Jesus: A Very Short Introduction

by Richard Bauckham

All the Gospels except Mark tell at least two of these stories of Jesus’ ‘appearances’, but it is evident that there were quite a lot of such stories from which the Gospel writers chose a few. In fact, the earliest account of them comes from Paul, writing in the year AD 52 or 53. He reproduces an established list which he had received from the Jerusalem apostles and which lists Jesus’ appearances after his death to the following: Cephas (that is, Simon Peter, the leading member of the twelve), the twelve, five hundred believers at the same time (most of whom, Paul notes, were still alive when he was writing), James (Jesus’ brother, who became a leading figure in the early Christian movement), ‘all the apostles’ (a larger category than the twelve), and finally Paul himself. Paul, who admits that his own encounter with the risen Christ was somewhat anomalous, had added himself to a traditional list.