Salma Aftab

What happened to Jesus’ body?

The explanations to what happened to Jesus body are numerous. In this essay I intend to examine some of those theories and their credibility. In addition I will try to anayalse how Luke presents these theories. For this we may turn to Corinthians again and consider what Paul writes of resurrection body, "So it will be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body." With these thoughts in mind we can therefore consider some of the more dramatic events surrounding the resurrection of Jesus.  From the Gospels it is of course quite clear that the body of Jesus had undergone a quite remarkable change. Consider the closing verses of Luke's Gospel, the two disciples on the Road to Emmaus. Jesus came and walked with them but they didn't recognise him. And at verse 31 we read, "then their eyes were opened and they recognised him and he disappeared from their sight." And later at verse 36, "while they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." They were startled and frightened thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them,” Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” Contained here again is this description of a real body of flesh and bones, yet one that is difficult to recognise. And nothing that is said here in anyway contradicts itself once we understand that Christ's body is different. It is a transformed and glorified human body. It is a body endowed with new and eternal qualities suited to the heavenly environment. It is shown to the disciples not only as a proof of the power of God but also to demonstrate very clearly what lies ahead for all believers. For such a body and spirit are promised to us. This change in body and spirit is promised to us by Christ himself the life giving Spirit.

A theory given by some scholars is that the body was stolen however Campbell this seems unlikely since a dead body would be of no use to anyone. Furthermore, even if the disciples had found a reason to steal the body, psychologically they could not attempt such a plan - they were afraid and defeated.   By the time of the crucifixion they had almost given up hope. More significantly Drane states that even if they wanted to steal the body, they could not because it was under Roman guard. To break open the wax seal would have been punishable by death. Most evidently if they had somehow convinced others that He was alive, why did they then go on to die for a belief they knew to be totally false? Furthermore Peter states that he saw the linen wrappings that Joseph and Nicodemus had used to coat the body. Peter probably saw the wrappings in the shape of a body without a body inside. But he also saw the head cloth, "rolled up in a place by itself." No one stealing the body would have had time to roll up the face cloth and carefully set it aside. This is a curious detail that caught Peter's attention. But this was only a foreshadowing of what was to come as Peter and the others personally experienced Jesus Christ in the succeeding days. Hence it appears very unlikely that body could have been stolen.

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According to Wilson the resurrection was no more than a series of hallucinations iniated by their grief. “By this means he could have effectively conditioned them to hallucinate to pre arrange cues” Wilson advocate the position that if one can not believe in the resurrection then the only plausible theory remains is the hallucination. However this is questionable. As Guy states that if the resurrection stories are a result of mass-hallucination or wishful thinking, it is a strange psychological phenomenon so unlike any other ever recorded that you really need to propose some unique cause to justify this unique effect. Secondly, ...

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