Christ’s Incorruptible Body Patristic Debates and their Foundations in the New Testament

In the sixth century, Christian churches in the East were divided by a dispute on whether the body of Jesus Christ possessed the quality of ‘incorruptibility’ (aphtharsia) already prior to the resurrection. During this controversy, problems surfaced that had accompanied christological reflection since the composition of the New Testament. Certain passages from Luke–Acts, the Gospel of John, and the Pauline corpus (including the Letter to the Hebrews) increasingly gained importance in the disputes over the body of Christ that culminated in the ‘aphthartodocetic controversy’.

This volume brings New Testament exegesis into conversation with patristic scholarship. Individual case studies examine how an ambivalent biblical testimony, which affirms both the corporeality of Jesus and the supernatural qualities of his body, generated intense christological debates. The essays illustrate how the christological conceptualizations of early Christian authors such as Cyril of Alexandria, Augustine, Severus of Antioch, or Leontius of Byzantium can shed light on exegetical problems implicitly present in the New Testament statements about the man Jesus Christ and his body.