The Watchtower teaches that Jesus was not resurrected bodily but rather as a spirit creature. (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, p. 73)

It cites two categories of Bible evidence:

  • Proof texts which it believes explicitly teach the spirit resurrection of Jesus
  • Experiences Jesus had which it believes prove he couldn’t have been raised in a physical body.

Today, we’ll examine the first category.

In next week’s post, we’ll look at the second.

Here are the primary proof texts the Watchtower uses to make an affirmative case for a spirit resurrection of Jesus.

 1 Peter 3:18

 “…He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.” (Watchtower translation)

This is one of the Watchtower’s favorite texts.

To a Jehovah’s Witness, it can mean only one thing—that Jesus died in the flesh but rose from the dead as an invisible spirit creature.

You can ask the Witnesses to compare and contrast similar passages which use the same Greek word for spirit in the original text (if necessary, have them look them up in the Watchtower’s online Kingdom Interlinear Translation):

  • Revelation 1:10: “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet..” (KJV)

The Watchtower renders this verse without using “in the spirit” at all: “By inspiration I came to be in the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a strong voice like that of a trumpet…”

  • Romans 8:9: “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” (KJV)

The Watchtower’s translation reads: “However, you are in harmony, not with the flesh, but with the spirit, if God’s spirit truly dwells in you.”

Christian author F.W. Thomas comments:

 Surely, John did not mean to infer that he was a spirit creature on the Lord’s day. Nor was Paul  trying to tell the living Christians at Rome that they were spirit creatures because they were in the spirit… When Christians are “in the spirit,” it means they are controlled by the Spirit of God. The JW argument that “in the spirit” means to be a spirit creature is thus shown to be nonsensical… 1 Peter 3:18… is simply telling us that Christ was raised by the Spirit of God. (Masters of Deception, p. 68)

With regard to 1 Peter 3:18 itself, the King James version renders the verse: “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit…” (emphasis added)

You can follow up by asking, “Which translation is more consistent with Jesus’ own statement in Luke 24:39: ‘See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you see that I have’?” (Watchtower translation).

 Hebrews 1:3

“He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact representation of his very being… and he sustains all things by the word of his power.” (Watchtower translation)

The Watchtower argues: “If the disciples had actually seen Jesus in the body that he now has in heaven, Paul would not later have referred to the glorified Christ as being ‘the exact representation of [God’s] very being,’ because God is a Spirit and has never been in the flesh.” (Reasoning From the Scriptures, p. 335)

My response is that I believe that is talking about his character, not his composition.

Then have one of the Witnesses read aloud Colossians 2:9:

“For in Christ all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily.” (Watchtower translation)

Even though this is a mistranslation (“divine quality” instead of “deity”), you can still use it by asking the Witnesses, “Does this verse say that Christ now dwells in spirit form or in bodily form?”

1 Corinthians 15:44-45

“It is sown a physical body; it is raised up a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual one. So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living person.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.” (Watchtower translation)

Witnesses will say, “See? The last Adam—that’s Jesus—became a life-giving spirit. That proves he was raised from the dead as a spirit creature.”

I recommend that you respond something like this:

Are these verses comparing two different types of resurrection bodies? When it says, “the first Adam became a living being,” it can’t be talking about the resurrection of Adam because Adam hasn’t been resurrected. It seems to me instead that these verses are contrasting the different origins and sources of power of Adam and Jesus. Isn’t it saying that the life we get from Adam is a life solely empowered from the elements of earth and that, in contrast, the resurrection life of Christ is empowered by the Holy Spirit?

1 Corinthians 15:50

“But I tell you this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s Kingdom, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.” (Watchtower translation)

The Watchtower uses this verse to argue that since flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s Kingdom, Jesus must have been resurrected in spirit form only.

Although I usually recommend asking questions of Jehovah’s Witnesses rather than making statements to them, sometimes you have to make direct assertions in order to get your point across.

When you do, I have found that the most effective way to get Witnesses to listen to you is to preface your remarks by saying something like this: “I’d like to tell you how I see this and when I’m done I’d like to get your response. Is that okay?”

Here, you can say, “It seems to me that ‘flesh and blood’ here means our limited, perishable, earthly bodies that we inherited from Adam. Those bodies can’t inherit God’s kingdom because they are perishable. But the resurrection body Christ has can inherit God’s kingdom because it is imperishable. At the resurrection, it was changed into an imperishable body empowered by the Spirit and no longer subject to weakness and death. Can you see how I would believe that based on this entire passage?”

You can also say, “Every time the phrase ‘flesh and blood’ appears in the New Testament, it is used as a figure of speech meaning ‘natural man,’ and I would certainly agree that natural, perishable man can’t inherit God’s kingdom.”

If they ask you for examples, you can show them:

  • Matthew 16:17, where Jesus uses a figure of speech by telling Peter that “flesh and blood” (Watchtower translation) did not reveal to him that Jesus is the Son of God. Rather, the Father revealed it. Jesus wasn’t talking about literal flesh and literal blood revealing things. He was saying that Peter did not learn Jesus’ identity from fallible men but from God himself.
  • Ephesians 6:12, where Paul says that we are not wrestling against “flesh and blood” but against evil spiritual forces. Once again, he is using “flesh and blood” as a figure of speech to mean natural man.
  • Galatians 1:16, where Paul says that he did not confer with “any human (Lit. ‘with flesh and blood’)” (Watchtower translation and accompanying footnote). As the Watchtower’s own translation and footnote acknowledge, he isn’t speaking about conferring with literal flesh and literal blood. Once again, he is using the phrase figuratively to refer to natural man.

 Flesh and bones

You can also draw their attention to the difference between “flesh and blood” in 1 Corinthians 15:50 and Jesus’ statement in Luke 24:39: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you see that I have.” (Watchtower translation, emphasis added)

When you are talking with Jehovah’s Witnesses about these issues, ask one of them to read aloud 1 Corinthians 15:35-38:

Nevertheless, someone will say: “How are the dead to be raised up? Yes, with what sort of body are they coming?” You unreasonable person! What you sow is not made alive unless first it dies.And as for what you sow, you sow, not the body that will develop, but just a bare grain, whether of wheat or of some other kind of seed; but God gives it a body just as it has pleased him, and gives to each of the seeds its own body.

You can follow up by saying, “I am not claiming that Jesus took back his identical body of flesh and blood. He poured out his blood for the sins of the world. As Paul said, his earthly body was like a seed. Because of what Jesus said in Luke 24, I believe he was resurrected in a transformed, glorified, immortal body of flesh and bones. There was continuity because the plant grew out of the seed, but the bodies were not identical.”