Resurrection of the Son of God, The

Trinity Journal, Spring 2005 by Hamilton, James M Jr

N. T. Wright. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Christian Origins and the Question of God, Vol. 3. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003. xxi 817 pp. $49.00 hardcover; $39.00 paper.

N. T. Wright was recently consecrated as the Bishop of Durham, the fourth highest post in the Anglican church, and the office formerly held by both J. B. Lightfoot and B. F. Westcott. Volume 3 of the series, Christian Origins and the Question of God, is titled The Resurrection of the Son of God. This book is breathtaking in scope and evocative power. So many book reviews glibly comment that a particular volume should find its place on every pastor's or scholar's shelf, and yet so few of those volumes exercise the intellectual depth, worldwide influence, academic prowess, and sheer poetic elegance that one finds on the pages of The Resurrection of the Son of God. This book has been awarded the Theologos Award for 2003, as well as being named both Book of the Year and Best Academic Book by the Association of Theological Booksellers. What's more, this acclaimed volume was named the Best Biblical Studies book for 2004 by Christianity Today.

From start to finish Wright is stimulating, interesting, informative-no easy task for a book that commands the attention of any serious NT scholar, defends the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus, and is over seven hundred pages long! As an example of the kind of description that gives the book its swift, rhythmic feel, consider Wright's description of reading 1 Corinthians. He writes, "A glance through 1 Corinthians is like a stroll down a busy street. All of human life is there: squabbles and lawsuits, sex and shopping, rich and poor, worship and work, wisdom and folly, politics and religion" (p. 278).

The book is organized into five parts. Part 1 opens by calling into question the view that from a historical perspective we have no access to what really happened because there are no analogies for such an event and all the evidence is biased. From there, Wright moves into a discussion of life after death as conceived by ancient paganism, the OT, and post-biblical Judaism. In parts 2 through 4, Wright surveys the evidence from early Christian literature. He proceeds chronologically, beginning with Paul in part 2, then treating other texts in part 3 - every thing from the rest of the NT to Origen, saving the resurrection narratives of the gospels for part 4. Part 5 then concludes with a nuanced discussion of what has and has not been proven, followed by frank, piercing reflections on the significance of the resurrection.

Observing that historical evidence is rarely sufficient to establish a conclusion absolutely and certainly on historical grounds, Wright helpfully describes a "scale from . . . 'extremely unlikely/ through 'possible/ 'plausible,' and 'probable,' to 'highly probable'" (p. 687 n. 3). Every orthodox Christian will be heartened by his conclusion that "the historian, of whatever persuasion, has no option but to affirm both the empty tomb and the 'meetings' with Jesus as ' historical events'" (p. 709). The bishop in the troubled Anglican church then states with the boldness that strengthens faith, "I regard this conclusion as coming in the same sort of category, of historical probability so high as to be virtually certain, as the death of Augustus in AD 14 or the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70" (p. 710). Coming from one of the most prolific and influential NT scholars of our day -at a time when scholarship cares not for faithfulness but for novelty -a forthright affirmation of the resurrection is like the blast of a shofar on the battlefield.

So much more could be said regarding the contents of this volume, but Wright has said it with such acumen and charm that all would do well to read him directly! Those who ignore this series do so to their own detriment. A project of this magnitude and coherence, from an evangelical perspective, does not appear in every generation. Scholars from disciplines other than biblical studies who wish to browse the terrain of the NT will be hard pressed to find a better guide than Wright. Since much of what is addressed in these volumes is occasioned by the current state of NT scholarship, the tour is not only of the NT but of the ivory tower. Pastors, charged with the role of holding the academy accountable to the church, will find Wright informative for their understanding of the NT, of the first century, and of the state of biblical studies. And any student thinking of Ph.D. studies would do well to begin to process this material.

For all the clarity of the shofar's blast, there are certain features which remain, to use some of Wright's favorite terms, puzzling, tantalizing, vexing. First, Wright repeatedly affirms that "the meaning of 'resurrection,' both in the Jewish and the non-Jewish world of late antiquity, was never that the person concerned had simply 'gone to heaven' or been 'exalted' in some way which did not involve a new bodily life" (p. 694). The problem is not with this conclusion, for the evidence here is compelling, and Wright weaves the theme all through the book's tapestry: "Resurrection means bodily life after 'life after death,' or, if you prefer, bodily life after the state of 'death'" (pp. 108-9, emphasis his). Substantiation of this conclusion and assertions of its truth recur throughout, as this is a central prong in the argument (cf., e.g., pp. 196, 200-201, 204-5, 209, etc.). This being the case, and the evidence being so strong, the reader is all the more startled upon coming to Wright's discussion of resurrection in Revelation 20. Having unequivocally affirmed over and over again that "there is no evidence that the anastasis [resurrection] root meant anything other than bodily resurrection, either in the paganism that denied it or the Pharisaic Judaism that affirmed it" (p. 215), Wright eventually arrives at Revelation 20, where he reiterates the conclusion that "the meaning of 'resurrection' throughout the literature . . . pagan, Jewish and Christian" always refers to bodily life after life after death. Wright then concedes that to argue that the word refers to something other than this is "to strain usage well beyond breaking point" (p. 474). Nevertheless, because premillennialism is an unacceptable position for Wright, he concludes, "It seems likely that we are faced here with a radical innovation: a use of the word 'resurrection' to mean a coming-to-life in a sense other than, and prior to, that of the final bodily raising" (pp. 474-75). Wright knows that he is contradicting the otherwise universal evidence that he has presented, and writes, "Since this corresponds to nothing else in either Jewish or early Christian literature, except for writings dependent on the present passage, it is difficult to get any clearer about what is in mind" (p. 475). The lack of clarity does not seem to arise from the evidence, but from the interpreter's obstinacy. Wright chooses to understand the use of the word "resurrection" here as a "radical innovation" to avoid being "projected into premillennial literalism" (p. 474). Whether or not the use of the term "literalism" is pejorative, since Wright defends such "fundamentals" of the faith as the resurrection, the deity of Christ (pp. 731-34), and the Trinity (pp. 735-36), it is "puzzling" that Wright does not conceptualize a pre-millennialism that avoids popular literalistic, perhaps even "fundamentalistic," excesses. The evidence Wright presents only strengthens the premillennial interpretation of Revelation 20, but his systematic rejection of that interpretive possibility clouds his vision.