Last week’s Gospel reading (John 20:19-31) got me thinking, will we need to eat once we have received our resurrected bodies on the New Earth? Jesus certainly ate after He rose from the dead, but did He need to eat or was it simply to prove He had a flesh and bones body (Luke 24:39)?
Isaiah envisions “rich foods… the best meats and the finest of wines” on the New Earth (personally I’m hoping for a little cabernet sauvignon – I savor the iron fist in a velvet glove and can only imagine heaven’s version!). So, it sure seems food will be there, but will we need it?
The little I know about early church fathers tells me they were split on this. If I recall, Tertullian confessed the literalness of the resurrected body, but rejected the idea that we would eat at all (although I think he might have been influenced by Platonism – someone correct me if I’m wrong).
Augustine seems to have thought we would eat for enjoyment, but not need to eat to survive.
My limited reasoning abilities tell me if God designed our bodies to need and enjoy food in
Of course, perhaps one of the characteristics of the upgrade to the resurrected body is freedom from the need of any thing to sustain us save God (not by bread alone, but by every Word from the Lord).
Could this be one of the qualities of the “spiritual body” (1 Cor. 15:44)? In his The Two natures of Christ,
So, will we need to eat on the New Earth?
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