Steven Carr

The June 2005 issue of Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus is all about the resurrection and NT Wright's big book on the resurrection.

The Bishop of Wright's book on the Resurrection is a very big book.

Where does he find space to quote Paul saying 'The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.' Surely this is very relevant to the discussion of whether or not the early Christians believed Jesus became a spirit and should be quoted in such a very big book.

I like the way , on page 290, NT Wright destroys the Gospel idea that the risen Jesus ate fish :-

'There is that about the body which will be destroyed; in the non-corruptible future world, food and the stomach are presumably irrelevant. So, for that matter (since find and stomach point metaphorically here to sexual behaviour and sexual organs) will human reproduction be irrelevant. Paul is again treading a fine line here, since he wants to say simultaneously both that the creator will destroy the bits of the body which are being touted by some in Corinth as those to do what they like with and that there is bodily continuity between the present person, behaving this way and that, and the person who will be raised to new bodily life.'

Chris Weimer

JSHJ is far more than merely Wright's book. I don't know the background, but what I've seen so far has nothing to do with the book at all and merely the HJ in general. But I didn't look through too much as it is generally out of my territory.

Rick Sumner

Steven was speaking of the most recent issue of the JSHJ, not of the journal itself. The most recent issue is, indeed, about the resurrection. More info here.

With articles by Allison, Goulder and Habermas, as well as a response by Wright and (I'm sure) a more conservative essay offered by Craig Evans, it looks as though this may be the most tantalizing issue to date. Unfortunately the JSHJ always seems to arrive at my house in Calgary a month later than people everywhere else seem to get it, so I don't have it yet. Perhaps someone with the journal could offer opinions of some of the articles?

Regards,
Rick Sumner

Chris Weimer

Ah, sorry Steve, I read incorrectly the first line. Mea culpa, amice.

Steven Carr

Doesn't anybody have the latest issue of this magazine yet?

Further to my original post, I should point out that Wright does quote some words from 'the last Adam became a life-giving spirit'. You can find the words 'adam' and 'life-giving spirit' on page 345 of his resurrection book.

Wright rips them out of context, and just to make sure nobody is misled by Paul saying that Jesus became a life-giving spirit after the resurrection, Wright talks about a 'life-giving body'.

Wright's rationalisation is that 'life-giving spirit' means Jesus will raise the dead, and only Jesus will become 'life-giving spirit'.

'The first Adam became a living soul, the last Adam became a life-giving spirit'.

Of course, in context (a context Wright does not quote in its entirety), Paul regards the first Adam as the first of many living souls, and calls Jesus 'Adam' because he too will be the first of his type - the first of the life-giving spirits.

Wright is very misleading here, especially as his doctrine is that Jesus always had a life-giving spirit inside him. Jesus raised the dead before the resurrection.

So whatever Paul meant by 'life-giving spirit', it cannot mean what Wright claims it means, as it must describe something that happened to Jesus at the resurrection, and something that will also happen to us.