Thanks. It is interesting that WEB translation says it differently:
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Don't tell anyone what you saw, until the Son of Man has risen from the dead."
Matthew 17:9
That is one reason why I think it was not vision in sense that it was seen only in mind, not physically.
Are you splitting hairs to accommodate your view? What they saw was a vision.
Please consult Strongs Concordance and see its definition of the word translated “vision” in the majority of Bibles.....
G3705 - horama - Strong's Greek Lexicon (nasb20)
I actually couldn’t find one popular translation that didn’t use the word “vision” except the NIV, which I do not consider to be an very accurate translation.
The Mounce Interlinear translates it as “vision”, so what is a vision? Peter had a vision of some ‘unclean animals which he was told to slaughter and eat’ but what he saw was not real, was it?
On the other hand, Bible tells that happened also like this:
The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;
Matt. 27:52
Well, if this was a ‘resurrection of the saints’ then this was a very noteworthy event because these were to be raised as immortal spirits and be taken to heaven.....so how did people see their bodies in the cemetery? And why was such a outstanding event mentioned only briefly and in only one gospel account?
How did those who will rule with Christ get to be resurrected before he was?
Could it be that the earthquake that occurred when Jesus died simply tipped the bodies out of their tombs? And the ones who saw that reported it to those in the city? That is more in keeping with what the rest of the Bible says.
And I think those were in spiritual body form. And this is also one reason why I think spirit is the person and it can be called also a soul.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
1 Cor. 15:44
And I believe that you are stretching the Bible’s words to accommodate what you wish to believe.
Being as Jesus was raised as a spirit, (i.e. not in a physical body,) unless he appeared in materialised form, no one could have seen him. Since it was not lawful for Jews to communicate with spirits, he always “appeared” in material form, to communicate with his apostles, just as angels had done in the past.
He remained on the earth for 40 days after his resurrection but he did not stay with his apostles as he had for the previous three and a half years. All the accounts after he was raised, say that he ”appeared” to his disciples. On one occasion he actually “disappeared” right before their eyes. A spiritual body is not a physical one.
Now Jesus had promised that he would go to his Father in heaven to “prepare a place for them” and that he would return to take them home to be where he was. Does that account of the saints whose bodies were “raised” at the moment Jesus breathed his last human breath, fit anything else that the Bible says about the resurrection of the saints?
When was the resurrection of the saints to take place?.....
“For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.” (1 Thessalonians 4:15-16 ESV)
Do you see the timeframe for the resurrection? It was yet future when Paul wrote that.....so, it shows that interpretation of Matthew 27:52 (accepted by many) to be completely in error.
