GEBible — Godless Engineer's Bible App
But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.”
Luke 24:37-39 sits inside this longer paragraph.
But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While they still didn’t believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts?
See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.”
And they were abasshed and afrayde supposinge that they had sene a sprete
And he sayde vnto them: Why are ye troubled and why do thoughtes aryse in youre hertes?
Beholde my hondes and my fete that it is even my selfe. Handle me and se: for spretes have not flesshe and bones as ye se me have.
But they were abashed and afraide, supposing that they had seene a spirit.
Then he saide vnto them, Why are ye troubled? and wherefore doe doutes arise in your hearts?
Beholde mine handes and my feete: for it is I my selfe: handle me, and see: for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me haue.
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v38 Divers and doubtful thoughts which fall oft into men’s…
Divers and doubtful thoughts which fall oft into men’s heads, when any strange thing falleth out, whereof there is no great likelihood.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv37–39 37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed…
37 But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
Ver. 37. But they were terrified and affrighted] Tam meticulosa est incredulitas. Ut etiam tutissima et maxime tranquilla timeat, saith Brentius here.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv37–38 Spirits sometimes (by God’s permission or direction) assumed human…
Spirits sometimes (by God’s permission or direction) assumed human shapes. They seeing a human shape, and not able on the sudden to conceive how a human body should come into the midst among them, without any more noise or notice taken of it, were affrighted, as we usually are at the sight of apprehended apparitions. From hence we may conclude, that either the world, and the best men in it, have been in all ages deceived, and a few atheists have been wiser than them all, or there are such beings as spirits.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv37–39 Behold my hands, and my feet,.... The Evangelist John…
Behold my hands, and my feet,.... The Evangelist John adds, "and side"; that is, the prints of the nails and spear, in his hands, and feet, and side; and the wounds they made there, and the scars they left behind; by which they might be convinced he was not a spirit, and be assured of the truth of his resurrection, and that in the same numerical body in which he suffered; as well as that it might be observed by them how great was his love to them, to endure what he did for them.
Handle me and see; or know by feeling, as well as by sight; so that if the one was not sufficient, the other might confirm; sight might be deceived, but feeling could not: Apollonius Tyaneus, to them that did not know whether he was alive or dead, and who took him for a spirit, proposed himself to be touched, and handled, that they might be convinced (z):
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for a spirit hath not flesh and bones; nothing but appearance, or air at most; no solid substance to be felt and handled:
as ye see me have; or may perceive, both by sight and feeling.
(z) Philostratus de Vita Apollon. l. 8, c. 5.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v37 Verse 37. And supposed that they had seen a…
Verse 37. And supposed that they had seen a spirit.] But if there be no such thing as a disembodied spirit, would not our Lord have shown them their error? Instead of this, he confirms them in their opinion, by saying, A spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have, Lu 24:39; therefore he says, handle me and see me. They probably imagined that it was the soul only of our blessed Lord which they saw; but they were soon fully convinced of the identity of his person, and the reality of his resurrection; for,
1. They saw his body.
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2. They heard him speak.
3. They handled him.
4. They saw him eat a piece of broiled fish and honeycomb, which they gave him.
In these things it was impossible for them to have been deceived.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv38–39 Why are ye troubled? - Why are you alarmed…
Why are ye troubled? - Why are you alarmed or frightened?
And why do thoughts ... - The word “thoughts” here means “doubts” or suspicions. It is used in this sense also in 1Ti 2:8. The doubts which they had were whether he was the Christ. He reproves them for doubting this; for,
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The Scriptures had foretold his death; He had himself repeatedly done it; and, They had now the testimony of Peter that he had seen Jesus alive, and of the angels that he was risen. After all this evidence, Jesus reproves them for doubting whether he was truly the Messiah.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv37, 39 The apostles thought they saw a Spirit, either good…
The apostles thought they saw a Spirit, either good or bad, that had taken the form of Jesus, and was come to deceive them. For that they did not doubt spirits appeared, we have abundant proofs throughout the whole New Testament: and our Saviour, instead of combating this opinion, seems rather to have confirmed it on more than one occasion. Indeed St. Augustine thinks it cannot, without temerity, be denied, that there are occasional apparitions of angels, of demons, and the souls of the dead. (Calmet) --- This, however, will not justify the credulity of many ignorant and weak people, who think that nobody can die, but their spirit is sure to appear; much less will it justify the superstitious observations of unusual occurrences, which are so commonly reported to happen, as significant of a departed soul. These occurrences are rare; nor should we suppose that the Almighty would be willing to suspend or change the established laws of nature without a sufficient cause, viz. some known good either to the departed soul, or surviving friends. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv37, 39 a spirit--the ghost of their dead Lord, but not…
a spirit--the ghost of their dead Lord, but not Himself in the body (Act 12:15; Mat 14:26).
thoughts--rather, "reasonings"; that is, whether He were risen or no, and whether this was His very self.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On v39 39. A spirit hath not flesh and bones—We have…
39. A spirit hath not flesh and bones—We have here, in opposition to materialism, the clearest possible assertion of the independent existence of spirit. There is no other explanation of these words which does not insult the Saviour and abuse his language.
In regard to the nature of our Lord’s risen body previous to the ascension, we may say that there are FOUR different opinions prevalent. The first supposes a body in substance entirely new substituted for the previous body; the second, a body the same in substance and attributes; just as Lazarus’s natural unchanged body was raised the same as before death; the third, a body the same in substance but endowed with new properties and powers; the fourth, the same body glorified as completely as after his ascension.
