Abstract
This is a remarkable book by a remarkable scholar. Dale Allison, Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, has a fair claim to be one of the most accomplished scholars of the New Testament working today. He has written major commentaries on Matthew, James, the Testament of Abraham, and 4 Baruch, as well as several important books on Matthew and the historical Jesus, and is thus well prepared to address one of the most important matters in the history of Christianity: the resurrection of Jesus.
The subtitle of this book might be expanded: neither apologetics nor polemics, but history. But we would have to qualify ‘history’ as something other than the positivist craft it is conceived to be by some practitioners. Rather, this is history understood self-consciously as an activity undertaken in the present, on the basis of the limited remains of the past, and in full recognition of the biases interpreters bring to bear on their materials. Throughout this book, Allison is remarkably candid about the strengths and limitations of the historical evidence, and refreshingly honest about his own starting points and inclinations.
After an initial setting of the stage, the book proceeds in three major stages. Part II, ‘Historical-critical studies’, contains Allison’s searching historical queries of the New Testament traditions about the resurrection. Arguments are methodically considered, each in turn, and with unflinching frankness Allison interrogates the data and issues well-considered verdicts that might be described as minimal but not reductionist. He does, however, make a relatively strong case for the historicity of the empty tomb tradition and the appearances of Jesus to Mary Magdalene, Peter and others (see the summary on p. 336), while not shying away from pointing out weaknesses in the data or the possibility of other explanations. He also argues that Jesus primed his disciples to interpret the Easter events as resurrection by speaking explicitly about the eschatological event of his own resurrection to them before he died, as a part of his preaching about the eschatological restoration of Israel (for this, see Allison’s Constructing Jesus).
So much might be expected of a New Testament scholar. But Part III, ‘Thinking with parallels’, ventures beyond the normal remit of biblical scholars by comparing, in an intentionally temporally and culturally transgressive manner, reports of apparitions of the dead, of a sense of the presence of the dead with their bereft loved ones, and even the Tibetan tradition of holy monks who achieve the ‘rainbow body’, a diminution or even dissolution of their bodies upon death. Allison mentions his own experience with post-mortem visions, and broad-mindedly displays an openness to these cross-cultural phenomena that might help to illuminate the resurrection accounts, even as they might imperil apologetic claims about the resurrection’s uniqueness.
The final major section tallies the results and critiques arguments of both the apologists and the sceptics. The synthesis Allison draws allows the possibility of other interpretations of the data, and in this sense might be deemed a modest proposal, but one presented in full view of the problems involved in any case for or against the resurrection. This is a deeply learned, fascinating, brave book, one that displays a shockingly wide range of reading and an uncommon fairness. It lacks, as a minor flaw, a cumulative bibliography. For those interested in debates about the resurrection of Jesus, this book is simply unmissable.