According to all of the Evangelists it was merely a reanimation of his undecayed body. Other bodies supposedly dead have been revived, but neither these resuscitations nor the supposed reanimation of Jesus’ corpse affords proof that bodies which ages ago crumbled into dust and whose particles subsequently entered into the composition of myriads of other bodies will be reunited into the original beings. And as Jesus almost immediately disappeared after his alleged resurrection and has never since been seen this resurrection did not evince his own immortality, much less that of mankind in general.
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Did Christ descend into hell?
Peter: He did ([Acts ii, 31]; [1 Peter iii, 19]).
Peter states that “his soul was not left in hell,” which necessitates the assumption of his having gone there. He also declares that after his death he “went and preached unto the spirits in prison [hell].”
The Confession of Faith (Art. III) says: “As Christ died for us, and was buried; so also is it to be believed that he went down into hell.”
For what purpose did Christ descend into hell and preach to its inhabitants? If it was to redeem them his mission was fruitless; if it was not to redeem them his mission was useless.
Early Christian writers almost uniformly spelled the name of Christ, not “Christos” (the Anointed), but “Chrestos.” Chrestos was a Pagan name given to the judge of Hades in the lower world.