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The Doubt of the Apostles and the Resurrection Faith of the Early Church

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The Doubt of the Apostles and the Resurrection Faith of the Early Church Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament · 2. Reihe Herausgeber / Editor Jörg Frey (Zürich) Mitherausgeber/Associate Editors Markus Bockmuehl (Oxford) · James A. Kelhoffer (Uppsala) Tobias Nicklas (Regensburg) · Janet Spittler (Charlottesville, VA) J. Ross Wagner (Durham, NC) 495 J. D. Atkins The Doubt of the Apostles and the Resurrection Faith of the Early Church The Post-Resurrection Appearance Stories of the Gospels in Ancient Reception and Modern Debate Mohr Siebeck J. D. Atkins, born 1976; 1999 BS in Economics, University of Pennsylvania; 1999 BSE in Sys- tems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania; 2006 MDiv, Westminster Theological Seminary; 2009 ThM in New Testament; 2017 PhD in New Testament and Early Christianity, Marquette University; part-time instructor in New Testament and Greek at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and Nashotah House Theological Seminary. orcid.org/0000-0001-6390-5825 ISBN 978-3-16-158165-6 / eISBN 978-3-16-158166-3 DOI 10.1628 / 978-3-16-158166-3 ISSN 0340-9570 / eISSN 2568-7484 (Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testa- ment, 2. Reihe) The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2019 Mohr Siebeck Tübingen, Germany. www.mohrsiebeck.com This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher’s written permission. This applies particularly to repro- ductions, translations and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was printed by Laupp & Göbel in Gomaringen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Nädele in Nehren. Printed in Germany. To Alice, Isaiah, and Elijah for your unwavering love and support and πᾶσιν τοῖς διστάζουσι· εἰρήνη ὑμῖν Acknowledgments This monograph is a slightly revised and expanded version of the doctoral dis- sertation that I submitted in August 2017 to the faculty of Marquette Univer- sity. Whatever benefit accrues either to the academy or to the church as a result of this study, a great deal of the credit must be reserved for the many who contributed either directly or indirectly to the finished product. Pride of place belongs to my director, Julian V. Hills, and his tireless dedication to helping me improve both my writing and my arguments. I can only hope to repay him by following his example as a teacher who serves his students. I thank Grant R. Osborne and William S. Kurz, S.J., both of whom kindly agreed to serve on my dissertation board even as they were beginning their much-deserved retire- ments. Professor Osborne, who served as an external reader from Trinity Evan- gelical Divinity School, provided me cheerful guidance for over a decade. I am also grateful to Michel R. barnes, who, in addition to serving on my board, offered sage advice on several occasions during the early stages of my research. My thanks to Joshua Ezra burns, who willingly stepped in at the last minute to fill a gap in my board. At one point or another, each of these scholars has been a source of encouragement to me. I want to thank Osvaldo Padilla and Dieter T. Roth for graciously reading and commenting on individual chapters. The work is no doubt stronger because of their feedback. I am especially grateful to Dr. Padilla for encouraging me at a time when I needed it most. Similarly, I would like to express appreciation to Deirdre Dempsey and Joseph G. Mueller, S.J. both generously made them- selves available for consultation on a number of occasions when my limited knowledge of Syriac and Latin proved insufficient. I am also indebted to basil Lourié for lending his expertise in Armenian, and to Andrei Orlov for putting me in contact with him. I must thank Dr. Orlov for cheering me on every time we crossed paths. This study would not have been possible without the financial support of fellowships awarded by the Arthur J. Schmitt Foundation and Marquette Uni- versity. I gladly express gratitude to both institutions. My gratitude also ex- tends to my parents-in-law, Johann and Esther Lai, for their unstinting gener- osity and their frequent prayers, and to my father, who was always ready to lend a helping hand to make life go by a bit more smoothly. Many thanks to Tom boyce and Donald and Michelle Kim, dear friends of mine who gave of their time to help with proofreading and did so on very short VIII Acknowledgments notice. These friends and many others have prayed for me and encouraged me while I was working on this project and during the delays when I was recover- ing from health issues. I also want to mention Shannon and David Lamb. During my first year as an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, Shannon