New Test. Stud. (2017)» 63» pp. 5675‫־‬.

© Cambridge University Press, 2016

doi:10.1017/S002868851600028X

Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of

an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15*
JOHN GRANGER COOK
Religion and Philosophy; LaGrange College, 60i Broad St., LaGrange, GA 30240,
USA. Email: [email protected]

On the basis of the semantics of άνίστημι and εγείρω and the nature of resur‫־‬
rected bodies in ancient Judaism and ancient paganism, one can conclude that
Paul could not have conceived of a resurrection of Jesus unless he believed the
tomb was empty.
Keywords: 1 Cor 15-35‫־‬, empty tomb, resurrection in paganism

Wilhelm Bousset, one of the original members of the religionsgeschichtliche

Schule, in his discussion of 1 Cor 15.35‫־‬, wrote: ‘Here it is now extraordinarily im-
portant that the Apostle says nothing either concerning the empty tomb or con-
cerning the witness of the women about the empty tomb. What he does not
say, one cannot wish to read between the lines/1 This is an argumentum exsilentio
and as such is logically invalid. Nevertheless, Bousset's approach has become pro-
grammatic for many scholars in the discipline.2 My thesis is that Paul could not
have conceived of a resurrection of Jesus unless he believed his tomb was
empty. The intention of the article is certainly not to prove the historicity of the
empty tomb - a poindess exercise after the arguments of David Hume.3
The argument schema for the thesis is as follows:

* I am grateful for comments on the article made by the NTS reviewer, by historians of religion
Jan Bremmer and Jorunn Jacobsen Buckley, and by philosopher Ian Morton. At the 2015 SBL
meeting in Atlanta, I read an earlier version in the Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
section. Abbreviations for Latin texts below are from the OLD and A. Blaise's Dictionnaire
latin-français des auteurs chrétiens. Abbreviations for Greek patristic texts are from LPGL.
1 W. Bousset, ‘Der erste Brief an die Korinther‫׳‬, Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments neu übersetzt
und für die Gegenwart erklärt: Zweiter Band. Die Briefe. Die johanneischen Schriften (ed. J.
Weiss; Göttingen, 1908) 72-161, esp. 146.
2 See J. Ware, ‘The Resurrection of Jesus in the Pre-Pauline Formula of 1 Cor 15.35‫'־‬, NTS 60
(2014) 475-98, esp. 4779‫־‬, for a survey of similar views.
3 D. Hume, Of Miracle‫׳‬, Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding (London:
56 Millar, 1748) 173-203.
 Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15 57

1. άνίστημι and έγείρω, when used to describe resurrection, imply a physical

movement upward.
2. In ancient Judaism (from the second century bce on), the existing evidence
demonstrates that individuals viewed resurrection as physical (i.e. bodily).
Clearly some ancient Jews believed in other versions of the afterlife such as
the immortality of the soul or the future exaltation of the spirit.
3. In ancient paganism, texts from classical Greece, the Roman Republic and the
Empire all envisioned cases of resurrection as physical.
4. Given the semantics of άνίστημι and έγείρω and this 'cultural encyclopedia‫׳‬
of resurrection, one can conclude that Paul and his readers, Jewish or pagan,
would have assumed that a tradition about the burial of Christ and his resur-
rection on the third day presupposed an empty tomb.

1. Some Methodological Reflections

By 'physical resurrection‫ ׳‬I mean a resurrection in which the body of a

dead individual returns to life in some sense (e.g. a return to mortal life or immor-
tal life). 'Physical‫ ׳‬or 'bodily resurrection‫ ׳‬is consistent with a transformation of
the earthly body (e.g. into a σώμα πνευματικόν). The evidence, by necessity,
for resurrection in paganism is from widely diverse chronological eras and
appears in diverse contexts in the authors who preserve the traditions.
Nevertheless, one can discern patterns in the pagan narratives of resurrections
that are clearly analogous to resurrection in ancient Judaism and early
Christianity. Jonathan Z. Smith‫׳‬s distinction between analogy and genealogy4 in
the history of religions can serve to illuminate the comparisons to be made
below: they are analogies and not genealogies. My goal is not, for example, to
demonstrate pagan influence (a genealogical method) on Paul and early
Christianity or vice versa. In the discussion of Greco-Roman divinities below I
have dispensed with the concept of the annual resurrection of vegetation deities.5

2. The Semantics of άνίστημι and έγείρω

James Ware, in a recent analysis of έγείρω, distinguishes three senses, the

first two of which are closely related: (1) 'awaken, raise from sleep‫ ׳‬or 'wake up,
rise from sleep2) ;‫' )׳‬rouse up, stir up‫ ;׳‬and (3) 'raise up, set up right‫ ׳‬or 'rise

4 J. Z. Smith, Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of
Late Antiquity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990) 47-51, 114, 118. On genealogy
cf. also J. Bremmer, ‘The Resurrection between Zarathustra and Jonathan Z. Smith‫׳‬,
NedThT 50 (1996) 89107‫( ־‬slightly expanded in idem, The Rise and Fall of the Afterlife
(London/New York: Routledge, 2002) 41-55).
5 Cf. J. Z. Smith, 'Dying and Rising Gods', ER 4 (2005) 2535-40 and idem, Drudgery Divine, 90-3.
58 JOHN GRANGER COOK

up, stand upright6.‫ ׳‬In the first and third senses 'the basic semantic meaning of
getting up or arising to stand is present7.‫ ׳‬This seems correct in general, although
there are usages such as Homer, II 2.41 where εγρετο δ‫ ׳‬έξ ύπνου ('he woke from
sleep‫ )׳‬is followed by εζετο δ‫ ׳‬ορθωθείς in 2.42 ('he sat up straight‫)׳‬. In such a
text, one cannot demonstrate that the meaning 'arising to stand‫ ׳‬is necessarily
present in εγρετο. On the whole, however. Ware is accurate. One could argue
that II 2.42 simply clarifies the action of 'getting up‫ ׳‬that is implied by εγρετο.
A text (probably first or early second century ce) attributed to Ammorfius the
grammarian distinguishes between the two verbs: ήγέρθη και άνέστη διαφέρει,
ήγέρθη, μέν, λεκτέον άπό ύπνου, άνέστη δέ άπό κλίνης ('ήγέρθη and άνέστη
differ. Ήγέρθη (he/she rose) is, on the one hand, to be said "from sleep", but
άνέστη (he/she rose) is to be said "from that on which one lies8.(‫ ״׳‬Clearly
Ammonius perceives a physical meaning in both verbs. In another text,
Ammonius writes: άναστήναι και έγερθήναι διαφέρει, άναστήναι μέν έπι
εργον, έγερθήναι δέ έξ ύπνου ('άναστηναι and έγερθήναι differ. Άναστηναι
is, on the one hand, to rise for a task, but έγερθήναι is to rise from sleep9.(‫ ׳‬In
another work dedicated to 'incorrect phraseology‫( ׳‬περί άκυρολογίας), the
grammarian distinguishes the verbs so: άναστηναι τού έγερθήναι διαφέρει,
άναστήναι έγρηγορότως, έγερθήναι τό έξ ύπνου ('άναστήναι differs from
έγερθήναι. One rises (άναστήναι) while awake, but one rises (έγερθήναι)

