"Why do the Gospels depict the risen Jesus as touchable and able to eat? J.D. Atkins challenges the common view that Luke 24 and John 20 are apologetic responses to docetism by re-examining the redaction of the appearance stories in light of their reception among early docetists and church fathers."--Page 4 of cover.

• Cover
• Titel
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• Abbreviations
• Part I: Introduction and Context
  • Chapter 1: Introduction
    • 1.1 The Antidocetic Hypothesis in Previous Scholarship
      • 1.1.1 The Materializing-Trajectory Theory and the Antidocetic Hypothesis
      • 1.1.2 The Resilience of the Antidocetic Hypothesis
      • 1.1.3 Objections to the Antidocetic Hypothesis
      • 1.1.4 Unexamined Presuppositions about Antidocetic Polemic
    • 1.2 Doubt as a Motif in the Resurrection Narratives
    • 1.3 The Doubt Motif in Previous Scholarship
      • 1.3.1 The Traditional View: Historical but Preserved for Apologetic Purposes
      • 1.3.2 The Transformational View: Historically Derived but Modified for Apologetic Purposes
      • 1.3.3 The Skeptical View: A Late, Apologetic Invention
      • 1.3.4 The Form-Critical View: Genre-derived but Modified for Apologetic Purposes
      • 1.3.5 A Consensus: Doubt as an Apologetic Device
      • 1.3.6 A Political View: Doubt as Slander
      • 1.3.7 Unexamined Presuppositions about the Doubt Motif
      • 1.3.7 Unexamined Presuppositions about the Doubt Motif
    • 1.4 Methodology
      • 1.4.1 Reception History as a Historical-Critical Tool
      • 1.4.2 Reception History and Unrecognized Modern Bias
      • 1.4.3 Reception History and Ancient Bias
      • 1.4.4 Methodology for Identifying Instances of Reception
      • 1.4.5 The Structure of This Study
  • Chapter 2: Gnosticism, Docetism, and Doubt in Context
    • 2.1 Gnosticism and Docetism
      • 2.1.1 Gnosticism: Terms and Concepts
      • 2.1.2 Docetism: Terms and Concepts
      • 2.1.3 Gnostic Interpretive Methods
      • 2.1.4 Docetization as an Interpretive Method
      • 2.1.5 Orthodoxy and Heresy
    • 2.2 Doubt and Unbelief in Early Christianity
      • 2.2.1 The Doubt Motif in the Resurrection Narratives
      • 2.2.2 Key Terms for Doubt and Unbelief
      • 2.2.3 Faith, Doubt, and Early Christian Identity
      • 2.2.4 Abraham’s Faith and the Apostles’ Doubt
      • 2.2.5 The Condemnation of Doubt and Unbelief in Early Christianity
      • 2.2.6 The Shame of Unbelief
      • 2.2.7 “Unbeliever” as a Term of Abuse
      • 2.2.8 Doubt as an Apologetic Device?
      • 2.2.9 EXCURSUS: Philo’s Suppression and Softening of Abraham’s Doubt
• Part II: The Reception of the Resurrection Narratives
  • Chapter 3: Two Early Readings of Luke 24: Docetic and Antidocetic
    • 3.1 Ignatius, Smyrn. 3–5
      • 3.1.1 Introduction
      • 3.1.2 Ignatius’s Sources and Antidocetic Redaction
      • 3.1.3 Conclusion
    • 3.2 The “Ophites” of Irenaeus, Haer. 1.30
      • 3.2.1 Introduction
      • 3.2.2 A Cumulative Case for the Ophite use of Luke
      • 3.2.3 The Ophite Response to Luke 24 and Its Implications
      • 3.2.4 Marcion and the Ophites: Luke’s Text and the Biblical Canon
    • 3.3 Conclusion
  • Chapter 4: The Great Omissions in Proto-Orthodox Apologetics: Doubts, Proofs, and the Resurrection of Jesus
    • 4.1 1 Clement
    • 4.2 The Preaching of Peter
    • 4.3 Justin Martyr
      • 4.3.1 Justin, 1 Apol. 50.12
      • 4.3.2 Justin, Dial. 106.1
      • 4.3.3 Justin, Dial. 53.5–6
      • 4.3.4 Justin, 1 Apol. 19–21
    • 4.4 Theophilus of Antioch, Autol. 1.13–14
    • 4.5 [Ps.-]Athenagoras of Athens, On the Resurrection
    • 4.6 Irenaeus
      • 4.6.1 Irenaeus, Haer. 5.7.1 and 5.31.2
      • 4.6.2 Irenaeus, Epid. 76
      • 4.7 3 Corinthians
    • 4.8 Tertullian
      • 4.8.1 Tertullian, Apol. 21 and 48–50
      • 4.8.2 Tertullian, Res. 34
    • 4.9 Conclusion
  • Chapter 5: Doubt and Gnosis
    • 5.1 Doubt as Opportunity in Gnostic Dialogues
      • 5.1.1 The Apocryphon of John
      • 5.1.2 The Gospel of Mary
      • 5.1.3 The Letter of Peter to Philip
    • 5.2 Doubt as Paradigm: Valentinian Readings
      • 5.2.1 Treatise on the Resurrection (a.k.a., Epistle to Rheginos)
      • 5.2.2 Heracleon’s Commentary on John
      • 5.2.3 EXCURSUS: Origen, Fr. Jo. 106
      • 5.2.4 The Tripartite Tractate
    • 5.3 Doubt and Gnostic/Proto-Orthodox Debates
  • Chapter 6: Further Readings of Luke 24: Responding to Resurrection as phantasia
    • 6.1 Marcion and Tertullian on Luke 24
      • 6.1.1 Introduction
      • 6.1.2 Luke’s Text before Marcion and Marcion as Editor
      • 6.1.3 Marcion’s Docetism and Criticism of Jesus’s Disciples
      • 6.1.4 Marcion and Tertullian on the Resurrection Narratives
      • 6.1.5 Conclusion
    • 6.2 [Ps.-]Justin, Res. 9.6–8
      • 6.2.1 Introduction
      • 6.2.2 The Opponents and Their Docetic Interpretation of Jesus’s Resurrection
      • 6.2.3 [Ps.-]Justin’s Antidocetic Redaction
      • 6.2.4 Conclusion
  • Chapter 7: The Different Glory (hetera doxa) of Docetism: The “Gospel” of the Acts of John (AJ)
    • 7.1 Introduction
    • 7.2 Source Analysis: Dependence on the Gospels
      • 7.2.1 Dependence on Luke
      • 7.2.2 The Author’s View of the Fourth Gospel
    • 7.3 Re-use of the Resurrection Narratives
      • 7.3.1 AJ 88.9–20: Polymorphy and the Non-recognition Motif in John 21
      • 7.3.2 AJ 90: The Transfiguration of Thomas’s Doubt
      • 7.3.3 AJ 92–93: A Docetic Replacement for Luke 24:36–43(53)?
