Notes by David Monyak. Last update Oct. 1, 2000

A copy of these notes in the form of the handout passed out at the meeting can be downloaded from the Download Page.

He descended into hell.

On the third day he rose again.

He ascended into heaven,

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

The Apostles' Creed

On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;

he ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,

and his kingdom will have no end.

The Nicene Creed

Topics

(Topics and notes are from chapter 4 in Credo. The Apostles' Creed Explained for Today. Hans Küng. Doubleday. New York. 1992:)

1. Descent into the underworld?

2. An ascension?

3. Do we believe in the empty tomb?

4. Is resurrection from the dead un-Jewish?

5. Do we believe in the resurrection of the One?

6. What "resurrection" does and does not mean

7. Belief in a personal resurrection as a radicalization of belief in the God of Israel

1. Descent into the underworld?

1.1. Descended into what?

Translations: descended. . .

• into the subterranean sphere

• into the underworld

• into hell 

• to the dead

• into the realm of death

Possibilities: 

• 1 realm of the dead Hebrew Sheol, Greek Hades: the place of all departed, good and evil; neutral place

• 2. hell: Hebrew gehenna, Latin infernum: the place of the damned

  • Middle Ages view of possible destinations after death: 

    • hell 

    • puragtory 

    • heaven 

    • pre-hell 

    • pre-heaven 

    • limbus patrum (righteous of the old Testament) 

    • limbus puerorum (unbaptized children)

• 3. Jesus went through torments of hell on the cross, suffered the wrath of God, temptation of ultimate despair

  • view of Reformers (Luther and Calvin)

  • but how do they know this?

1.2. Scriptural Basis

Scripture basis (only one): I Peter 3:18-20 

"For Christ suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water." (NRSV)

1.3. What Can We Believe in Professing This Article of the Creed?

Not all articles of faith have the same importance

• this article has no unambiguous biblical basis

• there is no official statement or consensus what this part of the creed means

Küng suggests: 

• not a journey of suffering or a triumphal journey

• consider it a symbol of the possibility of salvation:

  • for pre-Christian and non-Christian humanity

  • the pious of the Old Testament

  • all of the dead

2. An Ascension?

2.1. Scriptural background

Scriptural basis:

• The ascension is initially mentioned only by Luke.

  • gospel of Luke, written in the 70's A.D.

  • Act of the Apostle (Sequel to Luke or "Luke 2"), written between 80 to 90 A.D.

  • Luke was much more interested in the bodily reality of the risen Christ and documenting the eyewitness of the apostles than the other gospel writers

• Was added to Mark in the second century.

2.2. Must we believe in a "literal" ascension?

2.2.1. Problems with the Ascension story as literal truth

Picture of the ascension Jesus going upward into heaven presupposes a three storied tiered universe that we no longer believe:

• hell (down there)

• earth (here)

• heaven (up there)

The narrative model of other such "ascensions" to describe "a journey to heaven" existed in the ancient world:

• Elijah (in the Old Testament)

• Enoch (in the Old Testament)

• Heracles 

• Empedocles 

• Romulus 

• Alexander the Great 

• Apollonius of Tyana

Discrepancy in the timing of the Ascension by Luke:

• Gospel of Luke -- Ascension same day as Easter

  • (Note: some scholars have suggested the mention of the ascension in the gospel of Luke was added later by someone other than Luke)

• Acts -- 40 days between the Easter and the Ascension

  • forty years of Israel in the wilderness

  • forty days of Elijah fasting

  • forty days of Jesus fasting

2.2.2. What is the Purpose of the Ascension Story?

Küng:

• Luke's story is based on a model familiar to his listeners. 

• He used this traditional narrative model and form to convey the important theology that Jesus has been exalted, has gone back to the Father, sitting at the right hand of the Father. 

• It is this theological truth we must believe rather than necessarily believe in a literal ascent.

The LORD says to my lord, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool (NRSV)

- Psalm 110:1: 

Why did Luke do this?

• aid in the visualization of the exaltation of Jesus, of Jesus entering back into God's reality

• stress a mission to the world instead of inactive waiting from the imminent expectation 

  • a correction to the sense of imminent expectation 

  • Acts 1:11 "They said {two men in white robes}, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." (NRSV)

3. Do we believe in the empty tomb?

3.1. Is the empty tomb proof of the resurrection of Jesus?

If you find an empty tomb, who would presume its occupant had been raised from the dead? 

The empty tomb is no proof; it says only: 

He is not here 

- Mark 16:6

An explanation is required: 

He is risen 

- Mark 16:6

The empty tomb did not lead to belief in the risen Christ.

