Life beyond death in Matthew's Gospel2011
religious metaphor or bodily reality?
by Wilhelmus Johannes Cornelis Weren
The central question of this book is whether Jesus' resurrection is a religious metaphor or a bodily reality. What does Matthew focus on when telling the story of Jesus death, the empty tomb, and the appearance to the disciples? A great variety of questions come up for review: How does Matthew interpret the concept of resurrection and how does his picture of Jesus' resurrection chime in with other concerns in his gospel? How does the story of God raising Jesus from the dead fit in with (other) historical facts? Does Matthew perceive Jesus' resurrection as an event in which the body is also involved? Is resurrection more than a continuation of our temporal existence, more than a coming back to a life identical to our present life? These and other questions are dealt with in twelve papers...