1 Corinthianschapter 15
58 verses · Paul · AD 54 or 55 · Paul's letters
But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
Introduction
Paul, Paul's letters, 1 Corinthians Overview.
Paul wrote this chapter to a church in a Greek city, where many thought the body a thing the soul was glad to be rid of. Some in the church had begun to say that the dead are not raised. Paul does not answer with a new doctrine. He goes back to the message the church first heard and follows it to its end. Listen for the list of witnesses, and for the long chain of ifs that follows it. Listen also for the seed and the harvest when he turns to what the raised body will be. Read it as the letter's closing argument and its greatest hope.
Context
- Who
- Corinthians who accepted that Jesus rose but denied a future resurrection of the dead.
- What
- Paul's defence of the resurrection of the dead: the gospel and its witnesses, what follows if Christ was not raised, the order of the resurrection, and the nature of the raised body.
- Where
- Written from Ephesus, where verse 32 says Paul fought wild beasts, to the church at Corinth.
- When
- About AD 54 or 55, some twenty to twenty-five years after the resurrection Paul reports.
- Why
- To answer some in the church who said there is no resurrection of the dead, and to show that without it their faith and his preaching would be empty.
Historical context
Educated Greeks could accept the soul surviving death, many hoped for it, but the body was widely regarded as a prison or a burden, and getting it back was no one's idea of good news. That is the resistance Paul is meeting, and it explains why he spends so long on what kind of body is raised.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The summary he passes on, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, was raised on the third day, and appeared to Cephas, then the twelve, then five hundred at once, uses the formal language of handing on a tradition he had himself received. Most scholars regard it as a creed already in use well before this letter, which puts it remarkably close to the events.
His remark that most of the five hundred were still alive is an invitation to check. Naming living witnesses was a standard way of grounding a claim.
The seed illustration answers the practical objection. A farmer sows a bare grain and gets something with a different body; continuity and transformation are both true, and nobody expects the wheat to look like the seed.
"Baptized for the dead" is one of the genuinely obscure lines in the New Testament. Dozens of explanations have been offered since the early church and none commands agreement; Paul mentions the practice in passing without endorsing or explaining it.
Significance
For the first hearers, the stakes were laid out with brutal clarity. If Christ has not been raised, their preaching is empty, their faith is futile, they are still in their sins, and the dead in Christ have perished.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
But the chapter does not end in argument. It ends with a trumpet, a change, death swallowed up in victory, and then a workplace instruction: be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because your labour is not in vain.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
The Gospel Paul Received: Died, Buried, Raised, Seen
1 Corinthians 15:1-2
I want to remind you: The chapter opens with gnorizo: Paul reminds them of the gospel they received and in which they stand firm. The denial of verse 12 struck the very ground their faith stood on.
1 Corinthians 15:1
“Note, The doctrine of Christ's death and resurrection is at the foundation of Christianity. Remove this foundation, and the whole fabric falls, all our hopes for eternity sink at once. And it is by holding this truth firmly that Christians are made to stand in a day of trial, and kept faithful to God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
1 Corinthians 15:1
“I declare--literally, "I make known": it implies some degree of reproach that it should be now necessary to make it known to them afresh, owing to some of them "not having the knowledge of God" (1Co 15:34). Compare Ga 1:11. wherein ye stand--wherein ye now take your stand. This is your present actual privilege, if ye suffer not yourselves to fall from your high standing.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
By this gospel you are saved: The verb for saved stands in the present tense in Greek, a salvation already at work in those who keep hold of the message. Believing in vain describes a faith resting on nothing. Verse 14 names that very outcome if Christ was never raised.
1 Corinthians 15:2
“Translate in that case, "if ye hold it fast." I prefer arranging as English Version, "By which ye are saved, if ye hold fast (in memory and personal appropriation) with what speech I preached it unto you." unless--which is impossible, your faith is vain, in resting on Christ's resurrection as an objective reality.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:2
“Ye are saved, if ye hold fast - Your salvation is begun, and will be perfected, if ye continue in the faith. Unless ye have believed in vain - Unless indeed your faith was only a delusion.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:2
“By which also ye are saved,.... It was the means of their salvation, and had been made the power of God unto salvation to them. Salvation is inseparably connected with true faith in Christ as a Saviour, and with a hearty belief of his resurrection from the dead, which is the earnest and pledge of the resurrection of the saints; and because of the certainty of it in the promise of God, through the obedience and death of Christ, and in the faith and hope of believers, which are sure and certain things, they are said to be saved already.”
