Following the period of trouble that will be both judgment and deliverance for Israel, the righteous will be raised, vindicated, honoured.

In your book, Andrew, you implied that the first resurrection was literal - if I understood you correctly - and was limited, as you set out here, to those who particularly suffered, in like manner to the Son of Man, during the particular eschatological crisis of Jerusalem etc.

In the quote above the wording could be interpreted more figuratively - would you clarify? Was the "first resurrection" in your eschatological matrix literal? And, if so, was it witnessed and were there accounts of it, albeit shadowy, like the one (I seem to remember) which appears in one of the gospels?

Thank you.

shalom! - john