New Testament Studies

http://journals.cambridge.org/NTS
Additional services for New

Testament Studies:

Email alerts: Click here

Subscriptions: Click here
Commercial reprints: Click here
Terms of use : Click here

Paul's Thinking about Resurrection in its Jewish

Context
Alan F. Segal
New Testament Studies / Volume 44 / Issue 03 / July 1998, pp 400 - 419
DOI: 10.1017/S0028688500016623, Published online: 05 February 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0028688500016623

How to cite this article:
Alan F. Segal (1998). Paul's Thinking about Resurrection in its Jewish Context. New
Testament Studies, 44, pp 400-419 doi:10.1017/S0028688500016623
Request Permissions : Click here

Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/NTS, IP address: 189.235.125.24 on 11 Sep 2014

New Test. Stud. vol. 44,1998, pp. 400-^419

Printed in the United Kingdom

Copyright 1998 Cambridge University Press

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

IN ITS JEWISH CONTEXT*
ALAN F. SEGAL
Barnard College, Columbia University, New York City, NY, USA

Paul describes his discipleship and mission, in short his apostolate, in

terms of his vision of the resurrection of the exalted Christ. The glorious
body of Christ and the spiritual body are similar in substance because
one is transformed into the other, a conclusion based on his own experience of visions of the risen Christ in a body but not a physical body in
normal sight. This notion of Christ's risen activity contrasts strongly
with the later gospel description of the risen Christ. It comes out of
Jewish apocalypticism, revalued to express his new Christian vision of
the end.

Paul stands firmly within the Jewish apocalyptic-mystical tradition. His understanding of the end of time and the resurrection is
firmly apocalyptic. He describes his own spiritual experiences in
terms appropriate to a Jewish apocalyptic-mystagogue of the first
century. I want to show that apocalyptic in Paul's case implies
mystical revelation. Many of his discussions of resurrection depend
directly on the apocalyptic end, an intuition about history which he
received from personal revelation.
Let me begin with apocalypticism and his concept of discipleship:
For they themselves report concerning us what a welcome we had among
you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,
and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus
who delivers us from the wrath to come. (1 Thess 1.9-10)

Here, we see a characteristically Pauline use of an apparently

kerygmatic formula concerning resurrection in a missionary context. That approaching resurrection is what justifies the mission.
Having turned from idols, Paul's converts learn to wait for God's
son from heaven, who will rescue them from the coming wrath.
This seems in some respect a violation of the apocalyptic passage
in Dan 7.13 where the role of the son of man figure is to bring
judgment. But one supposes the protection of innocent is part of
* Main paper delivered at the 52nd General Meeting of the SNTS in Birmingham in August
1997.

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

401

the larger role of judgment. And the proof that all these things are
about to happen is that Jesus, the son, was raised from the dead.
A similar formula can be found in the salutation of the Letter to
the Romans where Jesus is mentioned as seed of David according
to the flesh but, more importantly, son according to spirit and
power, our Lord as a result of the resurrection. Lord is, of course, a
divine title and resurrection is what God, not the messiah, would
effect at the end of time in apocalyptic literature. Jesus' lordship is
inherent in the resurrection, the transformation from his earthly,
fleshly state to his spiritual and powerful state. Thus the relationship between flesh and spirit is homologous with the relationship
between son of David and son of God. We shall see that it is also
homologous with the distinction between physical bodies and
spiritual bodies. It is the hypothesis of this paper that this contrast
is due to Paul's experience: he received an apocalyptic-mystical
vision of the Christ but never met the man Jesus in the flesh at all.
Consequently, his entire explanation of the distinction between
flesh and spirit is congruent with his experience of revelation,
including his high evaluation of spirituality in Christianity and his
lack of attention to the person of Jesus as he appeared in life.
Though the contrast is characteristic of Pauline thought, some
of the vocabulary may well have preceded Paul's uses and have
been part of the primitive tradition. On the other hand, like the
expression 'become a life-giving Spirit' in 1 Cor 15.45, Paul may
have added the notion of power to the salutation. 1 In the main,
however, the emphasis of the contrast between these two states
seems to me to express his post-Christian experience of polemic
and argument over his very apostolate. Because this is a question
of emphasis rather than the specific interpretation of a single
passage, it will be necessary to outline his thought from this point
of view, rather than attempt a tight demonstration.
Paul's use of kerygmatic resurrection traditions appears to grow
out of Jewish missionary literature, in which the promise of resurrection and the fear of the end of time feature prominently, as one
would expect in an apocalyptic preacher. At the same time, the
specific nature of his personal vision of Christ changes the quality
of that apocalyptic prophecy so that Paul forever alters that
tradition for Christian apocalypticism afterwards (1 Thess 4.1318). This passage explains that the resurrection of all Christians
will follow closely upon the coming of the Lord, also explicitly
1 See P. Perkins, Resurrection: New Testament Witness and Contemporary Reflection (1st ed.
Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1984) 219.

402

ALAN F. SEGAL

called both Jesus and Christ, a very interesting and important

identification. This formula both shows Paul to be entirely within
the Jewish mystical tradition and to have made important
Christian modifications in it. But it does not go on in detail about
the nature of the apocalyptic end. Instead Paul features the issue
of resurrection. Paul is not as concerned with the punishment of
sinners as he is with the rewards of the faithful, in this case, his
gentile converts. But the contrast appears again to be related to his
conversion experience and the nature of his knowledge of the
Christ.
In 1 Thess 4, the resurrection of all living believers immediately
follows upon the resurrection of the dead. Jesus will keep faith
with the dead, called those who have fallen asleep as in Dan 12
(tcov Koip-conevcov) and Isa 26. Thus, Paul reproduces a typical apocalyptic pattern, though his apocalyptic pattern has several unique
and quite identifiably Christian characteristics.
Other passages which include primitive statements of the
kerygma about resurrection would include Rom 4.24-5; 8.34; 10.9;
and2Tim2.8-13: 2
It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from
the dead,
who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our
justification. (Rom 4.24-5)
It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who
was raised, who is at the right hand of
God, who indeed intercedes for us. 3 (Rom 8.34)
because4 if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your
heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (Rom 10.9)
Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, a descendant of David that
is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship, even to the point of being chained
like a criminal. But the word of God is not chained. Therefore I endure
everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the
salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
The saying is sure:
If we have died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him;
if we deny him, he will also deny us;
if we are faithless, he remains faithful
for he cannot deny himself. (2 Tim 2.8-13)

Paul is most dependent upon this traditional imagery when

speaking about the future judgment. But as R. Tannehill suggests,
2
3
4

See Perkins, Resurrection, 219-28.

