There is a popular declaration among Christians the world over this time of year. Quoting the messenger at Jesus’s tomb the declaration is made, “His is risen!” And then people respond: “He is risen indeed!”.
But that English declaration is actually incorrect, or is an incorrect translation. The angelic declaration about Jesus is not about what Jesus did, but about what someone else, namely God, did to Jesus. In Greek, the declaration is a passive. Jesus was acted upon. He received the action of the verb in the sentence. A more correct declaration is “He has been raised!” or, “He was raised”.
That is, someone else raised Jesus.
“He has been raised!” (Passive verb)
Matthew 28:5-7 (Mark 16:6, Luke 24:6)
5 But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.
6 He is not here, for he has been raised, just as he said. Come and see the place where he was lying.
7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead. (NET)
NET note: “The verb here is passive (ἠγέρθη, eogertheo). This "divine passive" (see ExSyn 437–38) points to the fact that Jesus was raised by God.”
REV Matthew 28:6 translation and commentary gets the passive verb right.
So does the Complete Jewish Bible and Common English Bible:
Matthew 28:6 He is not here, because he has been raised- just as he said!
Unfortunately, the NET Bible failed to translate the passive verb correctly in the same chapter, Matthew 27:63. The religious leaders speaking to Pilate: "Sir (Lord/kurios), we remember that while that deceiver was still alive he said, 'After three days I will rise again.'
The verb again is passive: “I will be raised” (CJB gets it right...). Compare Matthew 17:23, 20:19, “They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised" (passive).
Active or Middle Voice “rise”
There are a few places in the New Testament where an active verb, or what in Greek is called
a “middle” voice, are used in describing the rising of Jesus from the dead. A couple examples:
Luke 18:33 they will scourge him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise." (RSV) - verb indicative future middle
Luke 24:7 that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise." (RSV) - verb infinitive aorist active from ἀνίστημι
Some deity of Christ believers like to point to verses like these to claim that Jesus raised himself from the dead. But this is a mistake, for several reasons:
1) Insisting that Jesus raised himself from the dead creates a contradiction with the multitude of Scriptures, some which I’ll mention in just a minute that declare that God, someone else other than Jesus, specifically, the Father, raised Jesus from the dead. And, claiming that Jesus raised himself from the dead creates contradictions with the other Scriptures like the ones we just described where Jesus is said to be acted on from the outside, that he was raised from the dead (passive) by someone else. The Bible is not presenting a confusing contradiction that says that both Jesus and someone else raised Jesus from the dead. Either Jesus, or someone else, gave life again to Jesus. It can’t be both.
2) The confusion is partly connected to the action related to the words raise, rise, be raised. While “rising from the dead” is a good metaphor for coming out from the dead, the question is really who gives the life that enables one to rise from the dead. We see the same active sense where other people in addition to Jesus also take an active role in “rising from the dead”, but they are obviously not the ones who gave themselves the life that enable them to rise from the dead.
John 11:23 Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise." (RSV) “come back to life again” - verb indicative future middle
Mark 12:25 For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. (RSV) - verb subjunctive aorist active
The minority of biblical verses that describe the role of Jesus “rising from the dead” are in the same category of other human beings who are described in the same way. God gives life, and then people can “rise” from the dead.
3) Another reason that it is wrong to claim that Jesus raised himself from the dead is that the overwhelming declaration of the Bible is that God, someone other than Jesus, gave life again to Jesus, or raised Jesus from the dead. There are over 30 places in the New Testament that explicitly state that God - a singular person who is differentiated from the Lord Jesus Christ - that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Here are a few examples:
Acts 2:22-24 "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know- 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.
Acts 2:32 This Jesus, God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses.
Acts 3:15 you… put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead,
Acts 4:10 Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead-
Acts 5:30-31 The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand.
Acts 10:39-40 They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear
Acts 13:30 But God raised him from the dead,
1 Corinthians 6:14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power.
Galatians 1:1. “… God the Father, who raised him from the dead…”
Colossians 2:12 …through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead.
Note that in all the passages quoted above, and in many more like it, God, a singular person, God entire, all of God, is distinguished from “Jesus”, “Christ”, or “him” - the one whom God raised up. The one whom God raised up was not God, but is distinguished from God.
Jesus was raised - Passive
And then, like the “Easter” greeting mentioned above, there are many more Scriptures that describe Jesus as being acted upon in a passive sense in his resurrection, meaning, that Jesus was acted upon by God, like this:
Romans 6:9 We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
1 Corinthians 15:17 (13, 14, 16, 20) And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
There are lots more examples. To claim or believe that Jesus raised himself from the dead contradicts all these scriptures that directly state that God raised him from the dead, and that Jesus was raised (passive) from the dead.
Did God die?
Traditional Christianity seems to be really confused as to just who died on that cross some 2000 years ago. I hear conflicting claims. Often people, even preachers, will say that “God died”, like the Charles Wesley hymn, “Amazing love! how can it be, That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?”
Or Max Lucato, touted as a New York Times Best Selling (Christian) Author who posted recently about a book he wrote saying: “God is on a cross. The Creator of the universe is being executed. It is no normal six hours… it is no normal Friday.”
Folks, if your theology brings you to a place where you think God died, you better re-think your theology. Such a claim is completely non-biblical, contradictory to the Bible. The Bible says categorically that God is immortal. God does not die
(Rom. 1:23, 1 Tim 1:17 “immortal, invisible, the only God”, 1 Tim. 6:16).
Other Christians will say, “Well, it was only the human Jesus who died, or the humanity of Jesus who died”. My response is that a dual-natured Jesus is made up figment of peoples’ imagination, and he is a liar. The Bible never says the God-man who died is our mediator. The Bible only says the man Christ Jesus died and is our mediator (e.g., Rom. 5:15, 1 Cor. 15:21, 1 Tim 2:4-5).
I suggest that the so-called dual-natured, fully-god-fully-man Jesus of modern Christianity is a dual-minded liar. Ask your Jesus a question: Did you die? If your Jesus says “No (the god Jesus) and yes (the human Jesus)”, he is a liar and is not the biblical Jesus. If your Jesus hesitates and has to explain how something of him died but something else of him didn’t die, you have a lying, false Jesus.
The biblical Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God, the Lord Messiah declares for all to hear: “I was dead” (Rev. 1:18).
Dishonoring the man, the human person, Jesus of Nazareth
Let’s not dishonor the Lord Messiah, the man Jesus who died for us, and give credit to some imagined “god” who took on a human nature, then for a short while supposedly shed himself of that human nature, and then again supposedly put that human nature back on – a re-incarnation.
Instead, may we declare with grateful and confident hearts what the messengers at the tomb that new morning declared:
“He has been raised!”. He has been raised indeed!
Web resources for this episode:
Two verses in John’s Gospel: Did Jesus Raise Himself from the dead?”
NET Translation and Note on Matthew 27:6
https://netbible.org/bible/Matthew+28
Revised English Version note on Matthew 27:6
https://www.revisedenglishversion.com/Matthew/28/6
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