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Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto ]] The term resurrection is used in the Literal sense to mean either the Religious concept of the reunion of the Spirit and the Body of a Dead person, or the return to Life of a Dead person. It is used in a Figurative sense about broken or discontinued things which were never alive, but which have been restored to a functional state; for example a company which had failed but is reopened by a new owner. Rebirth is a different but analogous religious concept. The word Resuscitation is used for return to life after Clinical Death by Medical procedures. Introduction In the literal sense of the word—and as it was understood in Near Eastern antiquity— Resurrection refers to the event of a dead person returning to physical life, or to the state of someone having returned. Thus it is not to be confused with Hellenistic Immortality in which the soul continues to live after death "free" of the body. While a dying-and-rising god motif was prevalent throughout ancient literature, belief in personal resurrection (before the Common Era) was known among only one culture: the Hebrews. From the time of its development from within the Judaisms before and during the second-Temple period to the incipient decades of Christianity, the meaning of the word acquired sharper edges and mutations, to include differentiating the common quality of the premortem body from the new glorious quality of the postmortem body (cf. 1 Cor. 15:35-54 and the Gospel accounts of Easter). It held to a permanent unification of physical body and soul. Resurrection was used figuratively as a metaphor both for the national restoration of Israel (Ezek. 37) in Judaism, and for the regenerate life (the Apostle Paul) in Christianity. Today, the word is sometimes used to indicate the resuscitation/revival of some thing or idea from a death-state, such as ruin, disinterest, obscurity, etc. Religious examples There are a number of examples in ancient literature of folk-story accounts of dead gods coming back to life. "Centuries before the time of Christ the nations annually celebrated the death and resurrection of Osiris, Tammuz, Attis, Mithra, and other gods" http://www.2think.org/hundredsheep/bible/library/myth.shtml]. Pagan Examples of a resurrected Deity are Syrian and Greek worship of Adonis ; Egypt ian worship of Osiris ; the Babylonian story of Tammuz ; and Rural religious belief in the Corn King. Accounts of Resurrections in India Other accounts of resurrections are as follows:
Judaism In the , where a mysterious angelic figure tells Daniel, "Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt." (Daniel 12:2) In the First Century B.C.E, there were debates between the Pharisees who believed in the future Resurrection, and the Sadducee s who did not, over whether or not there was an afterlife. The majority of Jews seemed to have embraced the belief that there was an afterlife, evidenced by their volatile tendency to revolt for YHWH's kingdom and its privileges, one of which was resurrection (cf. the narratives of the Maccabees, Josephus' ''Wars of the Jews''). Today the main lines of Judaism insist that belief in the Resurrection Of The Dead is one of the cardinal principles of the Jewish faith. A famous Jewish Halakhic -legal authority, Maimonides , set down thirteen main principles of the Jewish faith according to Orthodox Judaism which have ever since been printed in all Rabbinic prayer books. Resurrection is the thirteenth principle:
Christianity See Also: Resurrection of Jesus Since at "the End Of Time ". Many of the early Church Fathers cited the Old Testament examples listed above as either foreshadowing Jesus' resurrection, or foreshadowing or prophesying a future resurrection of all the dead. The Nicene Creed concludes that Christians "look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come." In the New Testament of the Bible , Jesus is said to have raised several persons from death, including the daughter of Jairus shortly after death, a young man in the midst of his own Funeral procession, and Lazarus , who had been buried for four days. According to the Gospel Of Matthew , at the moment of Jesus' death, tombs opened, and many who were dead awakened. After Jesus' resurrection, many of the dead Saint s come out of their tombs and enter Jerusalem , where they appear to many. Similar Resuscitations are credited to Christian Apostle s and saints. Peter raised a woman named Dorcas (called Tabitha), and Paul restored a man named Eutychus who had fallen asleep and fell from a Window to his death, according to the book of Acts . Bodily disappearances As the knowledge of different religions has grown, the bodily disappearance of Divine Heroes has been found to be common. Gesar, the Savior of Tibet , at the end, chants on a mountain top and his clothes fall empty to the ground. The bodies of the Divine Gurus of Sikhism vanish after their deaths. Lord Raglan's Hero Pattern lists many Divine Heroes whose bodies disappear, or have more than one sepulchre. B. Traven, author of '' The Treasure Of Sierra Madre '', wrote that the Inca Divine Hero, Virococha , walked away on the top of the Sea and vanished. It has been thought that teachings regarding the purity and incorruptibility of the Divine Hero's human body are linked to this phenomenon. Perhaps, this is also to deter the practice of disturbing and collecting the hero's remains. They are safely protected if they have disappeared. In Deuteronomy (34:6) Moses is secretly buried. Elijah vanishes in a whirlwind 2 Kings (2:11). See also
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References #N.T. Wright. ''The Resurrection of the Son of God'' Fortress Press: 2003 #William Foxwell Albright, ''From Stone Age to Christianity: Monotheism and Historical Process'' #B. Traven, ''The Creation of the Sun and Moon'', 1968 # Alexandra David-Neel , ''The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling'' ( While still in oral tradition, the Divine Hero of Tibet and Asia is discovered and recorded for the first time, by an early European traveler.) #New Testament, ''Acts'' 19:23-40, St. Paul confronts the craftsmen of Artemis in Ephesus. # Edwin Hatch , ''Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages Upon the Christian Church'' (1888 Hibbert Lectures) #Ronald F. Hock, ''The Favored One: How Mary Became the Mother of God,'' ''Bible Review'', p. 12-25, June 2001 Citations 1 Cited from '' Autobiography Of A Yogi '' by Paramahansa Yogananda , page 336. 2 Ibid, p.396. 3 Ibid, p.475. 4 from ''My Baba and I'' by Dr. John S. Hislop, pages 28-31. |