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We reject the first as being no resurrection at all, but a creation; and doubt the fourth as not provable if true. That the third is preferable to the second may thus appear.
Perhaps all will grant that our Lord’s ordinary stay or abode between his resurrection and ascension was in the invisible; his visible appearances during the forty days being only occasional. His body possessed then normally, and perhaps we may say naturally, in its risen nature, the power of invisibility, at will. It possessed, also, a superiority to the control of gravitation, to the need of food, clothing, and other bodily necessities, and, probably, a superiority to disease and a second mortality. But these are all new powers; possible by miracle, but not belonging to man or to Jesus corporeally as a man. The third, therefore, seems the preferable view.
This view assumes, that although our Lord’s risen body had its own proper form and substance, and its own proper outline and limitation, yet that he was able, more or less, to modify it at will. so as to retain or resume traces, constituent parts, or substantive properties of its former self, such as wounds, limbs, flesh, and bones. However modified, temporarily or permanently, by will or by nature, it would be the same body; able to prove itself such to human eyes by resuming its old familiar peculiarities. So he could identify himself to Thomas, Joh_20:25; he could be grasped by the women, Joh_20:29; could (like the angels in Gen_18:8; Gen_19:3) invest himself with apparent garments, and eat and drink before his disciples. Luk_24:41-43.
By his self-modifying power he could not only enter the invisible instantaneously, (Luk_24:31,) but could appear under another form, (Mar_16:12;) could pass through any material impediments, doubtless by those interstices between particles which science has so amply revealed as belonging to solid bodies. Joh_20:19.* Nor was the rolling the stone from the tomb by angels necessary so far as his power was concerned; but necessary to render visible to the world’s perception, the external reality of the resurrection. So it was, apparently, that our Lord after his resurrection (as at no previous time) seemed often times unrecognisable to the best acquainted eyes. Joh_20:14; Joh_21:4; Joh_21:7; Joh_21:12. So his ready presence (Luk_24:36) at different places evinced his power of invisible and, probably, instantaneous transference through space at will.
[* In the most solid bodies the ultimate particles are supposed to be immensely smaller than the spaces between them. In a body as dense as water they are, proportionately, as “one hundred men distributed over the whole surface of England.”—Sir William Armstrong’s Presidential Address before the British Association, 1864.] All this involves not the idea either that his body was properly glorified, as after his ascension; or, as some imagine, that it underwent a gradual glorifying process through the forty days. The endowment with the properties belonging to a resurrection body (properties possessed even by the risen wicked) is one thing; his investiture at his enthronement with his full Mediatorial glories at God’s right hand is quite another thing.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv37–39 37. terrified] Literally, “scared”
37. terrified] Literally, “scared”
that they had seen a spirit] Rather, that they were gazing on a spirit. See on Luk_24:16.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv37–39 (37) Supposed that they had seen a spirit.—More accurately,…
(37) Supposed that they had seen a spirit.—More accurately, supposed that they were looking on . . . For the use of the word “spirit “in this sense, see Act_23:8-9; Heb_12:23.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv37–39 But they were terrified and affrighted. They spoke one…
But they were terrified and affrighted. They spoke one to another of the Master; they discussed the empty sepulchre, the angelic vision, the recital by Peter of his interview with the Risen, and were listening to the details of the quiet Emmaus meeting, all hoping for something more; but this sudden, mysterious appearance of their crucified Master in their midst was not, after all, what they had looked for. It terrified them. And supposed that they had seen a spirit. How else could they explain his presence in their midst, when the doors were shut? The evangelists make no attempt to explain his sudden appearance. He was simply there as they spoke of him. It is clear that his presence could be accounted for in no ordinary, natural way. His disciples felt that; hence their supposition that they were looking on a spirit. We can, with our present limited knowledge, form no adequate conception of this resurrection-body of the Lord. It was a reality, no phantasm or appearance; of that the scene about to be described gives us ample evidence. Still, it is clear that his resurrection-body was not bound by the present conditions of material existence of which we are conscious. Epiphanius ascribes to the body of the risen Lord leptothv pneumatikh , "a spiritual subtilty," Euthymius uses similar language when he speaks of "his body being now subtile, thin, and unmixed." He could come into a closed, barred room. He could be visible or invisible, known or unknown, as he pleased and when he pleased.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v38 Why are you troubled?
Why are you troubled?
Jesus uses a question to comfort them. AT: "Do not be frightened." (See: Rhetorical Question)
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Why do questions arise in your heart?
Jesus uses a question to mildly rebuke them. Jesus was telling them not to doubt that he was alive. The word "heart" is a metonym for a persons' mind. AT: "Do not doubt in your minds!" or "Stop doubting!" (See: Rhetorical Question and Metonymy)
Touch me and see ... see me having
Jesus asks them to confirm by touch that he is not a ghost. It may be helpful to combine and reorder these two sentences. AT: "Touch me and feel that I have flesh and bones that a ghost would not have"
flesh and bones
This is a way of referring to the physical body.
his hands and his feet
It is understood that his hands and feet contained the nail marks from his crucifixion that would prove it was really Jesus. This can be made explicit. AT: "the wounds in his hands and his feet"
translationWords
trouble
spirit
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v39 24:39 ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that…
24:39 ghosts don’t have bodies, as you see that I do: In his resurrected state, Jesus was not an immaterial spirit, but had a real immortal and imperishable body. Believers will receive similar bodies at the final resurrection (1 Cor 15:35-57).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.