If that all sounds a bit too much like materials science, then for us microscopists, itвЂ™s really about the review of three-dimensional objects (mainly tissues) by making horizontal and vertical incisions. There is thus no area of Pauline theology that the debate concerning the nature of resurrection in Paul does not touch.According to the International Society for Stereology, the area of scientific study encompassed by this term is that which analyzes solids. These contrasting claims regarding the apostleвЂ™s vision of humanity вЂ™s ultimate future entail radically different construals of Pauline soteriology, Christology, anthropology, and ethics. The expectation of the resurrection of the flesh is a hope for the redemption of this world and this body an expectation of resurrection to a disembodied or ethereally embodied existence is a hope, much like that of Plato, that this body and this world will be transcended in a world above.

This debate also has extraordinarily important implications for PaulвЂ™s thought. For (on this reading ) they are fundamentally at variance regarding the meaning of the affirmation that Jesus has been raised from the dead on the third day, and the nature of the hope which JesusвЂ™s resurrection offers those who believe.

вЂќ1 From this perspective, the good news of the resurrection proclaimed in 1 Corinthians 15, and the good news narrated by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are different gospels indeed. As Rudolf Bultmann famously remarked, вЂњThe accounts of an empty tomb are legends, of which Paul as yet knew nothing. This reading of 1 Corinthians 15 is the basis in turn for a widespread scholarly view of Christian origins in which belief in the resurrection of JesusвЂ™s crucified body from the tomb, such as we see reflected in the gospel accounts, was a later development, unknown to Paul and the earliest Christ followers. But the mainstream view in contemporary New Testament scholarship is represented by scholars such as Dale Martin, Troels Engberg-Pedersen, and Marcus Borg, who argue that Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 envisions an heavenly or вЂњspiritualвЂќ body which excludes participation of the earthly, mortal body in final salvation. Wright, and Anthony Thiselton, argue that PaulвЂ™s conception of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15, in continuity with the Gospels and Acts, involves the resurrection (and glorious transformation to imperishability) of the once-dead body of flesh and bones from the tomb. To be sure, a number of scholars, such as Richard Hays, N. However, many contemporary readers of this chapter, on both popular and scholarly levels, believe they find there a form of resurrection hope radically different from the hope we find in the Gospels, the book of Acts, and the historic Christian creeds. The Contemporary Debate Regarding 1 Corinthians 15ДЎ Corinthians 15 is by far the fullest treatment of the Christian hope of resurrection within the entire Bible. the resurrection of the fleshвЂќ), and its direct ancestor the Old Roman Creed (c. The bodily, flesh-and-bones character of this hope of future resurrection is emphatic in the historic Christian creeds, such as the ApostlesвЂ™ Creed (6th century AD): credo in. And the Easter event is understood as the fulfillment of the creator GodвЂ™s promised conquest of death, bringing the hope of bodily resurrection for all who believe (John 5:24вЂ“29 6:39, 40, 44, 54 Acts 4:1вЂ“2 23:7вЂ“10 24:14вЂ“15 26:6вЂ“8 26:22вЂ“23 cf. In both the Gospels and Acts, JesusвЂ™s resurrection is portrayed as a concrete, physical event involving JesusвЂ™s flesh and bones. The speeches of the apostles in Acts similarly assert that the flesh of Jesus was raised without undergoing decay (2:25вЂ“31 13:34вЂ“37), and that the risen Jesus ate and drank with his disciples (10:40вЂ“42 cf. In JohnвЂ™s Gospel, Jesus invites doubting Thomas to probe the scars in his hands and side (John 20:24вЂ“29). At the climax of the narrative, Jesus shows himself alive to the Twelve and the other disciples, inviting them to вЂњtouch me and see, because a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I haveвЂќ (Luke 24:39). In LukeвЂ™s Gospel, for example, the resurrection narrative beg ins with the disciplesвЂ™ discovery of the empty tomb (24:1вЂ“12 cf. The resurrection narratives in the Gospels portray Jesus as raised to life on the third day in his crucified body, leaving behind him an empty tomb.

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