Do Christians Need to Believe that Jesus was Raised Bodily from the Dead? Licona vs. Patterson

In this episode, Dr. Stephen Patterson, New Testament professor at Eden Theological Seminary, argues against the bodily resurrection of Jesus, contending that the earliest Christian witness doesn’t presume anything happened to Jesus’ body after his death but that by God’s power, Jesus’ spirit lived on in his followers. In keeping with the conceptualization of resurrection in ancient Judaism, the point of the resurrection narrative was to proclaim the vindication of God’s righteous servant against his enemies, not to declare a physical reality.  In his writings, Patterson claims that Paul had a spiritual resurrection of Jesus in mind and that Mark mentioned an empty tomb but never a physically resurrected Christ. Instead, the later gospel writers added this into their texts, fleshing out the story in line with their worldview, which at that time believed a physical body could rise into the sky, where God lived, to be with him. Dr. Patterson concluded his argument by stating that the ancient statements on Jesus’ bodily resurrection do not comfortably fit our current worldview. However, that is alright because all that Christians must believe in are Jesus’ teachings. Dr. Licona, who began the session with a positive argument for the bodily resurrection based on historical facts and methods, counters Patterson’s claims, citing translation issues and specifics from Paul’s text that refute his opponent’s assertions.