JehovahsWitness wrote: ↑Wed Apr 12, 2023 5:05 pm
historia wrote: ↑Wed Apr 12, 2023 11:10 am
I think Paul believed Jesus was resurrected, and so believed that he had physical (albeit in his terminology 'glorified') body.
Can you clarify what you mean here by physical? I take it to mean a carbon based form that can be seen (and touched) by humans.
Yeah, sorry, by 'physical' I also mean a body that can be seen and touched.
Obviously, Paul and other early Christians authors didn't have the language of modern physics or chemistry to draw upon to describe spirits or our bodies in the age to come, so expressions like 'carbon-based' seem out of place here.
But there does appear to have been a fundamental difference in the minds of many ancient authors between a spirit or a soul on the one hand and a visible, tangible body on the other. Here is perhaps where
Luke 24:39 is useful, in that it reflects this general distinction.
JehovahsWitness wrote: ↑Wed Apr 12, 2023 5:05 pm
It seems to me you are for all intent and purposes your reference to a glorified "physical" altered body is one that can exist in the spirit realm
I don't know if it's meaningful to frame our discussion on this point in terms of what "can" happen, since Paul no doubt thought that with God all things are possible.
Better, I think, to frame this in terms of what is the final destination of those who are resurrected: I simply don't see in 1 Cor. 15 or Romans 8 the idea that those who are resurrected will leave behind their mortal bodies and go off
to heaven. Rather, I see Paul describing Christ coming
from heaven to the renewed creation where God will give new life to our mortal bodies.