Resurrection Of Jesus, Spiritual vs Physical

Resurrection of Jesus; Spiritual or Physical?

By Dr. Mohiuddin Waseem

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time” (1 Corinthians 15; 3-8, KJV).

In Chronological order this is the first testimony from Paul (50-60 A.D?) on which the myth of death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is based. Here Paul is equating his spiritual experience with the others or may be he was providing the evidence that others have experienced the same including the eleven disciples and even the traitor Judas Iscariot (who according to the Bible betrayed Jesus and led to his arrest by Roman soldiers).

Though Paul’s letters do not explain in detail the nature of his vision/encounter with the ‘risen Christ’ the later gospel writer Luke in the book of Acts provide us with conflicting information that when Paul on his persecutory journey “…came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the men, who journeyed with him, stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink” (Acts 9; 3-9).

Notice here that Paul is the only person who saw and heard the voice but his companions only heard it, which is contrary to what you find down few chapters in the same book of Acts from the mouth of Paul himself that, “And it came to pass, that, as I made my journey, and was come right unto Damascus about noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about me. And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I answered, who art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were with me saw indeed the light, and were afraid; but they heard not the voice of him that spoke to me” (Acts 22; 6-9).

Finally in Acts Chapter 26 Paul’s testimony is changed again for the third time, now everybody is fallen to the ground but Paul is the only person hearing the command, “Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests, At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest. But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision” (Acts 26; 12-19).

Even though there are obvious contradictions in what really happened on road to Damascus, you can appreciate that the experience which Paul has been sharing eagerly, was a spiritual one, which he is describing with such words as “seen” and “vision” etc. We know from his letters that he did not have much information about the historical Jesus. It is clear from the above testimony of his that upon his encounter with Jesus he did not recognize him rather he had to ask the question, ‘Who art thou, Lord’? And in response the ‘blinding light’ introduced itself as Jesus. Consider yourself in the first century A.D, this kind of vision has no special significance as in the Hellenistic world every Tom, Dick and Harry was claiming such spiritual experiences. And may be to add a little more flavor to the resurrection factor the later gospel writers (70-125 A.D) were compelled to add a ‘physical’ component to the story where Jesus is seen showing his wounds (John 20; 19-28) and eating broiled fish (Luke 24; 36-43).

Now the natural question which follows after this lengthy introduction is, “What should a Christian understand about the alleged death and resurrection of Jesus? Was it only ‘spiritual’ as Paul tells us or was there an added component of ‘Physical/bodily’ element as late gospel writers tell us? Because remember, if Christ has not risen according to what Paul believed then your “faith” is futile and you are still in your sins? (Holy Bible, 1Corinthians;17).

Think about it......