Is Jesus a zombie? While many find this question laughable, if zombies could / do exist, the story of any dead person walking about again would raise suspicions. It has also become popular to make fun of and antagonize Christians by referring to our God as "Zombie Jesus." While such derisive comments are hardly worthy of response, they have brought the question and image into popular culture, and thus warrant an explanation.
The Bible clearly explains the type of resurrection God brings about and what Jesus’ resurrected body was like; both contrast with the notion of zombies. Though the Old Testament doesn’t emphasize resurrection as much as the New Testament, it does teach that the human body returns to dust while our spirit goes to the Lord (Ecclesiastes 12:7). Though that doesn’t address Jesus specifically, it’s a good foundation for showing the implausibility of zombies. Also, Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament indicate that Jesus was resurrected to glory, not corruption as zombies are typically depicted (Psalm 16:10; Psalm 110:1). The New Testament records fulfillment of such prophecy by describing the resurrected Jesus appearing to His disciples fully alive, not in a decayed zombie state (Luke 24:39; Acts 2:31). Jesus was the exemplar for resurrection, and the New Testament teaches that, far from decaying corpses walking around, our resurrected bodies will be incorruptible (1 Corinthians 15:42-43). In short, the Bible teaches that biblical resurrection is not zombification and that Jesus most certainly is not a zombie.
According to original zombie lore, born mainly out of Haitian Voodoo, a zombie is a body which is reanimated by a sorcerer or "bokor." In this case the zombie is without a soul – simply a body being controlled by the sorcerer or inhabited by a demonic spirit. According to biblical accounts, Jesus was recognized as Himself after His resurrection by how He spoke and His way of conducting a meal (Luke 24:31-32, 35). This would not have been possible if Jesus had been without His soul.
Having become its own sub-genre of horror, literature, and film, zombie lore has been greatly expanded, making it sound more plausible scientifically. From out-of-control viral experiments to specific combinations of toxins, the barely-explicable condition creates either a body which roams about searching for human flesh to eat, surviving all injuries and levels of rot aside from actual decapitation, or a terrifyingly strong, mutated being, no longer anything like human. Had Jesus been seen after His death in a similar state, He would either have been unrecognizable as a mutant or continuing to rot from His already extremely injured state after having been crucified three days prior. Neither description matches the biblical accounts. Also, such a visage would not have been accepted as anything less than demonic in the first century. Jesus' glorified body was just that – a perfected, fully healed, eternal body that He still inhabits in heaven and will for all eternity. It is a perfected human body, recognizable as such and is eternal not because of mutation or disease, but because of glorification.
The Bible presents Jesus' resurrection, for which there is extensive evidence, as just that: the return to full life in a glorified body. Not a resuscitation or a return from unconsciousness. That Jesus lives is essential to the Christian faith, giving us hope and faith. Far from being a zombie in any sense of the word, Jesus is the only perfect human being, in both life, death, and resurrection, that has ever existed, as well as God incarnate. Jesus did not return as a zombie.
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