Sermon Tone Analysis

15:3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received—that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 15:4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, 15:5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

15:6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.15:7

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

15:8 Last of all, as though to one born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also.

Biblical Studies Press.

(2005).

The NET Bible First Edition; Bible.

English.

NET Bible.;

The NET Bible ().

Biblical Studies Press.

He was raised (egēgertai) is passive, which puts stress (as usually in the New Testament) on the activity of the Father in raising the Son (cf.

v. 15).

And it is perfect, which points to the permanent state; it ‘sets forth with the utmost possible emphasis the abiding results of the event’ (Prolegomena, p. 137).

Christ continues in the character of the risen Lord.

The perfect tense is used in this way six more times in this chapter (vv.

12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20), and once only in all the rest of the New Testament

Peter

24:33 So they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem.

They found the eleven and those with them gathered together 24:34 and saying, “The Lord has really risen, and has appeared to Simon!”24

The apostle begins with an appearance to Peter.

Actually he says ‘Cephas’, the Aramaic name, but NIV alters this to the Greek name (which Paul uses nowhere except in Gal.

2:7f.).

This appearance is mentioned again only in Luke 24:34 (cf.

Mark 16:7)

One denied Him

Matthew 26:69–75

69Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard.

A slave girl came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.”

70But he denied it in front of them all: “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” 71When he went out to the gateway, another slave girl saw him and said to the people there, “This man was with Jesus the Nazarene.”

72He denied it again with an oath, “I do not know the man!” 73After a little while, those standing there came up to Peter and said, “You really are one of them too—even your accent gives you away!” 74At that he began to curse, and he swore with an oath, “I do not know the man!”

At that moment a rooster crowed.75Then

Peter remembered what Jesus had said: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.”

And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Mark 14:66–72

66Now while Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the high priest’s slave girls came by.

67When she saw Peter warming himself, she looked directly at him and said, “You also were with that Nazarene, Jesus.”

68But he denied it: “I don’t even understand what you’re talking about!”

Then he went out to the gateway, and a rooster crowed.69When the slave girl saw him, she began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.”

70But he denied it again.

A short time later the bystanders again said to Peter, “You must be one of them, because you are also a Galilean.”

71Then he began to curse, and he swore with an oath, “I do not know this man you are talking about!” 72Immediately a rooster crowed a second time.

Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said to him: “Before a rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times.”

And he broke down and wept.

Luke 22:56–62

56Then a slave girl, seeing him as he sat in the firelight, stared at him and said, “This man was with him too!” 57But Peter denied it: “Woman, I don’t know him!” 58Then a little later someone else saw him and said, “You are one of them too.”

But Peter said, “Man, I am not!” 59And after about an hour still another insisted, “Certainly this man was with him, because he too is a Galilean.”60But

Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

At that moment, while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed.61Then the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”

62And he went outside and wept bitterly.

John 18:25–27

25Meanwhile Simon Peter was standing in the courtyard warming himself.

They said to him, “You aren’t one of his disciples too, are you?”

Peter denied it: “I am not!” 26One of the high priest’s slaves, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, said, “Did I not see you in the orchard with him?”27Then

Peter denied it again, and immediately a rooster crowed.

John 18:15–18

15Simon Peter and another disciple followed them as they brought Jesus to Annas.

(Now the other disciple was acquainted with the high priest, and he went with Jesus into the high priest’s courtyard.)16But

Simon Peter was left standing outside by the door.

So the other disciple who was acquainted with the high priest came out and spoke to the slave girl who watched the door, and brought Peter inside.

17The girl who was the doorkeeper said to Peter, “You’re not one of this man’s disciples too, are you?”

He replied, “I am not.”

18(Now the slaves and the guards were standing around a charcoal fire they had made, warming themselves because it was cold.

Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.)

Although the aorist passive indicative often means was seen, the passive voice also regularly conveys the force of he became visible or he appeared (as in REB, NIV, NJB, NRSV, RV, and our translation above; as against AV/KJV, was seen).

He appeared occurs with the dative Κηφᾷ in this reflexive sense, but also occurs regularly in the LXX and other religious texts for “exceptional supernatural apparitions” or theophanies as well as for appearance to the eyes and other senses.

Cephas & “Twelve” shows pre-Pauline tradition

the twelve:—This was the common designation of the smaller circle of disciples, although it was not then complete [“twelve being a name, not of number, but of office”];

The expression “at once” implies that the “more than five hundred” saw Him, not separately, but altogether; and this probably took place at a time when numerous Galilean disciples were still at Jerusalem, and therefore before the termination of the festival season.

James

in Gal 2:9 James, Cephas and John are described as the three “pillars” of the Jerusalem church

A tradition from Josephus suggests that James probably died in AD 62.

The second name given in this list is James (linked with Cephas again in Gal.

1:18f.).

It is not certain which James is meant, but most agree that it is James the Lord’s brother.

It is not unlikely that it was this appearance that led to his conversion and through him to that of the other brothers.

They did not believe in Jesus during his ministry (John 7:5), but as early as Acts 1:14 we find them among the believers.

What else accounts for the sudden change?

First, there is a parallel with Peter and Paul in terms of divine grace.

Just as Künneth underlined the importance of Peter and Paul as witnesses of the resurrection in the light of Peter’s denial, turn, and restoration, and Paul’s persecution of the church and call and commission, so James, too, appears not to have been a follower of Jesus before the crucifixion.

Bruce, therefore (with Robertson and Plummer), compares the conversion of James to discipleship with that of Paul himself: “That … Jesus ‘appeared to James’ … evidently produced in James a revolutionary effect comparable to that which a similar experience later produced in Paul himself.”

Jerome alludes to an account of the appearance of the postresurrection Jesus Christ to James in the apocryphal The Gospel according to the Hebrews.

Jerome alludes to an account of the appearance of the postresurrection Jesus Christ to James in the apocryphal The Gospel according to the Hebrews.

12:1 About that time King Herod laid hands on some from the church to harm them.12:2

He had James, the brother of John, executed with a sword.12:3

When he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter too.

1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and get information from him, and I stayed with him fifteen days.

1:19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.

Promises