Resurrection is the term used to refer to the coming back to physical life or rising from the dead, of Jesus of Nazareth after His crucifixion, death and burial. Sacred scripture clearly teaches that God raised Jesus from the dead [1] (Matthew 28:9-10; Luke 24; Romans 6:24, 8:11; Acts 2:24,32; Acts 3:15; Acts 4:10; Acts 5:30; Acts 10:40; Acts 13:30,33,34,37; Acts 17:31; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 4:14; Galatians 1:1; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; 1 Peter 1:21). However, since Jesus is fully God [2] and fully man [3], it is true to say that, as God [4], Jesus raised himself from the dead which is revealed in this statement which Christ made:
“For this reason, the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again (bold emphasis mine throughout). No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again; this charge I have received from my Father.”, (John 10:17-18).
On another occasion, Christ said definitively that He had the power to rise from the dead under His own power, “…Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.”, (John 2:19). The context establishes that He was referring to His body. In answer to those who were questioning His authority and looking for a sign, He said,
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”, (Matthew 12:39-40).
This statement demonstrates Christ’s clear foreknowledge of His coming death and resurrection on the third day. As God, He knew this was an unalterable fact, as man, he spoke it as a prophecy for all to record and compare with subsequent events.
No mere human being is capable of rising from the dead. In order to assist us in conceiving of what might have been involved in the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, it is useful to recall that human beings are matter/form composite entities during physical life. The soul is the form, and the body is the matter of which the person is the composite. A living person, therefore, is a matter/form or body/soul composite. Among other things, the soul is the organizing principle of the body while the composite person is alive. [5] At conception, the soul enters the body and at death, the soul leaves the body. One of the implications of this is that a soul without a body is not alive in a biological sense even though it still exists (and once created always will exist). The reality of this truism is seen in the fact that we do not refer to dead bodies as people. Rather, we say, the body of John Doe is in the mortuary because his remains are not the person that was John Doe. That person, as a complete matter/form or body/soul composite entity is not present since the soul left the body.
The conception, life and death of each person are controlled by God who creates each human soul as a unique indestructible entity. That is to say, God is the first or final cause of each person’s existence/life. While human bodies decay after death because the soul which animated them during life has left the body, the soul is non-physical (spiritual) and once created, exists forever, which is another way of saying that it cannot be annihilated. From the aforementioned we can understand that at the time of his death, the human soul of Jesus left His body and preached to the captives in Hell, (1 Peter 3:19). During this event, his body remained in the tomb, under the “watchful eye” so to speak, of God the Son, God the Father and God the Holy Ghost (The Blessed Trinity).
The following is my conjecture but based on what is inferable from Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition and the testimony of various saints and mystics including Anne Catherine Emmerich. After three days, God the Son in cooperation with the two other members of the Blessed Trinity, caused the human soul of Jesus to return to his body, which resulted in it becoming alive again. This is what is referred to as the Resurrection. At that moment, Jesus the man (body and soul), received a glorified body (which he was seen to have by Peter, James and John, at the time of His Transfiguration, [Matthew 17:1-8], a kind of preview of what would eventually become manifest, and which he has retained forever). [6] In this glorified body are found, God the Son, and the human soul/body of Jesus of Nazareth. That is Who now “sits at the right hand of the Father”, (Psalms 103:10, Colossians 3:1, Apostles and Nicene Creeds). In this sense, the hypostatic union of God the Son with the body and soul of the man Jesus of Nazareth at his conception/incarnation (one Divine Person with 2 natures, one divine and one human), was an ontologically irreversible one, even though at certain points in space and time, the union was not made manifest/apparent (Philippians 2:5-8). This can help us understand how it is that Jesus suffered alone on the Cross in his sacred humanity while God the Son did not. It also nicely explains how God the Son (in His nature as God) did not accompany the soul (in his human nature) of Jesus into Hell while his corpse remained in the tomb.
Perhaps this treatment might assist those who wish to meditate on the death and resurrection of Jesus more fully. It is wise/good to engage in prayerful contemplation about known events in the life of our Lord.
End Notes:
[1] The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead is an essential doctrine of Christianity.
[2] “The Father and I are one.”, (John 10:23-30; John 4:25-26, 4:39-42; 8:58). Jesus stated clearly on multiple occasions that He and His Father (God the Father) were equal/one, meaning, He is God.
[3] The full humanity of Jesus of Nazareth has been a central dogma of Christianity from the beginning. It was taught by the Apostles and Church Fathers as well as by Jesus himself. The earliest formalized statement is found in the Apostles Creed wherein it states “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. On the third day He arose again and is seated at the right hand of the Father. From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead…” The fact that He was born of the Virgin Mary, proves that He was human, as does the fact that he was physically crucified, actually died and was buried in a tomb. The fact that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit without the involvement of a human father and rose bodily from the dead under His own power proves He is God.
[4] Even though it may have been more of a cooperative effort of the Blessed Trinity.
[5] These concepts are found in the Aristotelian/Thomistic synthesis. See the Summa Theologiae and Summa Contra Gentiles of Saint Thomas Aquinas for further details.
[6] “Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead, and so enter into his glory.”, (Luke 24:26).
Interesting article. In the book "He Came to Set the Captives Free" by Rebecca Brown MD she states that we are "tripartite beings" which means we have a body, a soul (our conscience intellect, will , and emotions), and a spirit. So was it the spirit/soul (or Spirit in this case) that left His body during this event or was it all three since the tomb was empty? So many questions, thank you for trying to explain this miraculous event, hopefully some day we will get the answers we seek.