Put Off This Tabernacle (Q & A)

Question: What does Peter mean by “Put off this my tabernacle”?

Answer: By John Spellman

John 1:14 states that Jesus is the Word made flesh and “tabernacled” among us. The term used for tabernacle is a variation of the word used in 2

Peter 1:14 when Peter says he must “put off this my tabernacle”.

Jesus also taught that he would destroy “this temple” and rebuild it in 3 days. (John 2:19) He was referring to the tabernacle of His body.

Peter emphasized that he would be “putting off” his tabernacle in the same way that Jesus showed Him. This seems to hint that Peter was originally supposed to go to the cross but had instead denied Jesus three times. After the resurrection, Peter had repented but when Jesus said to him “follow thou me” (John 21:19), he hinted that Peter must go to the cross (thereby gaining victory where he had previously failed). This is also evidenced when Jesus says, “stretch out your hands” and “carry thee where you do not wish”. (John 21:18) This implies that Peter didn’t want to go to the cross. This likely contributed to his earlier failure. But he would follow Jesus and be given another chance to go through with the cross. If Peter would go through the same experience as Jesus then, he too would have his temple / tabernacle (body) destroyed. He would go through the same experience as Jesus, though not resurrected in 3 days. When we look at the experience of Jesus, we see that Jesus did not go to heaven when he died on the cross.

He stated:

Luk 23:46 And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.

The words “spirit” and “ghost” are both from variations of the Greek “Pnuema” which can be translated breath. “ek pneo” is simply to “give up the breath”. Thus, at death, Jesus gave up the breath which returns to God at death. This is consistent with Solomon’s words:

Ecc 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Here, the Hebrew word “ruach” can also be translated “breath”. It is clear that after death the breath of life returns to God whereas the body goes into the ground. When this happens Jesus considered the condition of the person to be a “sleep” like state and referred to the person as present in the grave rather than with God. Meaning, the breath of life was with God, but this was an impersonal force. The same breath of life is shared by every living creature. It is not multiple breaths representing each individual, but a shared breath that allows life to flow through the human body. For Jesus, the essence of the individual remained in the ground or grave at death. This is evident with Jesus’ description of Lazarus. Also, Jesus indicated after He resurrected from the grave that he had not yet gone up to heaven. Though he put off his body / tabernacle / tent, it was not synonymous with ascending to heaven even though the breath returned to God. This indicates that though the breath of life returns to God, the person stays in the ground in a state comparable to sleep.

Joh 20:17 Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

Putting off the tabernacle is not synonymous with going to heaven as an immortal spirit, ghost, or soul. This was not what Jesus experienced, though he stated, “into thy hand I commend my ‘spirit’ [breath]”. (Luke 33:46) It was clear from His words that He remained on earth and had never ascended to heaven after death prior to seeing Mary.

This is also evidenced by Job’s description of death:

Job 14:10 But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?
Job 14:11 As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up:
Job 14:12 So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.
Job 14:13 O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldest keep me secret, until thy wrath be past, that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me!
Job 14:14 If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.
Job 14:15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.

Job states that a man lays down in the grave and does not rise up again until the end of time. Even though they “give up the breath” and it returns to God, when posing the rhetorical question “and where is he? [after that]”: Job replies that a man lies down and doesn’t rise again. He awaits a change to come that will only take place at the end of time. Thus, the man remains in the grave in a sleep like state even after the breath has returned and the tabernacle / tent of the body has been put off. Where is he? He’s in the grave!

This clearly indicates that Peter could not have in mind that “putting off” or “removing” the body is freeing the immortal soul or spirit from a human body. Since he followed the example of Jesus, we see that Jesus remained in the grave in a sleep like state after dying on the cross and did not rise again until the third day. When He had arisen, He proclaimed that He had not yet ascended. Furthermore, for everyone else (not resurrected when Jesus rose again), the change doesn’t occur until the end of time when “the heavens be no more”. If this is the case in most Biblical descriptions of death, what is meant by “putting off the tabernacle”? The body seems to be the dwelling place of the living. Jesus, when taking on human flesh, “tabernacled” among us. Yet, even when His breath returned to God, it did not indicate that Jesus was separated from His humanity. Instead, the breath of life was what returned to God which is one breath shared among created beings.

Ecc 3:19 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20 All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.
Ecc 3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?

All humans and animals share the same, “one breath”. They don’t go to different places but what happens to one, also happens to the other. This is why Solomon stated that mankind has no preeminence over animals.

Thus, when Peter talks about putting off the tabernacle he could not be referring to the breath of life that returns to God. As in the other Bible passages referring to death, nothing else returns to God. The person remains in the grave even after the tabernacle / body has been put off or destroyed. Therefore, the phrase Peter used likely means the same thing Jesus meant when He said He would destroy the temple [of His body]. Biblical concept of the body seems to be that it is the house of the life and also the temple of God. Putting off the body was a term used for death, like “giving up the ghost” (giving up the breath). It likely was a reference to how Christians put off the old body in death and await the resurrection (while in the grave in a sleep like state) in which they will receive a new glorified body. This is the “change” that is to “come” spoken of by Job. In that sense the body is a house for the life. The natural body must at some point be put off resulting in death when separated from the breath of life. But, when the change occurs, the individual will be given a new body that is incorruptible unlike the body susceptible to sin and the consequences of sin. Peter is likely talking about putting off the body of sinful flesh in death while he awaits the expectation of a new glorified body at the resurrection. This would be consistent with Paul’s teaching:

1Co 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
1Co 15:53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
1Co 15:54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Paul uses the term “put on” as if describing clothing to describe what happens at the resurrection. But notice that he doesn’t describe it as an even that takes place immediately at death. Instead, he describes it as an event that takes place at the end of time when the trumpet of God sounds. It is a simultaneous resurrection of those who died in Christ and all believers “shall be changed”. If what is corruptible must put on incorruption, it implies that incorruption is “put on” while corruption is “put off”. Immortality is “put on” while mortality is “put off”. The clothing analogy or metaphor seems to describe the nature of death and a future resurrection in Christ at the end of time. Martha also had this understanding of when the Resurrection would take place:

Joh 11:24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

This demonstrates that Peter’s understanding and use of the phrase “put off this my tabernacle” likely meant that life was being removed from his mortal body and that he would remain preserved in the grave (while his physical body decayed and rotted away, likely eaten by worms) awaiting his new spiritual, immortal, but still physical, body that would come at the resurrection.