Lessons #525 and 526
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New American Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
+ 4. Text is based on 1984 edition of the NIV +
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gospel Paul preached (1 Cor 15:1-11)
… 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
The message of 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 that we have been studying is this: Be sure you are clear about the gospel message. We stated there are five elements of the gospel Apostle Paul preached although a surface reading of 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 suggests there are three elements to the gospel he preached. The first element of the gospel the apostle wants us to recognize is that it is a message that is foremost about Christ before anything else. In effect, it is not even about us although we are the beneficiaries of the message but at its core, it is a message about Christ as in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:3 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. A second element concerns sin as conveyed in the sentence Christ died for our sins. Consequently, the second element of the gospel that should be conveyed to an unbeliever is that all humans are sinners. A third element is about the solution to the sin problem that involves the death of Christ on the cross. It is this element that is given in 1 Corinthians 15:3 that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. The fourth element is the fact of burial of Jesus Christ. It is this fact that is given in the first clause of 1 Corinthians 15:4 that he was buried. The fifth element concerns the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that is, being raised from the dead never to die again. It is this element that is conveyed in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:4 that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. This fifth element is supported by the information the apostle provides next. It is with this information that we begin our study this morning.
The final consideration of Apostle Paul regarding the gospel message he preached involves proof of the reality of resurrection of Jesus Christ. This proof of reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is given in form of His various post-resurrection appearances. The first reference to the post-resurrection of Jesus Christ is given in the first clause of 1 Corinthians 15:5 and that he appeared to Peter. A literal translation is he was seen by Cephas. This is because the word “appeared” is translated from a Greek word (horaō) that may mean “to perceive” mentally or spiritually as the word is used to describe what Apostle Peter became aware about Simon the Sorcerer while he ministered the word of God in Samaria, as stated in Acts 8:23:
For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin.
Peter did not just mean to see an object with the eyes. No! He meant he perceived the spiritual state of Simon the sorcerer as being filled with bitterness at the success of Philip’s preaching and the ability of the apostles to confer the Spirit. The word may mean “to see” in the sense of perceiving with the eyes as it is used to describe those who saw the Lord Jesus after His resurrection as Apostle Paul stated in Acts 13:31:
and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:5, the word is used in the sense of “to appear” or “to become visible” in a physical sense. Hence, it is used to indicate that Jesus was visible to those mentioned in the verse we are considering. He appeared to them and so they did not imagine having seen Him. They were neither hallucinating, as some contend, nor did they have a vision. Anyway, although the Greek used a passive voice, but it is of such that the Greek verb used should be translated as active, that is, to say instead of “he was seen” we should translate “he appeared.”
In any case, the first mentioned person that Jesus Christ appeared to after His resurrection is Cephas as in the literal sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:5 he was seen by Cephas. The translators of the NIV1984 used the name Peter when they translated, he appeared to Peter while the NIV2011 used Cephas. This is because Cephas refers to Peter as communicated in John 1:42:
And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
By the way, the word “Cephas” in the Greek NT is predominantly used by Apostle Paul to describe Peter. This we know because, of the nine occurrences of the Greek word that means Cephas, eight of these usages were by Paul. That aside, it is interesting that Apostle Paul cited Peter first among those the Lord appeared to after His resurrection since he was not the first person the Lord Jesus appeared to after His resurrection. The resurrected Lord Jesus appeared first to women as recorded in Matthew 28:1–10:
1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2 There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4 The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. 5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” 8 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”
Why did Jesus first appear to women? The Scripture does not say. But that is a fitting gesture of God to womanhood. The first person or persons to see Jesus at birth were women since men at that time were not normally present when women gave birth. Therefore, it is also fitting that after resurrection women would be the first to see the resurrected Jesus. Furthermore, women are more nurturing than men. They were those concerned about taking care of the body of Jesus and so went to His tomb to do so. Thus, it makes sense that the Lord would first appear to those who went to take care of His body in the tomb.
