Consider now the Bible’s description of the “first resurrection” as given in a vision to the apostle John. John reports:

“I saw thrones, and there were those who sat down on them, and power of judging was given them. Yes, I saw the souls of those executed with the ax for the witness they bore to Jesus and for speaking about God, and those who had worshiped neither the wild beast nor its image and who had not received the mark upon their forehead and upon their hand. And they came to life and ruled as kings with the Christ for a thousand years.

Rev. 20:4-6.

Though “executed with the ax,” note that these were not seen as headless “souls” by John. Rather, they were persons equipped with mental abilities to judge. However, in order to occupy thrones in the heavens, they had to have, not human, but spirit bodies. With regard to their resurrection, the apostle Paul wrote: “It is sown [in death] a physical body, it is raised up a spiritual body.”​—1 Cor. 15:44.