Resurrection of Jesus

====Call to missionary activity====
{{Main|Great Commission|Apostles|Christian mission}}

The New Testament accounts describe the resurrected Jesus calling his followers to missionary activity in what has been traditionally labelled as the [[Great Commission]], where he instructs them to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and the Holy Spirit."<ref>[[Matthew 28:16]]–[[Matthew 28:20|20]]</ref>

According to Dunn, the appearances to the disciples have "a sense of obligation to make the vision known."{{sfn|Dunn|1997|p=131}} [[Helmut Koester]] states that the stories of the resurrection were originally [[Epiphany (feeling)|epiphanies]] in which the disciples were [[Great Commission|called to a ministry]] by the risen Jesus, and were later used as evidence of the event.{{sfn|Koester|2000|pp=64–65}} Biblical scholar [[Géza Vermes]] argues that the resurrection is to be understood as a reviving of the self-confidence of the followers of Jesus, under the influence of the Spirit, "prompting them to resume their apostolic mission."{{sfn|Vermes|2008a|pp=151–152}}{{refn|group=note|Vermes describes are eight possible theories to explain the resurrection of Jesus, concluding that none of these six possibilities "stands up to stringent scrutiny",{{sfn|Vermes|2008a|p=149}} and then stating that the resurrection is a "resurrection in the hearts of men."{{sfn|Vermes|2008a|p=152}}}} According to [[Gerd Lüdemann]], Peter convinced the other disciples that the resurrection of Jesus signalled that the end-times were near and God's Kingdom was coming, when the dead would rise again, as evidenced by Jesus. This revitalized the disciples, starting off their new mission.{{sfn|Lüdemann|Özen|1996|pp=180–181}}{{sfn|Ehrman|2014|p=100}}<ref group="web" name="Ehrman.Lüdemann">Bart Ehrman (5 October 2012), [https://ehrmanblog.org/gerd-ludemann-on-the-resurrection-of-jesus-for-members/ ''Gerd Lüdemann on the Resurrection of Jesus'']</ref>