6 Ware, 'Resurrection492-5 ,‫׳‬. A. Oepke, ‘έγείρω κτλ.‫׳‬, TDNT π.333-9 and idem, 'άνίστημι
κτλ.‫׳‬, TDNT 1.36872‫ ־‬devotes minimal attention to resurrection in paganism (the same is
true of Oepke's 'Auferstehung 11 (des Menschen)‫׳‬, RAC 1 (1950) 930-8). G. Bertram,
'Auferstehung 1 (des Kultgottes)‫׳‬, RAC 1 (1950) 91930‫ ־‬uses the concept (now mostly aban-
doned) of the resurrection of a vegetation god. The finest linguistic survey of resurrection
in paganism is still E. Fascher, ‘Anastasis-Resurrectio-Auferstehung: Eine programmatische
Studie zum Thema "Sprache und Offenbarung‫׳״‬, ZNW 40 (1941) 166-229. A. J. M.
Wedderbum (Baptism and Resurrection: Studies in Pauline Theology against its Graeco-
Roman Background (WUNT 44; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1987) surveyed the resurrections
of certain gods, but was not concerned with linguistic analysis. D. 0. Endsjo, Greek
Resurrection Beliefs and the Success of Christianity (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
has a large collection of references, but did few linguistic investigations and conflated resur-
rection with translation (individuals who have not died, or who are on funeral pyres, whose
bodies are taken up to heaven or immortalized). R. C. Miller, Resurrection and Reception in
Early Christianity (New York/London: Routledge, 2015) focuses on 'translation fables‫ ׳‬and
passes over resurrection traditions in antiquity.
7 Ware, 'Resurrection494 ,‫·׳‬
8 [Ammonius], De adflnium vocabulorum differentia §216 (BT 56.1516‫ ־‬Nickau). Cf. K. Nickau,
ed., Ammonii qui dicitur De adflnium vocabulorum differentia (BT; Leipzig: Teubner, 1966)
lxvi-lxvii on the date of the text (attributed to three different authors: Ammonius, Herrenius
Philo, and Ptolemaeus). See also M. Lacore, ‘Du “sommeil sans réveil” à la résurrection
comme réveil‫׳‬, Gaia: revue interdisciplinaire sur la Grèce Archaïque 13 (2010) 20527‫־‬.
9 [Ammonius], De adfin. voc. dif §50 (14.34‫ ־‬Nickau).
 Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15 59

from sleep10.(‫ ׳‬Grammatical rules are occasionally broken, as in Ps.-Plato‫׳‬s

Axiochus: Άγαμήδης γοΰν και Τροφώνιος ... κοιμηθέντες ούκέτ‫ ׳‬άνέστησαν
('Agamedes and Trophonius indeed going to sleep no longer rose up11.(‫ ׳‬A text
of Eupolis the comic has a similar usage: τίς ούξεγείρας μ‫ ׳‬έστην οιμώξει
μακρά· | ότιή μ‫ ׳‬άνέστησ‫ ׳‬ώμόϋπνον ('Who was it that waked/raised me? You
will wail aloud | because you raised [or "woke"] me from my unfinished
sleep12.(‫ ׳‬In general, it is true that classical Greek texts do not use the verb
άνίστημι to mean 'rise (from sleep)‫׳‬. Both verbs imply a physical motion
upward from the state of sleep, lying down or death - in contexts where indivi-
duals are sleeping, lying down or dead.
LXX and NT usage of the verbs for resurrection has roots in classical usage. A
chorus in Sophocles‫ ׳‬Electro, tells her that she will never raise her father from the
lake of Hades, which is common to all, by wailing or by prayers (άλλ‫ ׳‬οΰτοι τον γ‫׳‬
εξ Άίδα I πάγκοινου λίμνας πατέρ‫ ׳‬άν|στάσεις οΰτε γόοισιν, ού λιταΐς).13
There are a number of examples of the verb used in this way in classical litera-
ture.14 Examples of εγείρω and its cognates are more difficult to find. In
Aeschylus‫ ׳‬Choephoroe, Orestes asks his dead father: ap‫ ׳‬έξεγείρηι τοισδ‫׳‬
όνείδεσιν, πάτερ; ('Father, are you roused up by such taunts?‫)׳‬. Electra adds:
ap‫ ׳‬ορθόν αίρεις φίλτατον τό σόν κάρα; ('Are you raising up your beloved
head erect?15.(‫ ׳‬If Ammonius is correct, then both lines are essentially referring
to the same motion. Apollodorus describes Heracles‫ ׳‬raising of Theseus (who
was bound near the gates of Hades) using the same verb: ό δέ Θησέα μέν
λαβόμενος της χειρός ήγειρε, Πειρίθουν δέ άναστησαι βουλόμενος τής γης
κινουμένης άφήκεν ('Taking Theseus by the hand he raised him up, but al‫־‬
though he wanted to raise Pirithous, when the earth quaked, he let him go16.(‫׳‬
Theodoret presumably quotes Apollodorus (the second-century bce historian) ac-
curately, when the latter writes that Asclepius raised some who had died (τινας
των τετελευτηκότων έγείρειν).17 In the case of the resurrections/awakenings
of Tyrian Heracles and Dionysus the verb έγείρω was also used.18 Physical
motion upward (usually 'standing up‫ )׳‬is implied in all these texts. Clearly the

10 [Ammonius], De impr. §48 (153.5-6 Nickau).

11 [Plato], Axiochus 10.367c.
12 Eupolis, ff. 328 Kassel-Austin = 305 Kock. Cf. Ps.-Zonaras, Lexicon E §606.
13 Sophocles, El 1379‫־‬.
14 Homer, II. 21.55-7; Aeschylus, Eum. 647-8 (άνάστασις), Ag. 1360-1; Sophocles, ff. 557 Radt;
Euripides, Here. fur. 718-19; etc.
15 Aeschylus, Cho. 495-6; the translation of Electra‫׳‬s question is from A. H. Sommerstein, ed. and
trans., Aeschylus (LCL; 3 vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008) 11.277 (he
translates έξεγείρηι with 'awakened').
16 Apollodorus, Bibl. 2.5.12. For further resurrections of Heracles, see §4.1 below.
17 Theodoret, Affect. 8.20 = Apollodorus, Περί θεών in FGrH 244 F 138.
18 These will be discussed below in §§4.3.2 and 4.3.4.
60 JOHN GRANGER COOK

verb is not equivalent to 'exalting‫( ׳‬for which an ancient Greek author would use
ύψόω).19

3. Resurrection in Ancient Judaism

From the second century bce onward clear traces of resurrection can be
found in some Jewish texts.20 Claudia Setzer summarises the ambivalent views
of ancient Judaism admirably:

... Jewish materials from the second century bce through the first century ce
exhibit a range of understandings of the afterlife. Fairly explicit claims of
bodily resurrection appear in texts like 1 Enoch (51),21 2 Maccabees,22
4Q521,23 and Sibylline Oracle 4·24 A mix of concepts of resurrection of the
body and immortality of the soul appear in 1 Enoch (91, 103),25 1QH,26 4
Ezra,27 2 Baruch28 and Pseudo-Phocylides.29 Ambiguity prevails in works that

