----- Original Message -----
From: <mwgrondin@...>
To: <crosstalk2@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 04, 2003 6:16 AM
Subject: Eric Eve Re: [XTalk] Miracles Again


> --- Jeffery Hodges wrote:
> > ... some people might be interested in reading an online article
> > by William Lane Craig, "The Problem Of Miracles: A Historical And
> > Philosophical Perspective":
> >
> > http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/miracles.html
> >
> > I have to confess that I haven't actually read it, but Craig
> > is a good philosopher, very knowledgeable, very careful. So,
> > he probably gives a respectable overview of the problem.

Dear Mike and Rikk,

While I have followed your posts with interest, I've refrained
from entering into the discussion. Now that William Lane Craig has been
mentioned I cannot help referring to his book and articles on Mark's
resurrection story and my attempt [in the "The Open Tomb, A New
Approach. Mark's Passover Haggadah (±72 CE)] to answer
his arguments. He tried to answer point by point all arguments
of interpreters who questioned an historically empty grave.
I in turn researched the reasons offered in favor of a historically
literal interpretation of the text. I venture to say his attempt
to provide a philosophical foundation for supernatural
miracles is anchored in his exegesis of the story of what he calls
the "empty tomb".
However, I believe the quest for understanding the miracle stories
willnot be solved through a philosophical dispute of the secular
versus the sacred. In this regard a literary analysis
of Mark's epilogue should provide an answer not a philophical
dispute on miracles and the afterlife.
Thus far Craig hasn't been forthcoming with a exegetical reply to my
thesis of 600 pages. If someone has found an article or review in which such
a reply has been aired - except the sterile argument that my argumentation
is "speculative" - I would be, believe me, very much obliged.
Briefly, I have taken seriosuly Claude G. Montefiore's suggestion in his
1927 (!)
commentary on Mark in his Synoptic Gospels. Mark's 'opened memorial tomb'
story may well be a midrash on LXX Isa 22,16; 33,16 en Gen 29,3. Of course,
Montefiore was the only English liberal Jewish scholar who wrote a full
fledged
commentary on the Gospels.
My findings were that the Gospel of Mark is not antisemitic as some
believe; it is a genuine Jewish work by a follower of Jesus. Read in its
proper
historical context Mark must have written a post-70 Passover Haggadah to be
used in the liturgy of a first century ecclesia during Pesach and Shabuot.
Craig claims that a first century Jew, like Paul, could not have imagined a
bodiless existence
after death: "a Jew could not think otherwise". I answered "of course not,
nobody can! One
need not be a Jew for that". Paul was assured however that God "gives it a
body as
he has chosen" (1 Cor 15,38). Thus far ..philosophy.
Four literary data appear to me sufficient to arouse one's interest in a
rebuttal against
Craig's literal interpretation. 1) Mark evidently refers to LXX Isa 22,16
with his
"monumental grave hewn out of the the rock" in 15,46 eventhough the critical
editions of the Greek New Testament fail to mention the parallel
expression.
2) What the women [metaphorically] "saw", provides the framework of
Mark's epilogue ( 15,40.46; 16,4). Mark uses three different words for
their "seeing" :
THEOREIN, ORAN and BLEPEIN.
3) Mark makes clear that their seeing is visionary, just as in LXX Isa
22,1ff and 32,9.
If they had literally seen that the stone had been removed (by a
supernatural power)
the women would have looked ahead of them in order to observe this
phenomenon. In
stead, they look 'up' ( ANABLEPSSASAI ), just as Jesus looked 'up' before
he multiplied the bread (6,41 ANABLEPSAS). This looking up evidently
establishes
a contact with heavenly realities.
4) If they had literally seen the removal of the stone, the angel should
have said
in Greek IDETE (plural - there were three women-) TON TOPON (accusative
as the object of their seeing). In stead the angel speaks with a Hebraism
IDE - HO TOPOS - ra'eh ha-maqom = behold - the (holy) place.
In LXX Isa 22,16 the monumental tomb represents the doomed temple in the
days of Isaiah.

cordially yours,

Karel