THE DOCTRINE OF THE RESURRECTION
THOUGHTS ON THE RESEARCH PAPER
"THE MISTS OF ANTIQUITY"
by Bro.  W.J. Collett, P.G.M.

Bro.  Robert E. Juthner
S.W. (1980), P.M. (81), P.D.D.G.M.(20)
(81-03-21)

In his comparisons with the mystery religions and ancient
initiation rites, Bro.  Collett stated that..... the rituals were
designed not only to improve the morals of the adherents but also
to implant in their membership a hope for the life that would go
on after death" (p. 40).  In another section of the paper he
spoke of ". . . the raising from darkness into the newness of
life" (p. 42).  We are here dealing with two dogmas, the
"immortality of the soul" and "bodily resurrection".  It is
interesting to note that in some religions these concepts are
both present, in others only one, in still others neither of
them.  There is, however, very little absence of a belief in
after-life; with the concept of resurrection we note that the
ancient Jews did not consider it in their teachings.  Only in the
second of the five books of Maccabees, which covers the
relatively recent period from 176 B.C. to 161 B.C., the writer,
Jason of Cyrene who probably wrote it before the destruction of
Jerusalem in 70 A.D., combined the doctrine of resurrection with
that of inunortality. (1)

Harry Reginald Holland Hall, an egyptologist, had this to say:

The beliefs of the Egyptians with regard to death were hopelessly
confused like those of most other peoples.  The whole idea of the
tomb seems originally to have resulted simply from the passionate
desire to deny the existence of death. . . The Egyptians, a
cheerful, merry people, loathed the idea of death and did their
best to persuade themselves that the dead were not actually dead
at all, but continuing to live in the underworld of the tomb in
some weird fashion . . . Then there was the idea of a sort of
temporary 'resurrection' of the dead. . . like Osiris..... to
live again as the grain sprang up again each season. (2)

Bro.  Collett cited the legends of Osiris and of Adonis.  The
Greek Dionysus is practically identical with Egypt's Osiris, and
was extensively portrayed in Greek drama.  For example,
Aeschylus' "Edoni" tragedy shows the-full Dionysus ritual almost
unaltered - his death and resurrection representing the annual
rebirth of the world.

Judith Sollenberger, writing about Easter customs, said:

The English word 'Easter', corresponding to the German 'Oster,
reveals Christianity's indebtedness to the Teutonic tribes of
central Europe.  Christianity, when it reached the Teutons,
incorporated in its celebration of the great Christian feast day
many of the heathen rites and customs which accompanied their
observance of the spring festival.  That the festival of the
resurrection occurred in the spring, that it celebrated the
triumph of life over death, made it easy for the church to
identify with this occasion the most joyous festival of the
Teutons, held in honour of the death of winter, the birth of a
new year and the return of the sun. (4)

Jaroslav Pelikan, a professor of historical theology of the
University of Chicago, wrote:

The witness of the New Testament to (the resurrection) is unified
as to the fact, but not as to the details of the fact. Thus our
earliest witness, St. Paul, says nothing about the reports of the
empty tomb, which we find in all four gospels.  There are many
other problems - literary, historical and theological - connected
with the reports of the Resurrection.  But apologists for
Christianity have maintained that none of these problems is as
formidable as the problem of explaining the rise of the Christian
Church if there were no Resurrection . . . Throughout the Gospel
story, and nowhere more than here, it is necessary to keep faith
and history together, the event and faith in the event.  On the
one hand it is impossible to explain the faith without some
event; on the other hand, the event of Christ's resurrection was
not known to anyone but believers in Him. . . Thus the question
of whether or not Jesus actually rose from the dead is a question
beyond the province of the technical historian to answer either
way with finality, but he can report that such was the faith of
the entire early church. (5)

Avicenna (980-1037 A.D.) who lived in Persia, and who must have
studied the ancient Greek philosophers, and must have been
familiar with Christian doctrine, maintained the immortality of
individual souls, and thought them to survive in different forms
according to the degree of perfection attained in life. This was
for him the real meaning of Islamic belief in resurrection. (6)

Turning to Albert Mackey, a Masonic writer and compiler, we find
stated in his Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry:

The doctrine of a resurrection to a future and eternal life
constitutes an indispensable portion of the religious faith of
Masonry.  It is not authoritatively inculcated as a point of
dogmatic creed, but is impressively taught by the symbolism of
the Third Degree.  This dogma has existed among almost all
nations from a very early period. The Egyptians, in their
mysteries, taught a final resurrection of the soul.  Although the
Jews, in escaping from their Egyptian thraldom, did not carry
this doctrine with them into the desert - for it formed no part
of the Mosaic theology - yet they subsequently, after the
captivity, borrowed it from the Zoroastrians.  The Brahmans and
Buddhists of the East, the Etruscans of the South, and the Druids
and the Scandinavian Skalds of the west, nursed the faith of a
resurrection to future life. . . We may deny that there has been
a regular descent of Freemasonry, as  a secret organization, from
the mystical association of the Eleusians, the Samothracians, or
the Dionysians. No one, however, who carefully examines the mode
in which the resurrection or restoration to life was taught by a
symbol and a ceremony in the Ancient Mysteries, and how the same
dogma is now taught in the masonic initiation, can..... refuse
his assent to the proposition that the latter was derived from
the former . . . The chain that connects them is easily found in
the fact that the Pagan mysteries lasted until the fourth century
of the Christian era, and, as the fathers of the church lamented,
exercised an influence over the secret societies of the Middle
Ages.  (7)

Bro.  Collett has captured the meaning to the Freemason of the
Resurrection and has expressed it very clearly: "What more
meaningful idea of the resurrection can there be than that the
goodness of the person who has died lives on in those for whom he
lived" (p. 44) and "The quest does not end with the raising of
the body. The search must go on for the purpose is the unending
search for eternal truth" (p. 45).

REFERENCES

1 Fairweather, William, "Books of Maccabees", Encyclopaedia
Britannica 1959, Vol. 14, p. 550

2 Hall, Harry R. H.,  "Egypt - Religion", Encyclopaedia
Britannica 1959, Vol. 8, p. 55

7 Mackey, Albert and C. T. McClenachan,  "Resurrection",    
Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry,   1921,  Vol. 2,  p. 621

1 Murray, George G. A.,  "Pagan Drama", Encyclopaedia Britannica,
1959,  Vol.  7,   p.   579

5 Pelikan, Jaroslav J.,  "Jesus Christ - The Resurrection",
Encyclopaedia Britannica,  1959,  Vol. 13,  p. 19

4 Sollenberger, Judith K.,  "Easter", Encyclopaedia Britannica,
1959,  Vol. 7, p. 859

Walzer, Richard R., "Arabic Philosophy", Encyclopaedia
Britannica, 1959,  Vol. 2, p. 194