19 See Ware's critique (‘Resurrection493-4 ,‫ )׳‬of conflating εγείρω with ‘rising into the air‫ ׳‬or
ascension.
20 J. J. Collins, 'The Afterlife in Apocalyptic Literature‫׳‬, Judaism in Late Antiquity: Part Four.
Death, Life-After-Death, Resurrection and The World-to-Come in the Judaisms of Antiquity
(ed. A. J. Avery-Peck and J. Neusner; Leiden: Brill, 2000) 119-40; C. Setzer, Resurrection of
the Body in Early Judaism and Early Christianity: Doctrine, Community, and Self-definition
(Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 21-52; J. D. Levenson, Resurrection and the Restoration of
Israel: The Ultimate Victory of the God of Life (New Haven: Yale University, 2006); and G.
Nickelsburg, Resurrection, Immortality and Eternal Life in Intertestamental Judaism and
Early Christianity (HTS 56; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, 20072).
21 1 Enoch 51.5 ‘my Chosen one will arise‫{ ׳‬tarne*a)... and the righteous will dwell {yahadderu)
on it (the earth)‫ ;׳‬trans. G. W. E. Nickelsburg and J. C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch 2: A Commentary
on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 37-82 (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2012) 180.
22 2 Macc 7-9» 14; 12.43-4·
23 4Q521 fr. 2 col. ii + 4 1. 12 (‫)ומיתים יחיה‬. Cf. A. L. A. Hogeterp, ‘Belief in Resurrection and its
Religious Settings in Qumran and the New Testament‫׳‬, Echoes from the Caves: Qumran and
the New Testament (StTDJ 85; ed. F. Garcia Martinez; Leiden: Brill 2007) 299-320, esp. 309-11.
24 Sib. Or. 4.181-3, 187-93·
25 In 1 Enoch 91.10, 'the righteous will arise {yetnaSM*) from his sleep‫( ׳‬not their spirits); trans. G.
W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1-36; 83-108
(Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001) 210 (the verse may be an addition; however,
4QEn8 ar = 4Q212 ff. 1 col. ii 1. 13 apparently has the text). Cf. M. Black in consultation
with J. VanderKam, The Book of Enoch or / Enoch: A New English Edition with Commentary
and Textual Notes (SVTP 7; Leiden: Brill, 1985) 84, 282 (‘i.e., in the resurrection‫)׳‬. In 103.3-
4, however, spirits ‘will live‫( ׳‬yahayyewu); Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 523 calls this ‘revivification‫׳‬.
26 Possibly 1QHa col. 141. 37, col. 191.15. G. Stemberger, Der Leib der Auferstehung: Studien zur
Anthropologie und Eschatologie des palästinensischen Judentums im neutestamentlichen
Zeitalter (AnBib 56; Rome: Biblical Institute, 1972) 3 believes resurrection is probably
present in the Hodayoth.
27 4 Ezra 7.31-2 (bodies and souls; et promptuaria reddent quae eis commendatae sunt animae).
28 2 Bar. 30.1-2 (^4 ,(‫מ*מ‬g.2; 50.2-3 (r£2*un»9 clearly a bodily resurrection); 51.1.
29 Ps.-Phocylides 103-15.
 Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15 61

nevertheless imply resurrection, such as ‘the Book of the Watchers‘ [136‫ ]־‬in 1
Enoch, The Testament of Judah,30 Psalms of Solomon,31 and CD 2:712.32‫־‬

Ironically, the sinners taunt the righteous with the concept of the resurrection of
the body in 1 Enoch 102.8: άπό του νυν άναστήτωσαν και σωθήτωσαν
('Henceforth let them arise and be saved‘) - and then they proceed to deny its
reality.33 Daniel 12 should be added to the list, despite the reservations of
some.34 The Greek translations clearly indicate physical resurrection (Dan 12.2
LXX: άναστήσονται; Theod.: έξεγερθήσονται). John J. Collins classifies the
view of afterlife in Jub. 23.26-31 as ‘resurrection, or exaltation, of the spirit‘ to
heaven.35 Jub. 23.30, however, only asserts that the Lord's servants ‘will rise
(yetnaéPü)36 and see great peace‘, and the phrase is a reference to the ‘prosperity
of the living not the resurrection of the dead‘.37 ‘Exaltation of the spirit‫ ׳‬is accept-
able in certain cases,38 but ‘resurrection of the spirit‘ is a category mistake,39 not
appropriate for Jewish or pagan texts, as a close analysis of the verbs for resurrec-
tion (such as άνίστημι and εγείρω) indicates. Spirits do not rise from the dead in
ancient Judaism, people do.

Και μετά ταύτα άναστήσεται Αβραάμ και ’Ισαάκ και ’Ιακώβ εις ζωήν (the
30 Test. Jud. 25:1
verb's use indicates bodily resurrection).
31 See Pss. Sol. 2.31 ό άνιστών έμε εις δόξαν and 3.1112‫ ־‬oi δε φοβούμενοι τον κύριον
άναστήσονται εις ζωήν αιώνιον. Stemberger, Leib, 56-61 denies that Pss. Sol. 3.1112‫־‬
refers to resurrection. But see P. M. Sprinkle, Law and Life: The Interpretation of Leviticus
18:5 in Early Judaism and Paul (WUNT 11/241; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008) 8990‫־‬. The
verb's Greek usage (άναστήσονται) is enough to show that it refers to physical resurrection.
32 Setzer, Resurrection, 18. She admits (ibid., 14) that CD 2.713‫ ־‬is thoroughly ambiguous.
33 Cf. the translation and comment in Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 511, 520.
34 A convincing defence of bodüy resurrection may be found in A. Chester, Future Hope and
Present Reality, vol. 1: Eschatology and Transformation in the Hebrew Bible (WUNT 293;
Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2012) 2915‫־‬. The Hebrew verb in Dan 12.2 (‫ )יקיצו‬should be com-
pared with the verb used for Gehazi's faüure to raise the dead boy in 2 Kings 4.31, who
showed no signs of waking/rising (‫)לא הקיץ‬, translated in 4 Reg 4.31 with the very material
ούκ ήγέρθη. Cf. Levenson, Resurrection, 186.
35 Collins, ‘Afterlife124 ,‫׳‬.
36 Cf. C. F. A. Dillman, Lexicon linguae Aethiopicae (Leipzig: Weigel 1865) 637 s.v. tardéa (where
it is clear that the verb has many other meanings besides references to resurrection).
37 Trans. T. R. Hanneken, The Subversion of the Apocalypses in the Book ofJubilees (Atlanta: SBL,
2012) 160 (his comment). Hanneken notes that the dead are ‘aware of the restoration‫ ׳‬but do
not participate in it in 23.31. Cf. P. Volz, Die Eschatologie der jüdischen Gemeinde im neutes-
tamentlichen Zeitalter nach den Quellen der rabbinischen, apokalyptischen und apokryphen
Literatur dargestellt (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1934) 29.
38 E.g. 1 Enoch 103.34‫ ;־‬Collins, ‘Afterlife124 ,‫׳‬.
39 A concept introduced by G. Ryle, The Concept ofMind (New York: Hutchinson, 1949) 16 (repr.
University of Chicago Press, 2000).
62 JOHN GRANGER COOK

4· Resurrections in Paganism
No cultural encyclopedia of resurrection in antiquity would be complete
without a review of the traditions in paganism.

4.1 Resurrections Performed by Asclepius, Polyidus and Heracles

Asclepius, Polyidus and Heracles were known for their abilities to raise
individuals from the dead. Philodemus (!ca. 110-40/35 bce),4° in his treatise On
Piety, has a tradition of Asclepius‫ ׳‬resurrections:

Zeus struck down Asclepius with a thunderbolt, as the one who wrote the
Naupactica [Hesiod's era] affirms and Telestes [4th c. bce] in the Asclepius
and the lyric poet Cinesias [ca. 450390‫ ־‬bce], because after being entreated
by Artemis, he raised Hippolytus [from the dead] (ο[τι τό]ν Ιππόλυτον
[παρα] κληθείς ύπ’ Άρ[τέμι]δος άνέστ[η]σε[ν]); but Stesichorus [ca. 600-
555 bce] in the EHphyle wrote that it was because of Capaneus and Lycurgus.40
41

Ps.-Eratosthenes (second century ce) notes that Asclepius‫ ׳‬transgressions

included raising the dead by the art of the physician, and that his last resurrection
was that of Hippolytus, son of Theseus (τούτου τέχνη ιατρική χρωμένου, ώς και
τούς ήδη τεθνηκότας έγείρειν, έν οις καί έσχατον Ιππόλυτον τον Θησέως).42
There are numerous testimonies to resurrections accomplished by Asclepius.43
Palaephetus (fourth century bce?) tells the story of Glaucus as an example of an
impossible event:

καί ούτος ό μύθος παγγέλοιος, ώς δη τού Γλαύκου έν πίθφ μέλιτος

άποθανόντος ό Μίνως έν τω τύμβφ κατώρυξε τον Κοιράνου Πολύιδον
(ος ήν έκ τού Άργους), ος ίδών δράκοντα έτέρω δράκοντι τεθνεώτι
πόαν έπιθέντα καί άναστησαντα αύτόν, καί αύτός ταύτό ποιήσας τω
Γλαύκω, άνέστησεν αύτόν. οπερ έστίν άδύνατον, άποθανόντα άνδρα
άναστησαι ή οφιν, άλλ‫ ׳‬ούδέ άλλο ζωον.

