Albert Barnes Commentary


Albert Barnes Commentary
"See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold me having." — Luke 24:39 (ASV)
Behold my hands. Jesus proceeds to give them evidence that he was truly the same person who had been crucified. He first showed them his hands and his feet—still pierced, and with the wounds made by the nails still open . 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 that a disembodied spirit could not do.
Handle me. Or touch me; feel me .
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.