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
For what I received I: Paul calls his gospel a tradition, using paredoka and parelabon, formal terms for handing on a fixed deposit. That dates the creed, the oldest gospel summary in the New Testament, to within a few years of the crucifixion.
1 Corinthians 15:3
“For I delivered unto you - See the note at 1Co 11:23. “First of all.” Among the first doctrines which I preached. As the leading and primary doctrines of Christianity. That which I also received - Which had been communicated to me. Not doctrines of which I was the author, or which were to be regarded as my own. Paul here refers to the fact that he had received these doctrines from the Lord Jesus by inspiration; compare the 1Co 10:23, note; Gal 1:2, note.”
Cross references
1 Corinthians 15:3
- Quoted in1 Corinthians 15:3“For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,”
apethanen... kata tas graphas ('died for our sins ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES'), a credal citation frame with NO single OT source; a verse-pair table cannot hold it, this marker index can
that He was buried: The burial clause seals the death as real and places the body in a known tomb. Paul locates the third day in the Scriptures too. Gill points to Hosea 6:2 and to the three days Jonah spent inside the fish.
1 Corinthians 15:4
“He says, For I delivered unto you first of all how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. This is no unsupported statement of his own, which might lead to error, but a warning to us to confess that Christ died and rose after a real manner, not a nominal, since the fact is certified by the full weight of Scripture authority; and that we must understand His death in that exact sense in which Scripture declares it.”
Hilary of Poitiers · written before 367 · On the Trinity 10.67patristic
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:4
“And that he was buried - That is, evidently according to the Scriptures; see Isa 53:9. And that he rose again the third day ... - That is, that he should rise from the dead was foretold in the Scriptures. It is not of necessity implied that it was predicted that he should rise “on the third day,” but that he should rise from the dead. See the argument for this stated in the discourse of Peter, in Act 2:24-32. The particular passage which is there urged in proof of his resurrection is derived from Psa 16:1-11.”
1 Corinthians 15:4
“And that he was buried,.... That is, according to the Scriptures; for as he died and rose again according to the Scriptures, he was buried according to them; which speak of his being in hell, in "sheol", in the grave, and of his making his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, Psa 16:10 and which had their accomplishment through Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, who begged the body of Jesus, wrapped in linen, and laid it in his own new tomb.”
1 Corinthians 15:4
“At the moment of His death, the power of His inextinguishable life exerted itself (Mt 27:52). The grave was to Him not the destined receptacle of corruption, but an apartment fitted for entering into life (Ac 2:26-28) [BENGEL]. rose again--Greek, "hath risen": the state thus begun, and its consequences, still continue.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
1 Corinthians 15:4
- Quoted in1 Corinthians 15:4“that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,”
egegertai... kata tas graphas ('raised the third day according to the scriptures'), diffuse-source citation frame (Hos 6:2? Jonah? Ps 16?), formula-marker only
1 Corinthians 15:5-7
He appeared to Cephas: The witness list begins with Cephas, the man whose denial the gospels record, now named first. The five hundred brothers, most still living, invite any doubting Corinthian to ask a living eyewitness.
1 Corinthians 15:5
“And that he was seen of Cephas,.... Or Simon Peter; for Cephas was a name given him by Christ, Joh 1:42. This was not another Cephas, one of the seventy disciples, as Clemens suggests (g), but the Apostle Peter himself, to whom it is certain the Lord appeared.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:5
“Evidently Matthias was chosen to replace Judas before Jesus ceased appearing to the disciples after his resurrection..”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Commentary on 1 Corinthians 4.77patristic
1 Corinthians 15:5
“And that he was seen of Cephas - Peter; See the note at Joh 1:42. The resurrection of Christ was A fact to be proved, like all other facts, by competent and credible witnesses. Paul, therefore, appeals to the witnesses who had attested, or who yet lived to attest, the truth of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and shows that it was not possible that so many witnesses should have been deceived.”
more than five hundred brothers at once: The Gospels give this appearance no account of its own, and it is often placed on the mountain in Galilee of Matthew 28:16. Most of these witnesses were still alive more than twenty years later, when Paul wrote. Fallen asleep is the gentle word for a believer's death.
