What is the mythological precedent for Jesus's single resurrection?

by Regalecus

Ancient religions were full of "dying gods," gods and goddesses who died and then rose in a specific cycle. We have Adonis, Persephone, and Dionysus, and that's just in Greek mythology. The list is massive, but these all have the idea of a cycle in common. They'll die again, and come back again, forever. Are there any others who just came back once, like Jesus did in Christian mythology?

Flubb

To quote Mettinger's The Riddle of Resurrection, which is probably the best survey of ANE gods and resurrection (Baal, Dumuzi-Tammuz, Adonis, Melqart-Heracles, Osiris, Eshmun-Ascelpius):

The dying and rising gods were closely related to the seasonal cycle. Their death and return were seen as reflected in the changes of plant life. The death and resurrection of Jesus is a one-time event, not repeated, and unrelated to seasonal changes.

and

There is, as far as I am aware, no prima facie evidence that the death and resurrection of Jesus is a mythological construct, drawing on the myths and rites of the dying and rising gods of the surrounding world. While studied with profit against the background of Jewish resurrection belief, the faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus retains its unique 1 character in the history of religions. The riddle remains.

rosemary85

Ancient religions were full of "dying gods," gods and goddesses who died and then rose in a specific cycle. We have Adonis, Persephone, and Dionysus, and that's just in Greek mythology. The list is massive, but these all have the idea of a cycle in common. They'll die again, and come back again, forever.

I think I'd better point out that there's a pretty gigantic hole in your assumption, here. Ancient religions aren't nearly as full of this trope as 19th century naturalist interpreters of religion would have you believe. Ancient religions aren't all that full of dying gods (there are quite a few, but they're all complicated and different from each other), and annual cycles usually only appear if you look at liturgical practice.

If you ignore practically everything about Adonis and Persephone, then yes, they start to look a little bit similar. But they're certainly not "gods and goddesses who died and then rose in a specific cycle". Adonis dies once and once only. Persephone and Dionysus don't die. Dionysus gets born twice (and twice only). Adonis has a regular seasonal residence while he's alive, and Persephone continues to have a seasonal residence, but that's just about the least important thing about them.

The reason someone like Adonis gets caricatured as "the dying god" is because his death was celebrated and reenacted with a regular liturgy on an annual basis. But exactly the same is true of Jesus: go to a church on 30 March-18 April this year, and you'll see a reenactment of his entry into Jerusalem, veneration of the torture device on which he died, and hear accounts of his death. Go again on 20-26 March 2016 and you'll see exactly the same thing again. Does that make Jesus a god who dies and then rises in a specific cycle?

Volumeknop

'The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt' by Toby Wilkinson describes how "original sin [and] final judgement before a great god, and the promise of a glorious resurrection" (p143-144) are already devised during the reign of pharaoh Pepi 2 (around 2250 BC). Although initially the resurrection was for Kings only, this eventual resurrection would soon be adopted by all the royal family and shortly after anyone who could afford a coffin.

To be fair: Egyptian Theology kept changing in these centuries, but if we can believe this way of thinking, based on inscriptions on millenia old burial sites, this idea of Judgement Day is unbelievably old indeed. Much older than the Greek civilisation.

chan_kohaku

Unless the resurrection of Jesus does not follow the motif of the dying and rising of god, but the dying and rising of man, particularly as a Jew. The belief in the resurrection of Jesus fits within the post-exilic Jewish belief in the general resurrection of the dead [see Debates over the Resurrection of the Dead: Constructing Early Christian Identity, 2015, Outi Lehtipuu], which is believed to happen on 'the last day' to all men. This is also why in the New Testament letters, there is the sense that they were in 'the last days' and that Jesus' return was impending [Christianity, Judaism and Other Greco-Roman Cults, 2004, Jacob Neusner]. Jesus was simply the 'first fruits from the dead'. He died not as God, but as man. Only after the resurrection was belief in the divinity of Jesus cemented due to his being revealed to have been given 'all powers in heaven and on earth'.

Mind you that in early Christianity, their Christology was primarily that of an ascending Christology, i.e. the Christ who 'became' Son of God on account of his resurrection. Descending Christology, one that we are familiar with, is that Jesus is attributed simply as God who 'became man'. This was only popular after the Nicene council in 325 AD confirmed the co-eternality and co-equality of Jesus with God the Father.