218.  This last explanation has in recent times been revived in connection with the so-called vision-hypothesis by Renan and Reville.  Mary found the tomb empty, and being herself of a highly strung nervous nature—­she had been cured by Jesus of seven devils—­by thinking about the empty tomb she soon worked herself into an ecstasy in which her eyes seemed to behold what her heart desired to see.  She communicated her vision to the others, and by a sort of nervous contagion, they, too, fell to seeing visions, and it is the report of these that we have in the gospels.  The vision-hypothesis takes with some, Strauss for instance, a different form.  These deny that the tomb was found empty at all, and regard this story as a contribution of the later legend-making spirit.  They hold that the disciples fled from Jerusalem as soon as the death of Jesus was an assured fact, and not until after they found themselves amid the familiar scenes of Galilee, did their faith recover from the shock it had received in Jerusalem.  In Galilee the experiences of their life with Jesus were lived over again, and the old confidence in him as Messiah revived.  Thus thinking about the Lord, their hearts would say, “He cannot have died,” and after a while their faith rose to the conviction which declared, “He is not dead;” then they passed into an ecstatic mood and visions followed which are the germ out of which the gospel stories have grown.

219.  These different forms of the vision-hypothesis have been subjected to most searching criticism by Keim, who is all the more severe because his own thought has so much that is akin to them.  There are two objections which refute the hypothesis.  The first is that the uniform tradition which connects the resurrection and the first appearances with the “third day” after the crucifixion leaves far too short a time for the recovery of faith and the growth of ecstatic feeling which are requisite for these visions, even supposing that the disciples’ faith had such recuperative powers.  The second is that once such an ecstatic mood was acquired it would be according to experience in analogous cases for the visions to continue, if not to increase, as the thought of the risen Lord grew more clear and familiar; yet the tradition is uniform that the appearances of the risen Christ ceased after, at most, a few weeks.  The only later one was that which led to the conversion of Paul; and though Paul was a man somewhat given to ecstatic experiences (see II.  Cor. xii.), he carefully distinguishes in his own thought his seeing of the Lord and his heavenly visions.  In a word, the disciples of Jesus never showed a more healthy, normal life than that which gave them strength to found a church of believers in the resurrection in the face of persecution and scorn.