Luke 24:39-43 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

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.

Luke 24:41

Believed not for joy - Their joy was so great, and his appearance was so sudden and unexpected, that they were bewildered, and still sought more evidence of the truth of what they “wished” to believe. This is nature. We have similar expressions in our language. “The news is too good to be true;” or, “I cannot believe it; it is too much for me.”

Any meat - This word does not mean “meat” in our sense of it, but in the old English sense, denoting “anything to eat.”

Luke 24:42

Honey-comb - Honey abounded in Palestine, and was a very common article of food. Bees lived in caves of the rocks, in the hollows of trees, and were also kept as with us. The disciples gave, probably, just what was their own common fare, and what was ready at the time.

Luke 24:39-43

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.

40 And when he had thus spoken, he shewed them his hands and his feet.

41 And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, he said unto them,Have ye here any meat?

42 And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb.

43 And he took it, and did eat before them.