Luke 24:39

Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(39) Behold my hands and my feet.—The test thus offered to the disciples, like that afterwards given to Thomas, was to be to them a proof that they were not looking on a spectre from the shadow-world of the dead. The Resurrection was a reality, not an appearance. In St. John’s words, “which our hands have handled” (1John 1:1), we have an interesting coincidence with the use of the same word here. The conditions of the problem must remain, however, transcendental and mysterious. There is a real corporeity, and yet there is a manifest exemption from the common conditions of corporeal existence. St. Luke’s narrative presents an undesigned coincidence with that of John 20:25. What Thomas asked for was the evidence which had, he heard, been given to others. Without that evidence he could not, he felt, believe.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

24:36-49 Jesus appeared in a miraculous manner, assuring the disciples of his peace, though they had so lately forsaken him, and promising spiritual peace with every blessing. Many troublesome thoughts which disquiet our minds, rise from mistakes concerning Christ. All the troublesome thoughts which rise in our hearts at any time, are known to the Lord Jesus, and are displeasing to him. He spake with them on their unreasonable unbelief. Nothing had passed but what was foretold by the prophets, and necessary for the salvation of sinners. And now all men should be taught the nature and necessity of repentance, in order to the forgiveness of their sins. And these blessings were to be sought for, by faith in the name of Jesus. Christ by his Spirit works on the minds of men. Even good men need to have their understandings opened. But that we may have right thoughts of Christ, there needs no more than to be made to understand the Scriptures.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Behold my hands ... - Jesus proceeds to give them evidence that he was truly the same person that had been crucified. He first showed them his hands and his feet - still, pierced, and with the wounds made by the nails still open. Compare John 20:27. He told them to handle him and see him. He ate before them. All this was to satisfy them that he was not, as they supposed, a spirit. Nor could better evidence have been given. He appealed to their senses, and performed acts which a disembodied spirit could not do.

Handle me - Or touch me; feel of me. Compare John 20:27.

And see - Be convinced, for you could not thus handle a spirit. The object here was to convince them that his body had really come to life.

For a spirit ... - He appeals here to what they well knew; and this implies that the spirit may exist separate from the body. That was the view of the apostles, and our Saviour distinctly countenances that belief.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

39-43. Behold, &c.—lovingly offering them both ocular and tangible demonstration of the reality of His resurrection.

a spirit hath not—an important statement regarding "spirits."

flesh and bones—He says not "flesh and blood"; for the blood is the life of the animal and corruptible body (Ge 9:4), which "cannot inherit the kingdom of God" (1Co 15:50); but "flesh and bones," implying the identity, but with diversity of laws, of the resurrection body. (See on [1748]Joh 20:24-28).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "Luke 24:38"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Behold my hands, and my feet,.... The Evangelist John adds, "and side"; that is, the prints of the nails and spear, in his hands, and feet, and side; and the wounds they made there, and the scars they left behind; by which they might be convinced he was not a spirit, and be assured of the truth of his resurrection, and that in the same numerical body in which he suffered; as well as that it might be observed by them how great was his love to them, to endure what he did for them.

Handle me and see; or know by feeling, as well as by sight; so that if the one was not sufficient, the other might confirm; sight might be deceived, but feeling could not: Apollonius Tyaneus, to them that did not know whether he was alive or dead, and who took him for a spirit, proposed himself to be touched, and handled, that they might be convinced (z):

for a spirit hath not flesh and bones; nothing but appearance, or air at most; no solid substance to be felt and handled:

as ye see me have; or may perceive, both by sight and feeling.

(z) Philostratus de Vita Apollon. l. 8, c. 5.

Geneva Study Bible

Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Luke 24:39. In the first half of the verse Jesus desires to remove from His disciples their consternation, and that by means of their being required to convince themselves that it is He Himself (no other); in the second half He desires to oppose the notion of a πνεῦμα, and that in such a way that they should be persuaded that it is He bodily. The two parts of Luke 24:39 correspond, that is to say, to the two parts of Luke 24:38.

