Jesus, The Last Days.

Book Review.
Evans Craig A. Wright N.T. Jesus, The Final Days. What really happened. Westminster, John Knox Press. 2994.
C.E.- director of graduate program at Acadia Divinity College in Canada.
N.T.W.- Bishop of Durham in the Church of England.
Comment. Henry.
The contents of this book were first given as lectures in the ‘Symposium for Church and Academy’ at Crichton College. Critics of Christianity often focus on and seek to discredit, three crucial events of the Christian faith; the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. The three essays that make up this book are an apologetic of these events.
The reality of Jesus’ death is a matter of obvious historical evidence. Four reasons are presented for Jesus’ death. Jesus anticipated his own death. There were Jewish and Roman implications of Jesus’ death. Mockery had a legitimate place in the process. Jesus’ final shout was a shout of death not the shout of a victorious Messiah. This created theological problems for Jews who were looking for a reigning Messiah and for Jesus’ followers.
Jews followed Scriptural commands when it came to proper burial procedures. Doubts concerning Jesus’ burial are addressed in terms of how these procedures were followed.
Some of the controversies surrounding Jesus’ resurrection arise out of the stories of eye witnesses in the gospels. Other doubts come as a result of the language that is used in the ancient world regarding resurrection. There were “early Christian distinctives on resurrection”. (81) Wright identifies “seven mutations/alterations” (84) of the Christian view of the Jewish understanding of resurrection. There is ample historical argument for the burial and resurrection of Jesus.
Those who would discredit the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus do so for personal reasons. The acceptance of these ‘facts’ comes with a need to make personal choices of acceptance or rejection. Rejection of the facts happened immediately after Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and they have continued in various forms to this day. What really happened does matter.