instilled in me the value of carefully observing the details of the biblical text. In doing so, she opened my eyes and my heart to the beauty of the Scriptures – a sweet gift that gives new life again and again. Dave later reinforced the same lesson, making it a habit. Chapter 10 is in a sense a tribute to their early tutelage. Finally, no one deserves more thanks than my wife, Alice. by following me around the U.S. as I pursued degrees at various institutions, she gave up the comfort of living in proximity to close friends and family and sacrificed the pace of her own career advancement. She selflessly gave me the time and space that I needed to finish the project. And she continued to support me during difficulties and delays. She did all this and so much more. I would be remiss if I did not also thank my sons, Isaiah and Elijah, for their joyful encouragements, their prayers for my health and my writing progress, and their great patience as they waited for the completion of this project. Easter 2019 J. D. Atkins Table of Contents Acknowledgments ....................................................................................... VII Abbreviations ............................................................................................ XVI Part I: Introduction and Context Chapter 1: Introduction ............................................................................ 1 1.1 The Antidocetic Hypothesis in Previous Scholarship ................................ 4 1.1.1 The Materializing-Trajectory Theory and the Antidocetic Hypothesis ......................................................... 6 1.1.2 The Resilience of the Antidocetic Hypothesis ................................... 8 1.1.3 Objections to the Antidocetic Hypothesis .......................................... 9 1.1.4 Unexamined Presuppositions about Antidocetic Polemic ................ 11 1.2 Doubt as a Motif in the Resurrection Narratives .................................... 12 1.3 The Doubt Motif in Previous Scholarship ............................................... 13 1.3.1 The Traditional View: Historical but Preserved for Apologetic Purposes .................................................................. 13 1.3.2 The Transformational View: Historically Derived but Modified for Apologetic Purposes .................................................................. 14 1.3.3 The Skeptical View: A Late, Apologetic Invention. ........................ 15 1.3.4 The Form-Critical View: Genre-derived but Modified for Apologetic Purposes .................................................................. 15 1.3.5 A Consensus: Doubt as an Apologetic Device ................................. 16 1.3.6 A Political View: Doubt as Slander ................................................. 17 1.3.7 Unexamined Presuppositions about the Doubt Motif ...................... 18 X Table of Contents 1.4 Methodology ........................................................................................... 18 1.4.1 Reception History as a Historical-Critical Tool ............................... 18 1.4.2 Reception History and Unrecognized Modern Bias ......................... 20 1.4.3 Reception History and Ancient Bias ................................................ 22 1.4.4 Methodology for Identifying Instances of Reception ....................... 25 1.4.5 The Structure of This Study ............................................................. 30 Chapter 2: Gnosticism, Docetism, and Doubt in Context ............ 33 2.1 Gnosticism and Docetism ....................................................................... 33 2.1.1 Gnosticism: Terms and Concepts .................................................... 33 2.1.2 Docetism: Terms and Concepts ....................................................... 38 2.1.3 Gnostic Interpretive Methods .......................................................... 48 2.1.4 Docetization as an Interpretive Method ........................................... 53 2.1.5 Orthodoxy and Heresy ..................................................................... 58 2.2 Doubt and Unbelief in Early Christianity ............................................... 60 2.2.1 The Doubt Motif in the Resurrection Narratives ............................. 60 2.2.2 Key Terms for Doubt and Unbelief ................................................. 62 2.2.3 Faith, Doubt, and Early Christian Identity ....................................... 64 2.2.4 Abraham’s Faith and the Apostles’ Doubt ....................................... 66 2.2.5 The Condemnation of Doubt and Unbelief in Early Christianity ..... 69 2.2.6 The Shame of Unbelief .................................................................... 75 2.2.7 “Unbeliever” as a Term of Abuse ...................................................
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