Appearance
Appearance
(, Mar 16:9; Mar 16:12; Mar 16:14; , Luk 24:34; 1Co 15:5; , Joh 21:1; ), a term usually applied to the interviews afforded by Christ to his disciples after his resurrection (q.v.).
The circumstances of these instances indicate that his body, although not yet glorified, had already undergone such a change as to give it extraordinary powers of locomotion, even through closed doors, and of becoming visible or invisible at pleasure, while it yet retained the palpable characteristics of matter, and was even capable of taking food in the ordinary way; traits that ally it strongly to the spiritual body of the angels (q.v.). Monographs on these occurrences and their peculiarities have been written by Fecht (Rost. 1699), Langsdorff (Viteb. 1710), Alberti (Lips. 1693), Arnoldt (Regiom. 1741-1743), Becker (Rost. 1773), Buddaeis (Jen. 1711), Buttstedt (Cobl. 1751), Carpov (Jen. 1755, 1765), Chladenius (Erlang. 1750, 1753), Eichler (Lips. 1737), Feuerlin (Gott. 1750), Gerike (Helmst. 1745), Gfrtler (Franeq. 1712), Horn (Lubec. 1706), K6ppen (Gr- ph. 1701), Krehl (Lips. 1845), Mayer (Gryph. 1702), Munck (Lond. 1774), Pries (Rost. 1780), Quandt (Regiom. 1715), Zeibich (Ger. 1785). SEE JESUS.
APPEARANCE TO MARY MAGDALEN. There is a difficulty connected with the first of these appearances. The gospel narratives (Mat 28:1-15; Mar 16:2-11; Luk 24:1-12; Joh 20:1-18), when carefully adjusted in their several incidents to each other, distinctly indicate that Mary the Magdalene was not among the Galilaean women at the time they were favored with the first sight of their risen Master, she having just then left them to call Peter and John; and that Christ afterward revealed himself to her separately. Mark, however, uses one expression that seems directly to contradict this arrangement: Jesus . . . appeared FIRST () to Mary Magdalene (Mar 16:9). Several methods of reconciling this discordance have been devised, but they are all untenable, and the best of them (that of Dr. Robinson [after Hengstenberg], in the Bibliotheca Sacra, Feb. 1845, p. 178) is not at all satisfactory (see Davidson, Introd. to the N.T., 1, 169), which consists in considering the first as put by Mark relatively (q. d. ), to denote the first of the three appearances related by him simply, the after that of Mar 16:12 introducing a second appearance, and the afterward of Mar 16:14 serving to mark the last of Mark’s series. Any reader, taking the words in their natural construction, would certainly understand Mark as meaning to say absolutely, that Christ’s first public appearance was made to Mary, and two of his subsequent ones to other: persons. Moreover, the question still remains, why does Mark single out this appearance to Mary, rather than the previous one to several women? A closer inspection of the facts will assist to clear up the difficulty. Independently of this “‘first” of Mark, the incidents may naturally be arranged as in the following scheme (see Strong’s Harm. of the Gospels, 138-141). By this it is seen that Christ’s appearance to the other women could not well have preceded that to Mary by more than twenty minutes; and if the time for the other women’s return be so lengthened as to make the appearance to Mary precede that to them, the interval in this direction cannot be made to exceed fifteen minutes, as any one may see by making the corresponding changes in the above table. Mark, in speaking in this general way of Christ’s visits, would not be likely to distinguish between two appearances so nearly coincident; the very parties who witnessed them, or heard them reported, would not themselves have noticed so slight a priority without instituting some such calculation as the above, which they were in no condition of mind at the time to make, nor likely to concern themselves about afterward. In the verse under consideration, therefore, Mark designs to refer to both these appearances as one, and he mentions Mary’s name particularly because of her prominence in the whole matter, just as he places her first in the list in verse I (comp. Mat 27:56; Mat 27:61; Mat 28:1; and see on Joh 20:17). This identification is confirmed by the fact that none of the evangelists mention both of these appearances, Matthew and Luke narrating the events just as if Mary had been with the other women at the time of their meeting with Christ, while Mark and John speak of the appearance to her only; yet they all obviously embrace in their accounts the twofold appearance. Luke also explicitly includes Mary among the women who brought the tidings to the apostles (Joh 20:10), evidently not distinguishing her subsequent report from that of the others with whom she at first went out. This idea is, in fact, the key to the whole plan of the gospel accounts of this matter, the design of the writers being, not to furnish each a complete narrative of all the incidents in their exact order, but to show that these Galilaean women were, as a company, the first