Was Jesus a man or a spirit?

Answer 1

Jesus, just as we all were, was a spirit child of a kind a wise heavenly father. It was only when we came to the earth that this same spirit entered our mortal bodies.

We can also refer to The Spirit of the Lord as His presence is felt in all of us.

Answer 2

The book known as the Epistle to the Hebrews, possibly the earliest completed book in the New Testament, only ever speaks of Jesus as the "High Priest" in heaven. From the evidence of this book, Jesus could easily have been purely spiritual, although this is not conclusive. Paul's epistles were also among the earliest New Testament books. It has also been pointed out that Paul showed no interest in the human Jesus and did not even seem to know that Jesus was a man who had lived in Palestine within his own lifetime; he also seems to have understood Jesus to be a heavenly spirit.

The first book we have, that mentions Jesus as a man is the Gospel of Mark, written approximately 70 CE, long after the events it portrays. The account we read in Mark would seem to be confirmed by the independent Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John, but scholars tell us that those gospels were not independent of Mark at all. The gospels were originally written anonymously and only attributed to the disciples later in the second century, and the actual authors were clearly not eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus nor acquaintances of eyewitnesses. Moreover, there is clear evidence the authors of Matthew and Luke based their gospels on Mark. John was inspired by Luke (itself based on Mark), with some material taken directly from Mark. So we have one source only, that says that Jesus was a man. Even Mark's Gospel is open to some doubt, as there was a very early tradition that there was a "Secret Gospel of Mark", one that told what the earliest Christians really believed.

It can not be stated with certainty whether Jesus was, to the earliest Christians in the middle of the first century (or earlier), a spirit or a man.

AnswerEarly christian teaching which was based on passed down by eyewitnesses oral tradition, Paul's letters and the letter's of others as well as possibly gospels, came to agreement that Jesus was both a Man and was also indwelt by God himself. This manifestation of God's character was considered to be a person of the trinity, and was thought of as God's own son. The Trinity was a way of explaining that God had three ways of manifesting himself, as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit. They are all in essence God, exist in complete harmony but have their own personhood and different characteristics. The problem for the early church was an attempt by many to over- spiritualise their belief and denigrate the idea that Jesus had both real manhood and was filled with coexistent divinity. One strand of this was known as Gnosticism.