The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective

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Summary: Fantastic thought piece crossing religious boundaries.
Review: Have you ever considered whether the resurrection of Jesus really happened? Rabbi Pinchas Lapide, a devout Orthodox Jewish man has not only thought about it, he sets out in this book to prove it. When an Orthodox rabbi says Jesus rose from the dead, you can expect some interesting discussion. The book does not disappoint. Lapide looks at the resurrection with Jewish eyes. Resurrection, he says, is a Jewish concept in the first place. Furthermore, the gospels are just too honest about the disciples' faithlessness to be fiction. While Lapide is not a follower of Jesus, his book made a splash in the religious world when it came out in 1979. Time Magazine ran an article on this book in the religion section (May 7, 1979). Lapide sees Jesus' resurrection as ordained by God to bring in non-Jewish people to monotheistic faith. The book is an easy read for anyone interested in the subject and the discussion is compelling throughout. Some of Lapide's arguments will surprise, even shock some people of Christian or Jewish background. Although it is out of print, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in Jewish-Christian dialogue, in the resurrection, in modern Judaism and its trends, or in the Jewish roots of Christianity.

Rating:
Summary: A remarkable book by a remarkable man.
Review: In this remarkable volume -- unfortunately not now in print -- Pinchas Lapide, an Orthodox Jewish scholar of the New Testament, mounts a surprising argument that the resurrection of Jesus was a historical event. Dr. Lapide, recognizing that Christianity stands or falls with the resurrection itself, regards Jesus the man as a Torah-faithful Jew "who wanted to bring the kingdom of heaven in harmony, concord, and peace." Noting that the resuscitation of the dead by God is, and has long been, a part of Jewish belief, he examines the New Testament accounts of the resurrection of Jesus and finds what he describes as a "Jewish faith experience" in full consonance with the historical teachings of Judaism. He concludes as follows: "[A]s a faithful Jew, I cannot explain a historical development which, despite many errors and much confusion, has carried the central message of Israel into the world of the nations, as the result of blind happenstance, or human error, or a materialistic determinism . . . . [T]he Easter faith has to be recognized as a part of divine providence." He does not regard resurrection as literally "miraculous," if that word denotes an arbitrary suspension of cause and effect. But he does not see why a resurrection is any more "miraculous" than a birth -- in which, after all, dead matter in some way springs to life as a person. If once, why not twice? He also points out carefully that the resurrection does not make Jesus "the Messiah of Israel for Jewish people." Jesus, he insists (with textual support from two millennia of Jewish history, including Moses Maimonides), was/is a "paver of the way" for the Messiah, not (necessarily) the Messiah himself -- though Dr. Lapide has said elsewhere that if the Messiah comes and _does_ turn out to be Jesus, that will of course be fine with him. All in all, this marvelous little book is thought-provoking in its own right, utterly remarkable as a sympathetic Jewish understanding of Christianity, and a tremendous contribution to Jewish-Christian dialogue that has not, to my knowledge, received the attention it deserves. I hope it comes back into print. In the meantime, anyone interested in its contents is advised to seek a used copy.