How Scripture Announced
Jesus’ Resurrection
CopyrightÓ2024 Bruce Alan Killian May 4, 2024 A.D. email bakillian at earthlink.net
To index file: http://www.scripturescholar.com/WitnessedTypology.htm
I’ll explain where
in Scripture, as the Nicene Creed says, Christ rose on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures and why it’s crucial.
“According to the scripture” came from 1 Corinthians
15:3-4. There, Paul said, it’s of first
importance. In volume 2 of Jesus of
Nazareth, Pope Benedict, discussing Jesus’ resurrection, said, “There is no
direct scriptural testimony to the third day.” The Church has forgotten the crucial
Scriptural testimony. The testimony is indirect but clear, and I’ll teach why. A
third-day study can reveal why it’s of first importance.
The gospel has a hidden
vital element. Jesus shared it going to Emmaus, but Luke didn’t record it. Paul
wrote of a secret and hidden wisdom not understood by Satan and his minions, or
they wouldn’t have crucified Jesus (1 Corinthians
2:7-8). God prerecorded but hid His plan.
At the empty tomb,
John said they didn’t understand the Scripture that He must rise
from the dead (20:9). My unique arguments answer why Jesus must rise on the third day. In four Old Testament stories, the dead
rise. Two great prophets raised an only son. Each dead son was
carried up to a prophet’s borrowed upper room and laid on his bed. The
prophet went in alone and unseen, stretched on the son, and brought him out
alive.
In one story,
Elijah told evil King Ahab, “It won’t rain or dew except by my word,” and God
closed the sky. He waited over three years to pray. God sent him to hide at Brook
Cherith in Gilead. God commanded ravens to feed him bread and meat morning and
evening, and he drank from the brook. Birds, like angels, are winged creatures
of heaven, so the bread from heaven typed the Eucharist. Later, the brook dried
up, and God said, Arise, go to Zarephath and dwell there. I’ve commanded a
widow there to feed you. The drought caused famine; the king wanted rain, so he
made hiding Elijah a capital offense.
Elijah crossed Israel
to Zarephath, a seventy-five-mile trip. He traveled without food or water. When
he arrived, the widow collected two sticks at the city gate. He said, please bring me a cup of water. They must have had
well water. She turned to get it, and he said, bring me a morsel of bread. She replied,
as the LORD your God lives, I have no bread baked. All I have is a little flour in
a jar and a little oil in a flask; I was collecting sticks to bake the bread. We’ll
eat, and then my son and I will die.
Elisha
said, first, bake me a hearth cake. It’s flat, usually unleavened bread
baked on a stone when you’re in a hurry or traveling. Israel
baked manna as hearth cakes. Elijah hiked for three days without food or water.
God commanded the widow to feed him. Hungry, Elisha said, bake me the quickest bread.
She first baked him bread, and the pot of flour and the cruise of oil didn’t
run out for years, a Eucharistic type.
Her son got sick
and stopped breathing. Elisha took him from her bosom, carried him to his loft room,
and lay the widow’s only child on his bed. He cried to
the LORD, why did you kill the widow’s son, who’s been helping me? He stretched
on the son three times and cried, LORD, heal him. The boy’s life returned. Elijah
carried him down and gave him to his mother.
In another story, Elisha
traveled a circuit judging the people and regularly stayed in Shunem. A hospitable,
great woman there said to her husband, “Elisha comes regularly. Let’s build a
room on the roof with a bed so he has a place when he passes.” He built it.
Later, Elisha said
to his servant Gehazi, she’s been hospitable. What can I do for her? He learned
her husband was old, and they had no children. Elisha called her and said you’ll
hold a son this time next year. In the spring, she bore a son. Later, he was with
his father and reapers harvesting when his head started to hurt. He was carried to his mother. She held him on her lap, and about
noon, he died.
So, a second woman’s only child, a son, died.
Again, a prophet slept in a borrowed upper room. She carried her dead son up,
laid him on Elisha’s bed, closed the door, and rushed by donkey twenty-seven
miles to Elisha on Mt. Carmel. Notice it rarely says the third day. Sometimes
it gives the start and end of the journey, so it helps to know Bible geography.
Sometimes, it gives a time, then says the following
day, then in the evening. So, study the story to find the third day. It appears
Pope Benedict sought the phrase on the third day.
She approached
Elisha without telling her problem and said, I won’t leave
you. Elisha discerned her son had died and sent Gehazi with his staff. Gehazi
probably traveled through the night to Shunem and laid the staff on the boy. He
returned and said the child was still dead.
Elisha and the
woman arrived at her house. He went alone into the room, closed the door, and
prayed. He stretched on the boy with his hands on his hands, his eyes on his
eyes, and his mouth on his mouth. The boy’s body warmed. Elisha rose and walked
back and forth. Then he stretched on the boy, and the boy sneezed seven times
and opened his eyes. He summoned the woman; she picked up her son and carried
him out.
These types have
two or more witnesses. Similarities include a prophet in a borrowed upper room and
bed. In each case, the prophet stretched on the son, an only child. Each mother
waited out of the room nearby. Elijah stretched on the son thrice and cried out to the LORD twice.