And this tale is utterly ridiculous, that when Glaucus had died in a jar of honey,
Minos buried Polyidus son of Koiranos (who was from Argos) in the tomb, who
seeing a serpent place an herb on another dead serpent and relise it, also did

40 Most dates below are from OCD4.

41 Philodemus, De pietate 131 (52.517‫ ־‬Gomperz) = P.Herc. 1609 col. v. Cf. E. J. Edelstein and L.
Edelstein, Asclepius: Collection and Interpretation of the Testimonies (2 vols.; Baltimore/
London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1945) T. 73·
42 Ps.-Eratosthenes, Catasterismi 1.6D (BT Mythographi Graeci m/1.7.6-13 Olivieri). Cf. K. Geus,
Eratosthenes von Kyrene: Studien zur hellenistischen Kultur- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte
(Munich: Beck, 2002) 21114‫־‬, who argues that Ps.-Eratosthenes‫ ׳‬astronomical mythological
text is a second-century ce summary of Eratosthenes‫ ׳‬Αστρονομία ή Καταστηριγμοί that
transmits a core of the original. Cf. Suda E 2898.
43 Most are in Edelstein and Edelstein, Asclepius, and I will not burden the footnotes here.
 Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15 63

this to Glaucus and raised him. This very thing is impossible: to raise a dead
man or serpent or any other animal.44

Palaephetus proceeds to give a rational explanation for the account.

Agatharchides (second century bce) includes Alcestis among those whom
Heracles raised:

And Alcestis, Protesilaus and Glaucus who died rose again (και την μέν
Άλκηστιν και Πρωτεσίλαον και Γλαύκον τετελευτηκότας πάλιν
άναστηναι), the one being brought up by Heracles (την μέν ύφ‫׳‬
Ήρακλέους άναχθεισαν), the other because of his love for his wife, and
the last because of the prophecy about the one buried with him.45

In all the examples above, individuals1 material bodies are raised (i.e. there is no
statement that their corpses were left in tombs).

4.2The Resurrection Narratives of Naumachius

Proclus (410/1285‫ ־‬ce) describes certain individuals who apparently rose
from the dead:

και γάρ έφ' ήμών τινες ήδη και άποθανειν εδοξαν και μνήμασιν
ένετέθησαν και άνεβίωσαν καί ώφθησαν οι μέν έγκαθήμενοι τοις
μνήμασιν, οι δέ και έφεστώτες.

Because in our time certain individuals who were thought to have been already
dead and who had been buried in their tombs came to life again and appeared
(were seen), some lying on their tombs and others standing up.46

Proclus gives several examples from an individual named Naumachius:

And Naumachius of Epirus, who lived in the time of my grandparents, records

that Polycritus, one of the most distinguished of the Aetolians who had
obtained the office of Aetoliarch, died and came to life again in the ninth
month after his death (άποθανειν καί άναβιώναι μηνί μετά τον θάνατον
ένάτφ); and he came to the public assembly of the Aetolians and advised
them on the best course of action to take concerning affairs that they were de-
liberating. Among the witnesses to these events were Hieron the Ephesian and

44 Palaephetus, De incredibilibus 26.

45 Agatharchides, De mari Erythraeo §7. Cf. Photius, Bibl. 250.7, 443b (CUF Photius vu. 140
Henry). Aeneas of Gaza lists many other resurrections accomplished by Heracles. Cf.
Aeneas of Gaza, Theophrastus (Μ. E. Colonna, ed., Teofrasto (Naples: Iodice, 1958)) 63.13-
19 = Eudoxus fr. 372 (F. Lasserre, ed., trans. and comm.. Die Fragmente des Eudoxos von
Knidos (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1966) 126).
46 Proclus, In Platon, rem publ. 614b (11.113 Kroll). I have consulted the translations in A. J.
Festugière, Proclus: Commentaire sur la République, vol. ni (Paris: Vrin, 1970).
64 JOHN GRANGER COOK

other historians who wrote about what happened to Antigonus the king and
other friends of theirs who were not present during the events.47

It is a bodily resurrection.
Proclus quotes Naumachius for the account of another individual named
Eurynous from Nicopolis:

But there was not only this individual (Polycritus). In Nicopolis, among those
who did not live long ago, a certain person named Eurynous experienced the
same thing. After being buried by his relatives outside the city, he returned
to life on the fifteenth day after his burial (και ταφέντα προ της πόλεως
υπό των προσηκόντων άναβιώναι μετά πεντεκαιδεκάτην ημέραν της
ταφής) and said that he had seen and heard many amazing things under the
earth but that he had been ordered to keep everything secret (unspoken).
And he lived not a short time afterwards and appeared to be more just after
his return to life than before (και έπιβιώναι χρόνον ούκ ολίγον και
όφθήναι δικαιότερον μετά την άναβίωσιν ή πρότερον).48

Eurynous rises again and leaves his tomb.

Naumachius continues with a description of an individual named Rufus of
Philippi who lived near his own time:

He adds stiU another account of an individual who, as he says, lived recently: a

certain Rufus from Philippi in Macedonia who had been honoured with the
revered high priesthood of Thessalonica. For when this person died he came
to life again on the third day and coming to life said that he had been sent
by the chthonic gods (τούτον γάρ άποθανόντα τριταίον άναβιώναι και
άναβιοΰντα είπείν, ότι υπό των χθονίων άναπεμφθείη θεών) to furnish
certain spectacles for the people, which he had happened to promise, and
living until their completion he immediately died.49

Naumachius, in Proclus‫ ׳‬excerpts, gives no explanation for these events other than
the hint that the ‫׳‬chthonic gods‫ ׳‬were responsible. Proclus himself believes they
were near-death experiences, in which a spark of life remained in the apparentiy
dead bodies.50

47 Proclus, In Platon. rem publ. 614b (11.115 Kroll). In Phlegon's (De mir. 2.1.6-7) version,
Polycritus describes himself a ‘ghost‫( ׳‬φάσματι) and ‘dead in body‫( ׳‬τω μέν σώματι
τέθνηκα).
48 Proclus, In Platon, rem publ. 614b (11.115 Kroll).
49 Proclus, In Platon, rem publ. 614b (n.11516‫ ־‬Kroll).
50 Proclus, In Platon, rem publ. 614b (11.113 Kroll). Bremmer, The Rise and Fall, 94 includes
Naumachius‫ ׳‬account of Eurynous in his chapter on ‘Near-Death Experiences‫׳‬, even though
he translates the relevant text as ‘he was seen to be much more just after his resurrection
than before‫׳‬.
 Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15 65

4.3 Resurrections of Greco-Roman Divinities

The discussions below must necessarily be short, but that should not
detract from their accuracy.

4.3.1 Osiris and Horns

The most ancient depiction of the resurrection of a divinity is that of Osiris.
The Pyramid Texts are unambiguous. Resuscitation is clearly expressed in this
Pyramid Text:

Osiris awakes: the god once slack rouses, the god stands up, the god takes control
of his body. This Pepi (Π)51 Neferkare awakes; the god once slack rouses, the god
stands up, the god takes control of his body. Horns stands up that he might array
this Pepi Neferkare with the woven cloth that comes from him ...52

Apparently the Netherworld (Dewat), where Osiris reigns, is occasionally located

in the sky.53 In a Ptolemaic-Roman temple at Denderah, Osiris is depicted in
several pertinent scenes (see Fig. 1): in one he is lying dead and being 'mourned
by Isis and Nephtys‫( ׳‬Fig. 1a). In another he is depicted 'rising from his bed in a
floating position' (Fig. 1b).54 Plutarch, who identifies Dionysus and Osiris, refers
to the dismemberment, resurrection and rebirth of Osiris:

ομολογεί δέ και τα Τιτανικά και Νυκτέλια τοίς λεγομένοις Όσίριδος

διασπασμοις και ταις άναβιώσεσι και παλιγγενεσίαις.

