Paul and Jesus

Matthew follows Mark with his emphasis on Galilee as the place where the disciples first saw Jesus. What he relates is quite telling:

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him; but some doubted. (Matthew 28:16–17)

Presumably Matthew is associating a specific mountain as a place of visionary experience, much like his account in chapter 17 where Jesus appears as a transfigured shining being with Moses and Elijah. Many scholars have suggested that the account of the transfiguration, related also in Mark 9, is a misplaced resurrection story.¹⁸ But whether that is the case or not, what we learn here is that Matthew only knows a single story of Jesus appearing to his disciples. It takes place in Galilee—a “misty mountain” visionary experience—and some doubted!

If we put all our “sighting” evidence together in chronological order from all our sources, including the evidence we have surveyed from Paul, we get an interesting breakdown, and one can clearly see how the stories expand and develop. What follows is a basic summary.

Paul had his revelation of Christ approximately seven years after Jesus’ crucifixion. He claimed that he saw Jesus in a glorious heavenly body. Twice in his letter 1 Corinthians he equates his own experience with that of those who had seen Jesus earlier, based on traditions he had received: namely, Peter (Cephas), the Twelve, a group of five hundred at once, James, and the rest of the apostles:

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he was seen also by me. (15:8)

Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? (9:1)

He does not say when or where these earlier “sightings” by the others took place but since he mentions “the Twelve,” he might be referring to a time when Judas Iscariot, who was dead, had been replaced, which would mean several weeks had passed since the crucifixion of Jesus.¹⁹

Mark has no accounts of anyone seeing Jesus but the young man who meets the women at the tomb and tells them explicitly to go tell the disciples they will see Jesus in Galilee.

Matthew relates that the women who first went to the tomb are told by an angel to go tell the disciples they will see Jesus in Galilee. As they run to convey this message they meet Jesus, who repeats the message, even more explicitly, “Tell my brothers to go to Galilee and there they will see me” (Matthew 28:10). Matthew closes his gospel with the scene on a mountain in Galilee, clearly somewhat later, in which the eleven disciples see him, though he mentions that some of them doubted it was Jesus.

Luke writes that later on that first Sunday two men who were walking on a road outside Jerusalem met Jesus and shared a meal with him, at first not recognizing him. Subsequently he says that Peter then saw Jesus, but no details are given, only the report. That evening Jesus appears in the room where the eleven disciples are gathered and eats with them, showing them his physical body of flesh and bones and convincing them he is not a ghost or spirit.

John says that Jesus first appears to Mary Magdalene, outside the tomb on Sunday morning. Later that evening he appears to the rest of the disciples, showing them his wounds, but Thomas is not present. Eight days later he appears again, where they are staying, and Thomas is able to see and even touch his wounds, which convinces Thomas he is not seeing a ghost.

The Appendix to John (chapter 21) relates a separate story, unconnected to the main narrative and taking place in Galilee, where Peter and the other disciples have returned to their fishing but see Jesus on the shore from a distance. They come to land and he is cooking fish on a charcoal fire and they eat together.

The Gospel of Peter ends with the disciples leaving Jerusalem a week after the crucifixion and returning to Galilee. Even though Mary Magdalene and the women have found the tomb empty, the disciples have no faith that Jesus is alive. They are in despair, mourning the death of Jesus, and they return to their fishing business. Unfortunately the text breaks off at that point.

Two important observations emerge from this breakdown of sources.

1. The earlier texts (Mark, Matthew) agree that the disciples encountered Jesus only in Galilee sometime after the empty tomb was discovered. They are actually told to go to Galilee, where they will see him. Since they would not have left Jerusalem until after the eight-day Passover festival ended, their experiences would have been several weeks after Jesus’ death. Matthew’s account indicates that whatever encounter they had, it was more visionary in nature, and subject to doubt. As a kind of addendum to the Galilee tradition, even though they come later chronologically, the Gospel of Peter and the Appendix to John indicate that Peter and the others returned to their homes in Galilee and that Peter and his brother Andrew resumed their fishing business.