Well, firstly, it was the same body. Whether it had additional qualities or not doesn't take away from the fact that it was the same body. Secondly, what you've quoted here assumes that the events were due to Jesus' body. It's also just as possible that the Father was simply moving Jesus miraculously from one place to another. Remember, Jesus told His disciples that the world would see Him no more. So He couldn't just walk down the street to get from point A to point B. As mentioned above we're not given the information so anything beyond what is stated is speculation. However, as I pointed out, it has to be the same body for it to be a resurrection. A different body would be Reincarnation not Resurrection.OzSpen said:Butch,
I understand the biblical evidence to present a slightly different picture to what you are saying here.
There is biblical evidence that Jesus' resurrected body was the same but different to the one that went into Joseph of Arimathea's tomb. Here's the evidence:
Sameness
Examples of the sameness of Jesus’ resurrected body (contrary to the spiritualising, metaphorical and apparitional views), based on the clarity of Scripture, include:
(1) Jesus’ followers could recognise his face and voice, including holding his feet and talking to him (Mt 28:9; Lk 24:32; Jn 20:16, 19-20; 21:12);
(2) Some touched his body or were invited to (Mt 28:9; Lk 24:39; Jn 20:17, 27); the scar marks from crucifixion were visible (Lk 24:39; Jn 20:20). Marcus Loane’s comment was that ‘those marks were the infallible proof that His body risen was identical with His body buried’ (Loane 1965:17).
(3) He ate with them (Lk 24:30, 42-43; Jn 21:12-13; Ac 10:40-42);
(4) Jesus was clear about the nature of his post-resurrection body: ‘A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have’ (Lk 24:39).
Differences
However, there were differences, changes in his body, through his resurrection from the dead. Schep’s language is that ‘there are mysterious elements in the appearance narratives’ (Schep 1976:92) and these include,
(1) His appearing and disappearing at will, like that which happened when he vanished from communication with the two people on the Emmaus road (Lk 24:31). In this verse, this is the only use of aphontos in the New Testament and it means to ‘vanish’ from someone (Arndt & Gingrich 1957:124). Schep (1976:82) considered it to be ‘a supernatural disappearance’, while Howard Marshall explains the word as meaning ‘he becomes invisible once he has been recognised…. It is as a supernatural visitor that the risen Jesus is portrayed’ in this verse (Marshall 1978:898).
(2) A sudden and miraculous appearance is suggested in Luke 24:36 when ‘Jesus himself stood among them’.
Could this account for the disciples being ‘startled and frightened’ as they ‘thought they saw a spirit’ (Lk 24:37)? When John recorded this event, he spoke of ‘the doors being locked’ and that ‘Jesus came and stood among them’ (the disciples) (Jn 20:19). There are not indicators of how Jesus overcame the difficulties of how Jesus stood among them when the doors were locked.
(3) There are Scriptures recording that Jesus was not recognised on first indications by those who saw him (see Mt 28:17; Lk 24:16-32); Jn 20:14-17). Schep’s perceptive analysis was that
‘all these mysterious and miraculous elements, together with the miraculous ascension, show that Jesus’ body, though consisting of flesh and bones, was now in a glorified condition and capable of acting independently of the laws of time and space. This does not imply that He Himself was beyond time and space, for this again would mean the annihilation of his true humanity. His body was what Paul called a “spiritual body,” (1 Cor 15:44; Phil 3:20). The word “spiritual” in this connection does not mean “immaterial”’ for Jesus’ body’ (Schep 1976:82).
Ladd summarised the ‘the same but different’ resurrected body of Jesus and its meaning: ‘The resurrection body of Jesus was of the same order as the resurrection bodies of the saints at the end of the age’ (Ladd 1975:123; emphasis in original).
Yes, the resurrected body of Jesus had many of the same features as that which went into the grave, but there were different dimensions that Jesus did not have prior to Golgotha. He was the same, but different.
Oz
Works consulted
[SIZE=11pt]Arndt, W F & Gingrich, F W 1957. A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]early Christian literature[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press (limited edition [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]licensed to Zondervan Publishing House).[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Ladd, G E 1975. I believe in the resurrection of Jesus. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Eerdmans Publishing Company.[/SIZE]
Loane, M L 1965. It is the Lord. London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott.
[SIZE=11pt]Marshall, I H 1978. The gospel of Luke: A commentary on the Greek text (The new international Greek testament commentary). Grand Rapids,Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Schep, J A 1976. Resurrection of Jesus Christ, in Tenney, M C (gen ed) The Zondervan[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] pictorial encyclopedia of the Bible[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt], Vol 5, 75-83. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House.[/SIZE]