A Theory Without a Ghost of a Chance
Resurrection of Christ by Noël Coypel , 1700, using a hovering depiction of Jesus The "no Body" theory says that Jesus' resurrection was non-bodily; he didn't leave an empty tomb but just appeared to people as a spirit. This view is much prized by a certain segment of theological liberalism. Some liberals can't bring themselves to buck naturalism (I on the other hand am a liberal of a different sort). This view was Championed by Hans Grass's classic Ostergeschehen and Osterberichte. [1] The answer, of course, is that Paul's belief was the same as the Jewish belief of the day, that Messiah was to raise all of fallen Israel at the end of times. This was to be a bodily resurrection. Paul sees Jesus as the "first fruits" or the hearld of this mass resurrection in the end. But why would he speak of a bodily resurrection for us (which clearly he does, as we see in the quotation at the top from 1 Cor. 15) and not for Jesus hi