Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Is this a first-hand report of a raising from the dead?

One of the complaints about the case for Jesus' resurrection is that none of the Gospel writers were there on the scene.

But what about this report? It certainly sounds as if Luke was there.

Acts 20: 7-12.

7On the first day of the week we came together to break bread. Paul spoke to the people and, because he intended to leave the next day, kept on talking until midnight. 8There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were meeting. 9Seated in a window was a young man named Eutychus, who was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. When he was sound asleep, he fell to the ground from the third story and was picked up dead. 10Paul went down, threw himself on the young man and put his arms around him. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "He's alive!" 11Then he went upstairs again and broke bread and ate. After talking until daylight, he left. 12The people took the young man home alive and were greatly comforted.

4 comments:

Edwardtbabinski said...

The man wasn't rotting was he, like Lazarus, Jesus, and the many raised saints?

Who knows if he was dead or not. He fell.

The story also parallels a story in Homer or Virgil as Denis McDonald points out. Applying verbal similarities and descriptions.

And lastly, the identification of The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts with a figure named "Luke" remains in question. The author is never identified in either work, only the person to whom the works were dedicated, Theophilis.

As to how "Luke" was named the author of both such works, that's a story told well in Bart Ehrman's textbook, The New Testament, now in its third edition. Also see the little book, What Paul Meant for a concise discussion of the scholarly question involved in claiming a fellow named "Luke" wrote the Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts.

Ken Pulliam said...

As Ed says the text doesn't say if he was dead or not.

Steven Carr said...

Christians will also scoff at the very idea that this was a resurrection.

It was a resuscitation, as people like NT Wright will tell you.

Steven Carr said...

And did Euythcus become a 'life-giving spirit' which is what Paul claimed happened to Jesus?

Was what happened to him anything like planting a seed of wheat in the ground and seeing wheat grow, which is the analogy Paul uses about Jesus resurrection?