Recent findings indicate unusual emphasis placed on a perfect unity of the sexes in marriage ordinances which were real enough and secret enough to excite the scandalized speculations of outsiders and the fantastic imitation of the Gnostics.82 After all allowances have been made, there remains a definite residue of early Christian ritual that goes far beyond anything known to later Christianity, which admittedly got its liturgy from the synagogue and the Hellenistic world, while the rites just mentioned all look to the temple and belong to the instructions of the 40 days.
While the schools have their methods for dealing with unwelcome doctrines and traditions, the populace also has ways of absorbing and adapting teachings it does not understand, and the 40-day tradition left a bold imprint on vulgar Christianity. The fact that the Christian liturgy has always allowed a 40-day interval, and an important one, between the Resurrection and the Ascension is not to be lightly explained away,84 but it is the popular literature of the pseudo-Acts of the Apostles and the legends of the martyrs that most clearly indicate what was paramount in the teachings embraced by the newly converted masses of the age of Constantine.85 Here we have the monotonous repetition as one standard miracle, the raising of the dead, performed to demonstrate to a skeptical world the reality of the resurrection of Jesus.86 As the saint performs this miracle, or has it performed on him, Jesus himself stands by, now in his own person, now in that of the apostle, who is but his double or understudy.
This, it is often explained, is what Jesus meant when he said he would continue to be with the Apostles to the end— it is a series of real appearances continuing the personal tutelage and supervision of the 40 days.88 The secular equivalent to this is the recurring legend of a youthful military hero and convert who is repeatedly put to death with spectacular tortures, only to be visited by Christ or the angels in the night and restored to health, ready to deliver a lecture on the resurrection and renew his painful demonstrations on the following day. His resuscitation is celebrated sometimes with the Eucharist and often with a great public banquet.89 The saints Victor, Theodore, George, Mercurius, Sebastian and the Seven Sleepers,91 as well as the first lady martyrs, Thecla, Felicitas, and Perpetua,92 belong to this illustrious company to which the names of most of the Apostles were added.
The Centurion’s Servant & the Widow’s Son at Nain
A Gentile soldier’s faith astonishes Jesus (“I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel”), and at the gate of Nain he halts a funeral and gives a widow back her only son.
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5And when Jesus had entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, imploring him 6and saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. 7And Jesus said unto him, I will come and heal him. 8The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. 9For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this man, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. 10When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed And when they that followed him heard this, they marveled. And when Jesus heard this, he said unto them that followed, Truly I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 11And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven. 12But the children of the kingdom the wicked one shall be cast out into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 13And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go your way, and as you have believed, so be it done unto you. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
1Now when he had ended all these sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. 2And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick and about to die. 3And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, imploring him that he would come and heal his servant. 4And when they came to Jesus, they implored him earnestly, saying that he was worthy, for whom he should do this: 5For he loves our nation, and he has built us a synagogue. 6Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not yourself. For I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof; 7wherefore, neither did I think myself worthy to come unto you. But say the word and my servant shall be healed, 8for I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers; and I say unto one, Go, and he goes, and to another, Come, and he comes, and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. 9When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned himself about and said unto the people who followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 10And they who were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole who had been sick.
11And it came to pass, the day after, that he went into a city called Nain. And many of his disciples went with him, and many people. 12Now when he came near to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And many people of the city were with her. 13And now the Lord saw her, and he had compassion on her, and he said unto her, Weep not. 14And he came and touched the bier, and they who bore him it stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto you, arise. 15And he who was dead sat up and began to speak. And he delivered him to his mother. 16And there came a fear on all, and they glorified God, saying that a great prophet is risen up among us, and that God has visited his people. 17And this rumor of him went forth throughout all Judea and throughout all the region round about.
