A Quick Question on Whether or Not the Disciples Critically Looked to Jesus as a Messiah (and a Note on How Soon the Resurrection was Proclaimed)

 "The death of a martyr can indeed cause admiration and emulation, but it never has had a religious meaning in itself--least of all in Judaism which puts such a positive value on life and has never glorified suffering or death." (1)

That came from Pinchas Lapide, the expert Jewish scholar who came to believe in the resurrection (although not Christianity). I think there is a small yet considerable chink in my resurrection argument, and that is if even the Disciples had interpreted Jesus as the Christ before His death. If not, then there seems to be, to say the least, a lot more room for feeling guilty about betraying Him and hallucinating.

I mentioned in the post responding to the Disciples hallucinating that Ehrman didn't think Jesus saw Himself as the highest person coming from God. He prophesied the Son of Man, but didn't consider Himself to be as much. 

That is why I used the example I did, Matthew 19:28. Ehrman expands on it:

"And who would rule over them? Jesus himself was their master now. Who would the ruler of that future kingdom, where the twelve sat on twelve thrones ruling the twelve tribes? Since he 'ruled' them now, he would almost certainly rule them then. What this means is that Jesus probably taught his closest followers that he would be the king of the coming kingdom of God. In other words, at least to those of his inner circle, Jesus appears to have proclaimed that he really was the future messiah, not in the sense that he would raise an army to drive out the Romans, but in the sense that when the Son of Man brought the kingdom to earth, he, Jesus, would be anointed its ruler. No wonder his disciples considered him the messiah. He appears to have told them that himself." (2)

Elsewhere Ehrman said: 

"If belief that Jesus had died for sins and had been raised from the dead would not make any Jew think that he therefore must be the messiah, how do we account for the fact that Christians immediately started proclaiming--not despite his death, but because of his death--that he was the messiah? The only plausible explanation is that they called Jesus this after his death because they were calling him this before his death. [This is because they weren't expecting a dying, much less rising, Messiah.]

"Here is what many scholars take to be the most reasonable scenario. During his life, Jesus raised hopes and expectations that he might be the messiah. His Disciples expected great things from him. ... The crucifixion disconfirmed this idea and showed the disciples just how wrong they were. Jesus was killed by his enemies, so he wasn't the messiah after all. But then they came to believe that Jesus had been raised from the dead, and this reconfirmed what had earlier been disconfirmed." (3)

(By the way, one of the skeptically accepted claims Habermas used in his first debate against Antony Flew was that the Disciples started proclaiming the resurrection soon after His death. I didn't use it in my argument because I can't really evidence it, or even quote critical scholars on the subject specifically.)

In a much earlier book, Ehrman wrote, "The one thing that nearly all scholars agree upon, however, is that no matter how one understands the major thrust of Jesus's mission, he must be situated in his own context as a first-century Palestinian Jew. Whatever else he was, Jesus was thoroughly Jewish, in every way--as were his disciples. At some point--probably before his death, but certainly afterward--Jesus's followers came to think of him as the Jewish messiah." (4)

Yes, critical scholars know Jesus was viewed as some sort of Messiah before He was arrested and killed. But still, at any rate, Jesus was too important of a figure for His being under God's curse to allow for people to think God would raise Him from the dead, or they should feel guilty for betraying them. And even if this was the case, only the Disciples would be explained, and maybe Mary, not Paul or James or the empty tomb.

Citations:

1. Pinchas Lapide, The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective (Augsburg Fortress Publishing House, 1982), 145.

2. Bart D. Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist? The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth (HarperOne: 2012), 319.

3. Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (HarperOne: 2014), 117-18.

4. Bart D. Ehrman, Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why (HarperCollins: New York, NY. 2005), 187.