Jesus' Resurrection Physical or Spiritual? What Do our Earliest Texts Really Say?

Our earliest texts that report Jesus' resurrection are the gospel of Mark and the early letters of Paul, which report sightings of Jesus as a glorified spiritual body--not a revived physical body. It was only later that the idea of resurrection of Jesus' physical body began to take hold for apologetic reasons.

In this extended interview with Derek Lambert, host of Youtube @MythVisionPodcast , we explore this issue in depth. Expect some surprises. The image thumbnail imagines the appearances of Jesus in the Galilee, on a high mountain, to his disciples.. The ending of the recently discovered Gospel of Peter is also witness to the same idea.

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[n.c.]

❤ Dr. Heiser. I was so thankful for him when I was attending church!
❤❤

[Tracysbrokenwing]

Excellent episode! Excellent conversation and so glad you still give lectures. I need to get on that zoom with you guys!!

[stephanieashworth]

Thank you for comparing and contrasting the verb tenses!

[FrankieGRAI]

Kudos to Dr. Tabor and Derek for hosting this talk. As a side note, that is why I like Jehovah's Witnesses NWT translation (2013). Regardless of the fair amount of criticism they endure in other areas, they do not include either the short or the long conclusion in their latest NWT Bible edition. They believe that Mark should end as originally intended, without any additions. In previous editions, they have included at the end of Mark these conclusions as an addendum for informational purposes only, to inform the readers about the manuscript variants, but they no longer do so in their latest rendition of their Bible.

[Kaylanisprofessorcygnus]

43 years, of teaching text original documents, going to real places in the bibical text, What an honor, this guy had interviewing you ! I do not know how to do interviews, yet i would love to interview you about the differences in translations !

[stephanieholland]

Really loved your last comment on the message of Mark and how it differs from the common view of the Christian life.

[ariston]

If you believe in a physical resurrection like Lazarus that would not be a true resurrection it would be a reanimation. That to me is more akin to Frankenstein. It is unnatural and would scare the pants off of anyone. I wouldn’t suddenly want to see my long gone parents show up at my front door. I truly believe Resurrection is more akin for lack of a better work like a Phoenix arising out of the ashes . Renewed reborn and over coming and becoming something better.I believe resurrection can start in this life after the “ death of what is no longer working and can continue into eternity” all the for the good guided by love which always seeks the good of the other . Eventually reaching the beatific vision.

[retribution]

Fact is, we will never know for sure, so whats the point. Christianity has given the world astonishing art, music, literature and architecture. The words of the bible have given courage and comfort.

[anthonypanneton]

Excellent explanation! And the last few minutes especially are SO right on the mark. (no pun intended...)

[mistersilly]

i enjoyed hearing this position. my introduction to early resurrection belief was Farrell Till painstakingly arguing with apologists, over multiple exchanges, that paul didn't think jesus simply had his body reanimated in its original form. [these were the days when arguments were still thoughtful posts, exchanged over days or weeks, and i think we've lost a lot in both fleeting comment section exchanges, and unwieldy youtube conversations that don't fully drive their points home.]

in the meantime, i've seen scholars that i like insisting on physical resurrection in the early sources, and i always had the impression they were twisting the meaning of words in order to reach their preferred destination. paul is not completely clear how he viewed the raised jesus — possibly a bias in record preservation — but he's very clear that _something_ is categorically different with the raised body. this is a fascinating structuring of the available evidence

[lindabishop]

Love this conversation. Great episode, thanks to both men. I would even say both are godly men of sorts. ❤

[michaelsmith]

Pre-resurrection Yeshua had a body of flesh and blood (Jn.6:55). And he was still able to walk on water and do other miraculous things!

Post-resurrection Yeshua said, "A ghost does not have flesh and bone..." not "flesh and blood" (Lk.24:39; I Cor.15:50).

[Scott-etkd]

Listened to Tabor a lot. Never had to take a note.

[mattandkim]

I think Mark gives us a clue in chapter nine. At the transfiguration scene, we are told that Moses and Elijah “appeared.” Jesus then tells the disciples not to tell anyone about it “until the son of man has risen from the dead.” The disciples are perplexed and discuss among themselves what “rising from the dead means.” They just saw two people who had been dead for hundreds of years, talking with Jesus, then poof, they (Elijah and Moses) are gone!

[karlmcallister]

Hi James. Great stuff. Helpful as always. I'm wondering if you're aware of the ongoing discussion about Marcion and whether an emmerging early dating of Marcion's NT changes the 2 source theory. Matkus Vinzent, f.eks. has argued that the ressurection is NOT a concern in Marcion's gospel or versions of Paul, nor does it appear in the earliest church fathers like the 3-letter collection of Ignatius. I'd be very interested on your perspective on this.
Would this have any influence on your topic?

[ezekielsaltar]

One thing that Dr. Tabor appears to not understand is that Judaism does believe in the recreation of the body at resurrection. They even have a midrash that explains about an indestructible bone in the neck that God uses to recreate the body from.

"In Jewish mythology, the luz (Hebrew: לוּז lūz) is a bone in the spinal column that houses the soul of the human body. In Hebrew, "luz" means almond, though in some editions of the Bible, it is translated as hazel. Jewish traditions teach that the luz is the bone from which the body will be rebuilt at the time of resurrection, and share the idea that this bone does not decay. " - Wikipedia

Also, the justification the Rabbis give for recreating the body is that the body deserves the reward of Olam Haba as much as the soul does and therefore the body must be brought back, just without the sinful nature.

[stephanieashworth]

Now that fiber optics allow us to 'look inside the cocoon of a caterpillar, we can see that the caterpillar is deconstructed down to the o-chem level (amino acids), the amino acids are re-combined into BUTTERFLY which, then, BURSTS out of the cocoon fully formed but capable of things of which the caterpillar never dreamed!

[FFotosRUs]

"Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices:
my body also will live in hope, because YOU WILL NOT ABANDON ME TO THE GRAVE, NOW WILL YOU LET YOUR HOLY ONE SEE DECAY..." (Psalms 16:8-11) Peter used this as proof of Jesus' bodily resurrection. By the way, when he said this, he was "spitting distance" from the tomb. It evidently was empty and required an explanation.

[JamesSnappJr]

James here you acknowledge Irenaeus' citation of 16:19. Doesn't that prove that your assignment of vv. 9-20 in another video was . . . off by about five centuries?

[stephanieashworth]

Think of quantum physics - wave vs particle - which can pass through locked doors but then sit down and eat a piece of fish!