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oa The Resurrection between Zarathustra and Jonathan Z. Smith
- Amsterdam University Press
- Source: NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion, Volume 50, Issue 2, Apr 1996, p. 89 - 107
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- 01 Apr 1996
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Abstract
Abstract
In this contribution I study three aspects of the history of the resurrection in antiquity. Firstly, after a short survey of the resurrection in the New Testament, I show that this doctrine was not particularly important in Qumran or among the Essenes. Secondly, I argue that the resurrection was not very important for the ancient Persians, who only started to thematize the doctrine in competition with Christianity. Thirdly, I suggest that J.Z. Smith wrongly interprets the ‘dying and rising gods’, since he takes insufficient account of the chronology of the evidence.
© J.N. Bremmer