The narratives of the Titans and of the Night Festivals (the Titanika and
Nuktelia) correspond with the so-called dismemberments, returns to life and
rebirths of Osiris.55

Although Plutarch uses plurals, he probably does not intend the reader to
understand a cyclical series of dismemberments and so forth. J. Gwyn Griffiths
believes that the rebirth may refer to Osiris' incarnation (reincarnation) as Apis,
where Apis is conceived as being the 'image of the soul of Osiris'.56 It is bodily res-
urrection, and there is no question of Osiris' body being left in the tomb.

51 He ruled ca. 2246-2152 bce.

52 Pyramid Texts, Recitation 690; trans. J. P. Allen, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (Atlanta:
SBL, 20152) 287 (a text referred to by J. G. Griffiths, The Origins of Osiris and his Cult (SHR 40;
Leiden: Brill, 1980) 64).
53 Pyramid Texts, Recitation 466; trans. Allen, Pyramid, 128.
54 T. N. D. Mettinger, The Riddle ofResurrection: 'Dying and Rising Gods' in the Ancient Near East
(CB.OT 50; Stockholm: Almqvist, 2001) 172-3 (with images).
55 Plutarch, Is. Os. 35-364f.
56 Plutarch, Is. Os. 35-364e‫־‬f. Cf. J. G. Griffiths, ed., trans. and comm., Plutarch's De Iside et
Osiride (Cardiff: University of Wales, 1970) 363-5, 435 (with reference to Is. Os. 20.59b and
43-368b-c). Griffiths (ibid., 434) compares this text with De E ap. Delph. 9.389A.
66 JOHN GRANGER COOK

Figure 1. Depictions of Osiris from a Ptolemaic-Roman temple

at Deaderah: (a). Osiris being mourned by Isis and Nephtys;
(b). The resurrection of Osiris. Drawing from A. Mariette,
Dendérah, vol. iv (Paris: A. Franck, 1873) Plate 90, digitally
scanned by the Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg and available
at: http://digi. ub. uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/mariettei 873bd4/
096.

According to Diodorus Siculus, Isis raised Horus from the dead using a 'medi‫־‬
cine of immortality‫׳‬:

εύρείν δ‫ ׳‬αυτήν και τό της άθανασίας φάρμακον, δι‫ ׳‬ού τον υιόν Ώρον,
υπό των Τιτάνων έπιβουλευθέντα και νεκρόν εύρεθέντα καθ' ΰδατος,
μή μόνον άναστησαι, δοϋσαν την ψυχήν, άλλα και της άθανασίας
ποιήσαι μεταλαβείν.

Furthermore, she discovered also the drug which gives immortality, by means
of which she not only raised from the dead her son Horus, who had been the
object of plots on the part of Titans and had been found dead under the water,
giving him his soul again, but also made him immortal.57

Horus rises bodily.

4.3.2 Dionysus
Although there are many Dionysi,58 there exist several intriguing versions
of his resurrection after the dismemberment he suffered at the hands of the
Titans. In one version (the non-Orphic) his members were put back together.

57 Diod. Sic. 1.25.6; trans. C. H. Oldfather, ed. and trans., Diodorus Siculus: Library of History
(LCL; 12 vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 19331.81 (67‫־‬.
58 Wedderburn, Baptism, 193, with reference to Cicero, Nat. D. 3.58 Dionysos multos habemus...
 Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15 67

Philodemus has this version: [δι]/ασπασθεις υπό | των Τιτάνων 'Ρέ[ας] τα | μέλη
συνθε[ίσης] | άνεβίω[ι] ('torn apart by the Titans, Rhea put his members to-
gether, and he returned to life59.(‫ ׳‬Plutarch refers to Thyiads (female devotees)
who awaken/raise the Liknites (God of the Mystic Basket):

Similar agreement is found too in the tales about their sepulchres (τάς ταφάς).
The Egyptians, as has been stated, point out the tombs (θήκας) of Osiris in
many places, and the people of Delphi believe that the remains of Dionysus
rest with them close beside the oracle; and the Holy Ones offer a secret sacrifice
in the shrine of Apollo whenever the (female) devotees of Dionysus wake the
God of the Mystic Basket (Liknites) (όταν ai Θυιάδες έγείρωσι τον
Λικνίτην).60

Martin Nilsson argues that the passage gives one the impression 'that Plutarch has
in mind not the awakening of a sleeping god but the raising of him from the
dead'.61
The people and council of Rhodes (after 212 ce) honoured a priest of
Bacchus/Dionysus who had given 360 drachmas to the individual charged with
'waking‫ ׳‬Dionysus:

... having given to the hydraulic organist who wakes the god (τφ έπεγείροντι
[τό]ν θεόν) 360 drachmas, and to those who sing hymns to the god each month
40, and for the two descents/returns of the god (ταις του θεού δέ καθόδοις
δυσί) ...62

Nilsson believes that the two ascents are Dionysus' 'rebirth after his being dis-
membered by the Titans and his ascent with Semele63.‫ ׳‬Given the tradition of
Dionysus' resurrection, it is doubtful that the reference here is merely to a cere-
mony to reanimate a statue, particularly since the text refers to his descents/
ascents.

59 Philodemus, De pietate 3.44.416) 8‫ ־‬Gomperz) = P.Herc. 247 col. in. Cf. Diod. Sic. 3.62.6;
Origen, C. Cels. 4.17 (‘being tom apart by them (the Titans), and after all that being put
back together and apparently coming back to life and ascending into heaven (οίονει
άναβιώσκοντος και άναβαίνοντος εις ουρανόν)‫ ;)׳‬and Justin, Dial. 69.2
διασπαραχθέντα και άποθανόντα άναστηναι, εις ουρανόν τε άνεληλυθέναι ('torn
apart, and dying, he rose again, and ascended into heaven‫)׳‬.
60 Plutarch, Is. Os. 35.364f-365a; trans. F. C. Babbitt etal, eds. and trans., Plutarch: Moralia (LCL;
15 vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1927-69) v.87. M. Nilsson, The Dionysiac
Mysteries of the Hellenistic and Roman Age (New York: Amo, 1975) 38-41 was apparently seep-
tical of the antiquity of the tradition.
61 Nilsson, Dionysiac Mysteries, 39-40.
62 REG 17 (1904) 203, 1b.
63 Nilsson, Dionysiac Mysteries, 41. Pausanias 2.31.2 recounts Dionysus‫ ׳‬rescue of Semele from
Hades.
68 JOHN GRANGER COOK

In the Orphic version Athena saves Dionysus' heart, from which his body is
refashioned.64 Proclus writes that Athena preserves Dionysus 'immaculate' (διό
και σώζει μέν τον Διόνυσον άχραντον).65 In both versions of Dionysus' resur-
rection or awakening it is his body that rises (even if it had to be remade from his
heart). Philodemus, for example, makes it clear that his body was put back to-
gether. This conception of Dionysus' resurrected body is patently material.

4.3.3 Adonis
Theocritus (third century bce), in his idyll on the Adonia in Alexandria,
describes Aphrodite rejoicing with her husband (νυν μέν Κύπρις εχοισα τον
αύτάς χαιρέτω άνδρα), although he leaves the next day, and the chorus
mourns:66

έρπεις, ώ φίλ' Άδωνι, και ένθάδε κής Αχέροντα

ήμιθέων, ώς φαντί, μονώτατος.

