Jerome writes a century and a half later: “If all things, as this order of reasoning compels us to believe, shall live without body, the whole universe of corporeal things shall be consumed, and return again to that nothing out of which it was created.”
Note the vanity of the schoolmen in Origen’s remarks: What he cannot conceive of because of his limited experience must necessarily be beyond the grasp of Apostles, angels, and all celestial beings! It is this sublime confidence in the adequacy of one’s own knowledge and the finality of one’s own experience that makes the resurrection of the flesh the principal thorn in the incorporeal minds of the schoolmen. According to St. Augustine, the resurrection of the flesh is the one thing that the pagans cannot take, it is the one thing with which the philosophers have no patience, and is above all the one thing that distinguishes a Christian from a non-Christian.
Since it is the one doctrine that makes Christians Christians, it is alarming to learn from St. Augustine that in his day “in nothing is there so much conflict and controversy among Christians themselves as on the subject of the resurrection of the flesh.” “On no other matter,” he writes, “do they disagree so vehemently, so obstinately, so resolutely, or so contentiously as on the subject of the resurrection of the flesh. For as far as the immortality of the soul is concerned many a pagan philosopher too has argued about that and bequeathed us vast heaps of writings to the effect that the soul is immortal. But when it comes to the resurrection of the flesh they won’t argue, but dismiss it out of hand as impossible, and that on the grounds that it is impossible for this earthly flesh to aspire to heaven.”
The Disciples & Doubting Thomas
He comes through a locked door, and the first thing he does is ask them to touch him and then eats a piece of fish in front of them, because a room full of frightened men has decided he is a ghost. A week later he comes back for the one who missed it.
Tap a Gospel to show or hide its column. Narrow to any two to read them side by side.
Note. The Joseph Smith Translation leaves both columns almost untouched (Luke loses one pronoun): the verse that became the Restoration’s cornerstone text on the nature of a resurrected body stands exactly as the King James has it.
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The reading is the Joseph Smith Translation, in the text of the Covenant Christian Edition, carried beside each Gospel and set against the King James baseline. Headers give both numbering systems: the CCE chapter and verse, and the traditional KJV reference.
36And as they thus spoke, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them, Peace be unto you. 37But they were terrified and afraid, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. 38And he said unto them, Why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? 39Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I, myself; handle me and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see me have. 40And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.
41And while they yet wondered and believed not for joy, he said unto them, Have you here any food? 42And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish and a honeycomb. 43And he took it and did eat before them.
19Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples had assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and says unto them, Peace be unto you. 20And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. 21Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you. As my Father has sent me, even so send I you. 22And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and says unto them, Receive the holy ghost. 23Whoever’s sins you remit, they are remitted unto them, and whoever’s sins you retain, they are retained.
24But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. 26And after eight days, again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. 27Then says he to Thomas, Reach here your finger and behold my hands, and reach here your hand and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. 28And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29Jesus says unto him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.
30And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you might have life through his name.
Handle Me, and See
An Angel Has Flesh and Bones
Joseph Smith is not retelling this evening here; the sermon is on discerning spirits. It is shown because it works in this scene’s own terms: a spirit, a hand offered and not touched, and flesh and bones. Where the disciples feared they had seen a spirit and were told to handle him, Joseph turned the same distinction into a test for any appearance.
