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The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld :

The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld :.

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The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld :

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  1. The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld: “On the day when Dumuzi (Tammuz) comes back up, (and) the lapis lazuli pipe and the carnelian ring come up with him, (When) male and female mourners come up with him, the dead shall come up and smell the smoke offering.”—Myths From Mesopotamia, trans. Stephanie Dalley (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 160.

  2. The Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld • “The Akkadian story is first attested in Late Bronze Age texts, in both Babylonia and Assyria, and later from the palace library at Nineveh.”—Myths From Mesopotamia, 154.

  3. The Descent of Inanna • “The Sumerian version, The Descent of Inanna, is attested earlier, and is much longer, consisting of some 410 lines. • It is a fuller, more detailed account, and shows clearly that Dumuzi periodically died and rose, causing seasonal fertility, a fact…

  4. The Descent of Inanna • …which had been doubted until 1963, when a newly published fragment disclosed the crucial evidence.”—Myths From Mesopotamia, 154.

  5. Conclusion: • There was at least one pre-Christian myth of a deity that purportedly returned from the dead.

  6. Is Jesus’s Resurrection a Myth, Too?

  7. The Case for Easter

  8. Historical Method Tools: Multiple independent sources Enemy attestation Principle of embarrassment Early testimony Eyewitness testimony

  9. The “Minimal Data” Approach: This approach does not rest upon the trustworthiness of the New Testament gospels’ resurrection accounts. This approach rests upon data that are granted by virtually all New Testament critics—even the skeptical scholars. This data is also well-evidenced.

  10. 3 Main Points: Jesus’s death by crucifixion Jesus’s disciples sincerely believed Jesus appeared to them. Paul’s conversion

  11. 1. Jesus Died by Crucifixion: Ancient Christian sources Ancient Non-Christian Sources Philosophical Argument

  12. 1 Corinthians 1:23 • “But we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…”

  13. 1 Corinthians 15:3 • “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.”

  14. Philippians 2:8 • “He humbled himself   and became obedient to the point of death—   even death on a cross.”

  15. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John • All four first century gospels teach that Jesus died on the cross (Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46; John 19:30).

  16. Josephus, a 1st Century C.E. Jewish Historian, Writes: “At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus, and his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die…

  17. Josephus Continued: …And those who had become his disciples did not abandon their loyalty to him and the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.”—Antiquities of the Jews 18.3.3

  18. Tacitus, a Roman Historian (early 2nd-century), Writes: "Nero fastened the guilt [of the burning of Rome] and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered…

  19. Tacitus, the Roman Historian (early 2nd-century), Continues: …the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilate.”—Annals 15:44

  20. Philosophical Argument: The virulent critique of atheistic philosopher, David Strauss, over a century ago, has been the chief reason persuading scholars that Jesus died by crucifixion.—David F. Strauss, A New Life of Jesus. 2nd Edition (London: Williams and Norgate, 1879), 1:408-12.

  21. Strauss Argued: A crucified but still-living Jesus would have been in horrible physical shape: bloodied, bruised, pale, limping, unwashed, and in obvious need of medical assistance. Such a condition would have hopelessly contradicted the disciples’ belief that Jesus had appeared to them in a glorious, resurrected body.

  22. Strauss Continued: Jesus would have been alive, but not raised! The frequently repeated New Testament teaching that believers would someday be gloriously raised just like Jesus would be groundless. Such a sickly body would hardly be an inspiration for theology.

  23. 2. Appearances to Friends: The disciples claimed Jesus appeared to them. Paul Oral Tradition Written Tradition

  24. Paul: “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. 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. Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.”—1 Corinthians 15:9-11:

  25. Galatians 2:7-10: “On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles…

  26. Galatians 2:7-10 Continued: James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.”

  27. Paul’s Authority: Claimed by Paul (2 Cor. 10:8; 11:5; 13:10; 1 Thess. 2:6; 4:2; 2 Thess. 3:4; Philemon 1:21) Acknowledged by Apostolic Fathers (Clement of Rome [1 Clem. 5:3-5], Polycarp [Pol. Phil.3:2;12:1], Ignatius [Ign. Rom. 4:3])

  28. Oral Tradition: Early Creed: 1 Corinthians 15:3-5

  29. Early Creed (1 Corinthians 15:3-5): • “For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas [Peter], then to the twelve.”

