Was Jesus Raised Bodily?

Reasoning From the Scriptures says the risen Jesus was a spirit creature who materialized fleshly bodies so that the disciples could see him. Luke 24:39, in the New World Translation, has him say that a spirit does not have flesh and bones as they see that he has.

The question

Was Jesus raised in the body that was buried, or as a spirit who could appear in a body when he chose? Jehovah’s Witnesses teach the second. Christians teach the first. The texts both sides are already using are Luke 24:36–43, John 2:19–21, John 20:27, and 1 Peter 3:18.

What Jehovah’s Witnesses teach

Reasoning From the Scriptures, under “Resurrection,” answers the question “Was Jesus raised in a body of flesh?” by quoting 1 Peter 3:18 and then explaining it (1):

At his resurrection from the dead, Jesus was brought forth with a spirit body. In the Greek text the words “flesh” and “spirit” are put in contrast to each other, and both are in the dative case; so, if a translator uses the rendering “by the spirit” he should also consistently say “by the flesh,” or if he uses “in the flesh” he should also say “in the spirit.”

On why only the appointed witnesses saw him, the same entry says:

Because he was a spirit creature and when, as angels had done in the past, he materialized fleshly bodies to make himself visible, he did so only in the presence of his disciples.

On Luke 24:36–39 it says the disciples thought they were seeing a ghost, and that Jesus corrected them by means of a body they could touch:

Humans cannot see spirits, so the disciples evidently thought they were seeing an apparition or a vision. (Compare Mark 6:49, 50.) Jesus assured them that he was no apparition; they could see his body of flesh and could touch him, feeling the bones; he also ate in their presence.

The appearances, on this account, were not one resumed body:

Following his resurrection, Jesus did not always appear in the same body of flesh (perhaps to reinforce in their minds the fact that he was then a spirit), and so he was not immediately recognized even by his close associates. (John 20:14, 15; 21:4-7) However, by his repeatedly appearing to them in materialized bodies and then saying and doing things that they would identify with the Jesus they knew, he strengthened their faith in the fact that he truly had been resurrected from the dead.

The entry also quotes Paul: “It is sown a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body.” The quotation is the Society’s earlier English wording of 1 Corinthians 15:44. The point they draw is that what was raised is spiritual, not the flesh that was buried.

That is the teaching in the form the Society publishes it. Jesus died as a man. He was raised as a spirit. The flesh the disciples touched was real flesh, materialized for the moment, as angels had materialized bodies before. It was not the crucified body continuing. A spiritual body, in this reading, means a spirit’s body, not the corpse transformed.

The texts

The 2013 New World Translation and the wording inside Reasoning are not identical. The book’s quotation of Luke says “feel me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you behold that I have.” The revision now on the Study Edition says “touch me and see.” The claim of the sentence is the same. Quote the revision, and let the book supply the interpretation.

The New World Translation of Luke 24:36–43 (2) reads: “While they were speaking of these things, he himself stood in their midst and said to them: “May you have peace.” But because they were terrified and frightened, they imagined that they were seeing a spirit. So he said to them: “Why are you troubled, and why have doubts come up in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you see that I have.” And as he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. But while they were still not believing for sheer joy and amazement, he said to them: “Do you have something there to eat?” So they handed him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before their eyes.”

The New World Translation of John 2:19–21 (3): Jesus replied to them: “Tear down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said: “This temple was built in 46 years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was talking about the temple of his body.

The New World Translation of John 20:27 (4): “Put your finger here, and see my hands, and take your hand and stick it into my side, and stop doubting but believe.”

The New World Translation of 1 Peter 3:18 (5): “He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.”

A Christian response

Jesus was raised bodily. The body that was killed is the body that lives. He is not a spirit who put on flesh so that witnesses could see him. The wider claim, including the empty tomb and the appearances, is the resurrection of Jesus. This page stays with the sentences Witnesses and Christians are both reading.

