The Death and Resurrection of Jesus

Abstract The final week in Jesus ‘ life, from his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday through to Easter Day (Holy Week or Passion Week in the church calendar), is given a disproportionate amount of space in the New Testament Gospels in comparison with the rest of his ministry. In many ways the events leading up to the crucifixion are described in a detail often lacking elsewhere in the Gospels. Such an emphasis is understandable as the early writers tried to explain the circumstances leading to the death and Resurrection of their saviour, because it was on these events that Christianity proclaimed its distinctive teaching and based its unique theological message. The canonical Gospels relate the plots against Jesus, his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane through the treachery of his disciple, Judas, his subsequent trials (before the Jewish Sanhedrin, before King Herod (Antipas), and before Pilate, the Roman governor), and his condemnation to death. This narrative reaches its climax in Jesus ‘ crucifixion, death, and burial. These accounts are then followed by the Easter story, in which Jesus ‘ Resurrection from death is proclaimed and demonstrated in a negative way with the story of his empty tomb, and in a positive way with an increasing number of post-Resurrection appearances by the risen Christ. Elaborations and other versions of the week ‘s events are, not surprisingly, to be found in the later, non-canonical, Gospels. The main accounts of Jesus ‘ death in apocryphal texts occur in the Gospel of Peter and the Gospel of Nicodemus.