Discourse, between circa 26 June and circa 4 August 1839, Commerce, Illinois · Willard Richards, “W. Richards Pocket Companion Written in England,” pp. 71–73 (Words of Joseph Smith, “Before 8 August 1839 (1)”; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 161–162) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗we may look for Angel[s] & receive their ministreting but we are to try the Spirits & prove them for it is often the case that men. make a mistake in regard to these things. God has so ordained that when he has communicated, no vision is to be taken but what you see by the seeing of the eye or what you hear by the hearing of the ear— When you see a vision pray for the interpretation if you get not this, shut it up— There must be certainty. in this matter An open vision will manifest that which is more important. Lying spirits are going forth in the Earth. There will be great manifestation of Spirit both false & true. Being born again comes by the Spirit of God through ordinances. An angel of God never has wings. Some will Say that they have seen a Spirit. that he offered them his hand. but they did not touch it. This is a lie. First it is contrary to the plan of God A spirit can not come but in glory. An angel has flesh and bones. we see not their glory. The devil may appear as an angel of light. Ask God to reveal it. if it be of the Devil. he will flee from you. if of God he will manifest himself or make it manifest. we may come to Jesus & ask him he will know all about it.— If he comes to a little child, he will adapt himself to the Language & capacity of a little child—
If an Angel or Spirit Appears, Offer Him Your Hand
Joseph Smith is not expounding this passage here either. In December 1840 he put the same test in a single rule, and it is shown for the reason the 1839 sermon is: “handle me, and see” is the gesture it turns on. The only surviving copy was made in 1880 from William Clayton’s notes.
Discourse, December 1840, Nauvoo · “A key by Joseph Smith,” reported by William Clayton, copied in 1880 from Clayton’s “Private Book” by L. John Nuttall, Notebook, p. 3 · Joseph Smith Papers ↗If an Angel or spirit appears offer him your hand; if he is a spirit from God he will stand still and not offer you his hand. If from the Devil he will either shrink back from you or offer his hand, which if he does you will feel nothing, but be deceived. A good Spirit will not deceive. Angels are beings who have bodies and appear to men in the form of man.
The Funeral Sermon of Judge James Adams
At the October 1843 conference Joseph Smith preached the funeral sermon of James Adams, and in it drew the distinction he returned to more than any other: between a spirit, an angel, and the spirit of a just man made perfect. James Burgess, writing it out afterwards, records how the distinction was to be applied in practice, and the test he gives is this section: the Lord’s own demonstration to a room that thought it was looking at a ghost. Switch to “Scribal accounts” to read the four records side by side.
Discourse, 9 October 1843, Nauvoo (the funeral sermon of James Adams, at the general conference) · History, 1838–1856, vol. E-1, pp. 1750–1751 (History of the Church 6:50–52; Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 324–26); reported by Willard Richards, James Burgess and William Clayton · Joseph Smith Papers ↗Also recorded in the same discourse as reported by Gustavus Hills; the published account, Times and Seasons.
“All men know that they must die; and it is important that we should understand the reasons and causes of our exposure to the vicissitudes of life, and of death; and the designs and purposes of God in our coming into the world, our sufferings here, and our departure hence. What is the object of our coming into existence, then dying and falling away to be here no more? It is but reasonable to suppose that God would reveal something in reference to the matter, and it is a subject we ought to study more than any other;— we ought to study it day and night; for the world is ignorant in reference to their true condition and relation. If we have any claim on our Heavenly Father for any thing, it is for knowledge on this important subject. Could we read and comprehend all that has been written from the days of Adam on the relation of man to God and Angels in a future state, we should know very little about it. Reading the experience of others, or the revelation given to them, can never give us a comprehensive view of our condition and true relation to God. Knowledge of these things can only be obtained by experience through the ordinances of God set forth for that purpose. Could you gaze into heaven five minutes, you would know more than you would by reading all that ever was written on the subject. We are only capable of comprehending that certain things exist, which we may acquire by certain fixed principles. If men would acquire salvation they have got to be subject, before they leave this world, to certain rules and principles, which were fixed by an unalterable decree before the world was.
The disappointment of hopes and expectations at the resurrection would be indescribably dreadful The organization of the spiritual and heavenly worlds, and of spiritual and heavenly beings, was agreeable to the most perfect order and harmony— their limits and bounds were fixed irrevocably, and voluntarily subscribed to in their heavenly state by themselves— and was by our first parents subscribed to upon the earth;— hence the importance of embracing and subscribing to principles of eternal truth by all men upon the earth that expect eternal life. I assure the Saints that truth in reference to these matters, can, and may be known through the revelations of God in the way of his ordinances, and in answer to prayer.