You alone of the demigods, as they say, beloved Adonis, go both here (to this
world) and also to Acheron.67

The scholiast to Theocritus writes that Adonis spends six months with Aphrodite
and six months with Persephone:

It is said that after death Adonis spent six months in the arms of Aphrodite and
six more in the arms of Persephone (λέγεται δέ περί του Άδώνιδος, οτι και
άποθανών ό Άδωνις εξ μήνας έποίησεν έν ταΐς άγκάλαις τής Αφροδίτης,
ώσπερ και έν ταις άγκάλαις τής Περσεφόνης). This which is said is real,
because Adonis, that is, the grain which is sown, passes six months in the
ground after the sowing, and Aphrodite has him for six months, which is the
mildness of the open air. And after that people harvest him.68

64 See M. L. West, The Orphic Poems (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983) 151 and 161-2.
Firmicus Maternus, Err. 6.4; Proclus, In Plat. Tim. comm. 35a (11.145 Diehl); Clement of
Alexandria, Prot. 2.18.1-2 (the heart still palpitates, but Apollo buries the limbs of Dionysus
in Parnassus (cf. the reference to Orpheus in 2.17.2)); Scholia in Lycophr. 355; and Proclus,
Hymni 7.1111) :14‫ )־‬κραδίην έσάωσας (Athena: 'saving his heart4‫( ;)׳‬13‫ )־‬νέος ... | έκ
Σεμέλης περί κόσμον άνηβήση Διόνυσος ('... from Semele, around the cosmos, would
grow again a new Dionysus‫)׳‬.
65 Proclus, In Plat. Tim. comm. 24d (BT 1.168 Diehl). Cf. Proclus, In Plat. Cratyl. 406bc, §182 (BT
106 Pasquali): έπει και έν τη διασπαράξει των Τιτάνων μόνη ή καρδία αδιαίρετος
μεΐναι λέγεται, τουτέστιν ή άμερής τού νοϋ ουσία. See Orphei hymni 53 for the trieteric
'awakening‫ ׳‬of chthonic Dionysos (χθόνιον Διόνυσον | έγρόμενον) and the comment in
Nilsson, Dionysiac Mysteries, 40.
66 Theocritus, Id. 15.129-43.
67 Theocritus, Id. 15.136-7.
68 Schol. in Theocr. Id. 3-48d.
 Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15 69

Lucian apparently witnessed this ritual in the temple of Byblian Aphrodite:

έπεάν δέ άποτύψωνταί τε και άποκλαύσωνται, πρώτα μέν καταγίζουσι τώ

Άδώνιδι οκως έόντι νέκυι, μετά δέ τη έτέρη ήμερη ζώειν τέ μιν
μυθολογέουσι και ές τον ήέρα πέμπουσι.

After they have finished beating their breasts and lamenting, they first make
offerings to Adonis as to the dead, and afterwards, on the next day, they
claim [or ‘recite the myth‫ ]׳‬that he lives and send him into the air.69

Jane L. Lightfoot draws attention to the parallel between Ps.-Nonnos's

άναβεβιωκέναι τον Άδωνιν (‘Adonis had come to life again‫ )׳‬and Lucian‫׳‬s
ζώειν τέ μιν μυθολογέουσι.70 Brigitte Soyez argues that any attempt to reduce
'he is alive' to a theatrical scene, the erection of a pillar symbolising Adonis,
irony or a mystical illusion is simply a fundamental misconstrual of the
meaning of the text.71 Lightfoot thinks that ‘alive' refers to the ‘sharing arrange-
ment with six months in either world'.72 Adonis' body is physically present with
Persephone and Aphrodite and this corresponds closely with resurrected
bodies in Christian tradition.

4.3.4 Tyrian Heracles

A number of individuals in the ancient Mediterranean identified Tyrian
Heracles with Melqart.73 An illuminating passage from Josephus refers to
Menander's account of Hiram of Tyre's reign:74

69 Lucian, De dea Syria 6; trans. J. L. Lightfoot, ed., trans. and comm., Lucian: On the Syrian
Goddess (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003) 251. After πέμπουσι Lightfoot, ibid., 250
inserts a period with H. Seyrig, ‘La résurrection d'Adonis et le texte de Lucien‫׳‬, Syria 49
(1972) 97-100, esp. 99. Lightfoot (pp. 184-208) convincingly defends the authorship of Lucian.
70 Lightfoot, Lucian, 311. See Ps.-Nonnos, Scholia Mythologica Oratio 5, historia 5 (CCSG 27.269‫־‬
70 Nimmo Smith).
71 B. Soyez, Byblos et la fête des Adonies (EPRO 60; Leiden: Brill, 1977) 38, with reference to G.
Roux, ‘Sur deux textes relatifs à Adonis‫׳‬, RPh 41 (1967) 259-64, esp. 262-4.
72 Lightfoot, Lucian, 311. She refers to Lucian, Dial d. 19.1 έξ ήμισείας άφείλετό με τον
έρώμενον (‘you have taken away half of my beloved‫)׳‬. The resurrection tradition corresponds
to later Christian witnesses (some only mention the finding of Adonis): Origen, Sel. in Ezech.
8.14 (PG 13.797-800) χαίρουσιν έπ‫ ׳‬αύτω ώς άπό νεκρών άναστάντι; Jerome, Ezech. 3.8 ad
8.14 (CCSL 75 99.285-301 Glorie); Cyril of Alexandria, Is. 18.1-2 (PG 70.441); Procopius, Is.
18.2 (PG 87/2.2140). Cf. PGM iv.2902-3.
73 See e.g. the bilingual inscription from second century bce in Malta that mentions Heracles and
Melqart in Greek and Phoenician. M. G. G. Amadasi, Le iscrizioni fenicie e puniche delle
colonie in Occidente (Roma: Istituto di studi del Vicino Oriente, 1967) §1 and 1 bis, pp.
15-16 = IG X1V.600.

74 On Menander of Ephesus, cf. J. M. G. Barclay, trims, and comm., Flavius Josephus: Translation
and Commentary, vol. x: Against Apion (Leiden: Brill, 2007) 72 (his date and identity are un-
certain). Suda 2898 Ερατοσθένης (‘Menander‫ ׳‬was one of Eratosthenes' pupils).
70 JOHN GRANGER COOK

Moreover he went off and cut timber from the mountain called Libanos for the
roofs of the temples, and pulled down the ancient temples and erected new
ones to Heracles and Astarte; and he was the first to celebrate the awakening
of Heracles in the month of Peritius (πρώτος τε του Ήρακλέους εγερσιν
έποιήσατο εν τφ Περιτίφ μηνί).75

There is a parallel text in the Contra Apionem:

He demolished ancient temples and built new ones, both to Heracles and to
Astarte. He initiated the 'Awakening‫ ׳‬of Heracles, in the month of Peritios
(πρώτον τε τού Ήρακλέους εγερσιν έποιήσατο έν τώ Περιτίφ μηνί) ...76

John Μ. G. Barclay notes that the Latin translator and others have understood the
text to mean '"erection" of a temple77.‫׳‬78
He argues that ‘it is not clear why Heracles‫׳‬
temple should be so singled out (L wrongly adds a reference to Astarte‫׳‬s as well...)
nor why it should be dated so precisely. Menander is probably referring to the in-
stitution of an annual festival of the "Awakening" of the God ...,78 'Resuscitation‫׳‬
or 'resurrection‫ ׳‬would probably be good translations for εγερσιν in the texts in
Josephus.79
An inscription is relevant, which mentions an individual named Martas from
Philadelphia/Amman, who is έγερσε|[ίτην του] Ήρακλέ/ου[ς] [βουλ]ε[υ]τήν
και I πρ[όεδρο]ν ('resuscitator of Heracles, councillor and proedros (presi-
dent)80.(‫ ׳‬Έγερσείτης was probably a cultic term (Erwecker des Herakles

