Islam - The Summit of Religious Evolution — Page 94
94 'They joined the gathering and told what had passed on the way to Emmaus. There was much agitation and discussion until suddenly Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and saith unto them, peace be on you. 74 'and calmed their fears. But when they too did not recognize him at once and thought it was a stranger who had surprised them, Jesus spoke to them again. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit'. 75 They must have looked distressed and doubtful, for Jesus said: "Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as you see me have. 76 'And while they believed yet not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it and did eat before them'. 77 On the evening on which Jesus showed himself to his disciples, one of them, Thomas, was missing. When the others told him what they had seen and heard he said to them: 78 Except I shall see in his hands the print of nails. . . and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. On a later occasion when Jesus met them again and Thomas was with them, he said to Thomas: 79 Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless but believing. Think what you will of Thomas; he has become for all eternity the principal witness that Jesus existed with the same physical body as before the crucifixion. The same wounds, which Thomas wanted to touch, imply that it was the same physical body. 80 On a further occasion Jesus again shared bread and fish with his disciples. Whether one accepts every detail of the reconstruction of resurrection as set out above, its one undeniable feature is that after having been taken down from the cross, Jesus was resuscitated in his physical body. He moved about and met the disciples on several occasions in his physical body, which bore the marks of injuries from which he had suffered. He ate with them, which makes it clear that he was completely human and felt all the human needs, including the need of nourishment and rest. Bernard Ellen 81 maintains that the ordinary view of the resurrection and his ascension to heaven with his physical body cannot be substantiated. In the Encyclopedia Biblica, 82 the view is expressed that nothing can be conjectured with any certainty, except that an appearance of Jesus to