Jesus accused the Pharisees of holding to traditions which had been added to the Word of God. We may accuse those outside our tribe of doing the same today. But could there be extra-biblical traditions to which we hold steadfastly within our own circles? Oral traditions repeated often enough to now appear nearly self-evident?
I propose one such tradition is the notion that Jesus walked through a wall. If we can suspend our familiarity with the tradition and observe the text carefully, we’ll find the tradition far from evident.
The Text
We find the tradition’s source in John 20:19 and John 20:26:
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’
Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’
Examples of the Tradition
D.A. Carson’s commentary on John’s gospel is a masterpiece, which I am happy to recommend. But no-one is perfect, and in his comments on these verses, Carson reflects the tradition:
But the function of the locked doors in John’s narrative, both here [v.19] and in v.26, is to stress the miraculous nature of Jesus’ appearance amongst his followers. As his resurrection body passed through the grave-clothes (v.6-8), so it passed through the locked doors and simply ‘materialized.’
Carson, The Gospel According to John, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991, p.646.
Carson simply asserts that Jesus’ body “passed through locked doors and simply ‘materialized'” as he did with the grave-clothes. So I turn to his comments on the grave-clothes for further textual evidence of the phenomenon:
The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Clearly John perceives these details to be important, but their exact meaning is disputed. Some have thought that the burial cloth still retained the shape of Jesus’ head, and was separated from the strips of linen by a distance equivalent to the length of Jesus’ neck. Others have suggested that, owing to the mix of spices separating the layers, even the strips of linen retained the shape they had when Jesus’ body filled them out. Both of these suggestions say more than the text requires. What seems clearest is the contrast with the resurrection of Lazarus (11:44). Lazarus came from the tomb wearing his grave-clothes, the additional burial cloth still wrapped around his head. Jesus’ resurrection body apparently passed through his grave-clothes, spices and all, in much the same way that he later appeared in a locked room (vv. 19, 26). The description of the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head does not suggest that it still retained the shape of the corpse, but that it had been neatly rolled up and set to one side by the one who no longer had any use for it.
Carson, p.637
So we see Carson first exposing a few baseless traditions (that the grave cloths were shaped liked a hollow mummy) because they “say more than the text requires.” This standard for evaluating traditions is eminently reasonable. However, Carson goes on to link the grave-clothes with the entering of the locked room. And he says more himself than the text requires by suggesting that Jesus’ body must have “passed through” solid objects.
C.S. Lewis offers another way one can grasp the tradition of Jesus walking through walls. In his novel Perelandra, as well as in The Great Divorce, he grapples with the idea that heaven is in fact more real than earth. The heavenly grass pokes at the sensitive feet of spiritual tourists, and heavenly rain drops threaten to crush those who lack substance. Lewis challenges the standard tradition in that he wants us not to see Jesus’ resurrection body as less “real,” or more “ghostly” than ours. He wants us to see Jesus’ body as more real and ourselves as the ghosts.
Both Carson and Lewis have important points to make on this topic, but both require us to look more closely at the text: Did Jesus walk through those walls? Did his body pass through the grave-cloths?
Observe the Text
I’ll start with the grave-cloths:
[Simon Peter] saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself.John 20:6b-7
John tells us that Peter saw the grave-cloths “lying there.” He does not say they were shaped like a hollow mummy. And he does not say they looked as though the body had Disapparated and the cloths had fallen flat without being unwrapped. He says they were “lying there,” but he says nothing about the condition in which they were lying (except for the face cloth being folded).
They could have been ripped off like one of The Incredible Hulk’s shredded garments. They could have been removed and tossed aside like dirty laundry. They could have been rolled or folded neatly. John says the face cloth was “folded up in a place by itself,” so with confidence we can declare that piece of cloth as folded. But the rest? John simply doesn’t tell us. He doesn’t say nearly enough to require us to conclude the body must have passed through the garments.
Now look again at the locked room:
On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’
Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’
john 20:19, 26
We know the doors were locked, with the disciples inside. We know the disciples were afraid of the Jews. We know that Jesus then stood among them within the room and spoke to them. But John doesn’t tell us how Jesus got from outside the room to inside the room.
Perhaps he walked through the walls. Perhaps. Or perhaps he knocked on the locked door until they heard his voice, opened up, and let him in. Or perhaps he spoke by the word of his power and made a section of the wall collapse. Or perhaps he found some others to open a hole in the roof and let him down on a pallet. Or perhaps he teleported from one location to another. I intend no irreverence whatsoever; I only wish to highlight that which we simply don’t know.
Please note: I am not saying that Jesus could not have walked through the walls or passed through the grave-cloths. He certainly could have. He is the Lord.
I am saying only that it is not self-evident, from John’s narrative, that he must have walked through walls. John is not nearly as clear about metaphysical post-resurrection ontology as we might wish him to be.
Conclusion
Why does it matter whether Jesus walked through a wall or not? What is at stake here?
Simply the fact that traditions snowball over time, with the end result of making void the Word of God (Mark 7:13). In this case, the tradition has led many to speculate on the physical properties of either the resurrection body or the new heavens and the new earth. This can lead many to make too sharp a division between the “natural” and the “spiritual”—and then we use those adjectives more like Plato than like Paul, which promotes unbiblical asceticism (Col 2:20-23), among other things.
