DAY 213
CHALLENGE
“Why can’t we explain the Resurrection appearances in purely spiritual terms? Paul says that at the general resurrection, people will have a ‘spiritual body’ (1 Cor. 15:44). What if the disciples simply saw visions and concluded from them that Jesus had been spiritually resurrected?”
DEFENSE
The term “spiritual body” (Greek, sōma pneumatikon) does not mean an immaterial body but rather a supernaturally transformed body.
That’s why Paul compares the body to a seed that is sown in the ground and then becomes an adult plant (1 Cor. 15:35–44). The plant is the direct continuation of the seed, and the “spiritual body” of the resurrection is the direct continuation of the body we have in this life. Consequently, resurrection does not leave a body in the tomb, and all four of the Gospels stress that Jesus’ tomb was empty (Matt. 28:6; Mark 16:6; Luke 24:5; John 20:1–6).
Further, the disciples believed consciousness continued beyond death in a disembodied state. When they saw Jesus walking on the water at night, they initially thought it was a ghost (Matt. 14:26; Mark 6:49). Yet they did not regard disembodied existence as the resurrection—a re-embodiment they believed would occur on the last day (John 6:39–40, 11:24).
Jesus’ Resurrection was thus unexpected. When the tomb was discovered empty, the disciples’ initial interpretation was that someone had moved the body (John 20:2–13). Only with the Resurrection appearances did they realize something miraculous happened.
Even then, when Jesus appeared to them, they fell back on the next plausible hypothesis, given their worldview, that they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:37). However, Jesus demonstrated that he was bodily alive, telling them: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me, and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39; cf. 24:41–43, John 20:24–27).
The disciples thus proclaimed Jesus was bodily resurrected. They did not believe in a “spiritual resurrection” that would leave his body in the tomb.
The spiritual resurrection hypothesis thus does not explain how the apostles could have innocently thought they saw Jesus alive after the Crucifixion.
TIP
For a sustained refutation of the idea of Jesus experiencing a merely spiritual resurrection, see N. T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God.