1 Corinthians 15:6
"He appeared to Cephas; and after that to the twelve." So if you disbelieve one witness, you have twelve witnesses. "Then he was seen by more than five hundred people at once"—if they disbelieve the twelve, then listen to the five hundred. "After that he was seen by James," his own brother and the first overseer of this [Jerusalem] diocese. Since so noteworthy a bishop was privileged to see the risen Christ, along with the other disciples, do not disbelieve. But you may say that his brother was a biased witness. So then he continues: "He was seen by me."
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 14:22patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:6
“Andronicus and JUNIUS were, perhaps, of the number (Ro 16:7): they are said to be "among the apostles" (who all were witnesses of the resurrection, Ac 1:22). remain unto this present--and, therefore, may be sifted thoroughly to ascertain the trustworthiness of their testimony. fallen asleep--in the sure hope of awaking at the resurrection (Ac 7:60).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Then He appeared to James: Chrysostom takes this James as the Lord's brother, who became the first leader of the church at Jerusalem. The Gospels record no appearance to him alone. Paul had met this James in Jerusalem three years after his conversion, as Galatians 1:18-19 records.
1 Corinthians 15:7
“After that, he was seen of James - This appearance is not recorded by the evangelists. It is mentioned in the fragment of the apocryphal Gospel according to the Hebrews, which is, however, of no authority. It is probable that the Lord Jesus appeared often to the disciples, since he was 40 days on earth after his resurrection, and the evangelists have only mentioned the more prominent instances, and enough to substantiate the fact of his resurrection. This James, the fathers say, was James the Less, the brother or cousin-german of the Lord Jesus.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:7
“After that he was seen of James,.... Not James the son of Zebedee, and brother of John, though he was seen by him with other disciples, Joh 20:19 who was now dead when the apostle wrote this, having been killed by Herod many years ago, Act 12:2 and so not quite so proper a witness to be mentioned; but James the son of Alphaeus, and brother of our Lord, a man of great fame and credit with the Jews, and still living, and therefore a proper and pertinent evidence.”
1 Corinthians 15:8-10
And last of all He: Paul puts himself last, as one of untimely birth, ektroma, a premature or violent birth, because he persecuted the church of God. Verse 10 credits his harder labor at once to grace: by the grace of God I am what I am.
1 Corinthians 15:8
“And last of all - of me also - It seems that it was essential to the character of a primitive apostle that he had seen and conversed with Christ; and it is evident, from the history of Saul’s conversion, Act 9:4-7 (note), that Jesus Christ did appear to him; and he pleaded this ever after as a proof of his call to the apostleship. And it does not appear that, after this time, Jesus ever did make any personal discovery of himself to any one.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:8
“Compare the similar image from childbirth, and by the same spiritual power, the resurrection of Christ (1Pe 1:3). "Begotten again by the resurrection of Jesus." Jesus' appearance to Paul, on the way to Damascus, is the one here referred to.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the least of the apostles: The word behind unworthy is hikanos, fit or sufficient, and Paul denies that he is fit to be called an apostle. Second Corinthians 3:5-6 uses the same word family to credit every sufficiency to God. Paul never forgot that he persecuted the church.
