Verses 39-43. Behold my hands, &c. 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. Comp. Joh 20:27. He told them to handle him and see him. He ate before them. All this was to satisfy them that be 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. Comp. Joh 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, &c. 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.