The Nature of Spiritual Bodies in the Old and New Testaments

Pieper suggested that spirits have no set form. They are rather like fire, so when Christ appeared in the Old Testament He simply adapted a human form that no longer existed when He was finished with it. Kline pointed in a slightly different direction. Kline suggested that Christ always had an Old Testament glorious form and Adam's human body was modeled after Christ's eternal form.

I agree with Pieper. I hold to a belief that before the incarnation, Christ didn't have a body; therefore, in order for the physical appearances of theophanies, Christ adapted a human form that no longer existed when He was finished with it.

The similarities and differences in the ways that Christ's body is described in the Old Testament, the Gospels before Christ's resurrection, the Gospels and Acts after the resurrection, and the book of Revelation.

Old Testament body - Didn't eat or drink. This body was sometimes mistaken for a normal human. Other times, there were no doubts that it was God. From appearing as a normal human to appearing as a man with a face like lightning and eyes like flaming torches, there were really no limitations to the Old Testament theophany body.

Before the resurrection - Christ's human body could walk on water. He ate, drank, slept, and bled. He was one hundred percent human and one hundred percent God.

After the resurrection - Jesus' body still bore the marks of the cross. He could still eat and drink. He could, however, walk through walls and disappear and reappear at will. The theophany John describes in Revelation 4 peculiarly sounds very similar to Ezekiel's theophany in Ezekiel 1.

Old Testament passages speak as if God always had a body in the Old Testament.

Exodus 15:3- "The Lord is a man..."; Num. 12:8- "With Him will I speak mouth to mouth..."; Genesis 3:8- "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day..."; Exodus 24:10- "...and there was under His [God's] feet..."; Exodus 24:11- "And upon the nobles of the children of Israel he laid not His hand..."; Joshua 4:24- "That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the LORD..."; Hosea 11:8- "...mine heart is turned within me..."; Genesis 2:2-"...and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made."

I think the Old Testament speaks as if God always had a body for our benefit. How can the finite understand the infinite? The answer is that the finite can only understand what the infinite has revealed. We are human; therefore, the infinite God has revealed Himself in human terms that we can understand. Paul, in 1 Timothy 1:17 refers to God as invisible, and in chapter 6, verse sixteen, he refers to Him as "alone having immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see." Jesus, in Matthew 16:17, said, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven." Since no one can see God and since He doesn't have flesh and blood, we come to the conclusion that He isn't like us. This fact of course is only held by those who believe in the perfect, inerrant Word of God. God doesn't have a body and therefore, never has had a body for He is always the same (Hebrews 1:12). Because of these truths, we come to the conclusion that God never has had a body, and that the terms used to describe His "body" are simply there so we can understand what God has revealed. This is the same principle that God used in manifesting Himself in theophanies in order to communicate with His people. God often communicates in finite terms so we can understand the infinite.