Luke 24:27

Jesus, on the evening of the resurrection, taught His disciples that it is written (in the Old Testament) that Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead on the third day (Luke 24:44-46). In spite of this assertion, it would be quite a challenge to demonstrate the truth of Jesus’ claim from a survey of modern critical evangelical commentary on the Old Testament.  No less a scholar than N.T. Wright has stated that modern scholarship generally denies that the Hebrew Scriptures teach the doctrine of the resurrection.

We should acknowledge that there is a way of reading the Old Testament that misses the resurrection altogether.  The Sadducees did that.  They denied the resurrection, at least in the five books of Moses that they held to be canonical (Matt 22:23).  Jesus rebuked them strongly, claiming that they understood neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.  Jesus likewise rebuked His own Emmaus disciples, calling them foolish and slow to believe all that the prophets spoke about concerning the suffering (death) and glory (resurrection) of the Christ (Luke 24:21-26).

How is it that so many miss the pervasive teaching about the resurrection, and specifically the third day resurrection, when they read the Old Testament?   Perhaps this is because we have refused to read the Old Testament typologically, rejecting the figural intention of the ancient prophets of Israel in their preview of Christ’s suffering and glory.

Read the full article: The Typology of the Resurrection