1 Corinthians 15:44
1 Corinthians 15:4444It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
A load-bearing verse for the Watchtower's teaching that Jesus was raised as a spirit creature and that his physical body was disposed of. "Raised up a spiritual body" is read as meaning raised as a spirit, and the same is applied to the 144,000, who are taught to receive spirit bodies in heaven.
The phrase to slow down on is "spiritual body." Paul does not say "raised a spirit" — he says raised a body, and calls it spiritual. Paul's adjectives here describe what animates something, not what it is made of. He uses the same adjective at and 3:1 of people — spiritual and physical men — and nobody thinks a spiritual man is immaterial. A spiritual body is a body governed by the Spirit, as a physical body is one governed by natural life. Then the resurrection accounts, which is where the argument settles. Jesus says at "a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you see that I have," and asks for something to eat. He invites Thomas to touch him. The tomb is empty, which is the point of the women's discovery. So the New Testament's own witness is a transformed body, not a discarded one. And says the fullness of the divine quality dwells in Christ bodily, written after the resurrection and in the present tense. Compare , .