Incidentally, the fact that Jesus first appeared to women after his resurrection has been grossly distorted by some individuals to support the idea of women preachers and pastors. Those who distort Jesus’ appearance to women argue that the preaching of the gospel concerns the good news of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, that Jesus first appeared to women must mean that they are to preach the gospel. However, it seems to me that such deduction is a misrepresentation of what Jesus said. The Lord gave specific instruction to the women that He first appeared to as it relates to the disciples of Jesus Christ. The specific instruction concerned where the disciples should go to meet Jesus as stated in Matthew 28:10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Certainly, the message the women were to deliver was not to unbelievers but to believers, even then it is, as we have stated, a specific instruction concerning where the disciples are to meet with the risen Lord. It is difficult to see how such instruction to the women could be stretched to mean that they are to preach the gospel message. Of course, one could argue that women should be teachers of believers because of the specific message of the Lord to the disciples through Mary Magdalene given in John 20:17:
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
The message Mary was to deliver was that Jesus was on the process of returning to the Father but that has not finally occurred. This is also a specific message. Such a message could not be taken to mean that women are to teach men in contrast to a clear statement of the Scripture that women are not to teach men as we read in 1 Timothy 2:12:
I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.
Today, we have some women blatantly serving as pastors or those who recognize the instruction of this passage, teach only women. Those who do the later fall into the category of the Jews that Jesus denounced for finding a slick way to circumvent the Scripture as stated in Mark 7:9:
And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions!
This aside, those who use the fact that Jesus first appeared to women to justify them being preachers or pastors have either ignored or are ignorant of the fact that when the Lord Jesus gave the great commission to the church, only men were present as we may gather from the record of Matthew 28:16–20:
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
The point is that the great commission was given to men who are to preach and teach converts to the Christian faith. Thus, there is no justification to assert that women could be preachers or pastors because the Lord first appeared to them after His resurrection. Such approach is doing violence to the Scripture or the context of the great commission of the church given to men.
Be that as it may, the fact remains that the Holy Spirit directed Apostle Paul to mention Peter first among those the Lord Jesus appeared after His resurrection. Why was this the case? There is no direct answer specified in the context or any other place in the Scripture that I am aware of. However, there must be a reason for this approach. It seems there are at least two reasons for mentioning Peter first in the description of the post-resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit probably did this to confirm that Peter was the first of the eleven disciples of Jesus that He appeared to after His resurrection. We do not have in the gospels a direct narrative of Jesus’ appearance to Peter after His resurrection. Luke tells us that Peter, based on the report of the women regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ as evident in the empty tomb, went to the tomb but there was no mention of His appearing to Peter as we read in Luke 24:12:
Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
We would have expected a narrative of how the Lord Jesus appeared to Peter following his trip to the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus but that was not the case. Instead, the Holy Spirit directed Luke to describe the post-resurrection appearance to two disciples, who were not among the Eleven, that were on their way to Emmaus as stated in Luke 24:13–16:
13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him.
Eventually, Jesus revealed Himself to these two unnamed disciples as we read in Luke 24:31:
Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.
Apparently, the Lord had appeared to Peter before this appearance to the two unnamed disciples and Peter would have stated so to the other disciples. We say this because the two unnamed disciples affirmed that the Lord Jesus had appeared to Peter as we read in Luke 24:34:
and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.”
By the way, Simon is another name of Peter as we may gather also from Matthew 10:2:
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
That aside, as we have stated, there is no other place in the gospel that we have a record of the Lord Jesus appearing to Peter after His resurrection but the testimony of the two unnamed disciples that were on their way to Emmaus that Jesus appeared implies that the Lord Jesus appeared first to Peter before any other disciple. So, the Holy Spirit confirmed this truth through Apostle Paul in the passage of 1 Corinthians 15:5 that we are considering. Another possible reason for the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul mentioned Peter first in describing the post-resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus is because Peter was the leader among the disciples and the first disciple of Jesus Christ that publicly declared the gospel of Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost. So, it makes sense to mention him as the first disciple to whom Jesus appeared after His resurrection.
The second mentioned individuals to whom the Lord Jesus appeared to after His resurrection are the eleven disciples described in the next phrase of 1 Corinthians 15:5 and then to the Twelve. The phrase the Twelve is a reference to the original twelve disciples of Jesus Christ that He called the twelve apostles as we read in Luke 6:13:
When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles:
These apostles were specifically to function among the Israelites during the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus as we may gather from Matthew 10:5–8:
5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. 7 As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the phrase the Twelve was still used to describe the original disciples of the Lord Jesus that He called the apostles as indicated in the description of the doubting Thomas as we read in John 20:24:
Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.
The phrase continued to be used to describe the apostles of the church after Judas Iscariot was replaced by Matthias as implied in Acts 6:2:
So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.