The Hebrew Church “came unto the spirits of just men made perfect, and unto an innumerable company of Angels, unto God the Father of all, and to Jesus Christ the Mediator of the New Covenant.” What did they learn by coming to the spirits of just men made perfect? Is it written? No; what they learned has not been, and could not have been written. What object was gained by this communication with the spirits of the just? It was the established order of the the kingdom of God— the keys of power and knowledge were with them to communicate to the Saints:— hence the importance of understanding the distinction between the spirits of the just, and angels. Spirits can only be revealed in flaming fire, or glory. Angels have advanced farther— their light and glory being tabernaccled; and hence they appear in bodily shape. The Spirits of just men are made ministering servants to those who are sealed unto life eternal, and it is through them that the sealing power comes down. Patriarch Adams is now one of the Spirits of the just men made perfect; and if revealed now must be revealed in fire; and the glory could not be endured. Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, and they thought it was his spirit; and they were afraid to approach his spirit; Angels have advanced higher in knowledge and power than spirits. …
… The Spirits of the just are exalted to a greater and more glorious work— hence they are blessed in their departure to the world of Spirits. Enveloped in flaming fire, they are not far from us, and know and understand our thoughts, feelings, and motions, and are often pained therewith. Flesh and blood cannot go there, but flesh and bones, quickened by the spirit of God, can.
As Tangible as Man’s
Six months earlier, in a Sunday evening meeting at Ramus, he had put the conclusion of Luke 24:39 in the plainest terms he ever used, and made the same distinction the verse makes: a body of flesh and bones on one side, a personage of spirit on the other. Willard Richards wrote that intelligence “will rise with us in the revalatin,” which the Joseph Smith Papers reads as “revelation”; William Clayton wrote “resurrection,” the word Doctrine and Covenants 130:18 prints. Switch to “Scribal accounts” to compare them.
Instruction, 2 April 1843 (Sunday evening), Ramus, Illinois · Joseph Smith Diary kept by Willard Richards; reported also by William Clayton (the sources of D&C 130:18–23) · Joseph Smith Papers ↗whatever principle of inteligence we attain unto in this life. it will rise with us in the revalatin [revelation], and if a person gains more knowledge and intelignce. through his obedience & diligence. than another he will have so much the advantage in the world to come— There is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven. before the foundation of the world upon which all blessings are predicated and when we obtain a blessing it is by obedi[e]nce to the law upon which that blessing is predicated. …
… the Father has a body of flesh & bones as tangible as mans the Son also, but the Holy Ghost is a personage of spirit.— and a person cannot have the personage of the H G. [Holy Ghost] in his heart he may recive the gift of the holy Ghost. it may descend upon him but not to tarry with him.—
The Principal Thorn
Nibley’s Easter lecture makes the argument that the doctrine on which everything else rests, the resurrection of the flesh, is precisely the doctrine that the learned tradition of Christendom could not accept, would not argue about, and quietly spiritualized away. Then he says how such a thing does get established, and Thomas is his example.
I cannot resist noting here that the objection of the pagans to the resurrection is not a physical or a biological but a philosophical one, and it is the very same objection which the Christian world today makes against the Latter-day Saint conception of God: that there can be nothing of a bodily nature in the celestial. Yet the resurrected Christ was God. Is it any wonder that the Christians could never agree among themselves on this, the central doctrine of their religion? The doctors of the later church only touch lightly upon this theme, and with obvious embarrassment. St. Augustine had far more to say on the subject than any other father of the church; he speculates that the body may become spirit in the sense of acquiring unlimited mobility, but he is not sure;16 he does not know exactly how to take the doctrine, very popular in his day, that the resurrection was a resurrection of the spirit (anima) only,17 and again, he says he would like to know how he is to think of a “spiritual body” such as ours will be after the resurrection, but he does not know how, and would be glad to find someone who could teach him.18 This was exactly the puzzled and hesitant attitude of Augustine’s great eastern counterpart, Origen.