Or 'Is it Christ Jesus . . . for us?'
Or 'namely, that'.

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

403

Paul emphasizes not visions of the end so much as the life of the
believer in the risen Christ. 5 But the simplest way to connect the
two ideas is merely to attribute both to the saving action of God.
2 Cor 4.14 contains a short summary of that belief: 'knowing that
he who raised the Lord will bring us with you into his presence'.
Resurrection is the beginning of this process of transformation and
salvation.
It is difficult to explain why exactly Paul de-emphasizes traditional notions of the end of time in place of the experience of the
presence of Christ except to say that this appears to be a consequence of his own spiritual experience. In place of any florid
description of the end of time, Paul elaborates on the relationship
between resurrection and apostolic commissioning, which is deeply
connected to his own conversion (call) in Galatians and his
description of resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15.
For instance, we see the connection made clearly when Paul is
accused of antinomianism: 'Paul an apostle not from men nor
through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who
raised him from the dead' (Gal 1.1).
The greeting emphasizes the connection between apostolic
authority and resurrection, especially as Paul, otherwise, is fond of
rather more simple formulas in his correspondence (1 Cor 1.1;
2 Cor 1.1 and Rom l.l). 6 In 1 Cor 9.111 Paul again responds to
accusations that appear to have been levelled at his missionary
activity. And once again, he emphasizes resurrection and his personal vision of Christ: 'Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I
not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the
Lord?' (1 Cor 9.1). It is this question which appears to occasion the
remarks of 1 Cor 15, concentrating so fully on resurrection. Thus,
with Paul we can begin to discuss the effect of Jewish mystical and
apocalyptic visions not just as a warning of the end of time and as
vindication for those who stay faithful to the precepts of Judaism
but as an important spiritual experience within the life of an
individual Jew (in this case a Christian but Paul might not have
understood the difference; he never uses the term Christian).
Now, in 1 Cor 9, Paul uses the perfect tense of opdco (to see) to
describe his visionary experience (OOK ei(xl eXevQepoq; otnc e{|xl dotoq; ox>%\ 'ITIOOUV TOV icupiov f||icov ecopaica; ox> TO epyov \iox> h\ieic, eaxe

R. C. Tannehill, Dying and Rising with Christ: A Study in Pauline Theology (BZNW 32;
Berlin: Topelmann, 1967) 130ff. See also Perkins, Resurrection, 295.
6 Perkins, Resurrection, 197.

404

ALAN F. SEGAL

ev icoptcp;). This suggests that Paul is emphasizing that his vision

was equivalent to normal seeing, just as you and I might see each
other. But Paul actually does not want to stress the ordinariness of
the seeing here. He is aware of and very conscious of the special
nature of his revelation. Rather it is the continuity with others
that Paul wants to stress, not the nature of the seeing.7
Much more often Paul wants to demonstrate that his vision of
Christ was of the same type and order as that of the other apostles.
In 1 Cor 15.57 and elsewhere Paul uses the aorist passive 6kp6r| to
describe this kind of seeing. The visionary language works in
several ways at once. First, it follows the tradition of the LXX for
describing visions. In the Septuagint the aorist passive form is
used frequently with the sense of visionary seeing or seeing a
divine being. Again, it is important to note that Paul uses the very
same verb and form to describe his own seeing and that of the
original apostles. This demonstrates his contention that he is their
equal in every way. Conversely this suggests that the original
apostles saw no more than he did. Of course, the original apostles
saw and knew the Jesus of the flesh. But it is not their experience
of the teacher Jesus which is important in this context. And the
reason for this is that it is not the earthly Jesus who preaches and
demonstrates that the resurrection has already started. Rather
the vision of the risen Jesus makes this clear. Because Jesus has
been seen or revealed in this very way, we know that the general
resurrection has begun and we also know that Paul and all those
who saw him in his transformed state are the first apostles and
prophets of this new epoch in human history.8 It is very important
to note that Paul knows this because of his visions, in which the
embodied Christ was revealed to him.
Paul's references to apocalypses and visions, as well as heavenly
ascent, also put him squarely within apocalyptic tradition. The
plural is very important in this context because it states surely
that Paul's reception of revelation was progressive. Although the
account of Paul's ecstatic conversion in Acts is a product of Luke's
literary genius, Paul gives evidence for ecstatic experience in
the justly famous passage 2 Cor 12.1-10. As in Gal 1, Paul calls
this experience an apokalypsis, an apocalypse, a revelation. Just
as in Acts and Gal 1, the actual vision is not described. Unlike
7
See, for example, the discussion of T. Lorenzen, Resurrection and Discipleship: Interpretive
Models, Biblical Reflections, Theological Consequences (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1995) 127-46.
8
Joost Holleman, Resurrection and Parousia: A Traditio-Historical Study of Paul's Eschatology in 1 Corinthians 15 (Leiden: Brill, 1996).

