Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Raymond Brown and the Resurrection of the Messiah

The other day I posted on Francis Moloney's forthcoming, The Resurrection of the Messiah, and mentioned that the title is a tribute to Raymond Brown's monumental series, The Birth of the Messiah and The Death of the Messiah. I also quoted from Ronald Faley's tribute to Brown, when the latter was asked for his plans regarding writing the capstone to his series, which of course, would deal with the resurrection. Brown was famous for his response of desiring not to write a magisterial study on this topic, but rather, to experience it instead. 


Posing with the book that changed my life.
Just last night, I was re-reading the one book that I credit with starting me on the path to Biblical scholarship some fifteen years ago, The Death of the Messiah (vol.1), when I read this quote on Brown's stance on writing a volume on the resurrection:

A surprising number of people have asked if I plan a trilogy to conclude with The Resurrection of the Messiah. Responding with mock indignation that I have written two books on the resurrection (a response that conveniently ignores the fact that neither is truly a commentary), I tell them emphatically that I have no such plans. I would rather explore that 'face to face'(xii).

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