Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 03:2 (May 1941)
Article: Who Raised Up Jesus?
Author: John J. Murray

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WTJ 3:2 (May 1941) p. 113

Who Raised Up Jesus?

John Murray

THE cardinal position the resurrection of Christ occupies in the Christian Faith cannot be more forcefully expressed than in the words of the Apostle, “If Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (I Cor. 15:17). But who raised up Jesus?

The answer to this question appears so obviously in the New Testament that it might seem superfluous labour to devote any space to elaboration of it. For surely it was God who raised Jesus from the dead. But to leave the answer, thus simply and truly stated, without further analysis or inquiry, is to miss the richness and fulness of meaning that resides in the question. When we say that God raised our Lord from the dead we must remember that our conception of God is trinitarian, and so there are inherent in the question additional questions. When we say God raised Jesus, are we using the name God in the more absolute and indefinite sense of the Godhead, or are we using the name more specifically of the Father or of the Son or of the Holy Spirit? Since the Father is God and the Son is God and the Holy Spirit is God, and since the Father, the Son and the Spirit are distinct persons, it instantly becomes apparent that the simple answer, “God raised Jesus from the dead”, does not of itself answer these further questions. It is, therefore, to the question more specifically asked that we now address ourselves.

The preponderant usage of the New Testament is that Jesus was raised from the dead. That is just saying that in the resurrection Jesus is represented as having been the subject of an act of divine and omnipotent power. The two verbs most frequently used in this connection are ἐγείρω and ἀνίστημι. Both verbs are used actively. In the case of ἐγείρω the usage is well illustrated by two passages in the Acts of the Apostles — ὃν ὁ Θεὸς ἤγειρεν ἐκ νεκρῶν (Acts 4:10), ὁ Θεὸς τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν ἤγειρεν ᾿Ιησοῦν (Acts 5:30).

WTJ 3:2 (May 1941) p. 114

God raised Jesus. Likewise in the case of ἀνίστημι this usage is also well illustrated in the following passages — ὃν ὁ Θεὸς ἀνέστησεν λύσας τὰς ὠδῖνας τοῦ Θανάτου (Acts 2:24), το�...

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