid-2nd century makes it questionable as a resource for what the first Christian believers considered their encounters. The Gospel of Peter
Gospel of Peter
The Gospel According to Peter , commonly called the Gospel of Peter, is one of the non-Canonical gospels which were rejected by the Church Fathers and the Catholic Church's synods of Carthage and Rome, which established the New Testament canon, as apocryphal...
, while also dated to the 2nd century, may contain the Cross Gospel. Providing an early visionary account of the resurrection
- "35. But in the night in which the Lord's day dawned...there was a loud voice in heaven; 36. and they saw that the heavens were opened and that two males who had much radiance had come down from there... 37. the sepulcher opened, and both the young men entered. 38. And so those soldiers, having seen, awakened the centurion and the elders... 39. And while they were relating what they had seen, again they see three males who have come out from they sepulcher, with the two supporting the other one, and a cross following them, 40. and the head of the two reaching unto heaven, but that of the one being led out by a hand by them going beyond the heavens. 41. And they were hearing a voice from the heavens saying, 'Have you made proclamation to the fallen-asleep?' 42. And an obeisance was heard from the cross, 'Yes.'":
See also
- Swoon hypothesisSwoon hypothesisThe Swoon Hypothesis refers to a number of theories that aim to explain the resurrection of Jesus, proposing that Jesus didn't die on the cross, but merely fell unconscious , and was later revived in the tomb in the same mortal body...
- Stolen body hypothesisStolen body hypothesisThe stolen body hypothesis posits that the body of Jesus Christ was stolen from his burial place. His tomb was found empty not because he was resurrected, but because the body had been hidden somewhere else by the apostles or unknown persons. Both the stolen body hypothesis and the debate over it...
- Historical JesusHistorical JesusThe term historical Jesus refers to scholarly reconstructions of the 1st-century figure Jesus of Nazareth. These reconstructions are based upon historical methods including critical analysis of gospel texts as the primary source for his biography, along with consideration of the historical and...
- Historicity of JesusHistoricity of JesusThe historicity of Jesus concerns how much of what is written about Jesus of Nazareth is historically reliable, and whether the evidence supports the existence of such an historical figure...