1 Corinthians 15:9
“For - A reason for the appellation which he had given to himself in 1Co 15:8. I am the least of the apostles - Not on account of any defect in his commission, or any lack of qualification to bear witness in what he saw, but on account of the great crime of his life, the fact that he had been a persecutor. Paul could never forget that; as a man who has been profane and a scoffer, when he becomes converted, can never forget the deep guilt of his former life.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:9
“This title here, therefore, seems to include the seventy; if not all those, likewise, whom God afterwards sent to plant the gospel in heathen nations. An untimely birth - It was impossible to abase himself more than he does by this single appellation. As an abortion is not worthy the name of a man, so he affirms himself to be not worthy the name of an apostle.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:9
“What kept Paul low in an especial manner was the remembrance of his former wickedness, his raging and destructive zeal against Christ and him members. Note, How easily God can bring a good out of the greatest evil! When sinners are by divine grace turned into saints, he makes the remembrance of their former sins very serviceable, to make them humble, and diligent, and faithful.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
by the grace of God I am what I am: Grace is named three times in this one verse. Paul worked harder than the other apostles, and he credits the work itself to the grace of God with him. Calvin reads that grace as doing the whole work, with free will adding no share of its own.
1 Corinthians 15:10
“Nay, though he was conscious of his own diligence, and zeal, and service, so that he could say of himself, the grace of God was not given him in vain, but he laboured more abundantly than they all: he thought himself so much more the debtor to divine grace. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:10
“THIS confession, suitable on the lips of Paul, is equally appropriate in the mouth of each one of us who have known and proved the Grace of God. We must consider Paul, according to his own account of himself, as being "not meet to be called an Apostle"—though "not a whit behind the very chief Apostles"—because he had persecuted the Church of God.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2833: “Lessons on Divine Grace” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
1 Corinthians 15:10
“Wherefore also Paul, since he was the apostle of the Gentiles, says, "I laboured more than they all." For the instruction of the former, [viz., the Jews, ] was an easy task, because they could allege proofs from the Scriptures, and because they, who were in the habit of hearing Moses and the prophets, did also readily receive the First-begotten of the dead, and the Prince of the life of God,-Him who, by the spreading forth of hands, did destroy Amalek, and vivify man from the wound of the serpent, by means of faith which was [exercised] towards Him.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IVpatristic
1 Corinthians 15:10
“Though "not meet to be called an apostle," grace has given him, in Christ, the meetness needed for the office. Translate as the Greek, "His grace which was (showed) towards me." what I am--occupying the honorable office of an apostle.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Whether, then, it was I: Whether it was Paul or the others, one gospel came from many mouths, and Corinth received it before the argument began. The deniers of verse 12 had themselves believed the gospel their denial now contradicts.
1 Corinthians 15:11
“Therefore whether it were I or they,.... By whom Christ was seen first or last, we were all eyewitnesses of him; or whether I am the least, and others the chief of the apostles; or whether I have laboured more abundantly than they all, this matters not: so we preach; we agree in our ministry to preach Christ, and him only, and with one heart and mouth assert, that he died, was buried, and rose again the third day: and so ye believed; these several truths relating to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:11
“Therefore, whether it were I or they - I or the other apostles. It is comparatively immaterial by whom it was done. The establishment of the truth is the great matter; and the question by whom it is done is one of secondary importance. So we preach - So we all preach. We all defend the same great doctrines; we all insist on the fact that the Lord Jesus died and rose; and this doctrine you all have believed. This doctrine is confirmed by all who preach; and this enters into the faith of all who believe.”
1 Corinthians 15:11
“With regard to those (the Marcionites) who allege that Paul alone knew the truth, and that to him the mystery was manifested by revelation, let Paul himself convict them, when he says, that one and the same God wrought in Peter for the apostolate of the circumcision, and in himself for the Gentiles. Peter, therefore, was an apostle of that very God whose was also Paul; and Him whom Peter preached as God among those of the circumcision, and likewise the Son of God, did Paul [declare] also among the Gentiles.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IIIpatristic
If Christ Is Not Raised, We Are the Most Pitiable
1 Corinthians 15:12-14
But if it is preached: Some at Corinth apparently granted Christ's rising while denying the resurrection of believers, a split that Greek unease with matter made attractive. Paul refuses to separate them, and verse 14 names the stakes: preaching and faith alike rest on one historical claim.
