Prof. Dr. Walter Brueggemann writes about it very helpfully ..

from "Disruptive Grace: Reflections on God, Scripture, and the Church." (2011, Fortress Press) ...

p. 130 --

"We ... preach Christ risen. From the beginning, the church has struggled and mumbled about this miracle. No doubt we have four Gospel narratives because the church could not agree on how to say it. And in our own time, 'modernist' preachers have been too long engaged in explanation whereby they try to subsume Easter in generic categories, while this has been countered by insistence on the 'literal' and the 'physical' in a way that dissolves the claim of truthful power.

What has been entrusted to us is the news that the death systems of the world lack staying power and authority and do not merit our loyalty. They do not merit our loyalty because they disappear after two days, driven from the field by the overflowing power of new life invested in the body of the risen Christ."

It's like that. The well-intended but naive Embrace of "Modernism" leads too many to completely "miss" The Resurrection of The Historical Lord Jesus of Nazareth -- BOTH Its Reality AND Its Import ... They get "stuck" in the SAME 19th Century "literalist" Mind-Set World-View of The Fundamentalists ...

The "death systems of the world" referenced (above ) by Brueggemann are in the First Instance of course The Roman-Imperial-Religious-Authorities who murdered The Lord Jesus ...

In the Second Instance, in OUR Day, something of that same Crushing-Death-Dealing Impulse is enacted in the "Modern" spirit that mistakes killing-dissection-dismembering of "Faith" Tradition for Exploration and Understanding ... 

The "Literal-ist" Enterprise does NOT merit Loyalty, no matter WHO is pushing it -- The Fundamentalists OR The Skeptic-Deniers ... BOTH Camps  MISS  THE  POINT ... because they don't "get" The REALITY ...

It clearly was / is "God" giving The Stamp of Approval to "Jesus" ...

"Paul," of course -- being reportedly sympathetic to The Pharisees' Idea of "Resurrection," had some Ideas about what His Resurrection means for ALL Believers ...

At a Minimum, The Resurrection-Event of The Lord Jesus of Nazareth CERTAINLY indicates that There IS More to "Reality" than what we routinely see, touch, manipulate ...

Also, not inconsiderably, see Brueggemann (below) ...

May 25, 2011 -- 3:27AM, Blü wrote:

teilhard

The [...] Embrace of "Modernism" leads [...] many to [...] "miss" The Resurrection of [...] Jesus [...] AND Its Import.

What do you say its 'import' is?

If you wish to Discuss such Stories about "Zeus and Family," that you start a Thread about "The Historical Zeus Family" ...

THIS Thread is about "The Historical J-E-S-U-S" ...

The Question of The Nature and Meaning of The DEATH of The Lord Jesus of Nazareth is a DIFFERENT Question, however, than His Resurrection ...

It IS Difficult to separate or even distinguish "Theology" from "History Events," however, in these Questions isn't it ... ??? Hence the need to understand that "Historie" and "Geschichte," while deeply intertwined, are NOT the SAME Thing ..

May 25, 2011 -- 10:38AM, Blü wrote:

teilhard

So, you say, we have a story in which a person identified as a god's son dies a wrongful and painful death and the god then raises the dead person to a place of authority in heaven as a sign of his favor.

Many stories from those centuries contain this idea - Zeus's apotheosis of his son Herakles, also wrongfully and painfully killed, was recorded by Apollodorus in the 2nd cent BCE and is a close parallel.

May 25, 2011 -- 3:27AM, Blü wrote:

teilhard

The [...] Embrace of "Modernism" leads [...] many to [...] "miss" The Resurrection of [...] Jesus [...] AND Its Import.

What do you say its 'import' is?

www.facebook.com/pages/Jesus-Seminar-Wes...

teilhard

"is only made by narrative particularity, not by scientific proof, not by universal truth, not by logical discourse."

Yes, nothing's plainer than that it's a story.  That was always the point of this thread.

The author of Mark is the first we know to put the story in writing and may well have invented it.  To what extent was he (or his source) influenced by Zeus's apotheosis of his son Herakles?

We don't know.  However, we know that Greek myth influences other parts of the NT, such as Jesus' divine paternity (apparently not Mark's Jewish version, by adoption, but plainly in Matthew's later Greek version, by insemination) and the virgin mother.  And as we've just seen, the precedent for resurrection and apotheosis was likewise already in place.