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

405

Luke's general description of Paul's conversion and Gal 1, however,

this passage contains hints of a heavenly vision or possibly two
different ones, depending on whether the paradise visited in the
ascension can be located in the third heaven.9 Thus, the vision is
both mystical and apocalyptic.10 Similar ascensions can be seen in
apocalyptic literature - for instance, 1 Enoch 39.3; 52.1, and 71.1-5
as well as 2 Enoch 3, 7, 8, 11 and 3 Baruch 2. Paul's reference
to the third heaven confirms the environment of Jewish apocalypticism and mysticism. Paul's experience differs from other
Jewish mystics in that he identified the angelic seated figure in
Exodus, Daniel and Ezekiel as Christ. Leaving aside the special
Christian polemic that the man on the throne is the messiah Jesus
and is also greater than an angel, Paul's statements are important
evidence for the existence of first-century Jewish mysticism.
Notice, however, that Paul does not know whether this journey
takes place in the body or not. This ambiguity will parallel his
vision of Christ.
The information contained in 2 Cor 12 is so abstruse and esoteric
that it must be teased from context and combined with our meagre
knowledge of apocalypticism and Jewish mysticism. While techniques of theurgy and heavenly ascent were secret lore in rabbinic
literature (see b. Hagiga 13a-15b), rabbinic literature starts in the
9
Paradise or the garden of Eden was often conceived as lying in one of the heavens, though
the exact location differs from one apocalyptic work to another. See M. Himmelfarb, Tours of
Hell: The Development and Transmission of an Apocalyptic Form in Jewish and Christian
Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 1984). 2 Enoch, for example, locates
them in the third heaven. But 2 Enoch may have been influenced by Paul's writings, even
though the shorter version mentions worship in the Temple in a way that suggests it is still in
existence, thus antedating 70 CE.
10
In different ways, the close relationship between mysticism and apocalypticism has been
touched upon by several scholars of the last decade, myself included. See my Two Powers in
Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports About Christianity and Gnosticism (SJLA 25; Leiden: E. J.
Brill, 1977); I. Gruenwald, Apocalyptic and Merkabah Mysticism (Leiden-Cologne: Brill,
1979); and now especially C. Rowland, The Open Heaven: A Study of Apocalyptic in Judaism
and Early Christianity (New York: Crossroads, 1982) and Jarl Fossum, The Name of God and
the Angel of the Lord: Samaritan and Jewish Concepts of Intermediation and the Origin of
Gnosticism (WUNT 1.36; Tubingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1985). The Pauline passage is also deeply
rooted in Jewish and Hellenistic ascension traditions, which imposed a certain structure of
ascent on all reports of this period. See also my 'Heavenly Ascent in Hellenistic Judaism,
Early Christianity and their Environments', ANRW 2.23.2 (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1980)
1333-94; M. Dean-Otting, Heavenly Journeys: A Study of the Motif in Hellenistic Jewish
Literature (Frankfurt-New York: Peter Lang, 1984); I. P. Culianu, Psychanodia I: A Survey of
the Evidence of the Ascension of the Soul and its Relevance (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1983). Culianu
has also published a more general work, Experiences de VExtase: Extase, ascension et r&cit
visionnaire de I'helUnisme au moyen age (Paris: Payot, 1984), introduction by Mircea Eliade.
The verb harpazo in Greek and its Latin equivalent rapto is sometimes shared with pagan
ascensions (sol me rapuit, etc.), but also probably initially denotes both the rapture of vision
and the specific heavenly journeys of Enoch (Hebrew: laqah = Greek: metetheken).

406

ALAN F. SEGAL

third century, so without Paul we could not demonstrate that such

traditions existed as early as the first century.11
Most people understand the passage to refer to Paul himself.12
Although Paul says he is boasting, he does not explicitly identify himself as the ecstatic voyager, since rhetoric demands his
modesty and he says that nothing will be gained by his boasting.
This follows from his statement that charismatic gifts cannot
themselves prove faith (1 Cor 1213). Paul may actually be tactfully revealing some secret information about his own visions in
this passage, but doing it in such a way that he cannot be accused
of breaking confidentiality.13
When Paul is not faced with a direct declaration of personal
mystical experience, he reveals much about the mystical religion as
it was experienced in the first century. Paul himself designates
Christ as the image of the Lord in a few places: 2 Cor 4.4; Col 1.15
(if it is Pauline), and he mentions the |iop(pr| of God in Phil 2.6.14
More often he talks of transforming believers into the image of his
son in various ways (Rom 8.29; 2 Cor 3.18; Phil 3. 21; 1 Cor 15.49;
see also Col 3.9). These passages are critical to understanding
Paul's experience of transformation, resurrection, and conversion.
They must be seen in closer detail to understand the relationship
11
Whether or not Paul's experiences typified the rabbis has been debated vigorously with
acute attention to the implications for rabbinic rationalism. The debate misses the obvious
point that the evidence for these experiences occurs all over Judaism in the Hellenistic period
and is coterminous with Pharisaic Judaism. If Paul is the mystic, there is a close connection
between this apocalypticism and Pharisaic Judaism. Precisely what the connection is still
cannot be defined, but Paul gives us interesting hints about it. It is ironic that scholars who
accept almost all rabbinic datings at face value seem reluctant to believe these traditions,
supposing that all mystical experience is something despicable for the rabbis. Debating the
reliability of talmudic reports that the early rabbis engaged in such practices regularly
becomes somewhat theoretical, when the Mishnah's testimony for the first century is now
suspect on general methodological grounds, according to J. Neusner, The Rabbinic Traditions
about the Pharisees before 70, 3 vols.: The Masters, The Houses, Conclusion (Leiden: Brill,
1971).
12
See W. Baird, 'Visions, Revelation, and Ministry: Reflections on 2 Cor 12.1-5 and Gal
1.11-17", JBL 104 (1985) 651-62. See also C. Forbes, 'Comparison, Self-Praise and Irony:
Paul's Boasting and the Conventions of Hellenistic Rhetoric', NTS 32 (1986) 1-30. Paul does
not say that the man saw nothing, he only mentions what the man heard. While we are on the
subject of difficulties, a significant exception to the identification of Paul with the mystic is
Morton Smith, Clement of Alexandria and a Secret Gospel of Mark (Cambridge: Harvard
University, 1975); Jesus the Magician (New York: Harper and Row, 1978). He believes that
the passage refers to Jesus, although Paul never met the man Jesus. As we shall see, the
passage is probably another record of the kind of experience Paul had in meeting the risen
Christ, this time in heaven.
13
Alan F. Segal, Paul the Convert: The Apostolate and Apostasy of Saul the Pharisee (New
Haven: Yale University, 1990) 40-51.
14
In this section, I am particularly endebted to G. Quispel, 'Hermetism and the New
Testament, Especially Paul', ANRW2.22, forthcoming.

