Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 60:239 (Jul 1903)
Article: The Two Bodies
Author: George Dana Boardman

BSac 60:239 (July 1903) p. 487

The Two Bodies

George Dana Boardman

According to St. Paul the Christian has two bodies: First, a present body, which the apostle calls a psychical body,—that is, a body suited to the psyche; secondly, a future body, which the apostle calls a pneumatic body,— that is, a body suited to the pneuma. It is a profound distinction, and deserves profound study: it is St. Paul’s contribution to the philosophy of the hereafter.

St. Paul is discussing the resurrection problem: “But some one will say, How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” (1 Cor. 15:35.)

Baffling as these questions were in our apostle’s day, they are still more baffling in these days of physical science. When we remember how death disintegrates the body into its constituent elements, decomposing the corpse into dust and gases, recomposing these constituent elements into air, water, plants, new kinds of flesh, and so on, we may ask with an emphasis to which the Corinthian doubter was a stranger, How is it possible for the dead to be raised?1

BSac 60:239 (July 1903) p. 488

Again, assuming that the constituents of which the dead body is composed, but scattered here and there, could be re-collected, another question arises: With what kind of body will the dead rise? What will be their shape, their size, their organs, their functions, their appearance? Will the future body be so much like the present that we shall know each other in heaven? Such are some of the many questions which make the problem of the future body among the most fascinating of riddles. And so we turn to St. Paul’s answer (1 Cor. 15:36–49). It is a magnificent answer. Let us ponder it in detail.

I. The Threefold Analogy

And, first, the threefold analogy (1 Cor. 15:36–41). Not that these analogies from nature prove the doctrine of the resurrection. They are only illustrations, or metaphorical arguments, strongly hinting from admitted facts in nature the possibility and the manner of the resurrection. Let us glance at some of these analogies.

1. Death the Condition of Life.—From the first analogy we learn this: Death is the condition of life: “Thou fool, what thou thyself sowest is not made alive, except it die” (1 Cor. 15:36).

Disorganization is the condition of reorganization. Death is the key to life. Indeed, it may be truly said, at least of God’s children,—

“There is ...