1 Corinthians 15:12
“Now if Christ be preached, etc. - Seeing it is true that we have thus preached Christ, and ye have credited this preaching, how say some among you, who have professed to receive this doctrine from us; that there is no resurrection of the dead, though we have shown that his resurrection is the proof and pledge of ours? That there was some false teacher, or teachers, among them, who was endeavoring to incorporate Mosaic rites and ceremonies with the Christian doctrines, and even to blend Sadduceeism with the whole, appears pretty evident.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:12
It is plain, then, that Paul knew no other Christ besides Him alone, who both suffered, and was buried, and rose gain, who was also born, and whom he speaks of as man. For after remarking, "But if Christ be preached, that He rose from the dead," he continues, rendering the reason of His incarnation, "For since by man came death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead."
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book IIIpatristic
1 Corinthians 15:12
“OUR religion is not based upon opinions, but upon facts. We hear persons sometimes saying, "Those are your views, and these are ours." Whatever your "views" may be, is a small matter—what are the facts of the case? We must, after all, if we want a firm foundation, come down to matters of fact.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2287: “"If There Is No Resurrection"” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
no resurrection of the dead: Christ was raised as a true man with a real body. A rule that no dead person rises would have held Him in the tomb along with everyone else. Greek hearers at Athens had laughed at the whole idea in Acts 17:32.
1 Corinthians 15:13
“But if there be no resurrection of the dead - If the whole subject is held to be impossible and absurd, then it must follow that Christ is not “risen,” since there were the same difficulties in the way of raising him up which will exist in any case. He was dead and was buried. He had lain in the grave three days. His human soul had left the body. His frame had become cold and stiff. The blood had ceased to circulate, and the lungs to heave.”
our preaching is worthless: The Greek word for worthless is kenos, empty, a message with nothing inside it. Faith takes its value from what it trusts. Faith in a Christ still dead would be as empty as the preaching that offered Him.
1 Corinthians 15:14
“Then is our preaching vain - Our whole doctrine is useless, nugatory and false. And your faith is also vain - Your belief of a false doctrine must necessarily be to you unprofitable.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:15-17
we are also exposed as: Paul follows the hypothesis further: the apostles would be false witnesses about God, a charge sincere error could never carry. Verse 17 names the cost, faith futile and sins unforgiven, since the resurrection grounds the forgiveness Corinth believed it had.
1 Corinthians 15:15
“Yea, and we are found - We are; or we shall be proved to be. It will follow, if the Lord Jesus was not raised up, that we have been false witnesses. Of God - Respecting God. It will be found that we have affirmed that which is not true of God; or have said that he has done that which he has not done. Nothing could be regarded as a greater crime than this, whatever might be the immediate subject under consideration.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:15
“The rendering of others is, "against God" [Vulgate, ESTIUS, GROTIUS]: the Greek preposition with the genitive implies, not direct antagonism (as the accusative would mean), but indirect to the dishonor of God. English Version is probably better. if so be--as they assert. It is not right to tell untrue stories, though they are told and seem for the glory of God (Job 13:7).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
if the dead are not raised: This verse restates verse 13 almost word for word. The first time, the argument ended in the apostles' false witness of verse 15. Repeated here, it leads to a harder result for the Corinthians themselves in verse 17, their sins still unforgiven.
1 Corinthians 15:16
“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. This is a repetition of the argument in 1Co 15:13 made partly to show the importance of it, and partly to observe other absurdities, following upon the conclusion of it.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:16
“False witnesses - As having testified the fact of Christ’s resurrection, as a matter which ourselves had witnessed, when we knew that we bore testimony to a falsehood. But could five hundred persons agree in this imposition? And if they did, is it possible that some one would not discover the cheat, when he could have no interest in keeping the secret, and might greatly promote his secular interest by making the discovery? Such a case never occurred, and never can occur. The testimony, therefore, concerning the resurrection of Christ, is incontrovertibly true.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
you are still in your sins: Verse 14 called faith kenos, empty; here the word is mataios, futile, a faith that achieves nothing. Romans 4:25 ties justification to the risen Christ. Without the resurrection, the payment for sin stands unconfirmed and the guilt remains.
1 Corinthians 15:17
“Your faith is vain, - 1Co 15:14. The meaning of this passage here is, that their faith was vain, “because,” if Christ was not raised up, they were yet unpardoned sinners. The pardon of sin was connected with the belief of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and, if he was not raised, they were still in a state of sin. Ye are yet in your sins - Your sins are yet unpardoned. They can be forgiven only by faith in him, and by the efficacy of his blood.”