May our thinking and our doctrine be increasingly rooted in vigilant observation of the God-inspired text, that we might be complete, equipped for every good work.
St. Peter’s prison escape might be analogous. It consisted, not of Peter dematerializing and rematerializing or solid objects becoming gaseous, but doors miraculously opening.
Yes, very good point! Jesus could have simply opened the door, like the angel opened the locked gate for Peter.
It appears,😎, that John specifically mentions the locked doors for a reason. In the first account they locked them outta fear. The second account is less specific as to the reason. Certainly, we cannot assume Jesus walked through the wall or locked door either time. Yet, the specificity about the locked doors and Jesus standing among them seems to indicate a miraculous event. Certainly John has indicated elsewhere in this Gospel when doors were opened or roofs cut.
I Noticed your statement that your not precluding Jesus walking through the wall, yet your comments about ‘making the Word of God void’ and ‘more like Plato than Paul’ sound a lot like you are denying the supernatural!
I agree that John mentions the locked doors for a reason. And his explicit reason is the fear of the disciples. This fear, and not metaphysical speculation, is what John draws our attention to.
My reference to Plato is not intended to deny the supernatural but only to reference the strong dualism between the material world (bad) and the immaterial world (good) that Christians often mistakenly think is a biblical dichotomy.
As for the supernatural/miraculous: Jesus could have walked through the wall. He could have blasted a hole with the word of his power. He could have somehow simply teleported himself from one place to another. He could have touched the door to open it, like the angel later did when Peter was locked in prison. I hope these statements make it clear that I am in no way denying the miraculous or looking only for a naturalistic explanation of the situation.
Peter,
Thanks for the follow up😎. It is certain that many Christians have adopted an almost Gnostic view of reality. I get the reason for your post!
Finally, it is the risen Jesus that John and the Spirit are pointing us towards and not how He entered the room.
I am glad Challies directed me to your blog😎
Tim
Do you really think that Jesus as truly God and creator of everything you see could not go through a solid object? HE CREATED THE MATERIAL THE WALL WAS MADE OF.
Don’t apply the rules off science to God. He’s beyond that.
I am not sure who you are addressing your comment to, as neither I, the author, nor the other commenter in this thread are saying that Jesus *could not* have gone through a solid object.
“Please note: I am not saying that Jesus could not have walked through the walls or passed through the grave-cloths. He certainly could have. He is the Lord.
“I am saying only that it is not self-evident, from John’s narrative, that he must have walked through walls. John is not nearly as clear about metaphysical post-resurrection ontology as we might wish him to be.”
If Lazarus stone wasn’t moved for Lazarus to come out but rather for Mary M.and them to walk in, because Lazarus could walk through walls and Jesus too. When disciples had doors locked and Jesus was sanding there and doors still locked. Are we missing parts of scripture that Holy people can walk through walls and such. Reminds me of Peru the door in a mountain that the townspeople see people coming out of and going back into all wearing what would have been worn in Biblical days when Jesus walked the earth
This reminds me of the often repeated story that Noah warned people about the coming flood but no one listened and only 8 were saved. The Bible never said he warned anybody. Saying so changes the point of the flood story.
What about 2 Peter 2:5?
Maybe the reason Christians say Jesus walked through the wall is in response to the argument that Since Jesus walked through a wall, he was a ghost and was not truly resurrected. Maybe this is just a way of reconciling the possibility that even if Jesus did walk through a wall, it was still his resurrected body and not a ghost. I totally agree that this is not the only possible way Jesus entered the room though. Great article!
First of all, if it were important to God for us to know how Jesus got from outside into the room, John would probably have been inspired to write it. My guess is the disciples didn’t realize He was already in the room before he “came to stand among them”. According to Matthew 18:20, Jesus already explained his presence, “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” So unless they all walked through walls or locked doors, by the time they locked the doors, He was there!
I have felt the power of God, like electricity in my tongue. I did not feel the power pass. My lips… or past my teeth, but with a close mouth, it appeared in my tongue, like electricity, tingling throughout the day, Several days this is the fire of the Holy Ghost. It is electric and powerful Dumas…, the wall could be dematerialized as he solidly move through,… there is nothing that God cannot do. I say the wall was transformed in a material that he could pass through in his glorified body.
I was using voice text Dudamas the root word of dynamite… when John, the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Ghost, and with flare …it is a real presence that you feel coming up on your being it can feel like power ful electricity, like a rushing current throughout your body. It can also feel like a warm oil. He anointed my head with oil from the top of my head to the soles of my feet…. it can feel like a wind… a mighty Russian wind … as on the day of Pentecost…
John 20:8 states,” then the other disciple (John), would reach the tomb 1st, also went in and he saw and ‘ believed!’”
The Jews were taught embalming/ mummification when they were slaves in Egypt. The Myrrh -75 pounds provided by Nicodemus for Jesus‘s body had hardened and John saw a hardened mass of strips and Jesus was missing from this cocoon. Hence, John believed in Jesus’ resurrection because of the hardened strips that Jesus would’ve had to rise from. Think about the resurrection power of the Lord!
I appreciate your efforts to stick to the text. It may be fun to guess about the specific way in which something *might* have happened. But it’s important to maintain a clear distinction between revelation and speculation. That’s especially true for the kind of person who insists that the word of God is a Christian’s final authority.