cheenc03a.pdf

RESURRECTION- AND J SCENSION-NARRATIVES
1892 various scholars, and particvlarly Harnack, have
8, (tospel discerned a ,narimum of really ancient
ofPetsr, matter ('a first-class source').' It is to
be observed, however, that. (a) as regards
the watch set on the sepulchre, the Peter fragment
eoes sfdl further bevond the canonical account than the
&pel to the ~ebkws does (see 5 46).
redem that the stolle at the door of the sepulchre wai sealed
wirh reven seals, and rhnc a booth war erected for the use of the
guad. Whzt is still morc surprising the soldiers report the
occurrence of ,he rerurrecrion nor costhe chief priests but to
Pilate,-precisely the pcrronfrom whom according fo Mf. 2814
.I1 kmowledpe of fh~ f ~ ought ~ t if P~hllbh 10 have been with!
held,-and it ir Pilare who, ar the request of the Jewr, enjoins
silence on rhc ioldinr (18.19). . .
(hi The actual resurrection of Tesur, which in the
(r) The element here that admits of being regarded
as especially old is that the first appearance of Jerur
occurs in Galilee aod to Peter. Hardly. however, lo
Peter alone as is stated by Paul (I Cor. 155) and Lk.
(2439). Furthermore, it might seem to be original here
that the first appearance doer nor occur until more than
eight days after the death of Jesus. Such, however,
cannot be regarded with certainty as the meaning of the
eyes of the Roman and ~e&h watchers, and, indeed.
in a way which can only be described as grotesque
i"~.,7iA,,).
(r) The account of what Mary Magdalene and .her
friends' found at the sepulchre (50.57) is wentially in
agreement with what we read in Mk. So, also, the
statement that they flee filled with fear, without our
being told that they related to any one what had occurred.
On the closing day of the paschal festival
'the twelve disciples' are still weeping and mourning
in Jerusalem (58 f ).
(d) On this closing day the disciples betake themselves
each to his home, that is to say. to Galilee. For in v. 60
the narrative oroceeds : 'but I. Simon Peter. and
Andrew . . . Ant (to fish) to the sea, and with us
were Levi the son of Alph~us whom the Lord . . .'
(here the fragment breaks ofi). Plainly the continuation
related an appearance of Jerus by the sea of Galilee.
such ai we meet with in in. 21. yet in Jn. it ir precisely
Andrew and Levi who are not mentioned.3
1 Bmchrtuchr der zv'znp. u. drr A*hn(ypse ,fez PltnuPJ,
18 3. ACLii. (=Chroml.)16~~.
8 dp Astrl XI Mi. 16x9. Sr also, which in Mk. 15 37 Lk.
2316 lightly Say3 '(J~SUS) (or, ended),' has in Mt. 21 50
'his ipirli went up ; and Orlgen (Comnr. in Mt. series [Lat.],
ed. dm la Rye, 39x86, 6 14") 'itatim ur clamavit ad pntrem
recep~ur an.
8 Ar regar& Levi, Rerch (TUr.882g-8)1 r. 4x9) trier to
controvert thir, maintaining Leui'r identity wirh Matthew (Mk.
2 XI I1 Mc. 99). whom in turn on account of the like manjng of
the two nsme., he ~dentificr Lith Narhanael whoap mrr m Jn.
21.. or there two idenrificarions, howcrer, even tL,if Levi
with Matthew is questioned, and complete identity inthe mean-
ings of two DamFr can never be held to prove the identlry of the
bcrrerr. Cp P~,L,P col. 310, I,. I ' NATHANAEL. The
attempt may be made: without dch identifirtionr of different
nrmes, to mr3ntiin the identity of the kc% r.corded in the
Gospel of Pcfcr with that recorded in Jn.; thir mny be done by
pointing to the porribiliry that Andrew and Lcrl may be intended
by the two unnamed di-ipler in J". 21 ,. It ie an
attempt which would lo a certain erfenl be plausible but ?"Iy if
a hc: might really be which both ,yiurs YIX~ to
describe. But Jn.21. -1, 1s open to the r"!p>c,on ofbe,ng, not
a description of a fact, but rather the clothlne of sn idea; and
we may rurpecr, in particular, that the two unnamed disciples
re&d to the gospel of Peter must be that, inarm&h as
the greater part of its contents is of a legendary character,
we cannot rely upon anything we find in it merely
because it is follnd in thegospel of Peter. If the render
by any chance finds any statements contained in if to
be credible, he does so on grounds of inherent probability
alone, and must ark, aimhost in astonishment,
how by any possibility a statement of such a kind could
have found its way hither. Mormver, the data which
come most nearly under this category are already known
to us fromcanonieal sources:-such as that theresurrfftion
and the ascension were but one and the same act
(6 16~1, that the disciples received from the women no
word a5 to the state of the sepulchre, and that the first
appearance of the risen Jcsur war in Galilee (Mk. 16,f.
Mt. 287 16 f i. The sole statement worthy of credence
met wi& in ihe gospel of peter and norhe& elre is that
found in u. %,-that the disciples fasted (cp 5 36a).
In Peter, however, we can have no certainty that the
author is drawing upon authentic tradition- he may
very easily have drawn upon his own imagination for
this realistic touch.
There remains yet one other extant account of the
resurrection by a writer who in like manner did not feel
B, Coptic himself bound to follow the canonical
ion ~ CCOU~~S; it OCCU~E in a Col>tic book of
-tive, yntiLGnortic tendency, found at Akhnlim
in Eevot. -,.
and described bi Carl Schmidt
ISBA W, 1895. pp. 705-711); the conversation of the
risen ~erus wiih iir diGG~ei contained in it has been
reoroduced and discussed bv Hvrnack iThroI. Sludirn
fii~ B. wzirr. 1897, pp. 1-8j. who date; it sonlewhl.re
'cornc. the h,.%qrer is risen.' ni1;rti
wereadded only in order to gain the com lerc number .seven'
(below, g rgc; S~WON PETER. g 22~). $berefore to idenflfy
with thc account in the Gospel of Perer (20 ,"hic< Gospel the
ider intended in Jn. vzappreeumably quitc foreign), the identification
bcing baed on so slender a foundation, would be cry
imprudela.