[Mrs. Don-o]

There's no question the bodies of the OT faithful departed (OK, with the possible exception of Enoch, Melchizedek, and Elijah) are rotting/have rotted into the ground. Dead, dead.

Jesus could nevertheless talk with Moses and Elijah on Mt. Tabor --- Peter, James, and John heard and saw them --- and Jesus refer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "living."

Several different sense of the word.

[Springfield Reformer]

Jesus could nevertheless talk with Moses and Elijah on Mt. Tabor --- Peter, James, and John heard and saw them --- and Jesus refer to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "living."

Jesus is God.  He can talk to whomever He wishes.  That doesn't set the model for us.

Also, with respect to Elijah, he was caught up into heaven without dying, IIRC.  We also know there was a supernatural squabble over the body of Moses.  It is conceivable there was a resurrection involved here.  Again, too speculative for my tastes, but of all the men chosen to be in a vision, these two are definitely outliers from the normal human death experience.  Enoch would be another.  

And as I have stated previously, when Jesus refers to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as "living," it is understood as looking forward to the resurrection, not any intermediate state.  I respect you greatly, but I do not think you've made out a winning case for some mode of human living that does not involve either our natural body or our resurrected body.  In which case, it is still proper, as Paul said, to speak of the dead in Christ, which must include Mary, barring any God-breathed confirmation of exceptional circumstances.

Peace,

SR