「부활에 대한 논고」(NHC 1,4)의 ‘육신의 부활’ 개념

Abstract

The New Testament apocryphal “Treatise on the Resurrection”(NHC 1,4) shows a cross-section of the resurrection debates witnessed by the second-century Church. This treatise is unique and special in that it discusses both spiritual and bodily resurrection. However, the resurrection of the flesh that this Treatise speaks of is different from the resurrection of the material flesh spoken of by the Church Fathers. They emphasize the continuity of the resurrected flesh with the earthly flesh, highlighting the materiality of the resurrected flesh. In this Treatise, the materiality of the resurrected flesh is completely denied. It says that the resurrected flesh is not an earthly body, but a spiritual body. This is implied by the statement that the spiritual resurrection swallows up both the psychic and the physical element, or both the psychic resurrection and the physical resurrection; the psychic and physical elements are now swallowed up and dissolved by the spiritual resurrection. That the resurrection of the flesh of which this Treatise speaks is not a resurrection of the material flesh becomes clearer when compared to the second-century Fathers and Epistula Apostolorum. In conclusion, while this Treatise does assert the resurrection of the flesh, it is not the same as the resurrection spoken of by the Church Fathers. The resurrection of the flesh in this Treatise is not the resurrection of the material flesh, but the resurrection of the spiritual flesh. It means that the material flesh is not necessary for a resurrected being. Therefore, the resurrection of the flesh in this Treatise can actually be said to be a spiritual resurrection. By including the “flesh” in the resurrection in some way, it seems that the author of this Treatise was trying to distance himself from other Gnostics who excluded the flesh from the resurrection altogether.