Conclusion
This is Part 12 to a series – The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus: Compelling Evidence
Flesh and bones
Many scholars have stumbled at Luke’s ‘a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have,’ claiming this is a direct contradiction to Paul. In fact, Paul speaks of ‘flesh and blood’, not ‘flesh and bones.’ Is the difference significant? It certainly is! ‘Flesh and blood,’ as we have seen, is a Semitic expression for mortal human nature and has nothing to do with anatomy. Paul agrees with Luke on the physicality of the resurrection body. But furthermore, neither is ‘flesh and bones’ meant to be an anatomical description. Rather, proceeding from the Jewish idea that it is the bones that are preserved and raised (Gen R 28.3; Lev R 18.1; Eccl R 12.5), the expression connotes the physical reality of Jesus’s resurrection. Michaelis writes,
Wenn nach Lukas ein Geist weder Fleisch noch Knochen hat, der Auferstandene aber kein Geist ist, so besagt das nicht, dass der Auferstandene, mit der paulinischen Terminologie zu reden, kein “pneumatisches (verklärtes, himmlisches) Soma,” sondern ein “psychisches (natürliches, irdisches) Soma” habe. Mit Fleisch und Knochen in der lukanischen Aussage ist vielmehr (wie zugeben werden muss, in einem kräftigen Ausdruck, den Paulus aber nicht unbedingt als “lästerlich” empfunden haben müsste) das ausgedrückt, was Paulus mit dem Begriff “Soma” (Leib, Leiblichkeit) ausdrückt. Durch den Hinweis auf Fleisch und Knochen soll nicht der pneumatische Charakter dieses Soma bestritten, sondern die Realität des Somatischen bezeugt werden. Auch Lukas steht, wie sich zudem aus der Gesamtheit der bei ihm sich findenen Hinweise ergibt (vgl. 24.13ff; Apg. 1.3), unter den Voraussetzung, dass es sich bei den Erscheinungen nur um Begegnungen mit dem Auferstandenen in seiner verklärten Leiblichkeit handeln kann.{36}
The point of Jesus’s utterance is to assure the disciples that this is a real resurrection, in the proper, Jewish sense of that word, not an appearance of a bodiless pneuma. Though it stresses corporeality, its primary emphasis is not on the constituents of the body. Thus, neither Paul nor Luke are talking about anatomy, and both agree on the physicality and the supernaturalness of Jesus’s resurrection body.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we have seen that the critical argument designed to drive a wedge between Paul and the gospels is fallacious. Neither the argument from the appearance to Paul nor the argument from Paul’s doctrine of the resurrection body serves to set Paul against the gospels. Quite the opposite, we have seen that Paul’s evidence serves to confirm the gospels’ narratives of Jesus’s bodily resurrection and that their physicalism is probably historically well-founded, that is to say, Jesus did rise bodily from the dead and appear physically to the disciples. And finally we have seen that the gospels present like Paul a balanced view of the nature of Jesus’s resurrection body.
- On the one hand, Jesus has a body–he is not a disembodied soul. For the gospels and Paul alike the incarnation is an enduring state, not limited to the 30 some years of Jesus’s earthly life.
- On the other hand, Jesus’s body is a supernatural body.
We must keep firmly in mind that for the gospels as well as Paul, Jesus rises glorified from the grave. The gospels and Paul agree that the appearances of Jesus ceased and that physically he has left this universe for an indeterminate time. During his physical absence he is present through the Holy Spirit who functions in his stead. But someday he will personally return to judge mankind and to establish his reign over all creation.
NOTES
{1} This research was made possible through a generous grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and was conducted at the Universität München and Cambridge University. The full results of this research will appear in two forthcoming volumes, The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus: Its Rise, Decline. and Contribution and The Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus.
{2} Hans Grass, Ostergeschehen and Osterberichte (4th ed.; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1970).
{3} John E. Alsup, The Post-Resurrection Appearance Stories of the Gospel-Tradition (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1975), 32.
{4} Ibid., 34.
{5} Ibid., 54.
{6} Luke 24.39-43; John 20.26-38. There are, of course, contradictory elements in the stories which imply the body is more than physical.
{7} Robin Scroggs, The Last Adam (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1966), 92-3.
{8} Grass, Ostergeschehen, 222.
{9} Ibid., 219-20.
{10} See ibid., 189-207.
{11} Ibid., 229-32.
{12} The outstanding work on this concept, which I follow here, is Robert H. Gundry, Soma in Biblical Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976).
{13} C. Rolsten, Zum Evangelium des Paulus und des Petrus (Rostock: Stiller, 1868); Hermann Lüdemann, Die Anthropologie des Apostels Paulus und ihre Stellung innerhalb seiner Heilslehre (Kiel: Universitätsverlag, 1872); remarkably so also Hans Conzelmann, Der erste Brief en die Korinther (KEKNT 5; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1969), 335.
{14} See the six point refutation in Gundry, Soma, 161-2.
