The Dubious Disciples

The accounts of Jesus's resurrection in the Gospels are among the most widely discussed passages in the New Testament, and a classic element of the resurrection story is the doubt felt by the disciples when they encountered the risen Lord. In spite of this, scholars have paid relatively little attention to the striking divergences in the portrayal of the disciples across the four Gospels. The Longer Ending of Mark has them stubbornly refuse to believe multiple reports of the resurrection before being upbraided by Christ, Matthew tersely notes their doubts in a single verse and never resolves the problem, Luke depicts a group who are simultaneously terrified and joyful, and John describes the eponymous Doubting Thomas and his request to touch the risen Lord for himself. The Dubious Disciples uses narrative criticism to examine the ways in which each Gospel characterizes the disciples post-resurrection and how these authorial choices influence readers' evaluations of both the disciples' doubts and the doubts they may feel in their own lives. The lessons learned about the nature of doubt vary considerably from one Gospel to the next, and this monograph is the first devoted to a comparison of doubt across all four Gospels.