Christ's Resurrection

[NovusAugustus]

I am interested in the terminology of this. Was Chirst resurrected (implying that something else did the resurrecting) or did he resurrect himself? There is also, “he rose from the dead,” which is similar to the second option in that it implies he performed the act of resurrection.

 

[Ad_Orientem]

Generally speaking, what one person of the Trinity does, all persons do (because they interpenetrate one another; this is called circumincession). So that Christ can truly say “I lay down my life, that I may take it again. … I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it up again” (Jn 10:17). And by divine inspiration, St. Luke can also say “God raised him up…” (Acts 2:24) and St. Paul can say “The Spirit . . . raised Jesus from the dead . . .” (Rom. 8:11).

Generally speaking, acts of power are “appropriated” to the Father, acts of wisdom to the Son, and acts of charity to the Holy Ghost; but all three Persons are involved, so that it is not incorrect to say that another Person does it also. (There are some exceptions, sort of, such as the Incarnation; only the Word became Incarnate. But all three Divine Persons were involved in the miracle of the Incarnation.)

 

[Nita]

From the Catechism of the Catholic Church
vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1S.HTM

II. THE RESURRECTION - A WORK OF THE HOLY TRINITY

648 Christ’s Resurrection is an object of faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of God himself in creation and history. In it the three divine persons act together as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics. the Father’s power “raised up” Christ his Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son’s humanity, including his body, into the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed as “Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead”.514 St. Paul insists on the manifestation of God’s power515 through the working of the Spirit who gave life to Jesus’ dead humanity and called it to the glorious state of Lordship.

649 As for the Son, he effects his own Resurrection by virtue of his divine power. Jesus announces that the Son of man will have to suffer much, die, and then rise.516 Elsewhere he affirms explicitly: "I lay down my life, that I may take it again. . . I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."517 "We believe that Jesus died and rose again."518

650 The Fathers contemplate the Resurrection from the perspective of the divine person of Christ who remained united to his soul and body, even when these were separated from each other by death: “By the unity of the divine nature, which remains present in each of the two components of man, these are reunited. For as death is produced by the separation of the human components, so Resurrection is achieved by the union of the two.”

 

[patrick457]

I am interested in the terminology of this. Was Chirst resurrected (implying that something else did the resurrecting) or did he resurrect himself? There is also, “he rose from the dead,” which is similar to the second option in that it implies he performed the act of resurrection.

In the New Testament, you can find both. Jesus is in some places said to be “raised up” (the agent is not directly named but the implication is that this was God’s doing; this is the so-called ‘divine passive’); in other places He is actively described as “rising.” The key words here are egeiro (‘to wake up’, ‘to arouse’, ‘to cause to rise from a seat or bed’, ‘to raise up’) and anistēmi (‘to raise up from laying down’, ‘to stand up’’). We have the following from Matthew and Mark alone (for convenience, we’ll render egeiro as “wake up” and anistēmi as “to rise”):

From then on Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be awakened (egerthēnai).

Matthew 16:21

And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision until the Son of Man is awakened from the dead (ek nekrōn egerthē).”

Matthew 17:9

As they were gathering together in the Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be handed over into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be awakened (egerthēsetai).” And they were greatly distressed.

Matthew 17:22-23

And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and on the third day he will be awakened (egerthēsetai).”

Matthew 20:17-19

Then Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’ But after I am awakened (egerthēnai me), I will go before you into the Galilee.”

Matthew 26:31-32

The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will wake up (egeiromai).’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has been awakened from the dead (ēgerthē apo tōn nekrōn),’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.”

Matthew 27:62-64

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, the crucified one. He is not here, for he has been awakened (ēgerthē), just as he said. Come, see the place where he was lying. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has been awakened from the dead (ēgerthē apo tōn nekrōn), and behold, he is going before you into the Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.”

Matthew 28:5-7

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And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise (anastēnai). And he said this plainly.

Mark 8:31-32a

And as they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead (ek nekrōn anastē). And they kept the word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead (to ek nekrōn anastēnai) might mean.

Mark 9:9-10

They went on from there and passed through the Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be handed over into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise (anastēsetai).”

Mark 9:30-31

And they were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and hand him over to the gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise (anastēsetai).”

Mark 10:32-34

And Jesus said to them, “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I am awakened (egerthēnai me), I will go before you into the Galilee.”