      • 7.3.4 EXCURSUS: Did 1 John 1:1 Help Inspire the Docetic Christology in AJ 93.1–4?
  • Chapter 8: Casting out Doubt: The Longer Ending of Mark and the Epistula Apostolorum
    • 8.1 The Longer Ending of Mark and Its Early Reception
      • 8.1.1 The Exorcism of Doubt
      • 8.1.2 Trends in the Reception of the LE among Proto-orthodox Writers
      • 8.1.3 The LE, Polymorphism and Docetic Christology
      • 8.1.4 Conclusion
    • 8.2 The Epistula Apostolorum
      • 8.2.1 Introduction
      • 8.2.2 Dialogue, Dialectic, and Doubt (Ep. Apos. 12–50)
      • 8.2.3 Rewriting the LE of Mark (Ep. Apos. 10.1–11.4)
      • 8.2.4 Rewriting the Group Appearance Narrative (Ep. Apos. 11.2–12.2)
• Part III: Rereading the Resurrection Narratives
  • Chapter 9: The Case Against the Antidocetic Hypothesis
    • 9.1 The Abrupt Appearance
      • 9.1.1 The Abrupt Appearance in the Tradition and in Antidocetic Redaction
      • 9.1.2 The Abrupt Appearance in Luke 24:36
      • 9.1.3 The Abrupt Appearance in John 20:19, 26
    • 9.2 The “Flesh”
      • 9.2.1 The Emphasis on the Flesh in Antidocetic Redaction
      • 9.2.2 The Absence of Sarx in John 20
      • 9.2.3 The Single Occurrence of Sarx in Luke 24:36–49
    • 9.3 The Touch Test
      • 9.3.1 The Touch Test in Antidocetic Redaction
      • 9.3.2 The Touch Motif as Traditional: Preliminary Evidence
      • 9.3.3 The Portrayal of the Touch Test in John’s Narrative
      • 9.3.4 The Portrayal of the Touch Test in Luke’s Narrative
    • 9.4 The Doubt Motif in Luke 24:41
      • 9.4.1 The Reception of the Doubt of the Apostles and Luke 24:41
      • 9.4.2 The Doubt Motif in Lukan Redaction
    • 9.5 The Eating “Proof”
      • 9.5.1 The Eating “Proof” as Traditional Even among Docetists
      • 9.5.2 Luke vs. Antidocetic Writers on the Eating Proof
    • 9.6 Conclusion
  • Chapter 10: Towards a New Reading of Luke 24 and John 20
    • 10.1 Rereading Luke 24:36–49
      • 10.1.1 The Physical Proofs in Modern Bias
      • 10.1.2 Rereading Luke 24 with the Help of Justin Martyr
      • 10.1.3 Physical vs. Scriptural Proofs in Acts
      • 10.1.4 Physical vs. Scriptural Proofs in Luke: The Doubt Motif, Again
      • 10.1.5 What about the Eating “Proof”?
      • 10.1.6 Conclusion
    • 10.2 Rereading John 20:24–29
      • 10.2.1 The Presupposition of Humanity and the Argument for Divinity
      • 10.2.2 The Thomas Pericope and John’s Conception of Theophany
      • 10.2.3 Theophany of the Pierced God
      • 10.2.4 Conclusion
  • Chapter 11: Some Final Reflections
    • 11.1 The Resurrection Faith of the Early Church
    • 11.2 The Stigma of Doubt and the Origins of Easter Faith
• Appendix: Other Alleged Antidocetic Passages in Luke and John
  • A.1 Luke
    • A.1.1 Luke 1–2
    • A.1.2 Textual Variants in Luke 24:36–53
  • A.2 John
    • A.2.1 John 1:14
    • A.2.2 John 6:51–58
    • A.2.3 John 20:31
• Bibliography
• Index of Ancient Sources
• Index of Subjects