It was those teachings that were not common to the schools and not discoverable by the use of reason that set Christianity off from the rest of the world. As Clement says, if these things could have been discovered by human wit, there would have been no need for Christ to come to earth in person, and on the other hand, if human philosophy cannot discover them, then human philosophy has precious little to contribute to the study of the gospel.19 The unique value of Christianity lies in those things which would never in a million years occur to men if left to themselves. Its moral and social teachings are by no means unique; as we have said before, the pagans laughed at idols as loudly as any Christian apologist; we have just quoted Augustine as saying that the pagan philosophers wrote reams on the immortality of the soul; the apologists love to point out at great length that the concept of one God, far from being a Christian contribution to knowledge, was clearly set forth in the writings of poets and sages who lived long before Christ.
The resurrection is the heart of the Christian teaching: “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. . . . If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 19).
There is nothing paradoxical about the resurrection. There is nothing paradoxical about a flying machine, once one has seen one in operation. But seeing the thing operate, over and above all theoretical considerations of whether it should operate or not, is the ultimate and only test. When falls of meteorites were reported in the eighteenth century, the learned members of the French Academy argued with perfect and unanswerable logic that such a thing simply could not be. In the spirit of the Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson is reported to have said regarding a meteorite that fell in Connecticut in 1807, “I could more easily believe that two Yankee professors would lie than that stones would fall from heaven.” Logically, there was no answer to the natural philosophers. We still don’t know where meteorites come from. But where the eighteenth-century scientists fell down was exactly where Origen failed. He was convinced that what he could not reason out was beyond reason; they were convinced that what their science had not officially noted simply did not exist, and that what could not be scientifically explained— by them—was necessarily impossible. But even with the fullest scientific information at hand such a conclusion is not warranted. Every scientist knows that the drawing board and the equation do not have the final word, no matter how accurate and exhaustive the work on them may be. There is only one way to know whether the thing will fly or not.
Nibley’s point about Thomas cuts against the usual sermon. Thomas is not scolded for wanting evidence; he is given exactly the evidence he asked for, in the terms he set. What he is told afterwards is only that others will have to come at it another way.
He Breathed on Them
Verse 22 is usually read as a symbolic gesture toward Pentecost. Barker, on the Genesis background the first Christians would have carried in their heads, gives it a much harder edge: breathing into a face is the act by which the man in Eden was made a living being, and the Targums are unanimous about what it conferred. Read that way, the risen Lord in the locked room is doing the creation over, and what he gives them is the authority to speak.
There are two accounts in Genesis of the creation of Adam: God [or the ’elohim] resolved to create Adam ‘according to our invisible heavenly form, as our material image’ (Gen.1.26 [Gen. 2:8], translating literally; ‘as’ c.f Exod. 6.3 as El Shadddai). Adam was created male and female. The second account has Yahweh of the Elohim (the LORD God), form the man from dust and then breathe into the man the breath of life so that the man became a living being (Gen.2.7 [Gen. 2:11]). Breathing into a statue was a well known ritual for bringing it to life as the dwelling place of the god it represented, and all the Targums agree that breathing into Adam meant giving him the power of speech. The image of the beast was brought to life in this way in the Book of Revelation and given the power of speech (Rev.13.15 [Rev. 4:10]).
The story of Adam and the garden of Eden is one of the best known and yet least understood parts of the Bible. It sets out the biblical teaching on the nature of human beings, and all too often has been read as no more than the story of the fall. The familiar talking snake and the missing rib which have caused such problems belong in the pre-phisosphical culture of ancient Israel, and an over-literal reading of the text can obscure not only its profound insights but also its importance in the framework of the New Testament.
Adam and Eden are the beginning and the end of the great story of the Bible. Returning to Eden was an important part of Christian teaching from the beginning; paradise was regained when one entered the Church. Cyril of Jerusalem told the newly baptised that he was leading them by the hand ‘into the brighter and more fragrant meadow of paradise before us’....(First Lecture on the Mysteries, 1). In the New Testament, Jesus was described as the last Adam, the second Adam (1 Cor.15.45-7 [1 Cor. 1:61-66]) and he was also described as the great high priest (Heb.4.14 [Heb. 1:11]). Adam and the high priest, as we shall see, were the same figure. Jesus promised his faithful followers that they would once again eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God (Rev.2.7 [Rev. 1:9]). The story in the New Testament reverses the story of Adam in Eden, and the Church’s claim to be paradise is rooted in the ancient belief that the original temple represented the garden of Eden.
