becoming

Vincent told me from his NT course that Resurrection as understood in Second Temple Judaism was not so much on the what happens to God’s people or anybody after death, but on the restoration (and vindication) of God’s people. I found the same observation from Wright’s earlier article (1998) entitled Christian Origins and the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resurrection of Jesus as a Historical Problem.

As a result, it is understandable as to why the Sadducees did not believe in it and why the Pharisees did. Since it is not taught in the Torah, the Sadducees were opposed to it and afraid such revolutionary doctrine will challenge their present status quo as it will defintely encourage martyrdom. As the same time, the Pharisees favored it precisely because they belonged to the revolutionary wing of Judaism, longing for the restoration of Israel.

Either way, it was very different from our modern (mis)understanding of resurrection as a process which the body regains consciousness.