Mark 14:27-28

And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, the crucified one. He has been awakened; (ēgerthē) he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you into the Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”

Mark 16:5-7

 

[Glacies]

I am interested in the terminology of this. Was Chirst resurrected (implying that something else did the resurrecting) or did he resurrect himself? There is also, “he rose from the dead,” which is similar to the second option in that it implies he performed the act of resurrection.

The Eleventh Council of Toledo convoked in 675 articulates that Christ rose from the dead by His own power. The Roman Catechism follows the same line and says the Divine power of God never separated from His body nor soul. Similarly St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-7 March 1274) teaches the Ascension happened by His Divine power and the power of His glorified soul.

Denzinger 286:

286 [The Redemption] In this form of assumed human nature we believe according to the truth of the Gospels that He was conceived without sin, born without sin, and died without sin, who alone for us became sin [2 Cor. 5:21 ], that is, a sacrifice for our sin. And yet He endured His passion without detriment to His divinity, for our sins, and condemned to death and to the cross, He accepted the true death of the body; also on the third day, restored by His own power, He arose from the grave.

Roman Catechism I:6:

By the word Resurrection, however, we are not merely to understand that Christ was raised from the dead, which happened to many others, but that He rose by His own power and virtue, a singular prerogative peculiar to Him alone. For it is incompatible with nature and was never given to man to raise himself by his own power, from death to life. This was reserved for the almighty power of God, as we learn from these words of the Apostle: Although he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. This divine power, having never been separated, either from His body in the grave, or from His soul in hell, there existed a divine force both within the body, by which it could be again united to the soul, and within the soul, by which it could again return to the body. Thus He was able by His own power to return to life and rise from the dead.

Summa Theologica III:57:3:

Setting this opinion aside, others assign as the cause of this power the glorified soul itself, from whose overflow the body will be glorified, as Augustine writes to Dioscorus (Ep. cxviii). For the glorified body will be so submissive to the glorified soul, that, as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xxii), “wheresoever the spirit listeth, thither the body will be on the instant; nor will the spirit desire anything unbecoming to the soul or the body.” Now it is befitting the glorified and immortal body for it to be in a heavenly place, as stated above (Article 1). Consequently, Christ’s body ascended into heaven by the power of His soul willing it. But as the body is made glorious by participation with the soul, even so, as Augustine says (Tract. xxiii in Joan.), “the soul is beatified by participating in God.” Consequently, the Divine power is the first source of the ascent into heaven. Therefore Christ ascended into heaven by His own power, first of all by His Divine power, and secondly by the power of His glorified soul moving His body at will.

 

[Ad_Orientem]

Glacies, great quote from the Roman Catechism, I had forgotten about that. How do you think this ties in, or does not tie in with circumincession.

 

[PJM]

=NovusAugustus;10427461]I am interested in the terminology of this. Was Chirst resurrected (implying that something else did the resurrecting) or did he resurrect himself? There is also, “he rose from the dead,” which is similar to the second option in that it implies he performed the act of resurrection.

Because God is ONE, Trinue does it matter if it was The Father, Jesus Himself or the Holy Spirit?

John 10:18 “No man taketh it away from me: but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received of my Father.”

 

[Glacies]

Glacies, great quote from the Roman Catechism, I had forgotten about that. How do you think this ties in, or does not tie in with circumincession.

The Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma by Ludvig Ott makes the distinction that the principal cause of the Resurrection were the Three Holy Persons together while the instrumental cause was the Hypostatically United humanity of Christ, and the remarks of Him being raised by God the Father for example should be taken to refer to His humanity. Further St. Thomas Aquinas has commented on the Creed that while He raised Himself it is also true both Father and the Son raised Him as they have the same power.

Ludvig Ott:

The source of His Resurrection is the Hypostatic Union. The Principal Cause of the Resurrection was the Word, together with the the Father and the Holy Ghost; the Instrumental Cause was the parts of the humanity of Christ, soul and body which were hypostatically united with the Godhead. When Holy Writ (for example Acts 2, 24; Gal. 1, 1) asserts that Christ was awakened by God or by the Father, these assertions are to be taken as referring to His humanity.

St. Thomas Aquinas:

By that same power whereby He gave up His soul, He received it again; and hence the Creed says, “He arose again,” because He was not raised up as if by anyone else. “I have slept and have taken My rest; and I have risen up” [Ps 3:6]. Nor can this be contrary to these words, “This Jesus God raised again” [Acts 2:32], because both the Father and the Son raised Him up, since one and the same power is of the Father and the Son.

 

[Ad_Orientem]

Glacies, thanks!