witnesses of Christ’s resurrection. According to the astronomical formula, the duration of distinct twilight at that time of the year in the latitude of Jerusalem (supposing there were no unusual refracting influences in the atmosphere) is 1 hour 40 minutes, which would make extreme daybreak occur about four o’clock, as it was near the time of the vernal equinox. The light of the full moon would enable the women to see their way even before dawn. Mark says early (v, Joh 16:9), and in the visit of the women he says very early ( v, Joh 16:2); but the descent of the angel must have occurred first, because the women found the stone rolled away on their arrival. The guard had probably just before been relieved (i.e. at the “dawn-watch,” which began at this time of the year about three o’clock A.M., and corresponds in its Greek title to the term here used by Mark), so that they had time to recover from their fright sufficiently to report their disaster without being surprised in their plight by the arrival of a relay. SEE GUARD. The distance the women had to go was not great. SEE MARY MAGDALENE.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Appearance
APPEARANCE. See Christ in Art, and Portraits.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Appearance
a-perans (, mar’eh; chiefly used of the mystic and supernatural visions of Ezekiel and Daniel): A semblance, as of lightning, wheels, sapphire stone (Eze 1:14, Eze 1:16, Eze 1:26); Gabriel’s overpowering revelation (Dan 8:15; see also Dan 10:6, Dan 10:18). In the New Testament refers exclusively, through three Greek words, , prosopon, sight, countenance, to outward appearance (2Co 10:7 the King James Version); and its possibly deceptive nature: , opsis, Judge not according to appearance. (Joh 7:24); them that glory in appearance. (2Co 5:12; compare 1Sa 16:7). See also 1 Thess 2:22, the English Revised Version, margin (edos = sight).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Appearance
Neutrally, a presentation to an observer.
Epistemology
A sensuously observable state of affairs.
The mental or subjective correlate of a thing-in-itself.
A sensuous object existent or possible, in space and time, related by the categories (Kant). It differs from illusion by its objectivity or logical validity.
MetaphysicsA degree of truth or reality; a fragmentary and self-contradictory judgment about reality.
— W.L.
Fuente: The Dictionary of Philosophy
Appearance
properly “that which strikes the eye, that which is exposed to view,” signifies the “external appearance, form, or shape,” and in this sense is used of the Holy Spirit in taking bodily form, as a dove, Luk 3:22; of Christ, Luk 9:29, “the fashion of His countenance.” Christ used it, negatively, of God the Father, when He said “Ye have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form,” Joh 5:37. Thus it is used with reference to each person of the Trinity. Probably the same meaning attaches to the word in the Apostle’s statement, “We walk by faith, not by sight (eidos),” 2Co 5:7, where eidos can scarcely mean the act of beholding, but the visible “appearance” of things which are set in contrast to that which directs faith. The believer is guided, then, not only by what he beholds but by what he knows to be true though it is invisible.
It has a somewhat different significance in 1Th 5:22, in the exhortation, “Abstain from every form of evil,” i.e., every sort or kind of evil (not “appearance,” AV). This meaning was common in the papyri, the Greek writings of the closing centuries, B.C., and the New Testament era. See FASHION, SHAPE, SIGHT. Cp. No. 4.
pros, “towards,” ops, “an eye,” lit., “the part round the eye, the face,” in a secondary sense “the look, the countenance,” as being the index of the inward thoughts and feelings (cp. 1Pe 3:12, there used of the face of the Lord), came to signify the presentation of the whole person (translated “person,” e.g., in Mat 22:16). Cp. the expression in OT passages, as Gen 19:21 (AV marg., “thy face”), where it is said by God of Lot, and Gen 33:10, where it is said by Jacob of Esau; see also Deu 10:17 (“persons”), Lev 19:15 (“person”). It also signifies the presence of a person, Act 3:13; 1Th 2:17; or the presence of a company, Act 5:41. In this sense it is sometimes rendered “appearance,” 2Co 5:12. In 2Co 10:7, AV, “appearance,” the RV corrects to “face.” See COUNTENANCE, FACE, FASHION, PERSON, PRESENCE.
from ops, “the eye,” connected with horao, “to see” (cp. No. 2), primarily denotes “seeing, sight;” hence, “the face, the countenance,” Joh 11:44 (“face”); Rev 1:16 (“countenance”); the outward “appearance,” the look, Joh 7:24, only here, of the outward aspect of a person. See COUNTENANCE, FACE.
“an aspect, appearance,” is used in Mat 28:3, RV, “appearance;” AV, “countenance.”
“to make visible,” is used in its participial form (Middle Voice), with the neuter article, as equivalent to a noun, and is translated “appearance,” RV, for AV, “sight,” Heb 12:21.