Good News about Resurrection

Abstract

Abstract In this article, I will use an approach that draws on the study of narrative and metaphor to investigate Luke’s concept of the resurrection from the dead. I will focus on the story of Jesus’s resurrection as articulated in the second part of Peter’s Pentecost speech (Acts 2:22–36), giving special attention to the possible interpretations of the phrase lysas tas ōdinas tou thanatou/hadou (2:24), upon which the conceptualization of resurrection hinges. I will analyze two commonly articulated interpretations of this text’s multi-dimensional imagery and reflect on possible conceptual frameworks that support those interpretations. Then, I will offer two distinct ways of conceptualizing the resurrection from the dead based on my understanding of the phrase and its nuances that come from the context of labor. My goal is to give voice to this puzzling and underappreciated text and to expand possibilities for imagining it as good news.