75 Josephus, A.J. 8.145-6 = FGrH 783 F1; trans. H. St. J. Thackeray, R. Marcus et al, eds. and
trans., Josephus: Jewish Antiquities (LCL; 10 vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
1926-65) v.649-51 (Marcus).
76 Josephus, C. Ap. 1.118-19; trans. Barclay, Josephus, 73·
77 Barclay, Josephus, 73. Cf. Cassiodorus, Jos. c. Ap. 1.18.119 {fecit erectionem mense Peritio; CSEL
37.27.1 Boysen). Thackeray (Thackery, Marcus et al, Josephus, 1.211) also translated the text
with ‘erected‫׳‬. L (codex Laurentianus plut. 69 cod. 22, eleventh century ce) adds ειτα τό της
Άστάρτης after μηνί and omits εγερσιν. Eusebius, Chron. (A. Schoene, ed., Eusebi chroni-
corum libri duo (Berlin: Weidmann 1875) 1.118) has εγερσιν. On the text, see B. Niese, ed.,
Flavii Iosephi Opera, vol. v (Berlin: Weidmann 1889) 21, apparatus criticus. Niese retains
L‫׳‬s πρώτον (an adverbial use).
78 Barclay, Josephus, 734‫־‬, with reference to Athenaeus, Deipn. 9.392DE and 1 Kings 18.27-8.
Mettinger, Riddle, 90 makes a similar argument: 'it would be nonsensical to say that Hiram
was the first who built the temple X in the month of Y, while it makes excellent sense to
say that the king was the first to celebrate a certain festival in a certain month‫׳‬. See the ex-
tensive analysis by C. Clermont-Ganneau, ‘L,Égersis d'Héraclès et le réveil des dieux‫׳‬, Recueil
d'archéologie orientale 8 (1924) 149-67.
79 É. Lipmski, 'La fête de l'ensevelissement et de la résurrection de Melqart‫׳‬, Actes de la xvue ren-
contre assyriologique internationale (Ham-sure-Heure: Comité belge de recherches en
Mésopotamie, 1970) 30-58, esp. 30 translates the word as ‘resurrection‫׳‬.
80 IGLSyr xxi/2.29. Lipmski, ‘La fête56 ,31 ,‫ ׳‬translates the word as ‘resuscitator‫ ׳‬as does C.
Bonnet, Melqart: Cultes et mythes de l'Héraclès tyrien en Méditerranée (Studia Phoenicia 8;
Leuven: Peeters, 1988) 144-8 (on the proper reconstruction and interpretation of the offices
 Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15 71

'awakener of Heracles') and not a term meaning 'temple constructor'. Corinne

Bonnet argues that each year in February and March there was a festival of
Egersis, which comprised the burning of Melqart (Tyrian Heracles), the subse-
quent mourning, and his awakening or resurrection.81 If this interpretation
(and reconstruction) of έγερσείτης is correct, then there were individuals asso-
dated with the resuscitation of Tyrian Heracles/Melqart.
It is probable that Eudoxus of Cnidus' reference to the resurrection of Tyrian
Heracles illuminates the festival:

Eudoxus of Cnidus, in the first book of his descriptive geography of the earth,
says that the Phoenicians sacrifice quails to Heracles, because when Heracles,
the son of Asteria and Zeus, was going to Libya he was killed by Typhon. But
when Iolaus brought him a quail and set it near him, he smelled it and
came to life again (Ίολάου δ‫ ׳‬αύτω προσενέγκαντος ορτυγα και
προσαγαγόντος όσφρανθέντα άναβιώναι).82

Άναβιώναι in context clearly implies that Heracles was raised from the dead.
Eudoxus' account is undeniably of a material body. Menander and the inscrip-
tions that mention an official who was the 'raiser/awakener of Heracles' also
imply that Heracles' body is the object of the rituals.

4.3.5 Attis
The narratives of a resurrection of Attis are late, at best. In Pausanias'
(second century ce) Lydian version of the Attis myth, Attis is either killed by a
boar or goes mad during a wedding and castrates himself when Agdistis, in
love with Attis, interrupts the youth's wedding:

But Agdistis repented of what he had done to Attis, and persuaded Zeus to grant
that the body of Attis should neither rot at all nor decay (μήτε σήπεσθαί τι
Άττη του σώματος μήτε τήκεσθαι).83

listed). Cf. Mettinger, Riddle, 901‫־‬. An inscription from Ramlah also mentions an 'awakener/
resuscitator‫( ׳‬έγερσ[είτου]), probably of Heracles. Cf. C. Clermont-Ganneau, 'Inscriptions
grecques de Palestine‫׳‬, Recueil d'archéologie orientale 7 (1906) 1748‫־‬, esp. 175; idem,
'L'inscription grecque d'Amman‫׳‬, Recueil d'archéologie orientale 8 (1924) 121-5, esp. 125;
Bonnet, Melqart, 131-2. Lipmski, 'La fête56-7 ,‫ ׳‬notes that the Ramlah inscription refers to
the cult of Heracles, because of the function (resuscitator).
81 Bonnet, Melqart, 104-13.
82 Athenaeus, Deipn. 9.392DE = Eudoxus, fr. 284a Lasserre. Cf. Zenobius (second century ce),
Epit. 5.56 = Eudoxus, ff. 284b Lasserre.
83 Pausanias 7.17.10-12 (text from 12); trans. W. H. S. Jones, ed. and trans., Pausanias:
Description of Greece (LCL; 4 vols.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1918-35) 111.269.
72 JOHN GRANGER COOK

In Arnobius‫ ׳‬version of the myth, which is presumably based on Timotheus

('the Athenian Eumolpid‫)׳‬, an author who wrote ca. 300 bce, only Attis‫ ׳‬littie
finger survives death:84

lupiter refuses Acdestis‫ ׳‬request that Attis might come back to life (Iuppiter
rogatus ab Acdesti ut Attis revivesceret non sinit). But what is possible by con-
cession of fate, this he grants without objecting: that his body should not
decay, that his hair should ever grow, that the very smallest of his fingers
should live and alone react by continued motion (ne corpus eius putrescat, cres-
cant ut comae semper, digitorum ut minimissimus vivat et perpetuo solus agite-
tur e motu). Satisfied with these favors, Acdestis, it is said, consecrated the body
in Pessinus, and honored it with annual rites and with a sacred ministry.85

Smith notes the 'second to fourth century ad reinterpretation, within some of the
"mystery" cults, of archaic locative traditions of dead deities in new experimental
modes which appear to testify to these deities returning to life. In the case of Attis,
there are only scattered hints of this process.86‫׳‬
Hippolytus, in his discussion of the Naassenes, affirms a resurrection for Attis
(who is called 'Pappas‫ ׳‬in the text).87 The anonymous source ('he‫ )׳‬is a 'Gnostic88‫׳‬
author whom Hippolytus does not name:

λέγουσι δέ oi Φρύγες <τόν> αυτόν τούτον και νέκυν, οίονεί εν μνήματι

και τάφφ έγκατωρυγμένον εν τφ σώματι ... οι δέ αύτοί, φησί, Φρύγες
τον αυτόν τούτον πάλιν έκ μεταβολής λέγουσι θεόν· γίνεται γάρ, φησί,
θεός, όταν έκ νεκρών άναστάς διά τής τοιαύτης πύλης είσελεύσεται εις
τον ούρανόν.

But the Phrygians say that the same one is also a 'corpse‫׳‬, having been buried in
the body as in a monument or tomb ... And the same Phrygians, he says again,
say that this same one is by reason of the change a god. For he becomes a god
when he arises from the dead and enters into heaven through the same gate
[the gate of the heavens].89

84 See J. N. Bremmer, ‘Attis: A Greek God in Anatolian Pessinous and Catullan Rome‫׳‬,
Mnemosyne 57 (2004) 53473‫־‬, esp. 542-4 (who emphasises Alexander Polyhistor's use of
Timotheus as a source; cf. FrGH 273 F 74), reprinted in his Greek Religion and Culture, the
Bible and the Ancient Near East (Leiden: Brill, 2008) 267-302.
85 Arnobius, Nat 5.7 (CSLP 256 Marchesi); trans. G. E. McCracken, trans. and comm., Arnobius
ofSicca: The Case Against the Pagans (ACW 8; 2 vols.; Westminster, MD: Newman, 1949) n.417.
86 Smith, Drudgery Divine, 133.
87 Diod. Sic. 3.59.4 Άττιν, ύστερον δ‫ ׳‬έπικληθέντα Πάπαν (‘Attis, later called Papas').
88 The cautionary quotes indicate the problematic nature of the concept.
89 Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.23-4; trans. modified from F. Legge, Philosophumena or the Refutation of
All Heresies ... (London: SPCK, 1921) 135.
 Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15 73