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:17
“If the cross is an illusion, the resurrection is an illusion also, and "if Christ has not risen, we are still in our sins." If the cross is an illusion, the ascension is also an illusion, and everything, finally, becomes unsubstantial.”
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 13patristic
1 Corinthians 15:17
“Ye are still in your sins - That is, under the guilt of them. So that there needed something more than reformation, (which was plainly wrought,) in order to their being delivered from the guilt of sin even that atonement, the sufficiency of which God attested by raising our great Surety from the grave.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:18-19
Then those also who have: The hypothesis reaches its darkest point: those fallen asleep in Christ have perished, their hope put out. A faith costing suffering now and giving nothing after death would leave believers to be pitied more than all men.
1 Corinthians 15:18
“They also which are fallen asleep - All those who, either by martyrdom or natural death, have departed in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, are perished; their hope was without foundation, and their faith had not reason and truth for its object. Their bodies are dissolved in the earth, finally decomposed and destroyed, notwithstanding the promise of Christ to such, that he would raise them up at the last day. See Joh 5:25, Joh 5:28, Joh 5:29; Joh 11:25, Joh 11:26, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
for this life alone: Believers at Corinth had given up comfort, safety and standing for Christ, and Paul faced death for Him daily. With no resurrection, those losses purchase nothing. Their hope would end at the grave, leaving them worse off than the people who never believed.
1 Corinthians 15:19
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ - If our hope in Christ shall not be followed by the resurrection of the dead and future glory, and if all our hopes shall be disappointed. We are ... - Doddridge, Macknight, Grotius, and some others, suppose that this refers to the apostles only, and that the sense is, that if there was no resurrection, they, of all people would be most to be pitied, since they had exposed themselves to such a variety of dangers and trials, in which nothing could sustain them but the hope of immortality.”
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:19
“Paul says this, not because to hope in Christ is miserable but because Christ has prepared another life for those who hope in him. For this life is liable to sin. The life above is reserved for our reward.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Death of Satyrus 2.124patristic
1 Corinthians 15:19
“And is it not absurd for one who believes in Christ to admit a principle that involves so absurd an inference? Can that man have faith in Christ who can believe concerning him that he will leave his faithful servants, whether ministers or others, in a worse state than his enemies?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 15:19
“YOU WILL UNDERSTAND that the apostle is arguing with professedly Christian people, who were dubious about the resurrection of the dead. He is not saying that all men are now miserable if there be no hope of the world to come, for such an assertion would be untrue. There are very many who never think of another life, who are quite happy in their way, enjoy themselves, and are very comfortable after a fashion.”
Firstfruits, Then the End, and Death Last of All
But Christ has indeed been: The turn from hypothesis to fact comes with nyni de: Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. As firstfruits, aparche, His resurrection is the first sheaf of the harvest, the Levitical pledge that the rest of the crop will follow.
1 Corinthians 15:20
“But now is Christ risen - On the contrary, Christ is raised from the dead, and is become the first fruits of them that slept. His resurrection has been demonstrated, and our resurrection necessarily follows; as sure as the first fruits are the proof that there is a harvest, so surely the resurrection of Christ is a proof of ours.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:20
“For the Lord, having been born "the First-begotten of the dead," and receiving into His bosom the ancient fathers, has regenerated them into the life of God, He having been made Himself the beginning of those that live, as Adam became the beginning of those who die. Wherefore also Luke, commencing the genealogy with the Lord, carried it back to Adam, indicating that it was He who regenerated them into the Gospel of life, and not they Him. And thus also it was that the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 3patristic
1 Corinthians 15:20
“The whole lump was made holy by the consecration of the first-fruits ( Rom. xi. 16 ), and the whole body of Christ, all that are by faith united to him, are by his resurrection assured of their own.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 15:20
“The time of writing this Epistle was probably about the Passover (1Co 5:7); the day after the Passover sabbath was that for offering the first-fruits (Le 23:10, 11), and the same was the day of Christ's resurrection: whence appears the appropriateness of the image.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Corinthians 15:21-22
For since death came through: Death came through a man, and the resurrection comes through a man, each man's act fixing the fate of his race. As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive, the structure Romans 5 develops.
