Every Sunday we proclaim our belief the Risen Lord in the Creed: “And rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.” The phrase “according to the Scriptures” builds directly upon Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.
1 Cor 15:3-4
The Old Testament doesn’t seem at first glance to speak clearly of the Resurrection; other aspects of Jesus’ ministry and even his death seem more clearly prophesied. Yet, the Church proclaims the Resurrection as the fulfillment of the Scriptures. I think this refers not so much to an individual prophecy, but the fulfillment of them all. The Resurrection fulfills God’s plan of salvation.
The magnificent Chora Church in Constantinople demonstrates this understanding of the Resurrection as Jesus pulls Adam and Eve up from the grave, with other Old Testament figures close at hand (David and Solomon to the left and Moses and Abel on the right, for instance). Jesus has not only undone death; he has done so in a way that reverses the actions of our first parents.
Even with the more general understand of the Resurrection’s fulfillment of God’s promises, we can still look at how the Resurrection fulfills Old Testament prophecies. If only we were there on the road to Emmaus when Jesus himself explained it.
And he said to them, “O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.
Luke 24:25-27
Jesus leaves it to us to reconstruct how the whole of Scripture points to the need for the Messiah to die and be raised again. He did give us one clue in his teaching, however: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matt 12:40).
We may not have Jesus’ explanation, but we do have explanations from Peter and Paul within Acts of the Apostles. In the first sermon of the Church, preached on Pentecost, Peter points to Psalm 16: “Moreover my flesh will dwell in hope. For thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let thy Holy One see corruption” (vv 16-17). A couple of chapters later, Peter references Psalm 118, pointing to Jesus as the cornerstone (Acts 4:11). The same psalm, a song of victory, speaks of God’s power over death: “I shall not die, but I shall live, and recount the deeds of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me sorely, but he has not given me over to death” (vv 17-18).
When we get to Paul’s sermons, starting in chapter 13 of Acts, we see that he also quotes the psalms to refer to the Resurrection: Psalm 2 that points to Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father and the same verses from Psalm 16. So far, this looks a lot like Peter’s sermon (where he used Psalm 110 in a way similar to Psalm 2), but Paul also quotes Isaiah 55:3 where he shows how the Resurrection fulfills the covenant to David. These two sermons do not provide a full theology of the Resurrection, even as they indicate how in the earliest preaching of the Church the Resurrection was seen as fulfilling the Scriptures, as the Messiah overcomes death to establish an unending throne in Heaven.
Why does it matter to say that Jesus rose “according to the Scriptures”? We can certainly trace the Resurrection throughout the Old Testament. From the protoevangelium where the offspring of the woman crushes the serpent’s head, who struck at his heal (the Cross); the sparing of Abraham’s firstborn son from death on Mt. Moriah; to the cross-like sign of the serpent bringing back life after the serpent bites in the desert; the promise of vindication for the suffering servant in Isaiah; and the image of the Son of Man enthroned in heaven in Daniel. This is still just brushing the surface, but God made the promise of life through the Messiah to stand at the center of the story of salvation history, a story that we receive as a promise as well. We enter into the covenant of eternal life when we accept the Risen Lord as our lord and king and live under the mantle of his protection.
The Resurrection is a triumph that should bring rejoicing. Just as Chora’s icon depicts the glory of the Resurrection visibly, so we can listen to a masterful musical embodiment of the Creed’s text. J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor captures the explosive power of the Resurrection, including the Latin text secundum Scripturas: “According to the Scriptures.” Bach translates the power of God’s promise in a way that should make the Creed hit home: he did this for you – as the Scripture itself testifies.
The line Et Resurrexit appears at 1:08.58 in the video of Bach’s Mass.
2 Comments
John H. · May 8, 2020 at 10:12 am
The translations I see don’t say “according to the Scriptures”, but “in accordance with the Scriptures”. The two are NOT the same. The former suggests an opinion; the latter states that this happening fulfilled the previous prophecies and predictions about the Messiah, affirming Jesus’ identity as such, and the reality that He had conquered death and sin.
Jared Staudt · May 8, 2020 at 10:22 am
The Latin is the same in the Creed and 1 Corinthians 15: secundum Scripturas. In Greek, it is also the same: kata tas Graphas.