1. NT

The NT documents agree in affirming Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. They announce not the extension of his earthly life (Wiederbelebung, resuscitation) but his entry upon a new, glorified existence, a new creation (1 Cor. 15:12–58; Phil. 3:21, et al.). In one sense, this affirmation was not any easier to accept and to proclaim then than it is today. And yet it was and remains at the heart of the Christian faith theologically and at the beginning of the church’s emergence historically (see L. Goppelt, Theology). The earliest of our extant writ…