1 Corinthians 15:21
“For by the sacrifice of his own body he both put an end to the law which was against us and made a new beginning of life for us, by the hope of resurrection which he has given us. For since from man it was that death prevailed over men, for this cause conversely, by the Word of God being made man has come about the destruction of death and the resurrection of life.”
Athanasius of Alexandria · written before 373 · On the Incarnation of the Word 10patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:21
“And so, as in Adam all die, in Christ shall all be made alive; as through the sin of the first Adam all men became mortal, because all derived from him the same sinful nature, so through the merit and resurrection of Christ shall all who are made to partake of the Spirit, and the spiritual nature, revive, and become immortal.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
as in Adam all die: In Adam and in Christ name two heads, each carrying the people united to him. Hodge limits the second all to those in Christ, the group verse 23 calls those who belong to Him. Chrysostom reads it of every body raised, the wicked to judgment.
1 Corinthians 15:22
“As through Adam all, even the righteous, die, so through Christ all these shall be made alive - He does not say, "shall revive," (as naturally as they die,) but shall be made alive, by a power not their own.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:22
“Vain also are the Ebionites, who do not receive by faith into their soul the union of God and man, but who remain in the old leaven of [the natural] birth, and who do not choose to understand that the Holy Ghost came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High did overshadow her: wherefore also what was generated is a holy thing, and the Son of the Most High God the Father of all, who effected the incarnation of this being, and showed forth a new [kind of] generation; that as by the former generation we inherited death,…”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Vpatristic
1 Corinthians 15:23-24
But each in his own: The resurrection comes in sequence: Christ the firstfruits, then at His coming, parousia, those who belong to Him. Verse 24 adds a further stage, when He hands the kingdom to God the Father after destroying all dominion, authority, and power.
1 Corinthians 15:23
“But every man - Everyone, including Christ as well as others. In his own order - In his proper order, rank, place, time. The word τάγμα tagma usually relates to military order or array; to the arrangement of a cohort, or band of troops; to their being properly marshalled with the officers at the head, and every man in His proper place in the ranks. Here it means that there was a proper “order” to be observed in the resurrection of the dead.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:23
“The fruit of divine mercy is common to all, but the order of merit differs.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Death of Satyrus 2.92patristic
Then the end will come: The kingdom handed over is the rule Christ has exercised as Mediator, the one who stands between God and people. He returns it to the Father once its work is done, after the coming of verse 23.
1 Corinthians 15:24
“When he shall have delivered up the kingdom - The mediatorial kingdom, which comprehends all the displays of his grace in saving sinners, and all his spiritual influence in governing the Church. All rule, and all authority and power - Αρχην - εξουσιαν - και δυναμιν.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:24
“For the divine reign both of the Father and Son is from everlasting to everlasting. But this is spoken of the Son's mediatorial kingdom, which will then be delivered up, and of the immediate kingdom or reign of the Father, which will then commence.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:24
“He has risen, and, upon his resurrection, was invested with sovereign empire, had all power in heaven and earth put into his hands ( Matt. xxviii. 18 ), had a name given him above every name, that every knee might bow to him, and every tongue confess him Lord.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 15:25-26
For He must reign until: He must reign echoes the enthronement of Psalm 110:1, and dei, must, makes the reign a divine necessity. In verse 26 death is the last enemy destroyed, the subject of the whole chapter given its final name.
1 Corinthians 15:25
“Will the Lord rule only until he has put all his enemies under his feet? Will he then stop ruling? Obviously it is only then that he will really begin to rule in the full sense of the word!”
Jerome · written before 420 · Against Helvidius 6patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:25
“For he must reign - It is fit, or proper (δει dei), that he should reign until this is accomplished. It is proper that the mediatorial kingdom should continue till this great work is effected. The word “must” here refers to the propriety of this continuance of his reign, and to the fact that this was contemplated and predicted as the work which he would accomplish.”
The last enemy: Death stands last on the list of enemies. The verb katargeo means to make powerless, the same word Hebrews 2:14 uses of the devil who held the power of death. Revelation 20:14 shows death itself thrown into the lake of fire.
