Luke 24:39
The context
The risen Jesus appears to frightened disciples who think they are seeing a ghost. He answers the fear directly, inviting them to touch him, showing his hands and feet, and pointing to the evident fact that he can be handled. Luke then has him eat a piece of broiled fish in front of them, which is the kind of detail a writer includes to close a question.
What it establishes
It establishes that the resurrection in this Gospel is bodily and continuous with the crucified body, not a vision, a memory, or a discarnate survival. The wounds are still there; the appetite is real.
What it does not establish
It does not answer every question about the resurrection body. Paul describes a transformed, spiritual body elsewhere, and Luke's account does not explain how continuity and transformation fit together. Nor can the scene, as narrative, prove the event it reports to a reader who doubts the report.
Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.
Cited in these answers
Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.