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

407

to Jewish apocalypticism and mysticism, from which they derive

their most complete significance for Paul. Paul's longest discussion
of these themes occurs in an unlikely place in 2 Cor 3.18-4.6. Here
he assumes the context rather than explaining it completely:
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes
from the Lord who is the Spirit (fi|ieiq 8e navxeq dvociceKaA/onnivG) Ttpoacmtco ir\v
So^av icupioi) KaTOjrtpi6|ivoi TTIV OOTHV eiicova (iETanop<poi5|i.e9a arco 86{jv|<; eiq
86^av KaGdicep anb Kupiou nvebnaxoc,.)
Therefore, having this ministry (TTIV SICXKOVICCV tatmiv) by the mercy of
God, we do not lose heart. . . . In their case the god of this world has blinded
the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God. For what we preach is
not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for
Jesus' sake. For it is the God who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness', who
has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Christ. (2 Cor 3.18-4.6)

Paul again is including the notion of ministry in his experience of

transformation. Paul again uses the imagery of darkness and light,
which Gaventa notes is key to his conversion vocabulary.15 It is
equally important to note how important the social aspect of this
mysticism/apocalypticism is to Paul. In calling him a mystical Jew,
we discover a whole social and ethical side to first-century mystical
writings which we normally miss, because we tend to separate
ethics, apocalypticism, and mysticism in a way that Paul never
does. Paul's writings are quintessentially social and ethical; yet
behind them lies a mystical experience which he calls ineffable,
and which is always confirmed in community.
For now, the main point must be the usually unappreciated use
of the language of transformation in Paul's works. Indeed, as we
shall see, Paul's entire description of resurrection is framed around
his visionary experience, which in turn carries his argument that
he is the equal of the fleshly disciples and apostles of Jesus. In
2 Cor 3.18, Paul says that believers will be changed into Christ's
likeness from one degree of glory to another. He refers to Exod 33
and 34 where Moses' encounter with the angel of the Lord is narrated. Earlier in that passage, the angel of the Lord is described as
carrying the name of God (Exod 23.21). Moses sees the Glory of the
Lord, makes a covenant, receives the commandments upon the two
tables of the law and, when he comes down from the mount, the
15

B. R. Gaventa, From Darkness to Light: Aspects of Conversion in the New Testament

(Philadelphia: Fortress, 1986) 45-8.

408

ALAN F. SEGAL

skin of his face shines with light, as the Bible states (Exod 34.2935). Moses thereafter must wear a veil except when he is in the
presence of the Lord. Paul assumes that Moses made an ascension
to the presence of the Lord, was transformed by that encounter and
that his shining face is a reflection of the encounter.
So far Paul is using strange and significant mystical language.
But what is immediately striking about it is that Paul uses that
language to discuss his own and other Christians' experience in
Christ. Paul explicitly compares Moses' experience with his own
and that of Christian believers. Their transformation is of the
same sort, but the Christian transformation is greater and more
permanent. Once the background of the vocabulary is pointed out,
Paul's daring claims for Christian experience become clear. The
point, therefore, is that some Christian believers also witness a
theophany as important as the one vouchsafed to Moses, but the
Christian theophany is greater still, as Paul himself has experienced. The Corinthians are said to be a message from Christ (3.2),
who is equated with the Glory of God. The new community of
gentiles is not a letter written on stone (Jer 31.33), but it is
delivered by Paul as Moses delivered the Torah to Israel. The new
dispensation is more splendid than the last, not needing the veil
with which Moses hid his face. Paul's own experience proved to
him and for Christianity that all will be transformed as Moses was
not just the face but the whole body.
Thus, Paul's term, 'the Glory of the Lord' must be taken both as a
reference to Christ and as a technical term for the Kavod (TOD),
the human form of God appearing in biblical visions. In 2 Cor 3.18,
Paul says that Christians behold the Glory of the Lord (TTIV 86^av
as in a mirror, and are transformed into his image (xf|v
evKova).16 For Paul, as for the earliest Jewish mystics, to be
!6 The use of the mirror here is also a magico-mystical theme, which can be traced to the
word ys occurring in Ezekiel 1. Although it is sometimes translated otherwise, ysi probably
refers to a mirror even there, and possibly refers to some unexplained technique for achieving
ecstasy. The mystic bowls of the magical papyri and Talmudic times were filled with water
and oil to reflect light and stimulate trance. The magical papyri describe spells which use a
small bowl that serves as the medium for the appearance of a god for divination: e.g., PGM IV,
154-285 (Betz, pp. 40-3), PDM 14.1-92, 295-308, 395-127, 528-53, 627-35, 805-^0, 841-50,
851-5 (Betz, pp. 195-200, 213, 218-9, 225-6, 229, 236-9). The participant concentrates on
the reflection in the water's surface, often with oil added to the mixture, sometimes with the
light of a lamp nearby. Lamps and charms are also used to produce divinations, presumably
because they can stimulate trance under the proper conditions. The Reuyoth Yehezkel, for
instance, mention that Ezekiel's mystical vision was stimulated by looking into the waters
of the River Chebar. It seems to me that Philo appropriates the mystic imagery of the mirror
to discuss the allegorical exposition of scripture. See The Contemplative Life 78 and
D. Georgi, Die Gegner des Paulus im 2. Korintherbrief (Neukirchen: Neukirchener, 1964) 2723. Paul's opponents then look into the mirror and see only the text. But because Paul and

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

409

privileged enough to see the Kavod or Glory (56a) of God is a prologue to transformation into his image (eiiccov), to his selem (D1?^), as
the Hebrew of Gen 1.26 puts the phrase. This is parallel to the
journey Enoch makes to the divine throneroom where he is transformed into the figure on the throne, the son of man. In 3 Enoch,
he becomes the angel Metatron. Paul does not say that all Christians have made the journey literally but compares the experience
of knowing Christ to being allowed into the intimate presence of
the Lord. But we have good reason to suspect that he himself has
made that journey; at the very least he knows others who have.
The result of the journey is to identify Christ as the Glory of God.
When Paul says that he preaches that Jesus is Lord and that God
lias let this light shine out of darkness into our hearts to give the
light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ' (4.6), he
seems clearly to be describing his own call or conversion and
ministry, just as he described it in Gal 1, and just as he is explaining the experience to new converts for the purpose of furthering
conversion. His apostolate, which he expresses as a prophetic
calling, is to proclaim that the face of Christ is the Glory of God
that he has the face and marks of the crucified messianic candidate
whom God has vindicated through resurrection. It is very difficult
not to read this passage in terms of Paul's later description of the
ascension of the man to the third heaven and conclude that Paul's
conversion experience also involved his identification of Jesus as
the 'image' and 'Glory of God', as the human figure in heaven, and
thereafter as Christ, son, and saviour. Or at least this is how Paul
construes it when he recalls it.
The identification of Christ with the Glory of God brings a
transformation and sharing of the believer with the image as
well. This is the same as regaining the image of God which Adam
lost. This transformation is accomplished through death and rebirth in Christ, which can be experienced in direct visions as Paul
apparently did, or subsequently by anyone through baptism. But
the important thing is to note how completely the theophanic
language from Greek and Jewish mystical piety has been appropriated for discussing what we today call conversion. It is Paul's
primary language for describing the experience of conversion,
because it gives a sense of the transformation and divinizing that
he feels is inherent in his encounter with the risen Christ.
Ecstatic ascensions like the one described in 2 Cor 12, and
those truly in Christ actually behold the Glory of the Lord, they have a clearer vision on the
truth.