The phrase the Twelve here in Acts 6:2 must certainly include Matthias because he was chosen by the church to replace Judas Iscariot. This notwithstanding, when Apostle Paul used the phrase the Twelve in 1 Corinthians 15:5, he probably meant the eleven disciples of Jesus Christ since Judas was no longer alive when Jesus resurrected. We cannot rule out the possibility that the apostle used it in the sense of the Twelve in Acts 6:2 that included Matthias since he also was an eyewitness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, implying that he was among those Jesus appeared to after His resurrection. Nonetheless, it is more likely that the apostle had in mind eleven of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ that He designated apostles. We say this because the Holy Spirit through the apostle confirmed the appearance of the Lord Jesus after His resurrection to the eleven of the twelve apostles to the Jews as we read in Matthew 28:16:
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.
Apostle Paul’s use of the phrase of 1 Corinthians 15:5 the Twelve suggests that after the Lord appeared to Peter, He then appeared to the eleven disciples at Galilee before other post resurrection appearances of the Lord Jesus. For the other appearances of the Lord implies that He appeared to the eleven when they were with other disciples as we read, for example, in Luke 24:36:
While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
The pronoun them refers not only to the eleven disciples of Jesus Christ but His other disciples since the two men Jesus appeared to on their way to Emmaus returned to the disciples assembled in Jerusalem that consisted of the eleven disciples and the other disciples of Jesus Christ as we gather from Luke 24:33:
They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together.
This appearance of Jesus to the eleven and those assembled in Jerusalem must certainly be different from His other appearance to the disciples when they were together on the first day of the week described in John 20:19–22:
19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
In this appearance of the Lord Jesus, Thomas was absent as stated in John 20:24
Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.
The fact of absence of Thomas during the appearance of the Lord to His disciples described by John implies that this appearance was different from the one Luke described where all the eleven disciples were present. The point is that there were several appearances of the Lord to His disciples after His resurrection that are differently reported in the gospel records. Anyway, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul conveyed that after the Lord Jesus appeared to Peter alone that He appeared to the eleven disciples by themselves without including the other disciples of the Lord Jesus.
The Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul continued to provide us more appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection that were not explicitly recorded in the gospel accounts. The next appearance of the Lord Jesus after His resurrection is to a group that is more than five hundred as we read in 1 Corinthians 15:6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time.
Apostle Paul was being chronological in his description of the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus Christ. We say this because of the phrase After that that began verse 6. The phrase After that is translated from a Greek adverb (epeita) that is used as a marker of succession of time and order and so may mean “then, thereupon, thereafter.” The word may be used without giving a specific indication of chronological sequence as Apostle Paul used it to narrate his movements following his conversion as we read in Galatians 1:18:
Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days.
The word may be used with the word “first” to indicate chronological sequence as it is used to describe the order in time of the sacrifices offered by a priest under the Levitical priesthood as we read in Hebrews 7:27:
Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
The word may be used in the sense of being next in position of an enumeration of items as Apostle Paul used it to enumerate offices in the church of Christ in 1 Corinthians 12:28:
And in the church God has appointed first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then workers of miracles, also those having gifts of healing, those able to help others, those with gifts of administration, and those speaking in different kinds of tongues.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:6, it is used with the meaning “then” to indicate chronological sequence so has the sense of “sequentially” or “soon afterward.” The implication is that the appearance of the Lord Jesus to the number given in verse 6 is that which occurred after He had appeared to the eleven disciples describe as the Twelve in verse 5.
Anyway, Apostle Paul indicated that the next appearance of Jesus in chronological sequence is to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time. The word “brothers” is translated from a Greek word (adelphos) that has several meanings in the Greek. It could mean brother in the sense of a male person from the same mother as the referenced person. It is in this sense that the word is used by Apostle Paul to reference those who are from the same mother as Jesus in His humanity as he defended his right to marry as stated in 1 Corinthians 9:5:
Don’t we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?
The word may mean “a believer” as that is the sense of the word “brother” used by Apostle Paul in his instruction to slaves regarding how to treat their masters who are believers in Christ as we read in 1 Timothy 6:2:
Those who have believing masters are not to show less respect for them because they are brothers. Instead, they are to serve them even better, because those who benefit from their service are believers, and dear to them. These are the things you are to teach and urge on them.
It is clear that “brothers” is used here for believers because of the clause because those who benefit from their service are believers. Hence, the word “brother” is the same as “believer.” Thus, it is not surprising that the translators of the NIV translated the Greek word as “believers” in the letter of the first church council that was sent to Gentile believers as we read in Acts 15:23:
With them they sent the following letter: The apostles and elders, your brothers, To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia: Greetings.
