Skip to main content

Glossary

Resurrection

That Christ was restored to life after his death on the cross is one of the principal tenets of the Christian religion.

According to the Gospel of Saint Matthew (27: 62-66), a guard was posted at the tomb because Christ had prophesied that he would rise on the third day. There is no biblical account of the Resurrection itself, to which there were no witnesses, but of the subsequent visit to the empty tomb and the appearances of Christ to his disciples. In paintings of the Resurrection the soldiers on guard are asleep while Christ is shown rising, often from a sarcophagus rather than the rock tomb referred to in the Bible. He almost always carries a flag of victory.