410

ALAN F.SEGAL

spiritual metamorphoses like 2 Cor 3 are strangely unfamiliar to

modern Jewish and Christian religious sentiments. Neither Christianity nor rabbinic Judaism transmitted these lively mystical
Jewish traditions of the first century openly. But in the context of
the first few centuries, the combination of these two themes of
ascension and transformation, both inside and outside Judaism,
normally suggested the gaining of immortality and the context
of Jewish mysticism also connects with the issue of theodicy.
Dan 12 suggests that those who lead others to wisdom (or 'the
enlighteners' D'^'Dtonn) will shine as the brightness of the heavens
Op-in -imD wnr), like the stars (D'3D"DD), and that they will be
among those resurrected for eternal reward. This scripture implies
that the teachers or apostles or the missionaries will be transformed into angels, since the stars and angels are equated continuously and from the very earliest levels of biblical tradition (e.g.
Judg 5.20 and Job 38.7). This means, by the way, that Paul has
every right to expect his own transformation at the end of time and
suggests another reason why apostolic status is so important to
him. The Parables of Enoch (1 Enoch 3771) contains the interesting narration of the tranformation of Enoch into the son of man,
but no one can be sure that this is not itself a Christian addition to
the text, since it agrees so completely with the transformation that
Paul outlines.17 Without Paul we could not suppose that this
experience is evidenced in the first century because the date of
1 Enoch is uncertain. Nor would we know that the mystic experience was even possible within Judaism. What Paul is suggesting
therefore is that the transformation of Jesus into Lord makes him
a divine creative and is the beginning of the fulfilment of the
passage in Dan 12 that the wise will shine like the brightness of
the heaven and that those who show people this truth will become
angels.
Paul's famous description of Christ's experience of humility and
obedience in Phil 2.511 also hints that the identification of Jesus
with the image of God was re-enacted in the church in a liturgical
mode. In Phil 2.6, the identification of Jesus with the form of God
implies his pre-existence. The Christ is depicted as an eternal
aspect of divinity which was not proud of its high station but
17

The romance of exaltation to immortality was hardly a unique Jewish motif; rather it
was characteristic of all higher spirituality of later Hellenism - witness the Hermetic literature. Even in a relatively unsophisticated text like the magical Recipe for Immortality (the socalled Mithras Liturgy) of third-century Egypt, the adept gains a measure of immortality by
gazing directly on the god and breathing in some of his essence.

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

411

consented to take on human shape and suffer the fate of humanity,

even death on a cross (though many scholars see this phrase as a
Pauline addition to the original hymn). This transformation of
form from divinity is followed by the converse, the retransformation into God. Because of this obedience God exalted him and
bestowed on him the 'name which is above every name' (Phil 2.9).
For a Jew this phrase can only mean that Jesus received the divine
name Yahweh, the tetragrammaton YHWH, understood as the
Greek name icopioq, Lord. We have already seen that sharing in the
divine name is a frequent motif of the early Jewish apocalypticism
where the principal angelic mediator of God is or carries the name
Yahweh, as Exod 23 describes the angel of Yahweh. Indeed the
implication of the Greek term (xopcpri, 'form', is that Christ has the
form of a divine body identical with the Kavod, the Glory, and
equivalent also with the EVKCOV, for man is made after the eiKcov of
God and thus has the divine H-opcpri (Hebrew rviD"l). The climax of
Paul's confession is that 'Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God
the Father' (Phil 2.11), meaning that Jesus, the messiah, has
received the name Lord in his glorification, and that this name, not
Jesus' private earthly name, is the one which will cause every knee
to bend and every tongue confess.18
In paraphrasing this fragment from liturgy, Paul witnesses that
the early Christian community directed its prayers to this human
figure of divinity along with God (1 Cor 16.22; Rom 10.9-12; 1 Cor
12.3) - all the more striking since the Christians, like the Jews,
refuse to give any other god or hero any veneration at all. When
the rabbis gain control of the Jewish community they vociferously
argue against the worship of any angel and specifically polemicize
against the belief that a heavenly figure other than God can forgive
sins (b. Sanh. 38b), quoting Exod 23.21 prominently among other
scriptures to prove their point. The heresy itself they call believing
that there are 'two powers in heaven'.19 By this term the rabbis
largely (but not exclusively) referred to Christians who, as Paul
18
The bibliography on the Pauline and post-Pauline hymns in Phil 2.6-11 and Col 1.15-20
appears endless. See E. Schillebeeckx, Jesus: an Experiment in Christology (New York:
Seabury, 1979); M. Hengel, 'Hymn and Christology', in E. A. Livingstone, ed., Studio. Biblica
1972, 173-97, reprinted in Hengel, Between Jesus and Paul, 78-96; J. Murphy-O'Connor,
'Christological Anthropology in Phil. 2.6-11', RB 83 (1976) 25-50 and D. Georgi, 'Der
vorpaulinische Hymnus Phil. 2:6-11', in E. Dinkier, ed., Zeit und Geschichte, Dankesgabe an
Rudolf Bultmann (Tubingen: Mohr, 1964) 263-93, esp. p. 291 for bibliography. Kasemann
emphasizes that Paul's metaphoric use of the body and its separate parts is characteristic of
paraenetic sections, emphasizing the relationship between the believer and the risen Lord.
See Schweizer, TDNT 7,1073.
19
Segal, Two Powers in Heaven.