The phrase the Gentile believers in Antioch is literally the brothers from among the Gentiles in Antioch. In keeping with this understanding, the word may mean “brother” in the sense of one who has the same beliefs with the one that uses the word, irrespective of gender, that is, the word refers to “a fellow believer.” It is in this sense of one who shares the same faith and so belongs to a specific Christian community, that is, a “fellow believer” that Apostle Paul used the word to describe Epaphroditus in Philippians 2:25:
But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs.
It is in this sense of fellow believers, regardless of gender, that Apostle Paul used it in his final greetings to the Ephesian church in Ephesians 6:23:
Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The peace the apostle wished on “the brothers” could not possibly apply only to male members of the church in Ephesus. Therefore, the word “brothers” has the sense of “brothers and sisters in Christ” here in Ephesians 6:23. It is in this sense that the word is used in 1 Corinthians 15:6. Hence, some English versions, such as the NET, NIV2011, and the NRSV, used the phrase brothers and sisters to translate our Greek word in our verse of study. The point being that the Lord Jesus appeared to more than five hundred believers irrespective of gender.
Be that as it may, Apostle Paul informed us of this specific appearance of Jesus Christ to more than five hundred believers at one time after His resurrection. This information is not supplied anywhere in the gospel records, but it was certainly the case. Of course, if this appearance is sequential to the appearance to the eleven disciples of the Lord Jesus after His resurrection, as we believe, it would probably be a reference to the appearance of Jesus Christ to His disciples assembled in Jerusalem that Luke mentioned in a passage we cited previously, that is, Luke 24:33:
They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together.
We are saying that the phrase those with them could refer to more than five hundred believers that Apostle Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:6. Alternatively, this appearance could have been at Galilee where Jesus met with His disciples. That aside, it should not be difficult to accept that that many believers would have assembled after the death of Jesus Christ either in Jerusalem or in Galilee. We say this because there were many individuals that believed in the Lord Jesus before His death on the cross as evident in the crowd that followed Him in His final journey to Jerusalem. It is reasonable to believe that of the several thousands of people that He fed miraculously that at least those who believed in Him must have been more than five hundred, exclusive of the eleven disciples who were part of the twelve apostles of Jesus to the Jews during His earthly ministry. Furthermore, we have a reference to a number of believers who were gathered on a specific occasion when Judas Iscariot was replaced by Matthias. The number of believers present were about a hundred and twenty as stated in Acts 1:15:
In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty).
Anyhow, we contend that it should not be difficult to accept that the Lord Jesus appeared to more than five hundred believers at the same time as Apostle Paul stated. The apostle did not give the exact number because that was not his intention. He mentioned “five hundred” to convey that at least five hundred people saw the resurrected Lord at one time. His goal was to solidify the fact that the resurrection of Jesus was witnessed by more than the eleven disciples.
Apostle Paul was confident in his assertion of the appearances of the Lord Jesus to those he had already mentioned, especially the more than five hundred individuals that he added the sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:6 most of whom are still living. Literally, the Greek reads of whom the most remain until now. This is because we have a Greek verb (menō) that may mean “to stay” in a place as Apostle Paul used it to inform Timothy concerning the whereabouts of one of his team members, Erastus, as recorded in 2 Timothy 4:20:
Erastus stayed in Corinth, and I left Trophimus sick in Miletus.
The word may mean “to continue” in the sense of someone who does not leave a certain realm or sphere as the word is used in the encouragement of Apostle Paul to Timothy to remain faithful to the doctrines he learned from him, as we read in 2 Timothy 3:14:
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,
The word may mean “to remain” as it is used of a person continuing in a given state as the word is used in the instruction of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul of believers remaining in the status or state they were when they were saved as we read in 1 Corinthians 7:20:
Each one should remain in the situation which he was in when God called him.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:6, the word is used in the sense of “to continue to live” or “to be alive.” Thus, the apostle in a sense, by saying that most of the five hundred or those that the Lord appeared were still alive in the time he wrote, meant to say that he was not lying as one could verify his assertion through those he mentioned or that one could verify his assertion by going to interview some of the believers in Judea.
Apostle Paul was being truthful to his assertions, so he mentioned something that was also true when he wrote his epistles. Some of those to whom the Lord appeared after His resurrection were dead as he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:6 though some have fallen asleep. The expression “fallen asleep” is translated from a Greek word (koimaō) that may mean “to fall asleep” in a literal sense as the word is used to describe Apostle Peter sleeping in jail in Acts 12:6:
The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.