  30. John Dominic Crossan, Co-Founder of the Jesus Seminar, Writes: • “Paulwrote to the Corinthians from Ephesus in the early 50s C.E. But he says in 1 Corinthians 15:3 that “I handed on to you as of first importance which I in turn received.”The most likely source and time for his reception of that tradition… 

  31. Crossan Continues: • …would have been Jerusalem in the early 30swhen, according to Galatians 1:18, he “went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas [Peter] and stayed with him fifteen days.”—John Dominic Crossan and Jonathan L. Reed, Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 2001), 254.

  32. James Tabor Reports: “In the course of defending his own vision of Jesus, Paul reports that he had received the tradition and passed it on to his converts that Jesus died, was buried, and rose on the ‘third day’”—James Tabor, The Jesus Dynasty, 231.

  33. Why Do Many Scholars Believe It’s a Creed? “Delivered” and “received” are Jewish terms for passing on traditions. Text’s content is stylized, containing parallelisms Non-Pauline terms Fourfold use of the Greek term hoti is common in creeds.

  34. 1 Corinthians 15:3-5:

  35. Date of Creed: Crucifixion ~ 30 C.E. Paul’s conversion ~ 31-33 C.E. Paul goes away for three years after his conversion, then visits Peter and James in Jerusalem (Gal. 1:18-19). Most scholars believe that Paul received the creed from them at this time.

  36. Date of Creed: The other option is that he received it in Damascus at his conversion (three years earlier). Either way he probably received it within two to five years of Jesus’s crucifixion (which places the origin of the creed even earlier) from someone whom he, as an apostle, deemed to be a trustworthy source.

  37. Date of Creed: The very latest dating of the creed would be prior to A.D. 51, since Paul writes that what he had received, he delivered to them while visiting Corinth (1 Cor. 15:3), which scholars date to around A.D. 51. So Paul had the creedal information prior to that time and received it still earlier from a source he considered trustworthy.

  38. Significance: Early eyewitness testimony to Jesus’s resurrection appearances Multiple appearances: Cephas (Peter), the Twelve

  39. Written Tradition: All four Gospels Apostolic Fathers: Clement of Rome (A.D. 95, 1 Clem. 42:3) Polycarp (A.D. 110, Pol. Phil. 9:2)

  40. 1 Clement 42:3 “The apostles have preached the gospel to us from the Lord Jesus Christ; Jesus Christ [has done so] from God. Christ therefore was sent forth by God, and the apostles by Christ…

  41. 1 Clement 42:3 Continued …Both these appointments, then, were made in an orderly way, according to the will of God. Having therefore received their orders, and being fully assured by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ….”

  42. Polycarp’s Epistle to the Philippians: “I exhort you all, therefore, to yield obedience to the word of righteousness, and to exercise all patience, such as you have seen [set] before your eyes, not only in the case of the blessed Ignatius, and Zosimus, and Rufus, but also in others among yourselves, and in Paul himself, and the rest of the apostles…

  43. Epistle to the Philippians Continued: [This do] in the assurance that all these have not run in vain, but in faith and righteousness, and that they are [now] in their due place in the presence of the Lord, with whom also they suffered. For they loved not this present world, but Him who died for us, and for our sakes was raised again by God from the dead.”– 9:2

  44. They Believed It: They were willing to suffer & die for their claims. 7 ancient sources testify to this (Acts, Clement of Rome, Polycarp, Ignatius, Dionysius of Corinth, Tertullian, and Origen).

  45. So What? • Nobody doubts a Muslim terrorist’s sincerity who blows himself up. • What is the difference between the Muslim suicide bombers’ and Jesus’s disciples’ deaths?

  46. Who Would Die For a Known Lie? • Modern martyrs perish only on the basis of their belief in what others within a religious movement have taught them. • The apostles, however, were the founders of the Christian movement. • This means they suffered and died for what they knew to be either true or false. • Who would die for a known lie?

  47. Bart Ehrman Relays: “It is a historical fact that some of Jesus’s followers came to believe that he had been raised from the dead soon after his execution.” – Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings. Fourth Edition (Oxford University Press, 2008), 282.

  48. Appearance To an Enemy Paul

  49. Paul: Paul wrote that while an enemy of Jesus, he saw Him risen (Galatians 1:13, 16, and this is corroborated by Luke in Acts 9, 22, 26). Paul writes, “Last of all, as to someone untimely born, he appeared also to me.”—1 Corinthians 15:8

  50. Paul’s Suffering • “Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked; for a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers.”—2 Corinthians 11:24-26

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