The Resurrection of Christ
15 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance [Or you at the first]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas,[That is, Peter] and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
The Resurrection of the Dead
12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” [Psalm 8:6 ] Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31 I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”[Isaiah 22:13]
33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”[From the Greek poet Menander] 34 Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God—I say this to your shame.
The Resurrection Body
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[Gen. 2:7]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we [Some early manuscripts so let us] bear the image of the heavenly man.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”[Isaiah 25:8]
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”[Hosea 13:14]
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
15:1–58 Some consider this chapter an earlier Pauline
composition inserted into the present letter. The problem that Paul treats is
clear to a degree: some of the Corinthians are denying the resurrection of the
dead (1 Cor 15:12), apparently because of their inability to imagine how any
kind of bodily existence could be possible after death (1 Cor 15:35). It is
plausibly supposed that their attitude stems from Greek anthropology, which
looks with contempt upon matter and would be content with the survival of the
soul, and perhaps also from an overrealized eschatology of gnostic coloration,
such as that reflected in 2 Tm 2:18, which considers the resurrection a purely
spiritual experience already achieved in baptism and in the forgiveness of
sins. Paul, on the other hand, will affirm both the essential corporeity of the
resurrection and its futurity. His response moves through three steps: a recall
of the basic kerygma about Jesus’ resurrection (1 Cor 15:1–11), an assertion of
the logical inconsistencies involved in denial of the resurrection (1 Cor
15:12–34), and an attempt to perceive theologically what the properties of the
resurrected body must be (1 Cor 15:35–58).
15:1–11 Paul recalls the tradition (1 Cor 15:3–7), which he
can presuppose as common ground and which provides a starting point for his
argument. This is the fundamental content of all Christian preaching and belief
(1 Cor 15:1–2, 11).
15:3–7 The language by which Paul expresses the essence of
the “gospel” (1 Cor 15:1) is not his own but is drawn from older credal
formulas. This credo highlights Jesus’ death for our sins (confirmed by his
burial) and Jesus’ resurrection (confirmed by his appearances) and presents
both of them as a fulfillment of prophecy. In accordance with the scriptures:
conformity of Jesus’ passion with the scriptures is asserted in Mt 16:1; Lk
24:25–27, 32, 44–46. Application of some Old Testament texts (Ps 2:7; 16:8–11)
to his resurrection is illustrated by Acts 2:27–31; 13:29–39; and Is
52:13–53:12 and Hos 6:2 may also have been envisaged.
15:9–11 A persecutor may have appeared disqualified (ouk…hikanos)
from apostleship, but in fact God’s grace has qualified him. Cf. the remarks in
2 Corinthians about his qualifications (2 Cor 2:16; 3:5) and his greater labors
(2 Cor 11:23). These verses are parenthetical, but a nerve has been touched
(the references to his abnormal birth and his activity as a persecutor may echo
taunts from Paul’s opponents), and he is instinctively moved to self-defense.
15:12–19 Denial of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:12) involves
logical inconsistencies. The basic one, stated twice (1 Cor 15:13, 16), is that
if there is no such thing as (bodily) resurrection, then it has not taken place
even in Christ’s case.
15:17–18 The consequences for the Corinthians are grave:
both forgiveness of sins and salvation are an illusion, despite their strong
convictions about both. Unless Christ is risen, their faith does not save.
15:20–28 After a triumphant assertion of the reality of
Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor 15:20a), Paul explains its positive implications
and consequences. As a soteriological event of both human (1 Cor 15:20–23) and
cosmic (1 Cor 15:24–28) dimensions, Jesus’ resurrection logically and
necessarily involves ours as well.
15:20 The firstfruits: the portion of the harvest offered in
thanksgiving to God implies the consecration of the entire harvest to come.
Christ’s resurrection is not an end in itself; its finality lies in the whole
harvest, ourselves.
15:21–22 Our human existence, both natural and supernatural,
is corporate, involves solidarity. In Adam…in Christ: the Hebrew word ’ādām in
Genesis is both a common noun for mankind and a proper noun for the first man.
Paul here presents Adam as at least a literary type of Christ; the parallelism
and contrast between them will be developed further in 1 Cor 15:45–49 and in
Rom 5:12–21.
15:24–28 Paul’s perspective expands to cosmic dimensions, as
he describes the climax of history, the end. His viewpoint is still
christological, as in 1 Cor 15:20–23. 1 Cor 15:24, 28 describe Christ’s final
relations to his enemies and his Father in language that is both royal and
military; 1 Cor 15:25–28 insert a proof from scripture (Ps 110:1; 8:6) into
this description. But the viewpoint is also theological, for God is the
ultimate agent and end, and likewise soteriological, for we are the
beneficiaries of all the action.
15:26 The last enemy…is death: a parenthesis that specifies
the final fulfillment of the two Old Testament texts just referred to, Ps 110:1
and Ps 8:7. Death is not just one cosmic power among many, but the ultimate
effect of sin in the universe (cf. 1 Cor 15:56; Rom 5:12). Christ defeats death
where it prevails, in our bodies. The destruction of the last enemy is
concretely the “coming to life” (1 Cor 15:22) of “those who belong to Christ”
(1 Cor 15:23).