The word may mean “to fall asleep” figuratively in the sense of “to die” as it is used to describe the death of Lazarus by the Lord Jesus as we may gather from John 11:11–12:
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” 12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”
The Lord Jesus described Lazarus of having fallen asleep, but the disciples did not understand that He was speaking figuratively so we have a commentary that indicates He meant death, as we read in John 11:13:
Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
The figurative usage of the meaning “to fall asleep” is one that is specifically used to describe the death of believers in Christ. Thus, Apostle Paul used it to describe to the Thessalonians the death of believers who will be resurrected in the future in 1 Thessalonians 4:14:
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
Of course, the Greek word we are considering is outright translated with the meaning “to die” in the passage where Apostle Peter speaks about those who would mock the idea of the second coming of Christ in 2 Peter 3:4:
They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
The sentence our fathers died is literally the fathers fell asleep. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:6, the Greek word is used in the sense of “to be dead, conceived of as being in or entering into the state of sleep.” Hence, the apostle stated what he knew to be true, which is, that some of those eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ have died.
The next person Apostle Paul indicated the Lord Jesus appeared after His resurrection is James as we read in the first sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:7 Then he appeared to James. The apostle was still being chronological in this mention of James because the word then is translated from the same Greek adverb (epeita) used in verse 6 we indicated was used there with the meaning “then” to indicate chronological sequence. This being the case, it is after Jesus Christ appeared to the group of believers that exceeded five hundred that he appeared to James.
Who is this James that the apostle mentioned? This question is necessary because there are five individuals with the name James mentioned in the NT. The first James mentioned in the NT as an apostle of Jesus Christ is the brother of Apostle John. Both men are the sons of Zebedee according to a passage we cited previously, that is, Matthew 10:2:
These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John.
It is this first James that Herod executed as part of persecution of Christians as we may gather from Acts 12:2:
He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword.
The second James who was also an apostle of Jesus Christ is the son of Alphaeus, as stated in Matthew 10:3:
Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus.
The third James mentioned in the NT is what we would describe today as the half-brother of Jesus Christ as stated in Matthew 13:55:
“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?
It is this James that became an elder or a leader in the early church as indicated by his role during the first church council since he spoke up and rendered the decision the church followed as he is mentioned in Acts 15:13:
When they finished, James spoke up: “Brothers, listen to me.
How are we sure that this James is the brother of Jesus? It is because Apostle Paul considered him as one of the leaders in the church that he met in one of his visits to Jerusalem as recorded for us in Galatians 1:19:
I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother.
He is also the author of the book of James that addressed himself as the slave (“servant” in our English versions) of Jesus Christ James 1:1:
James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.
The fourth individual that has the name James was a son of a Mary different from the mother of the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. This Mary is mentioned in Matthew 27:56:
Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.
This Mary is not the Mary who is the mother of the humanity of Christ because her sons’ names are different from the names of sons of Mary after the birth of Jesus Christ given in Mark 6:3:
Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him.
The fifth individual with the name James was a father of one of the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ that Luke mentioned in his gospel in Luke 6:16:
Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
With the identification of the various individuals with the name James in the NT, we return to our original question about the identity of James Apostle Paul meant as one of those Jesus Christ appeared to after His resurrection. Our answer is that it is the James who is the half-brother of Jesus Christ that he would have meant. There are at least three reasons for this interpretation. First, two of the individuals with the name James were among the original eleven apostles or disciples of Jesus Christ and so they would have been included among those the Lord appeared after His resurrection. True, Peter is singled out as one that Jesus appeared to after His resurrection in part because of his leadership role and because he was indeed the first of the disciples that the Lord Jesus appeared to after His resurrection. Second, there is nothing in the Scripture that would indicate that Jesus would have appeared to James the father of Judas or James the son of a Mary. Third, it makes sense that James Jesus appeared to after His resurrection was His half-brother since that would explain how James became a believer and had a prominent role in the early church. We say this because we know that Jesus’ half-brothers did not believe in Him during His earthly ministry according to the record of John 7:5:
For even his own brothers did not believe in him.
How then could James the half-brother of Jesus become a believer. The most logical explanation for James believing in Jesus Christ so as to be a leader in the early church is if the Lord Jesus had appeared to him after His resurrection. This appearance would then convince James that Jesus is indeed who He claimed to be, the Son of God. He knew that Jesus died on the cross, so to see Him alive would erase any doubt he had about him. In any event, Apostle Paul mentioned James the half-brother of Jesus as an individual that the Lord Jesus appeared to after His resurrection. We will continue in our next study with the reminder of those the apostle listed as those the Lord Jesus appeared to after His resurrection. But let me end by reminding you of the message of the section we are considering which is: Be sure you are clear about the gospel message.
06/02/23