{15} See ibid., 122, 141. Most of Gundry’s texts do not support dualism, but merely aspectivalism; but when he adduces texts that clearly contemplate the separation of soul or spirit and body at death, then his argument for dualism is strong and persuasive.
{16} Gundry, Soma, 50.
{17} Robert Jewett, Paul’s Anthropological Terms (AGAJY 10; Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971), 211.
{18} Gundry, Soma, 167.
{19} Ibid., 80.
{20} Paul’s teaching is essentially the Jewish doctrine of glorified bodies, according to Johannes Weiss, Der erste Korintherbrief (9th ed.; KEKNT 5; Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1910), 345: W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism (2d ed; London: SPCK, 1965), 305-8; Ulrich Wilckens, Auferstehung (Stuttgart and Berlin: Kreuz Verlag, 1970), 128-31; Joseph L. Smith, ‘Resurrection Faith Today,’ TS 30 (1969): 406.
{21} On the different types of flesh, see Tractate Chullin 8. 1, where the author explains that one cannot cook flesh in milk, unless it is the flesh of fish or of grasshoppers; fowl may be set on the table with cheese, but not eaten with it. See also Davies, Paul, 306.
{22} Cf. II Bar 51.1-10 where the glory of the righteous seems to be a literal brightness like the stars’. For Paul the glory of the righteous seems to mean majesty, honor, exaltation, etc., not so much physical radiance, which is a mere analog. See Joseph Coppens, ‘La glorification céleste du Christ dans la théologie neotestamentaire et l’attente de Jésus,’ in Resurrexit (ed. Édouard Dhanis; Rome: Editrice Libreria Vaticana, 1974), 37-40.
{23} R. Clavier, ‘Breves remarques sur la notion de swma pneumatikon,’ in The background of the New Testament and Its Eschatology (ed. W. D. Davies and D. Daube; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956), 361. Despite the philological evidence, Clavier goes for a substantial understanding of spiritual body on two grounds: (1) in the seed/plant analogy, the plant is not numerically identical with the seed, and (2) I Cor 15.50. The first reason is astounding, for the plant certainly is numerically identical with the seed! Pressing the analogy this far supports the continuity of the resurrection body with the earthly body. Clavier sadly misunderstands v 50, as evident from his remark that Paul should have mentioned bones along with flesh and blood.
{24} Jean Héring, La première épître de saint Paulaux Corinthiens (2d ed., CNT 7; Neuchatel, Switzerland: Delachaux et Niestlé, 1959), 147.
{25} Or alternatively, the first Adam is made of the dust of the earth; the second Adam is from heaven. The first speaks of constitution, the second of origin. See also TWNT, , s. v. pneuma,’ by Kleinknecht, et. al.
{26} Joachim Jeremias, “‘Flesh and Blood Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of God” (I Cor. XV. 50),’ NTS 2 (1955-6): 151-9.
{27} Karl Bornhäuser, Die Gebeine der Toten (BFCT 26; Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann, 1921), 37.
{28} It is found in Matt 16.17; Gal 1.16; Eph 6.12; Heb 2.14; see also Sir 14.18 and the references in Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, eds., Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud and Midrasch (5th ed., 6 vols.; München: C. H. Beck, 1969), 1: 730-1, 753. The Semitic word pair sarx kai aima is first attested in Eccelesiasticus 14.18; 17.31 and occurs frequently in Rabbinic texts, especially Rabbinic parables, as
{29} According to Baruch the old bodies are raised for the purpose of recognition, that the living may know that the dead have been raised. But for Paul, believers, like Christ, emerge glorified from the grave.
{30} Berthold Klappert, ‘Einleitung,’ in Diskussion um Kreus und Auferstehung (ed. idea; Wuppertal: Aussaat Verlag, 1971), 15.
{31} See Bornhäuser, Gebeine; C. F. Evans, Resurrection in the New Testament (SBT 2/12; London: SCM, 1970), 108; Walther Grundmann, Das Evangelium nach Lukas (8th ed., THKNT 3; Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 1978), 451.
{32} Grass, Ostergeschehen, 154.
{33} Gerald O’Collins, The Easter Jesus (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1973), 94.
{34} Rudolf Schnackenburg, Das Johannesevangelium (3 vols., 2d ed., HTKNT 4; Freiburg: Herder, 1976), 3: 383. This goes for both the appearance to the Twelve and to Thomas, he argues.
{35} Although some critics have wanted to construe Matthew’s mountaintop appearance as a heavenly vision similar to Paul’s, this attempt seems futile. Matthew clearly considered Jesus’s appearance to be physical, as is evident from his appearance to the women (Matt 28.9, 10) and his commissioning of the disciples. Even in the appearance itself, there are signs of physicality: the disciples’ worshipping Jesus recalls the act of the women in v 9 and does not suit well a heavenly appearance; and Jesus’s coming toward the disciples (proselqwn) seems to indicate decisively a physical appearance.
{36} Wilhelm Michaelis, Die Erscheinungen der Auferstandenen (Basel: Heinrich Majer, 1944), 96.
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