Craig writes in response to the critical argument that is made that Paul and the gospels would appear not to agree upon the resurrected form of Jesus Christ, and thus Craig disputes such a case by showing clear evidence that Paul actually confirms the gospel narratives of a Jesus that has been raised in bodily form. (See Craig) One of the accounts that confirm the bodily resurrection that Craig notes is the fact that Thomas actually had the invitation to touch Jesus after the resurrection, and Craig notes that, “there is no good reason to doubt that Jesus did, in fact, show his disciples that he had been physically raised.” (Ibid) Craig also shows the value of the scholarship of Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:35 to show the transformation of the earthly body into a supernatural body. Overall, despite what the critical argument might claim, Craig actually has a conclusion that states that, “Paul’s doctrine of the resurrection body is potentially more physical than that of the gospels…” (Ibid)
The second great reason why bodily resurrection is seen in Craig’s writings is because he notes that in 2 Corinthians 4:16 that it describes how only the natural body parishes while speiretai – egeiretai was used to refer to a burial of a body that is to be raised from the dead. (Ibid) The point to be made is that Craig strives to point out how Paul took note of how bodies differ greatly from one another such as the terrestrial bodies and the celestial bodies compared to plants and animals, (Ibid) and with this analogy a person could see how much different the resurrection body could be compared to the natural body. The fact that the resurrection body is completely different from the natural body would give much more credibility to the doctrine of a bodily resurrection, and this is because some people would see a bodily resurrection as offensive because they would seek to be free of the natural body. Overall, Craig defends the doctrine of a bodily resurrection best by showing a starkly different resurrection body compared to the natural body in order to break down the objection that people might have to the idea that the body is a, “prison of the soul” and that death releases the soul from that prison, and by taking away such objections Craig proves his case.
Craig reminds readers that Jews thought of the bones of the dead to be what was used for God to make the resurrection body, and he also points to the fact that in some cases special consideration needed to be made for Jewish martyrs that may need to have a, “resurrection body ex nihilo.” (Ibid) Taking this into consideration Craig writes that, “The idea that the new body exists already in heaven is an impossible notion.” (Ibid) The fact of the matter is that just by historical practice of the Jews alone a person could identify that the resurrection body is indeed something that comes from the remains of the dead natural body, and to dispute this tradition would be to dispute the shared understanding that the early apostles would have likely understood from tradition. The point is that if any of the apostles (including Paul) would have deviated from the commonly held tradition of the Jews, then they would have needed to have starkly shown the contrast of their, “New Testament” understanding compared to Jewish tradition.
In reflection Craig does indeed prove his point well by showing that Jesus had been physically raised from the dead and that others that would be raised in righteousness would be raised like Jesus as well. (Ibid) The second great point that Craig makes regarding the Greek cultural problem with a bodily resurrection and how Paul overcame that problem by showing how much different the resurrection body is compared to the natural body cannot be understated. Overall, clearly the resurrected body of Jesus Christ was a physical (like) body instead of a body that was simply just a spiritual body, and Craig proves such a point very well.
REFERENCES
Craig, William. The Bodily Resurrection of Jesus. Leadership U. http://www.leaderu.com/offices/billcraig/docs/bodily.html (accessed, July 11, 2011).