Paul and the diversity of Christologies in the Early Church

In which I (gasp) concede Veritas48's point about Paul's stance on the Bodily nature of Christ's resurrection, but point out that the very fact that Paul had to address it indicates that there was a diversity of opinion on the subject. This probably indicates that the resurrection experiences of at least some of the apostles was not an encounter with a body, but was rather a spiritual experience.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• resurrection
• christianity
• randy
• helzerman
• paul
• christology
• early

[heyalun]

Randy, I don't know exactly what you're looking for with regard to 1st person accounts, but does Revelation 1:12-20 count?

This whole discussion is of great interest to me as I had no idea that the belief that Jesus nature was permanently changed was so prevalent. I knew that some beleieved it, but I didn't know that was the majority belief. I'm amazed and baffled.

[randyhelzerman]

Hi Heyalun, that is a most interesting question....does Revalation 1:12-20 count as a resurrection experience????? Honestly, I think that's the best question I've ever been asked on this subject. My first impulse is to say yes, of course, because that supports my pet theory that the resurrection experiences were spiritual/visionary, not physical in character ;-) But I suppose there are reasons to class it more like a vision resurrection experience. (cont)

[randyhelzerman]

(cont, to Heyalun) But then again, what _IS_ the difference between a vision and a resurrection experience? Man dude, I'm gunna have to think about this for a while. In the mean time, I'd like to hear what everybody else has to say as well. W.R.T. christology, man dude, it would be really useful if you would make a video explaining your exact beliefs on this. I do think that lots and lots of Christians today _don't_ think the resurrection was physical. (cont)

[randyhelzerman]

(cont, to Heyalun) you might be in the minority, but you most definitely are not alone.

[migkillertwo]

I read an article by christopher price that touched upon this issue.

the Greeks believed in something quite close to modern ideas about the afterlife, that our bodies will just pass away, but our souls are immortal. they believed in a sort of spiritual resurrection before christians arrived on the scene a belief in a spiritual resurrection would have been a likely result of Greek skepticism. Im fairly certain that corinthian skepticism is a more likely origin than the the other apostles.

[ronpaul20082]

Hey Randy, I was wondering if you can help me come up with a clear hypothesis on how the following 2 minute miracle video was assembled:

Google INSTANT BABY DELIVERY

[randyhelzerman]

Ha Heyalun, don't rock the boat with your SO, but you might be surprised at how tolerant they can be of eccentric behavior....mine doesn't care as long as I don't let YouTube take up _too_ much of my time.

[heyalun]

I may just make a video. My Mac seems to have some decent software, and it just so happens I was messing around with it today for the first time - toying with the idea of fully making my entrance into this community. I've been hesitant because I'm not sure how members of my real life community would feel about it, particularly, but not exclusively, the one I sleep with. Maybe I'll do something off-camera to maintain some anonymity.

[heyalun]

Lol..."Weritas"

Sorry, this is definitely a vision, not a physical experience. John is explicit on that. I didn't quite get what you were looking for.

Any encounter with Jesus would be a "resurrection experience." Although there does seem to be a distinction made between visions and seeing him live. And I think this is the better distinction, as opposed to physical/spiritual. Audible and visual experiences are a physical as tactile ones. The spiritual is not perceptible to us.

[randyhelzerman]

(cont, to StormTrek) because Paul spends so much time refuting this doctrine, we know that there never was a time in christianity, even in the very first few decades of the church, in which there was unanimous agreement about the nature of Christ's resurrection. Eventually, "orthodox" doctrine would be that it was a bodily resurrection, but from the beginning down to this very day there exists Christians who thought Christ's resurrection was a spiritual resurreciton.