Firmicus Maternus also is a late witness to a resurrection of Attis. After describing

Attis's death at the hands of Cybele, he says:

They (the Phrygians) advanced the claim that he whom they had buried a little
while earlier had come to life again (Phryges ... quern paulo ante sepelierant
revixisse iactarunt); and since the woman's heart burned unbearably with over-
weening love, they erected temples to the dead youth ... His death they inter-
prêt as the storing away of the collected seeds, his return to life as the sprouting
of the scattered seeds in the annual turn of the seasons ( vitam rursus quod iacta
semina annuis vicibus reconduntur).90

The conclusion of Jan Bremmer has the strongest warrant: ‫׳‬Attis' "resurrection" is
not mentioned before the third century and seems closely connected with the rise
of Christianity, just like the "resurrection" of Adonis is not mentioned before the
third century'.91 The question of analogy and genealogy in the history of religions
is controversial.92 The resurrection is bodily (i.e. material) in Firmicus Matemus.
The buried Attis rises again. The ‫׳‬Gnostic' Phrygians of Hippolytus, however,
relate the bodily resurrection of Attis to the spiritual resurrection of the pneuma-
tikoi who are ‫׳‬bom again from the bodies of the earthly' (τουτέστιν έκ των
σωμάτων των χοϊκών, άναγεννηθέντες πνευματικοί, ού σαρκικοί).93

5· Protesilaus the Hero

Protesilaus was the first Greek hero to die in Troy.94 Philostratus, in the
Heroikos (a dialogue between a Phoenician and a vinedresser in Elaious),
asserts that Protesilaus returned to life twice.95 The Phoenician asks, ‫׳‬Has he
come back to life, or what has happened?‫( ׳‬άναβεβιωκώς ή τί;). After persuading
his wife to return with him to Hades, he returned to life again:

Phoen.: And yet he is said to have died after he came to life again (άποθανειν
γε μετά τό άναβιώναι λέγεται) and to have persuaded his wife to follow him.

He himself also says these things. But how he returned afterwards too,
V1NEDR.:
he does not tell me even though I've wanted to find out for a long time. He is

90 Firmicus Maternus, Err. 3.1-2; trans. slightly modified from C. A. Forbes, trans. and annot.,
Firmicus Maternus: The Error of the Pagan Religions (ACW 37; New York: Newman, 1970)
47-8.
91 Bremmer, ‘Attis547 ,‫ = ׳‬Bremmer, Greek Religion, 280. I would amend this statement in the
case of Attis to ‘second century‫׳‬, the date of Lucian, who probably wrote De dea Syria.
92 Smith's Drudgery Divine is a case in point, and see the response of Bremmer ('Resurrection‫׳‬,
106 = Rise and Fall, 54).
93 Hippolytus, Haer. 5.8.23.
94 Homer, II. 2.695-710.
95 Philostratus, Heroik. 2.7-11. See Lucian, Dial. mort. 28.1-2.
74 JOHN GRANGER COOK

hiding, he says, some secret of the Fates (Μοιρών τι άπόρρητον). His fellow
soldiers also, who were there in Troy, still appear on the plain, warlike in
posture and shaking the crests of their helmets.96

Jonathan Burgess argues that it is the 'shade of Protesilaos' who 'spends time with
Laodameia in Hades' and who 'appears to humans in Phthia and in Elaious97.‫׳‬
This is warranted given the vinedresser's assertion, when asked to explain the
nature of his association with Protesilaus and his ability to foretell the future, that

[t]0 be cleansed of the body is the beginning of life for divine and thus blessed
souls (ψυχαΐς γάρ θείαις οϋτω και μακαρίαις άρχή βίου τό καθαρεϋσαι
τού σώματος). For the gods, whose attendants they are, they then know, not
by worshipping statues and conjectures, but by gaining visible association
with them. And free from the body and its diseases (έλεύθεραι νόσων τε
και σώματος), souls observe the affairs of mortals, both when souls are
filled with prophetic skill and when the oracular power sends Bacchic frenzy
upon them.98

Antonio Stramaglia describes Protesilaus and Palamedes (Heroik. 21.6) as 'souls

that have been heroized' (anime eroizzate).99 This explains why the narrative of
Protesilaus' return to life is consistent with his body being buried in the
Chersonesus.100 It also explains the absence of the verbs άνίστημι and εγείρω
to describe Protesilaus' return to life, and the use of the more ambiguous
άναβιόω ‫ ־‬a verb avoided by the New Testament.

6. Conclusion

On the basis of the semantics of άνίστημι and έγείρω and the cultural en-
cyclopedia of resurrected bodies, one can conclude that Paul would have
assumed that the tradition about the burial of Christ and his resurrection on
the third day presupposed a tradition of an empty tomb. To put it another way:
Paul would have taken it for granted that the resurrection of Christ was

96 Philostratus, Heroik. 2.10-11; trans. J. K. Berenson Maclean and E. Bradshaw Aitken, Flavius
Philostratus: Heroikos, trans. with intro, and notes (SBLWGRW 1; Atlanta: SBL, 2001) 911‫·־‬
Cf. 58.1-2 on the inviolable secret of how he returned to life.
97 J. S. Burgess, The Death and Afterlife of Achilles (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press,
2009) no, with reference to Heroik. 11.7-8.
98 Phüostratus, Heroik. 7.3; trans. Maclean and Aitken, Philostratus: Heroikos, 19-21.
99 A. Stramaglia, Res inauditae, incredulae: storie di fantasmi nel mondo greco-latino (Bari:
Levante, 1999) 317· T. Mantero, Ricerche sw//Heroikos di Filostrato (Genova: Istitute di
Filologia Classica e Medioevale, 1966) 81 refers to Phüostratus, Heroik. 43-3 where
Protesilaus is called a daemon. I thank Professor Stramaglia for his comments to me on
this problem (30 March 2015, personal communication).
100 Phüostratus, Heroik. 9.1.
 Resurrection in Paganism and the Question of an Empty Tomb in 1 Corinthians 15 75

inconceivable without an empty tomb. Consequently, according to the normal

conventions of communication, he did not need to mention the tomb tradition.
The following objections may arise:

(1) One could assert that the semantic analysis of άνίστημι and εγείρω is wrong -
that is, the verbs do not imply physical motion upward. In this case, the
burden is on the scholar in question to show that in the context of resurrec-
tion, either άνίστημι or έγείρω is used to refer only and clearly to spirits,
souls or astral bodies in a pagan or Jewish text. This is not to deny that
there was a spiritual or metaphorical usage of resurrection words in the
New Testament and early Christianity (Col 2.12; 3.1; Eph 2.56‫)־‬. The meta-
phorical uses in the deutero-Paulines, however, are based on the image of
the resurrection of Christ.
(2) One can respond that some ancient Jews in the Second Temple period
believed in a resurrection of the spirit. Again the burden is on such scholars
to prove that verbs (e.g. the Hebrew ‫ המקים‬as in Sir 48.5 = ό έγείρας LXX;
tan&a in Ethiopie; etc.) or nouns for resurrection are combined syntactic-
ally (or semantically) with terms such as 'spirit‫ ׳‬or 'soul‫׳‬. Such evidence is
absent.
(3) One could argue that pagan attitudes towards resurrection are irrelevant for
the understanding of the New Testament - in particular, of PauTs views in 1
Cor 15. However, Paul's readers from pagan backgrounds would have
viewed resurrection (as opposed to the immortality of the soul) as bodily.
In that respect, there is a certain continuity between ancient Judaism and
paganism, which is of fundamental importance for understanding the
New Testament in its ancient context.
(4) One could accept the truth of the three premises above and still deny the
conclusion for which I have argued. After all, the argument is not deductive,
but inductive. In our guild as historians one can only appeal to probability,
however, and if the premises are true, then the conclusion seems unavoidable:
Paul could not have conceived of a resurrection of Clirist without believing that
his tomb was empty.
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