Debate about the nature of the Resurrection began very early in the church. Some denied that a physical raising of the body of Jesus from the dead had occurred Others argued that a belief in the rising was vital to the Christian faith. This debate has continued over the centuries. Some contemporary scholars say that the New Testament stories are a way of talking about a change in thinking that happened among Jesus' early followers. The believers suddenly grasped the real nature of Jesus' teaching. He was not to be an earthly Messiah, and the kingdom was a spiritual kingdom not a political one Another contemporary explanation is that Jesus was not really dead but had merely fainted from the pain and stress of the crucifixion. He revived in the coolness of the tomb and then was taken away by his disciples. Another popular approach holds that Jesus' "conscious personality" was freed from the body. In its new "spiritual form," it made several visible and audible appearances. Still others strongly defend the physical resurrection of Jesus from the dead.
Whatever the actual nature of the Resurrection, two things are undeniable. First, a belief in the physical resurrection became one of the most important teachings of orthodox Christianity. The Resurrection became the key for un- derstanding the life, teachings, mission, and person of Jesus. It transformed a dead Jewish rabbi into the Christian living Lord who was God in the flesh.
Second, a very powerful event occurred in the early Christian community. The band of followers who were at first thrown into complete confusion by the crucifixion were soon roaming the empire, preaching the death and resur-
rection of Jesus as God's means of saving the world. Many of them boldly faced rejection, imprisonment, and death to proclaim that Jesus was the Christ