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Temporal Body

The word “temporal” is used once in the King James Bible, in 2 Cor. 4:17, “For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The non-Biblical phrase temporal body dates back to the 17th century, where Quakers and Christian Theosophists used the term, in contrast to the spirit/ual body or ghostly body (used as early as 1624 in A Discussion of the Popish Doctrine of Transubstantiation, Thomas Gataker).

• Jakob Bohme, died 1624, Theosophick Philosophy, translated 1781. See Chrisitan Theosophy.
• 1676 (posthumuous) Francis Howgill, died 1669, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
• 1798 Elijah Wallace (Chistian Theosophy), Universal Alarm or Age of Restoration.
• 1804 Joanna Southcott, Life and Works, prophetess and visionary founder of Southcottianism.
• 1807 John Hughes (a visionary, possibly a Soutchottian, pending some tricky research), The Second Resurrection from Dead Works.

The phrase temporal body is used in the Book of Mormon twice in this passage from 1 Ne. 15:31–32, in his interpretation of Lehi’s dream of The Tree of Life:

And they said unto me: Doth this thing mean the torment of the body in the days of probation, or doth it mean the final state of the soul after the death of the temporal body, or doth it speak of the things which are temporal?

And it came to pass that I said unto them that it was a representation of things both temporal and spiritual; for the day should come that they must be judged of their works, yea, even the works which were done by the temporal body in their days of probation.

See also State of Probation / Days of Probation.

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