No Pain So Awful as That of Suspense
Weeping, Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth
Verse 12 ends on the phrase the Gospels keep for those shut out: “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Opening a conference sermon on the beasts of Revelation in April 1843, Joseph Smith said in passing what that anguish is: not flames but suspense, the doubt of the wicked who do not know. The History’s text is given; switch to “Scribal accounts” for William Clayton’s two records and Willard Richards’s notes. Clayton’s notes taken at the time have only “wailing”; his fuller report and the History have the whole phrase.
Discourse, 8 April 1843, general conference, Nauvoo · History, 1838–1856, vol. D-1, p. 1522 (History of the Church 5:339; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 287–288); reported by William Clayton and Willard Richards · Joseph Smith Papers ↗If we get puffed up by thinking that we have much knowledge, we are apt to get a contentious spirit, and correct knowledge is necessary to cast out that spirit. The evil of being puffed up with correct (though useless) knowledge, is not so great as the evil of contention. Knowledge does away with darkness, suspense and doubt; for these cannot exist where knowledge is. There is no pain so awful as that of suspense: this is the punishment of the wicked; their doubt, anxiety, and suspense, cause weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.
In knowledge there is power. God has more power than all other beings, because he has greater knowledge; and hence he knows how to subject all other beings to him: He has power over all.
The Raising at Nain as a Sign of the Resurrection
Nibley gathered the early-Christian witness that Jesus’ raisings of the dead, the widow of Nain’s son among them, were remembered as the standing proof of his own resurrection to come.
PO 2:136–137. See that which the worms have eaten coming forth at my voice when I call. . . . Thou seekest a sign of the resurrection, Thomas, come and I will show it to you at the tomb of Lazarus. 3 Nephi 28:37 [3 Ne. 13:6].
There must needs be a change wrought upon their bodies.3 Nephi 28:39 [3 Ne. 13:6]. Now this change was not equal to that which shall take place at the last day; but there was a change wrought upon them.
PO 2:135. Thomas said to Jesus: My Lord, behold thou has granted us every favor in thy goodness. There is just one thing which we would like you to bestow on us. We want to see, O Lord, those people who were dead and buried, whom you revived [raised up], as a sign of thy resurrection which is to take place for us.We know, Lord, that thou didst raise up the son of the widow of Nain. But we are thinking of another kind of miracle, for you met with that multitude going along the road. What we want to see is the bones that have fallen apart in the tombs and are able to join together so that they can speak on the spot.PO 2:137. Didymus boldly [took heart] said to him: My Lord, how shall we go to him since the Jews are seeking to stone thee? [He said this because he was worried by the things which Jesus had said about Lazarus and did not want to go.]
PO 2:136. Didymus [Thomas], come with 3 Nephi 28:7–8 [3 Ne. 13:3]. Therefore, more blessed are ye, me, let us go to Bethany, so the I can show for ye shall never taste of death; . . . ye shall never you the type of the resurrection at the last endure the pains of death; but . . . ye shall be day in the grave, that your heart may be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality strengthened that I am the resurrection to immortality; and then shall ye be blessed in the and the life.
The second passage is an early-Christian apocryphon Nibley preserves and sets beside the Book of Mormon, not his own exposition; it shows the Nain raising remembered as a resurrection sign.
The Healings as the Great Ingathering
For Barker the healings and releases of Jesus’ ministry were the Jubilee’s “great ingathering”: restoring to the community those who had been shut out. The centurion’s servant and the widow’s son belong to that restoration, with the many who come “from the east and the west.”
The first miracle was an exorcism (Mark 1.21-26 [Mark 1:6]), setting one of his own people free from the power of Belial. He spoke of a woman bound by Satan and released her (Luke 13.16 [Luke 8:32]), of slaves to sin whom the Son could release (John 9.31-38 [John 6:21-22]). He forgave sins and illustrated his teaching with a parable of two debtors whose debts were cancelled (Luke 7.41-48 [Luke 5:20-21]). The healing miracles restored to the community people who would have been excluded as ritually unfit: the disabled, the lepers, a woman who was bleeding. This was the great ingathering of the Jubilee.