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corpus-paul - RE: C-P: Paul and Plato

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  • From: "Liz Fried" <lizfried AT umich.edu>
  • To: "Corpus-paul" <corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: RE: C-P: Paul and Plato
  • Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1999 12:47:54 -0400



> From: Jerry Sumney [mailto:jsumney AT lextheo.edu]

> Liz wrote:
>
> I think the importance of Christ to him is that he can die to the
> body, and
> be alive in the spirit. This strikes me as an abnegation of the created
> order, of the body, of bodily life, and the taking on of what he deems a
> spiritual existence. That to me is the point of Christ's death. By
> participating in that death, you can change from an earthly, temperal,
> fleshy existence, to an a spiritual existence which is eternal life.
>
>
> Jerry replies:
>
> Perhaps a look at 1 Cor 15 can help here. The language may be unclear in
> many ways there, but I think it makes an important point. As I
> understand
> it, 1 Cor 15 rejects the idea that eternal existence is that of a
> soul/spirit without a body (for the context of the list
> discussion, Paul is
> rejecting something like what Plato might want). Paul sees embodied
> existence as the only acceptable afterlife for Christians.
> Though it is a
> "spiritual body" (see Dale Martin's reading of this in _The Corinthian
> Body_), it is a body which, if Martin is correct, is still related to
> material existence--if the only two categories are spirit and matter.
>
I've been thinking about this since you wrote your note. If the only two
categories are spirit and matter, and I guess that is the case, then Paul is
very clear about this. Paul says in 1 Cor. 15:50, "flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God." At the time of the resurrection we will all be
changed, we will put on a *spiritual* body. This is an imperishable,
immortal body. It is *not* a flesh and blood body. It is sown a physical
body, but is raised a *spiritual* body. (15:44)

What is this spiritual body? It is the body of Christ after the
resurrection.
I don't know how Paul understood this post-resurrection body of Christ, but
it is 1) not flesh and blood, but spiritual, and 2) I suspect apprehended
only through the intellect, the spirit, the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:10ff).

Liz

Lisbeth S. Fried
Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies
New York University
51 Washington Sq. S.
New York, NY 10012
lqf9256 AT is3.nyu.edu
lizfried AT umich.edu






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