Sir, In his very interesting and comprehensive article (April 6th) on the resurrection of Christ, Patrick Comerford states that "Paul asserts the personal resurrection of Jesus without any reference to his physical body or his emergence from the tomb". While it of course true that words such as "the grave was empty" do not occur in Paul's extant writings, it may also be said that Paul does not deny the empty tomb. In no way is he suggesting that (like John Brown's body) the remains of Jesus lie a mouldering in the grave while his soul goes marching on. That is a kind of Platonic dualism, whereas the Bible has a much more positive view of the relation of the body and the soul.
In fact, Paul's argument in Corinthians is about Christians having hope for their own bodily resurrection depends on the reality of Christ's bodily resurrection. The most straightforward interpretation of 1 Corinthians 1 5:4 where Paul writes that Christ was buried and was raised on the third day according to the scriptures (perhaps referring to Psalm 16:8-11) is the traditional one of a bodily resurrection and therefore an empty tomb. Yours, etc., Rochestown Rise, Cork.