In the Gospel of John, only the beloved disciple initially believed in the risen Christ after hearing the tomb was empty

Küng:

"The Easter event is not determined by the empty tomb but at best illustrated by it."

3.2. The critical truth of the Easter stories

Main point of the stories of the Easter event:

• Jesus did not remain dead 

• the Risen Christ is the he who died on the cross

. . .and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. . ." (NRSV)

- 1 Corinthinians 15:4

But he {an angel} said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. . ." (NRSV)

- Mark 16:6

. . . and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead -- Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming. (NRSV)

- 1 Thessalonians 1:10 (51 or 52 A.D.)

4. Is Resurrection from the Dead un-Jewish? 

Life after death was an age-old Israelite conviction

4.1. In Early Jewish history

Shadowy joyless existence in an "underworld"

4.2. Late in Jewish history before Christ

Believed God raises the dead:

• not simply immortality of the human being

• but a new life of the whole person with God

Belief in resurrection from the dead was an explicit dogma of classical Judaism 

4.3. Close of Medieval Times

At close of mediaeval discourse belief in a personal resurrection was lost as a central teaching. 

4.4. Today

Although a personal resurrection is not a central teaching of Judaism today, it continues to be affirmed in the traditional liturgy:

• second blessing of the Eighteen Benedictions (the Shemoneh Esreh)

• repeated during the Amidah standing prayer

• asserts "God keeps faith with those who lie in the dust and will according to his mercy, raise the dead, restore them bodily and grant them eternal life." (quoted by Küng from: Arthur A. Cohen, in Contemporary Jewish Religious Thought. Original Essays on Critical Concepts, Movements and Beliefs. New York 1987, p.807.)

5. Do We Believe in the Resurrection of the One? 

5.1. What caused Jesus disciples to believe in his resurrection?

What happened to cause Jesus' disciples to leave hiding as followers:

• of a criminal crucified by the Romans, 

• one condemned as a blasphemer by Jewish authorities?

The reason given by the first disciples of Jesus for their new faith was 

• Jesus himself

• overwhelming appearances before witnesses leading to public testimony

  • Paul mentions a whole series of witnesses who are still alive:

    • . . .and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me (1 

Whatever the nature of these appearances, they 

• convinced many to change their whole life 

• convinced many that God had spoken and acted through this one person

5.2. The conviction of all early witnesses

All early witnesses shared the conviction:

• the crucified one is alive

• the crucified one "sits at the right of the Father"

  • Psalm 110:1 "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand!'"

6. What Resurrection Does and Does Not Mean 

6.1. What was Jesus' Resurrection?

Jesus' resurrection was:

• not 

  • a revived body returned only to earthy life. 

  • a return to life in this space and time. 

  • a continuation of this life in space and time

  • a passage into nothingness 

• but

  • a passage into that "ineffable and incomprehensible last and first reality" = God

  • a "real event" in the divine sphere

6.2. What is Resurrection Bound To?

God did not need the bodily remnants of the earthly existence of Jesus to preserve the identity of Jesus We need not necessarily believe in resurrection as the revival of a dead body.

Resurrection is new life, an entering into a completely different form of existence 

• analogy: caterpillar to butterfly

What then is resurrection "bound to"? 

Only to the identity of the one irreplaceable person

Paul:

God raises to a some pneumatikon = pneumatic body = spiritual corporeality" Implies:

• continuity 

  • corporeality stands for the identity of the person 

• discontinuity 

  • not a revival of the old body, but a raising into a new dimension

7. Belief in a Personal Resurrection as a Radicalization of Belief in the God of Israel 

7.1. Question for each person

Is dying:

• dying into nothingness, into ultimate meaninglessness, or

• into God's most real reality? Into God's incomprehensible, all-embracing ultimate reality?

7.2. What is dying into God? 

Death and resurrection are distinct concepts:

• death: 

  • human affair

• resurrection: 

  • God's affair, God's gift, God's grace 

  • grounded in God's faithfulness 

  • new creative act of the One who calls into being that which is not

7.3. What grounds do we have to believe in a personal resurrection?

Radicalization of our belief in the creator God of Israel who raised the crucified Christ, the innocent man who was executed 

The radicalized belief that:

• God does not stop half-way but continues consistently to the end 

• the God of the beginning is also the God of the end 

• the God who is the creator of the world and human beings is also the God who is their perfector

• God's love for us cannot be less than any human love

 

The Creed   1. God the Father, Creator of Heaven and Earth 2. Jesus Christ, the Son of God 3. The Crucifixion and Death of Jesus 4. The Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus 5. The Holy Spirit, the Church, the Communion of Saints 6. The Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Life 7. Epilogue on the Creed: Father Joe's Perspectives and Answers to Questions