412

ALAN F.SEGAL

says, do exactly what the rabbis warn against - worship the second
power.20
Concomitant with Paul's worship of the divine Christ is transformation. Paul says in Phil 3.10 'that I may know him and the
power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming
like him in his death' (av|j.|iop(pi6n.vo<; xcp Gavdxcp a-uxoii). Later, in
Phil 3.20-1, he says: 'But our commonwealth is in heaven, and
from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change
our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which
enables him even to subject all things to himself (oc, |i.xocaxr||j.ax{ai
TO a)|xa xr\c, xajiewcboecot; T\\IG)V aumiopcpov xa> oco(j.axi xr\c, 6fy\c, a-oxou
Kaxa rfyv evepyeiav xov 8t>vaa6oa auxov xai "brcoxa^ou auxw xa mxvxa).
The body of the believer eventually is to be transformed into the
body of Christ. The believer's body is to be understood as a body of
glory like that of the saviour. It is very important to note that this
glorious body of the Christ is the spiritual body into which the
believer will be subsumed, not the physical body of Jesus. And
Paul exhorts his followers to imitate him as he has imitated Christ:
'Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as
you have an example in us' (Ii)|j.|j.inr|xa{ [iov yiveaQe, aSetapov, KOU
aKoneixe xobq ouxco nepiKaxovvxac, KaBcbq exexe XTJTCOV f|n.a<;). All of this
suggests that the body of believers will be refashioned into the
spiritual body of Christ, a process which starts with conversion and
faith but ends in the culmination of history which will shortly be
upon us. It all depends on a notion of body which spiritualizes
matter, a new body which is not flesh and blood, which cannot
inherit the kingdom (1 Cor 15.50). At the same time, these statements appear to be Paul's interpretation of the fulfilment of Dan
12: 'those who lead to wisdom will shine like the brightness of the
heavens'.
Paul's depiction of salvation and the transformation of the
believer is based on his understanding of Christ's glorification, partaking of early Jewish apocalyptic mysticism for its expression.21 It
20
See my Two Powers, 33-158, esp pp. 68-73 and now L. W. Hurtado, One God, One Lord.
Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988), 7791.
21
See Seyoon Kim, The Origin of Paul's Gospel (2nd ed. WUNT 2.4; Tubingen: MohrSiebeck, 1984). Scholars like Kim who want to ground all of Paul's thought in a single ecstatic
conversion experience, which they identify with Luke's accounts of Paul's conversion, are
reticent to accept especially Philippians 2 as a fragment from Christian liturgy because to
do so would destroy its value as Paul's personal revelatory experience. But there is no need
to decide whether the passage is originally Paul's (hence received directly through the
'Damascus revelation'), since ecstatic language normally is derived from traditions current
within the religious group. Christian mystics use Christian language, Muslim mystics use the
languages developed for mysticism in Islam and no mystic is ever confused by another

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

413

may even have survived from a pre-Christian setting because Paul

does not mention resurrection here at all. Clearly glorification is
doing the job of resurrection in this passage. Likewise, in Rom 12.2
Paul's listeners are exhorted to *be transformed (nexanopcpovaGe) by
renewing of your minds'. In Gal 4.19 Paul expresses another but
very similar transformation: 'My little children, with whom I am
again in travail until Christ be formed (|xop(pco0f\) in you!' This
transformation is to be effected by becoming like him in his death
(a-o|i(iop(pi^6|a.evoq T(p GavaTW onkou Phil 3.10).
Paul's central proclamation is: Jesus is Lord and all who have
faith have already undergone a death like his will also share in his
resurrection. As we have seen, this proclamation reflects a baptismal liturgy, implying that baptism provides the moment whereby
the believer comes to be 'in Christ'. Christianity may have been a
unique Jewish sect in making baptism a central rather than a
preparatory ritual, but some of the mystical imagery comes from
its Jewish past.
Paul speaks of the transformation being partly experienced by
believers already in their pre-parousia existence. His use of the
present tense in Rom 12.2 and 2 Cor 3.18 underscores that transformation as an ongoing event. However in 1 Cor 15.49 and Rom 8
it culminates at Christ's return, the parousia. This suggests that
for Paul transformation is both a single, definitive event yet also a
process that continues until the second coming. The redemptive
and transformative process appears to correspond exactly with the
turning of the ages. This age is passing away, though it certainly
remains a present evil reality (1 Cor 3.19, 5.9; 2 Cor 4.4; Gal 1.4;
Rom 12.2). The gospel, which is the power of God for salvation
(Rom 1.16), is progressing through the world (Phil 1.12; also Rom
9-11). This is why Paul does not prophesy about the coming
world with exaggerated visions of the end of time. For Paul that
world has already started (1 Cor 2.610). Paul writes in the context of considerable communal argumentation and factional
dispute. His interpretation of the gospel has been called into
question by his opponents. He avers that his only source is the

religion's mysticism unless it is the conscious and explicit intent of the mystic's vision to do so.
See R. C. Zaehner's Hinduism and Muslim Mysticism (New York: Schocken, 1969); S. Katz,
'Language, Epistemology, and Mysticism', in S. Katz, ed., Mysticism and Philosophical
Analysis (London, 1978). In this case the language is not even primarily Christian. The basic
language is from Jewish mysticism, though the subsequent exegesis about the identification
of the Christ with the figure on the throne is Christian; the vision of God enthroned is the goal
of Jewish mystical speculation.