15:27b–28 The one who subjected everything to him: the
Father is the ultimate agent in the drama, and the final end of the process, to
whom the Son and everything else is ordered (24, 28). That God may be all in
all: his reign is a dynamic exercise of creative power, an outpouring of life
and energy through the universe, with no further resistance. This is the
supremely positive meaning of “subjection”: that God may fully be God.
15:29–34 Paul concludes his treatment of logical
inconsistencies with a listing of miscellaneous Christian practices that would
be meaningless if the resurrection were not a fact.
15:29 Baptized for the dead: this practice is not further
explained here, nor is it necessarily mentioned with approval, but Paul cites
it as something in their experience that attests in one more way to belief in
the resurrection.
15:30–34 A life of sacrifice, such as Paul describes in 1
Cor 4:9–13 and 2 Corinthians, would be pointless without the prospect of
resurrection; a life of pleasure, such as that expressed in the Epicurean
slogan of 1 Cor 15:32, would be far more consistent. I fought with beasts:
since Paul does not elsewhere mention a combat with beasts at Ephesus, he may
be speaking figuratively about struggles with adversaries.
15:35–58 Paul imagines two objections that the Corinthians
could raise: one concerning the manner of the resurrection (how?), the other
pertaining to the qualities of the risen body (what kind?). These questions
probably lie behind their denial of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:12), and seem to
reflect the presumption that no kind of body other than the one we now possess
would be possible. Paul deals with these objections in inverse order, in 1 Cor
15:36–49 and 1 Cor 15:50–58. His argument is fundamentally theological and its
appeal is to the understanding.
15:35–49 Paul approaches the question of the nature of the
risen body (what kind of body?) by means of two analogies: the seed (1 Cor
15:36–44) and the first man, Adam (1 Cor 15:45–49).
15:36–38 The analogy of the seed: there is a change of
attributes from seed to plant; the old life-form must be lost for the new to
emerge. By speaking about the seed as a body that dies and comes to life, Paul
keeps the point of the analogy before the reader’s mind.
15:39–41 The expression “its own body” (1 Cor 15:38) leads
to a development on the marvelous diversity evident in bodily life.
15:42–44 The principles of qualitative difference before and
after death (1 Cor 15:36–38) and of diversity on different levels of creation
(1 Cor 15:39–41) are now applied to the human body. Before: a body animated by
a lower, natural life-principle (psychē) and endowed with the properties of
natural existence (corruptibility, lack of glory, weakness). After: a body
animated by a higher life-principle (pneuma; cf. 1 Cor 15:45) and endowed with
other qualities (incorruptibility, glory, power, spirituality), which are
properties of God himself.
15:45 The analogy of the first man, Adam, is introduced by a
citation from Gn 2:7. Paul alters the text slightly, adding the adjective
first, and translating the Hebrew ’ādām twice, so as to give it its value both
as a common noun (man) and as a proper name (Adam). 1 Cor 15:45b then specifies
similarities and differences between the two Adams. The last Adam, Christ (cf.
1 Cor 15:21–22) has become a…spirit (pneuma), a life-principle transcendent
with respect to the natural soul (psychē) of the first Adam (on the terminology
here, cf. note on 1 Cor 3:1). Further, he is not just alive, but life-giving, a
source of life for others.
15:49 We shall also bear the image: although it has less
manuscript support, this reading better fits the context’s emphasis on futurity
and the transforming action of God; on future transformation as conformity to
the image of the Son, cf. Rom 8:29; Phil 3:21. The majority reading, “let us
bear the image,” suggests that the image of the heavenly man is already present
and exhorts us to conform to it.
15:50–57 These verses, an answer to the first question of 1
Cor 15:35, explain theologically how the change of properties from one image to
another will take place: God has the power to transform, and he will exercise
it.
15:50–53 Flesh and blood…corruption: living persons and the
corpses of the dead, respectively. In both cases, the gulf between creatures
and God is too wide to be bridged unless God himself transforms us.
15:51–52 A mystery: the last moment in God’s plan is
disclosed; cf. notes on 1 Cor 2:1, 7–10a. The final trumpet and the awakening
of the dead are stock details of the apocalyptic scenario. We shall not all
fall asleep: Paul expected that some of his contemporaries might still be alive
at Christ’s return; after the death of Paul and his whole generation, copyists
altered this statement in various ways. We will all be changed: the statement
extends to all Christians, for Paul is not directly speaking about anyone else.
Whether they have died before the end or happen still to be alive, all must be
transformed.
15:54–55 Death is swallowed up in victory: scripture itself
predicts death’s overthrow. O death: in his prophetic vision Paul may be making
Hosea’s words his own, or imagining this cry of triumph on the lips of the
risen church.
15:56 The sting of death is sin: an explanation of Hosea’s
metaphor. Death, scorpion-like, is equipped with a sting, sin, by which it
injects its poison. Christ defeats sin, the cause of death (Gn 3:19; Rom 5:12).
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