Tuesday, December 15, 2020

Does 1 Corinthians 15:50 and 1 Peter 3:18 Support the Jehovah's Witness Belief the Resurrected Body is Spirit Only?

  

Two biblical passages often cited by Jehovah’s Witnesses to deny Christ’s bodily resurrection and ascension are 1 Cor. 15:50 and 1 Pet. 3:18. We read in 1 Cor. 15:50 that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” The Witnesses take this to mean that Jesus cannot have a body in His present state with the Father. The phrase flesh and blood, however, refers to the present mortal, corruptible and perishable bodies we now possess (see vv. 42, 50, 53, 54). These must and will be “changed” (v. 51) at the resurrection (v. 52). Christ, of course, does not possess a mortal, corruptible and perishable body. He as the resurrected and ascended Son of God possesses a glorified and immortal body. Thus, the Jehovah’s Witnesses commit a category fallacy by applying 1 Cor. 15:50 and its phrase “flesh and blood” to the now resurrected Christ.

 

In 1 Pet. 3:18 we read that Christ was “put to death in the flesh” [Gr. sarki, σαρκι], but made alive in the spirit [Gr. pneumati, πνευματι].” They interpret this to mean that Jesus’ body died, but His spirit was raised (thus He was raised a spirit creature). Rather than speaking about the parts of Christ that died and rose, i.e., His body and His spirit, this verse speaks of the spheres (or realms) in which Christ died and was made alive. In the Greek text we have two datives, datives of sphere. That is to say, Christ was put to death in the fleshly sphere (the fleshly realm, the physical realm where the soldiers nailed Him to the cross), but was made alive in the spiritual sphere (the spiritual realm). Verse 19 follows: “in which [Gr. en hō, εν ω] also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison.” The preposition en with the dative relative pronoun (“in which”) refers back to the spiritual sphere “in which” Christ was made alive (end of v. 18). Consequently He made proclamation to the spirits in this spiritual sphere (v. 19). Taken this way the verse makes perfect sense. (Steven Tsoukalas, Knowing Christ in the Challenge of Heresy: A Christology of the Cults A Christology of the Bible [Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1999], 211-12 n. 54)