τὰς χεῖράς μου κ. τ. πόδας μ.] These, pointed to as a proof that it is He Himself, must afford this proof by the traces of the crucifixion, namely, by the wounds of the nails in the hands and feet (as to the nailing of the feet, see on Matthew 27:35). Comp. John 20:20.[276] According to Paulus and de Wette, Jesus pointed to His hands and feet as the uncovered parts, in order to oppose the notion of a spirit. In this way αὐτὸς ἐγώ would have to be understood of the reality, not of the identity of His appearance. But the hands and the feet were seen even without special pointing to them; the latter presupposes a characteristic to be recognised by closer inspection. Even this characteristic, however, could not prove the reality (since it might appear as well in a φάντασμα or εἴδωλον), but probably the identity though apart from the reality, for which latter the conviction was to be added by means of touch.

ὅτι] is in both cases: that. On σάρκα κ. ὀστέα οὐκ ἔχει, comp. Hom. Od. xi. 219.

[276] Without reason Schleiermacher says of these wounds: “they may have been two or four” (p. 447). He has indeed taken up a position of great indifference about the question whether Jesus was actually or only apparently dead (in respect of which he sophistically misuses Acts 2:27); but still a merely apparent death does not come to the same thing, and it is only opposed to the (true) view of the resurrection that the disciples took internal for external phenomena. See especially p. 471.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Luke 24:39. τὰς χεῖράς μου, etc.: Jesus shows His hands and feet with the wounds to satisfy them of His identity (ὅτι ἐγώ εἰμι αὐτός). Then He bids them touch Him (ψηλαφήσατέ με) to satisfy themselves of His substantiality.—ἴδετε, see with the mind; with the eye in case of the preceding ἴδετε.—ὅτι: either that, or because.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

39. handle me, and see] Pselaphesate; “which we have looked upon and our hands have handled (epselaphesan) of the Word of Life,” 1 John 1:1; comp. John 20:20; John 20:27. For other uses of the word see Acts 17:27; Hebrews 12:18.

hath not flesh and bones] “I am not a bodiless spirit” are words attributed to Him in Ignatius (ad Smyrn. 3). Clemens of Alexandria has preserved a curious, but utterly baseless, legend, that St John, touching the body, found that his hands passed through it. From the omission of “blood” with “flesh and bones” very precarious inferences have been drawn.

Bengel's Gnomen

Luke 24:39. Αὐτὸς) I Myself, Jesus.—πνεῦμα, a spirit) See Luke 24:37.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 39. - Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. "See," he says, inviting the terror-stricken disciples to a calm, unaffrighted contemplation - "see my hands and my feet pierced with the nails which fastened them to the cross; it is I myself." Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have. The first words quietly told the awe-struck ones to look closely at him, and to ascertain from the dread marks he bore that what they looked upon was Jesus their Master. Then he proceeded to bid them touch him, handle him, and so assure themselves that it was no phantom, no bodiless spirit, that stood before them. These words of the Lord, and the invitation, "handle me, and see," made the deepest impression on the hearers. These, then, were proofs of the Resurrection that admitted of no shadow of doubt. These words, this sight, changed their lives. What cared they afterwards for men and men's threatenings? Death, life, to them were all one. They had seen the Lord, they had handled with their hands "that which was flora the beginning" (see 1 John 1:1). Browning forcibly puts this thought which so influenced the first great teachers. The dying St. John is dwelling on the thought that when he is gone there will be none left with men who saw and touched the Lord.

"If I live yet, it is for good, more love
Through me to men: be nought but ashes here
That keep awhile my semblance, who was John.
Still, when they seater, there is left on earth

No one alive who knew (consider this!),
Saw with his eyes, and handled with his hands,
That which was from the first, the Word of life.
How will it be when none more saith, 'I saw'?"

(A Death in the Desert.') Luke 24:39

Vincent's Word Studies

Handle (ψηλαφήσατε)

Compare 1 John 1:1. The word occurs also Acts 17:27; Hebrews 12:18. "It never expresses the so handling an object as to exercise a moulding, modifying influence upon it, but at most a feeling of its surface; this, it may be, with the intention of learning its composition (Genesis 27:12, Genesis 27:21, Genesis 27:22); while, not seldom, it signifies no more than a feeling for or after an object, without any actual coming in contact with it at all" (Trench, "Synonyms"). Compare Acts 17:27. Used of groping in the dark, Job 5:14 :; of the blind, Isaiah 59:10; Deuteronomy 28:29; Judges, Judges 16:26. See on Hebrews 12:18.