414

ALAN F. SEGAL

risen Christ; his only proof (ev anodei,zi, 1 Cor 2.6) supplied by the
Holy Spirit. 22
In this context, Paul speaks of those who are qualified (ev toig
zekeioiq, 2.6), the mature ones who evidently share his perspective
and, perhaps, his revelation. At Qumran too, knowledge and
perfection (Din) were expected of the membership and only the
perfected ones (D^D'on) had access to the full secrets of the sect
(1QS 1.8; 2.2; 3.3, 9; 5.24; 8.20f; 9.2, 8f, 19).23 This mystery is
further described as the revelation of the crucified messiah (2.8),
which clarifies that it is not a secret mystery in the way that
Qumran was. Although it needs to be taught and it is not evidently
universally accepted, it does not itself need to be secret. It finds its
particular adherents. The issue of hiddenness or being stored up
(D33 ,nP3a), is quite characteristic of Jewish mysticism and seems to
help conceptualize the identity of the transformed figure rather
than any Greek concept of the immortal soul.
In 1 Cor 15, Paul sums up his entire religious experience in an
apocalyptic vision of the resurrection of believers. Paul begins with
a description of his previous preaching and suggests that if his
listeners give up belief in the resurrection then they believe in
Christ in vain. Paul claims instead to have given them, indeed
emphasized as the first importance, the true teaching, as he had
himself received it. And that teaching is simply that Christ died for
sins in accordance to scripture, that he was entombed and rose
three days later, all in accordance with scripture. There is no doubt
that this is the earliest Christian teaching with regard to the
resurrection: it is part of the primitive kerygma or proclamation
of the church. He does not specify which scripture he means.
Nor does he begin a demonstration of the reality of resurrection
from scripture or from philosophical principles. For him, it has the
reality of an experience related to others. The reports of those who
have witnessed it, including himself, are sufficient to demonstrate
its reality. Nor does he recount a vision in typical apocalyptic
fashion, as we might have imagined. Instead he lists the witnesses
to the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus: Peter (called
Kepha), the twelve, and the five hundred. Some of those five hundred have died but most are still alive. Again he uses the typical
apocalyptic language of sleeping and awakening, which has its
roots in Dan 12 and Isa 26 (tiveq 8e Koi|iri9r|aav). Then he lists the
22 M. Bockmuehl, Revelation and Mystery in Ancient Judaism and Pauline Christianity
(WUNT 2.36; Tubingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1990; repr. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1997) 158. See also 1.18 and Rom 1.16.
23
Bockmuehl, Revelation, 159.

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

415

apostles and finally himself. So Paul again uses the resurrection as

a significant part of his apostolic commissioning. They are all equal
in vision of the risen Lord.
This list has seemed to most scholars to be already reduced to a
formula before Paul recites it for us: it is a formula passed to him
from earlier tradition, as he himself says. Notice that in this
earliest recital of the resurrection tradition there is no empty tomb
and there are no witnesses to the resurrection itself. Instead, for
Paul, the resurrection is demonstrated by the post-Easter appearances, in which he equally shares. This is crucial for understanding
Paul's claim to be an apostle. He is the equal of every other disciple
because he is equally a witness to the resurrection. Jesus' teachings are secondary to his continued life after death. Paul is an
apostle because it is not so much Jesus' human form that is
important but his resurrected form which commissions persons to
his service.
Of course, those cultures professing a belief in an immortal soul
could have accounted for these appearances too. But Paul apparently does not count himself among those who believe in this
concept of the immortal soul. Perhaps he polemicizes against the
doctrine of the immortal soul, since he is writing to a gentile
audience. Perhaps he senses that invoking the Greek concept of the
immortal soul changes the saving event of Jesus' resurrection into
a natural occurrence and perhaps he does not even know of the
Platonic notion explicitly. For him, as for the Jewish apocalypticists, death was final and whatever survived death was a poor
shadow or shade of what preceded it. Instead, the apocalypticist
waits for the resurrection of the body, which is normally the sign
that the end is upon us. And indeed it is the reward of the
martyred righteous to have eternal life on earth or as heavenly
angels for having enlightened the world:
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to
despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed,
always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may
also be manifested in our bodies. (2 Cor 4.8-10)

It is therefore evident that these spiritual experiences of the

Christian form analogies to the life and death of Jesus. And more
concretely it means that the believer must be ready to accept
suffering as part of Christian discipleship.24 For Paul there is not
much recognition that a resurrection without the end is very
strange. Paul apparently feels that the end will shortly arrive.
24

Lorenzen, Resurrection and Discipleship, 158.

416

ALAN F.SEGAL

And, as we know, the demonstration that the age has begun is the
actual appearance of Jesus to him.
Paul in contradistinction to some later gnostic traditions begins from supposing that the death and burial were real, hence
the resurrection was actual and in accordance with scripture
(1 Cor 15.3). Paul then lists those to whom the post-resurrection
Jesus appeared. Clearly, in Paul's understanding the post-resurrection appearances rather than the physical presence of Jesus are
primary. He includes himself modestly in the list of those to whom
Jesus had appeared. But if the list had been made up of those
who knew Jesus in the flesh, Paul would have been left out. The
corruptible flesh of the earthly Jesus is not the point for Paul,
obviously. He is deliberately widening a concept of apostle to
include persons like himself, for to him, it is Jesus the heavenly
redeemer, who was revealed to him, who is the proof of faith, not
merely those who may have heard Jesus' preaching.
Paul then asserts that all these people saw the same thing and
preach the same thing and believe the same thing. And indeed,
Paul asserts that the Corinthians had believed exactly that when
he was there with them. In verses 12-19 Paul claims that the
deniers of the resurrection of the dead are denying the gospel
which they had received and initially believed. He begins a series
of arguments which ends in the reductio ad absurdum that 'if
Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain
and your faith has been in vain'. Obviously this argument only
makes sense to believers; no one else would see the absurdity of
the conclusion. But, for Paul, it is the bodily resurrection of Jesus
that guarantees that God's plan for the final destruction of the evil
ones of the world is already set in place. For if the soul is immortal
and that is the highest form of immortality to be achieved as the
Platonists believed, it is available to all as a natural right and the
sacrifice of Christ is hence unnecessary.
In verses 208 Paul stops arguing against enemies and begins
articulating his own notions. He shows that the resurrection of
Christ entails the resurrection of all the righteous dead as Christ is
the 'first fruits of them who have fallen asleep' (v. 20), yet again
using the term which is clearly dependent upon Daniel 12 and, in
turn, Isaiah 26 (see also others like LXX Ps 87.6). Probably then,
the scriptural passage that Paul had in mind earlier (1 Cor 15.3)
is none other than Dan 12.2 again. His argument is made on
the basis of analogy from Adam. Just as death came from Adam,
so eternal life comes from Christ. But Christ is the first, then
those who belong to Christ. At the end, Christ will hand over the

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

417

kingdom of God to the father, after he has destroyed every (evil?)