Paradise, pardes, is not a Hebrew word, and when it is found in the Hebrew Bible, English translations usually give something other than ‘paradise’: forest (Neh.2.8), park (Eccles 2.5) or orchard (Song 4.13-15). In the LXX, the LORD planted a paradise, an enclosed garden, in Edem [not Eden, Gen.2.8 [Gen. 2:12]] The original Hebrew word Eden can mean either ‘delight’ or ‘plain’, so Eden could have been a garden on a plain, or a garden of delight. The prophet Ezekiel, a priest who had known the first temple (Ezek.1.3 [Ezek. 1:1]), described Eden as the mountain garden of the gods, the ’elohim (Ezek.28.13-14 [Ezek. 14:11]), and so the meaning ‘plain’ would not have been appropriate for his Eden. ‘Delight’ fits better as the meaning of Eden, especially since Eden was used as an image for fertility. Isaiah, for example, prophesied of Zion ‘I will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD (Isa.51.3 [Isa. 18:2]); and Ezekiel prophesied that the desolate land would become like the garden of Eden (Ezek.36.35 [Ezek. 18:10]). In the LXX, Isaiah’s Eden was translated as ‘paradise’ and Ezekiel’s as ‘garden of delight/ luxury’.
The temple as Eden was the setting of the Book of Revelation, where St John described the heavenly city itself as a huge holy of holies (Rev.21.15-16 [Rev. 8:11]), and so there was no need of a further temple there (Rev.21.22 [Rev. 8:12]). In the holy of holies St John saw the tree of life and the heavenly throne, and from the holy of holies flowed the river of the water of life (Rev.22.1-2 [Rev. 8:13]). The risen LORD promised to his faithful followers that they would have access again to the tree of life (Rev.2.7 [Rev. 1:9]), and St John saw them standing before the throne and the tree of life (Rev.22.3-4 [Rev. 8:14]) – exactly as described in the other texts. They were restored to Eden whence Adam had been banished, but in fact they were standing in the holy of holies.
In each Genesis story, Adam was created as male-and female, and only later, after being set in the garden as high priest, was Adam separated into distinct male and female beings. He was set in the garden ‘to till and to keep’- the usual translation - but both these words have a temple meaning (Gen.2.15 [Gen. 2:13]), and Adam was understood to be a high priest even though that is not explicit. ‘Till’ ‘bd, was also the technical term for temple service, and ‘keep’, šmr, meant to preserve the tradition. The traditional Jewish interpretations did not think this was a command about gardening. The debate was: did it mean serve for six days and then preserve the Sabbath, or serve God and perform the sacred duties (Genesis Rabbah XVI.5).
Apart from the biblical accounts, there were many stories about Adam and Eden, some of which echo material in the Hebrew Bible and so may well have been known to its writers. They confirm that the temple was Eden. Amongst texts known in the time of Jesus, the Book of Jubilees, an alternative version of Genesis, had Adam wait forty days from his creation until he could enter Eden, and Eve eighty days, since both applied to Eden the temple laws about impurity after childbirth (Jub.3.8-14). When Adam was leaving Eden, he burned an incense very like the one prescribed for use only in the tabernacle (Exod.30.34-38): frankincense, galbabum, stacte and sweet spices (Jub.3.27). Noah knew that the garden of Eden was the holy of holies, and the dwelling of the LORD (Jub. 8.19). It is sometimes said that Jubilees reworked Genesis in order to make the link between Eden and the temple, but this is unlikely, since the temple-as-Eden tradition was older than Genesis.
It is worth noticing where the risen Lord had been standing an hour or two before this room: in a garden, mistaken for the man who keeps it.