Elisha stretched twice on the son,
lining himself up, and prayed once. These witnessing types progress to Jesus. Prophet Jesus stretched
once with Mary’s only Son on a bed in a borrowed upper room. There is alignment
progression. Elijah was on the boy, and Eisha was on and aligned with the boy.
Jesus was fully aligned with Himself.
They quarried the
hill near Jerusalem for stone, and King Herod made the quarried half into a
garden. Jesus’ upper room tomb overlooked the Temple mount. Jesus was carried into a borrowed tomb and laid on a bed. The dead
only Son was also the great prophet. Dead, He stretched with Himself and couldn’t
pray. On the third day, He came out alive. Each son came from his mother and returned
alive to his mother. That strongly types Jesus taken from Mary’s bosom and returned
to her arms. The women all provided for their son and a prophet.
Story details type
details in other stories. The Shunammite’s son died on her lap, typed by Samson,
an only son, falling asleep on Delilah’s lap. Deep sleep types death. Lap in Hebrew
is knees, so when Jesus felt forsaken, Mary hugged Him, and He died in her arms
and on her knees.
Mary touched His
corpse, making her unclean, so she didn’t touch anyone or enter any building. Jesus
celebrated earlier, but most celebrated Passover that evening. She remained
near Jesus’ tomb. The mothers of the two sons were there when the prophet and
their sons came out. She remained and waited for the Prophet and her Son to exit.
Thus Scripture shows Jesus must rise from the dead. There are more progressions. The widow was
a foreigner. The great woman of Shunem was an Israelite. Mary, queen mother of
the King of kings, was the greatest woman.
In summary, each
boy and prophet typed Jesus; He was both a prophet and an only son. Each woman
typed Mary. Elijah stretched three times, Elisha stretched two times, and Jesus
stretched once. Elijah cried twice, Elisha prayed once, and Jesus, dead, didn’t
pray.
Elijah received water
and hearth bread from the widow on the third day and lived. The Shunammite’s
son was raised on the third day, and Jesus, the
prophet and Son was raised on the third day. Another
progression: widow, wife, and queen. An anointed one needed to be
involved in the story for it to witness to Christ, meaning anointed one.
Prophets, priests, kings, and some sacrifices were anointed.
Still, we can’t say
Jesus must rise on the third day, or
the prophet must rise on the third day, a prophet was given
life on the third day, and a son was given life on the third day. The details
that match testify to what must
happen. The unmatched details aren’t essential unless a second typological witness
testified to that detail.
Elijah raised one
person from the dead. Elisha raised two from the dead; the second was a body being buried. Raiders came, and the burial party threw it on
Elisha’s bones. The man immediately stood up. A dead prophet’s bones restored
life. If that’s insufficient proof of a dead prophet raising the dead, we have
Jonah, dead in Sheol, entombed in the great fish, and returned to life when vomited
on shore. Jesus raised four people from the dead; He was the fourth, and afterward,
He raised more. The witnessing-type progressions force Christ’s resurrection.
Why was He raised on the third day, according to the Scripture? King
Nebuchadnezzar decreed anyone who prayed to god or man except the king would be thrown into the lions’ den. Daniel heard the decree,
went home, and prayed three times in an upper room at an open window facing
Jerusalem. His adversaries watched him pray and went and
reported his crime to the king. Jesus
prayed three times on His cross, facing the Temple
while His adversaries watched.
When the king
heard it, he spent all day trying to rescue Daniel. On the first day, Daniel heard
the proclamation and prayed. On the second day, the king tried to release Daniel,
and Pilate tried to release Jesus. That evening, they buried Daniel in a lions’
den. They laid a stone over the mouth, and the rulers sealed it, typing Jesus’ tomb stone sealed by the chief priests. Early the following
morning, the third day, the king raised Daniel alive from the lions’ den. This
story “witness typed” a prophet rising on the third day.
Another, Jacob sent
Joseph to his brothers. He went fifty miles to Shechem and didn’t find them. Joseph
searched, and someone said they went to Dothan. So he went fifteen miles to Dothan and found his brothers.
They saw him approach
and decided to kill him. They threw him into a dry cistern and planned to say a
wild beast killed him. Because of the distance, we can tell Joseph was put into the pit on the third day. Then, he was lifted from the pit (his tomb) and sold as a slave for twenty
pieces of silver. Jesus was betrayed for the
price of a slave, thirty pieces of silver, so similar. While Caiaphas’ tried to
find witnesses to condemn Jesus, He was held in a cracked
cistern.
I’ve shared briefly
on this topic, but the entire story is of primary importance because God brought
dozens of types together. Many don’t deal with death, burial, or resurrection. Jesus
accomplished many things when He rose. He was betrothed, married, bore, and
consecrated His family, the Church. He was anointed King, regained, and
established His kingdom. He was anointed High Priest in the proper
regalia and offered a holocaust with holy fire in the Temple. He
defeated Satan in physical combat. He reversed Adam’s fall in a garden,
anointed His Temple, etc. We discover Mary’s critical role while He was entombed, after
He rose, and today. Hidden, we’ll discover how Jesus and Mary accomplished our
redemption. He fulfilled all the Old Testament feasts and thousands of Old
Testament stories. The Church once knew but forgot. The story can help restore Church
unity. My Emmaus Road manuscript explains this in depth: http://www.scripturescholar.com/EmmausBook.pdf.