-013_Part Two Raised From The Dead Intorduction-The Heart of the Problem' Part Two   "RAISED FROM THE DEAD"   An Approach to the Problem of the Resurrection of Jesus from the Descriptions of His "Risen" Body   Introduction: The Heart of the Problem   "The unique and sensational event on which the whole of human history turns" - that is how, in an address on April 5, 1972, Pope Paul VI characterised what the doctrine which has been central to Christianity from the very beginning affirms: the Resurrection of Jesus' crucified body. This doctrine is meant to convey the sense of an unparalleled intervention by God in our world's affairs, converting an absolute-seeming defeat -

The Friends of Paul - Luke and Mark   Did They Author any Books in the New Testament?   Popular Christian belief, especially Roman Catholic, and even a fair part of Biblical scholarship take the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles as the double work of the Luke who figures three times in the Epistles of Paul (Colossians 4:14; Philemon 24; 2 Timothy 4:11). Similarly they accept, as the author of the Gospel that passes under the name of Mark, another friend of Paul's named Mark whom he mentions in his Epistle to the Colossians (4:10) as the cousin of Barnabas and who features in Acts (13:4-13) as the assistant of Barnabas and Paul in

    PROBLEMS OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY   Problems of Early Christianity   PART ONE: EARLY CHRISTIANITY PART TWO: "RAISED FROM THE DEAD"   AMAL KIRAN (K. D. SETHNA)     The Integral Life Foundation P.O. Box 239  Waterford CT. 06385 USA   First published 1998    (Typeset in 10.5/13 Palatino)   © Amal Kiran (K. D. Sethna)  Published by The Integral Life Foundation, U.S.A. Printed at Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, Pondicherry PRINTED IN INDIA 0750/7.2.95/500)  

Section II   1   The Nature of the Appearances and Some Clues from Sri Aurobindo   At the very outset we must say that, judged from Paul's list of appearances, the so-called Resurrection was not a universal historical fact: the "risen" Jesus did not go about, open to the sight of all men. Although to have appeared to "over five hundred brothers" renders him fairly public, we cannot conclude that people outside this group could have seen him just as well. Some psychological "mirroring" condition was a prerequisite. Yet to posit a believer's frame of mind at a certain pitch is not sufficient to account for the limited number or rather occasio

"Born of a Woman"   As the Letters of Paul constitute the earliest Christian witness, an important question in regard to the earliest Christianity and hence by implication Christianity as originally promulgated is: Does Paul know the doctrine of Mary's virginal conception of Jesus?   Here the most discussed passage is one that occurs in Galatians. The eminent Roman Catholic commentator, Raymond E. Brown,1 approaches it through a glance at the general New-Testament situation: "It is beyond dispute that there is no explicit reference to the virginal conception in NT outside the infancy narratives [in Matthew and Luke]. What is a matter of dispute is whether there are so

Did Jesus have Brothers and Sisters?   I   One of the most wide-spread beliefs among the Roman Catholics is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, not only gave birth to him by a virginal conception but also remained a virgin throughout her life. In other words, she had no marital relations with her husband Joseph and, in consequence, Jesus had neither brothers nor sisters.   However, as even the Roman Catholic priest-scholar Raymond E. Brown1 points out, direct scriptural authority is solely for Mary having been a virgin in conceiving Jesus. With equal broadmindedness and honesty Brown2 writes apropos of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, the only t

Notes on Some Comments on "Born of a Woman"   I have to attend to the opinions of two scholars. One of them was the Professor of the Classics Department, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1985, who unfortunately met soon after with a terrible accident to his head depriving him of normal discourse.   I am afraid his observations even before this mishap do not show a very accurate mind on a subject which was couched originally in the New Testament's Greek, a language allied to those tackled in the Classics Department.   His concluding remark on my argument runs: "It is misdirected. One should not expect to find an h

Did the Evangelist Luke Write Acts of the Apostles?   In Biblical scholarship it is a commonplace that "Luke", the reputed author of the third Gospel, penned also the book known as Acts of the Apostles and that both the compositions date to the 80s A.D. as two parts of a single work. Is this currently accepted position correct? Are there no serious flaws to be found in it, calling for reconsideration and raising the possibility or even the probability if not the sheer certainty, of another view?   The general case for common authorship may be stated in the words of the Roman Catholic writer Caroll Stuhmueller:1 "Luke not only pa

-007_Part OneChrist's Kingdom of God Christ's Kingdom of God   A Letter and a Reply Apropos of the Article " Sri Aurobindo and the Kingdom of God"   Mother India, in its issue of December 5, 1970, published "Sri Aurobindo and the Kingdom of God" by Dick Batstone. In one place it carried the following footnote by the Editor: "The author has overlooked one reference in the New Testament, Luke 17:20-21: 'And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, Io there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is within you.' Ronald Knox has the gloss to his modern transla

The Historicity of Christ   A Letter of January 6,1981   Today is Epiphany Day on which, according to the New-Testament legend, the Magi, the Wise Men of the East - perhaps "Parsis" like me, since "Magi" originally meant Persian highpriests - brought gifts to the infant Jesus. The occasion is appropriate for me to reply to your many-faceted letter, expressing doubt about the historicity of Christ.   I am surprised that my article in the Mother India of last December - "Augustus Caesar and the Birth of Jesus" - has revived your scepticism. It accepts the historicity of Christ as much as that of Augustus Caesar. And it would not have done so if Sri Auro