power. Again Paul is making clear reference to the son of man
passage in Dan 7.13 (though he never actually uses the term) when
he says that Christ must reign until he has put all his enemies
under his feet. There are, of course, other enthronement passages
in the Hebrew Bible but no others in which the reign of justice is
made dependent upon the enthroned figure. Although Paul never
uses the term 'son of man' he clearly identifies the Christ with
the 'son of man' figure on the throne in Dan 7.13. This is quite
important to note, for Paul shows the antiquity of that position,
without affirming to us that 'son of man' was a title. It is not a title
yet in Paul's day; he knows the passage by its content. In this, he
seems rather to be working in a Jewish context in which any
scripture can be read as prophecy, not by any association of any
pre-existent titles to Jesus.
In 1 Cor 15.35 Paul begins a brief exposition of the nature of the
resurrection body; it is here that we see most clearly the complementarity between his experience of the risen Christ and his
notion of the resurrection body. He is, in this passage, outlining a
notion of immortality which has nothing to do with an immortal
soul directly; it is an offshoot of Jewish apocalypticism, out of
which the Christian kerygma grows. But it may also be cognizant
of the beliefs of the audience; perhaps this is why he ignores the
immortality of the soul. Instead, he fastens on the notion of spirit
to explicate how the physical body of believers will be transformed
by the resurrection. His argument has nothing to do with what
happened to Christ during the passion nor does he mention any
empty tomb. His argument is by analogy with experience since he
is trying to keep faith with his own experience of the spirit.
Paul's use of language of the body is entirely unique. The term
for physical body is not exactly what one might expect. Neither the
term oS(xa oapKiKov nor the term aG>\ia (puoiKov occurs; rather the
term which occurs is aG>\ia.-yx>xiK6v, a word which can mean natural
body but is not the most obvious term, since it is a combination of
the term for soul and the term for body. Although it means literally
an 'ensouled body', it has been taken as an oxymoron in Platonic
thought. In fact, because yx>x"h could be taken to mean life in the
physical sense in a non-Platonic setting in Greek it is not
necessarily a problem, strange though it may look. It does occur
frequently in Hellenistic literature with this meaning. Indeed that
is what it means here - yvx(\ - with the simple meaning of 033.25
25

See, e.g., TDNT 9, 661.

418

ALAN F.SEGAL

Paul may be just clarifying that he means everything that the

Greeks take as a natural body. The contrasting term a>|ia nvev\iaXIKOV is also a complete contradiction in terms for anyone in a
Platonic system: 'It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual
body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body'
(aneipexax aa>n,a \^V%IKOV, eyeipetai aco|ia 7cvet>|j.omK6v. et eativ a>|i.a
yoXiKov, ECTXIV Kai TrveujiatiKOV, 1 Cor 15.41).

It may be that, in this place, Paul is behaving somewhat like a

very sophisticated minority opinion in Greek culture, thinking that
everything, even the soul, is a kind of body - albeit a refined and
indestructible one. After all, he distinguishes between the earthly
body and the resurrection body. But, if so, he is likewise and
I think primarily speaking out of his apocalyptic Judaism. He is
entirely consistent with his Hebrew past. Paul (and Josephus too)
gets away with this because he is speaking to a Greek audience but
not necessarily a Platonic one. They are both using Greek language
to approximate the Hebrew concepts. But it is not an interpretatio
Graeca; rather the converse, figuring a Hebrew notion in Greek
dress.
In any event Paul acknowledges the bodily aspect of the resurrection in the sense that the body is visible while the soul (if
he even knew the term) is invisible. He uses the term spirit to
preserve the previous identity of those resurrected in their new
perfected state. It is also the predominant view of the New Testament, except Hebrews, John, and 1 and 2 Peter, where \|/t>xr|
evidently refers to the physical life of persons and animals. Notice
that for Paul life in its most basic sense, psychic life, is also bodily
life as we should expect but even pneumatic spiritual life is bodily
as well. We have already seen that the spirit makes itself known to
Paul but not in ordinary sight, rather in apocalyptic visions. Thus,
spiritual bodies are those bodies which are yet only visible in this
special state of consciousness. Even though flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God, the risen Christ is a 'body of glory'
(Phil 3.20-1) as we have seen. Since those in Christ are made over
in the image of the resurrected Christ in a kind of mystical
consummation, the new body which God gives his faithful must
also be a glorified body. The body of glory which Christ got at the
resurrection must be equivalent with the pneumatic or spiritual
body that we will get. Another way to think about this is to
remember that Paul saw the resurrected Christ as a body, but he
was aware that this seeing was an apocalypse, or vision. This
implies, though Paul does not exactly state it, that such a body of
glory will be visible only in revelatory states of consciousness until

PAUL'S THINKING ABOUT RESURRECTION

419

the final consummation. It is a bodily resurrection because Paul

saw the bodily resurrected Christ in a vision but the appearance of
Christ was not a physical appearance. Paul was transported to a
spiritual level where we will all be when we are transformed and
which is visible to us primarily through revelation. And, of course,
Paul's notion contrasts heavily with the gospel writers who claim
that Jesus was literally resurrected as a physical body which can
be seen in ordinary bodily sight. It is even conceivable that the
gospels were written as a kind of polemic against Paul's thinking
but they are certainly meant to complement and complete his view
of the spirit in Christianity.
Paul's notion completely coheres with his notion that the fleshly
way to salvation with observances of times and rituals is not a
spiritual, transforming way to salvation. He argues that the nature
of the resurrection body is different from anything we know, just as
the nature of various flesh is different. Paul, in fact, leaves the
issue of the nature of immortality in a peculiarly intermediate
position. He affirms that we have an imperishable bodily nature
but he suggests that we receive it by bodily resurrection. The body
we receive will not be flesh and blood. It will be both a sudden
change, a summorphosts, like the metamorphosis that Paul
achieved in Christ and a continuous process that culminates in a
spiritual kingdom of God. That metamorphosis started him on the
process to being a person of spirit, not of the flesh. The last
trumpet will culminate the process for everyone.
Paul's view of the immortality of believers begins in resurrection
and mission. It is parallel to his description of the raised Christ in
heaven and depends on it. Paul's imagery for the description of the
coming resurrection in 1 Cor 15 fulfils the vocabulary of spiritual
body and Glory of God which ultimately derives from his own
conversion and call. Because believers on earth, by virtue of their
conversion have been transformed into the body of Christ, who is
the image of God, the destiny of believers will be shared with
Christ. The believer is to share in Christ's immortality at the
last trumpet, just as Paul himself experienced transformation by
Christ.