Reasoning From the Scriptures should be stated as it stands. It says he was brought forth with a spirit body. It says the flesh was materialized, as angels had done. It says he did not always appear in the same body of flesh, perhaps so the disciples would remember that he was then a spirit. It says a physical body is raised a spiritual body. Those are the claims the texts have to carry.

Luke 24:39 is Jesus rejecting the conclusion the disciples have just drawn. They imagined they were seeing a spirit. He answers that a spirit does not have flesh and bones as they see that he has, and he says “it is I myself.” Reasoning reads the flesh as the proof that he was no apparition, while still saying he was a spirit creature wearing a materialized body. The sentence he speaks draws the line in the other direction. A spirit, he says, does not have flesh and bones of the kind they are looking at. The Society’s explanation says the flesh is real and temporary, and that the one inside it is a spirit. He tells them to decide that he is not a spirit, from the flesh and bones. “It is I myself” identifies the one they knew, not a new body assigned to remind them that the old one was gone.

John 2:19–21 names which body is raised. “Tear down this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John says he was talking about the temple of his body. The thing torn down is the thing raised. A materialized body, produced later for a visit, is not the temple they would tear down. The sentence is about that body.

John 20:27 is the same body identified by the wounds. Thomas is told to put a finger on the hands and a hand into the side. Reasoning says Jesus did not always appear in the same body of flesh. The invitation in this scene is into the marks of the crucifixion. A body materialized for the afternoon would not be that side unless it was the body that was pierced. He tells Thomas to stop doubting and believe, with those wounds as the thing to touch.

The dative point in Reasoning is a fair translation note. “In the flesh” and “in the spirit” in 1 Peter 3:18 are a pair, and the 2013 New World Translation keeps the pair: “put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” The entry then says this means he was brought forth with a spirit body. The wording it has just defended does not say “made alive as a spirit.” It says “made alive in the spirit,” set beside “put to death in the flesh.” He truly died in the flesh. He truly lives by the life of the Spirit. Luke’s paragraph, in the same translation, is the place where “a spirit” is the category he denies.

1 Corinthians 15:44 (9), in the King James Version, says: “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” The Society’s quotation says “a physical body” and “a spiritual body.” Either wording still says body. 1 Corinthians 15:50 says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and that corruption does not inherit incorruption. 1 Corinthians 15:53 says this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. The mortal body puts something on. It is changed. The paragraph does not say the body is replaced by a spirit who later borrows flesh. “Spiritual body” belongs with that change. It does not cancel “a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you see that I have.”

Common follow-ups

He ate, and angels who materialized bodies also ate. Reasoning says this, and cites Genesis 19. Eating shows a body that can eat. It does not by itself say whose body it is. The identity claims on the page are “it is I myself,” the hands and the feet, the side Thomas is invited to touch, and John’s statement that the temple raised is the body that would be torn down. Angels who visited Abraham were not identifying themselves as a man whose body had been killed three days before.

They did not recognize him, so it was not the same body. Reasoning cites John 20:14–15 and John 21:4–7 for that conclusion, and says the different flesh was perhaps meant to reinforce that he was a spirit. Luke 24:16 gives a different reason on the Emmaus road: “their eyes were holden that they should not know him.” Mary knows him when he says her name. Thomas is not offered a stranger’s hands. Delayed recognition is in the accounts. A series of disposable bodies is the explanation Reasoning adds.

“A spiritual body” means he is a spirit, and 1 Corinthians 15:45 calls the last Adam a life-giving spirit. Reasoning quotes that line. A life-giving spirit, in that verse, is set beside Adam, who became a living soul. It is about the kind of life he gives, in a chapter that has already said the dead are raised a spiritual body and will bear the image of the heavenly man. Luke uses “a spirit” for what Jesus says he is not, because of the flesh and bones they can see. The two sentences are not a license to erase the body. They are a reason to read “spiritual” as the life of the raised body, not as the absence of one.

Keep reading

• The resurrection of Jesus
• Who is the Alpha and the Omega?
• John 1 and the Word