A gentleman once contacted our offices at Apologetics Press, wondering if Jesus had the same body after His resurrection that He had before He was resurrected from the grave . According to this man, Jesus “appeared to people he knew but no one recognized him…. It's like he has a different body” – and perhaps one that wasn't physical. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay At the outset, it is incorrect to say that “no one recognized Him,” because Matthew 28:9,17 clearly implies that at least some of Jesus' disciples knew Who He was and worshiped Him. Furthermore, that Jesus had essentially the same physical body after His resurrection as He did when He died on the cross is evident from at least three different passages. In Luke 24:39 Jesus stated, “Behold my hands and my feet, it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have.” Jesus expected His disciples to observe His physical body. Later in the same chapter we read that Jesus ate with his disciples (24.42-43; cf. Acts 10.41). And then in John 20:25-29, which is the passage most often used in defense of Christ having the same physical body as Him, Thomas was asked to touch Jesus' nail-wounded hands and thrust His side he had been pierced by the Roman Spear. But what about those occasions when some of his disciples did not recognize him? Do verses such as Luke 24:31,37 and John 20:10-16 represent a contradictory element in the resurrection story? First, just because the text says that the disciples thought they saw a spirit when they actually saw Jesus (Luke 24:37), it does not indicate that He looked different. Since they knew He had been killed, seeing His resurrected body made them think He was in spiritual rather than physical form. A similar thing happened to Peter when some thought that his unexpected presence must be a clue that “that is his angel” (Acts 12:15). Secondly, the reason why the two disciples who were traveling to Emmaus initially did not recognize Jesus was not because Jesus had a different body, but because God had miraculously prevented them from recognizing him. Luke 24:16 indicates that at the beginning of their conversation with Jesus “their eyes were restrained,” but then, just before Jesus disappeared from their sight, “their eyes were opened and they recognized him” (24:31). Therefore, the disciples' ability to recognize failed, not because Jesus possessed a different body, but because their eyes were miraculously restrained. A final person often mentioned as not having recognized the Savior (presumably because Jesus had a different body) is Mary Magdalene. John 20:11-18 certainly testifies to her initial inability to identify Jesus. The question is, was Mary's failure to recognize Jesus her fault or the result of Jesus having a different body? As in the previous cases, there is no indication in John 20:11-18 that Jesus had anything other than His resurrected crucified body (see 20:25-29). There are at least four possibilities, however, as to why Mary failed to recognize Jesus at first. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The sun may not have fully risen yet on the road, thus making it difficult to see (see 20:1). Mary was engaged in deep weeping that probably obscured her vision (20:11,13). In fact, the first words Jesus said to Mary were: “Woman, why are you crying?” (against 15). Whereas Jesus' clothes were taken from Him when He was crucified (John.