Religion in the Press

The New York Times has an interesting story here on whether or not one major claim of Christianity can be considered original, namely a suffering messiah who rises three days later. The speculation comes from a not-so-recently discovered tablet with text on it, which is referred to as Gabriel’s Revelation.

Israel Kohl, who is a professor of Bible Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, is quoted as saying:

“This should shake our basic view of Christianity,” he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. “Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story.”

My very simple (and maybe simplistic) question is: why? Why should this “shake our basic view of Christianity”? Christians have long held to the belief that Jesus was the fulfillment of all that went before him in Judaism. All of the Law and Prophets find their completion in him. Jonah gives the three day period. Isaiah speaks of a suffering servant. Ezekiel illuminates resurrection.

Christianity did not create anything original. In fact, one of the hallmarks of Christianity down through the ages is precisely not coming up with anything original. We seek to communicate the truth that God has been revealing for at least 4000 years in new ways, but we do not change the message. That leads to heresy.

So what if this tablet of Gabriel’s Revelation is authentic (although even in the Times article some of the translation sounds more like finding an interpretation to fit a theory)? Does that damage Christianity? Not at all. If God had been revealing throughout history that he was going to do something amazing, it’s not all that unlikely that some people recognized what he was saying. After all, lots and lots of people (Jew and Gentile) accepted a suffering messiah who rose on the third day within a decade of Jesus’ resurrection. Could God have prepared the way with a written document in addition to John the Baptist? Why not?

It would take a whole lot more than a questionable translation of a tablet to shake Christianity.

~ by stevebruns on July 6, 2008.