1 Corinthians 15:26
“The last enemy - Death, shall be destroyed; καταργειται, shall be counter-worked, subverted, and finally overturned. But death cannot be destroyed by there being simply no farther death; death can only be destroyed and annihilated by a general resurrection; if there be no general resurrection, it is most evident that death will still retain his empire. Therefore, the fact that death shall be destroyed assures the fact that there shall be a general resurrection; and this is a proof, also, that after the resurrection there shall be no more death.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:26
“When saints shall live again, and die no more, then, and not till then, will death be abolished, which must be brought about before our Saviour's mediatorial kingdom is delivered up, which yet must be in due time. The saints therefore shall live again and die no more. This is the scope of the argument; but, 2.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 15:27-28
Paul cites Psalm 8:6, that God has put everything under His feet, and at once excepts the One who put everything under Him. The Son's final subjection is mediatorial, His finished work handed back so that God may be all in all.
1 Corinthians 15:27
“For he hath put - God has put by promise, purpose, or decree. All things under his feet - He has made all things subject to him; or has appointed him to be head over all things; compare Mat 28:18; Joh 17:2; Eph 1:20-22. It is evident that Paul here refers to some promise or prediction respecting the Messiah, though he does not expressly quote any passage, or make it certain to what he refers.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:27
The presbyters, the disciples of the apostles, affirm that this is the gradation and arrangement of those who are saved, and that they advance through steps of this nature; also that they ascend through the Spirit to the Son, and through the Son to the Father, and that in due time the Son will yield up His work to the Father, even as it is said by the apostle, "For He must reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Vpatristic
Cross references
1 Corinthians 15:27
- QuotingPsalms 8:6“You made him ruler of the works of Your hands; You have placed everything under his feet:”
'He hath put all things under his feet' (resurrection reign)
ConnectionsPsalms 8:6
the Son Himself will be made subject: The Son made subject is read in two ways. Hodge and Calvin read it of the Son in His office as Mediator, His equal deity untouched. The Arians read it as proof the Son is lesser by nature.
1 Corinthians 15:28
“The Son also himself be subject - When the administration of the kingdom of grace is finally closed; when there shall be no longer any state of probation, and consequently no longer need of a distinction between the kingdom of grace and the kingdom of glory; then the Son, as being man and Messiah, shall cease to exercise any distinct dominion and God be all in all: there remaining no longer any distinction in the persons of the glorious Trinity, as acting any distinct or separate parts in either the kingdom of grace, or the kingdom of glory, and so…”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:28
“The Son also shall be subject - Shall deliver up the mediatorial kingdom. That the three-one God may be all in all - All things, (consequently all persons,) without any interruption, without the intervention of any creature, without the opposition of any enemy, shall be subordinate to God. All shall say, "My God, and my all." This is the end.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:28
“God will be all things in all, so that there will not be only wisdom in Solomon, meekness of soul in David, zeal in Elias and Phineas, faith in Abraham, perfect love in Peter... zeal of preaching in the chosen vessel [Paul], and two or three virtues each in others. But God will be completely in all. The whole number of the saints will be glorified in the whole choir of virtues, and God will be all things to all.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Against the Pelagians 1.18patristic
1 Corinthians 15:28
“The glorified humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with all the dignity and power conferred on it, was no more than a glorious creature. This will appear when the kingdom shall be delivered up; and it will appear to the divine glory, that God may be all in all, that the accomplishment of our salvation may appear altogether divine, and God alone may have the honour of it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Why Stand We in Jeopardy Every Hour?
If these things are not: Baptism for the dead is a dark saying the church has read several ways without settling on one. The argument needs only that the Corinthian custom assumed the resurrection some were denying.
1 Corinthians 15:29
“Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead,.... The apostle here returns to his subject, and makes use of new arguments to prove the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and reasons for it from the baptism of some persons; but what is his sense, is not easy to be understood, or what rite and custom, or thing, or action he refers to; which must, be either Jewish baptism, or Christian baptism literally taken, or baptism in a figurative and metaphorical sense.”
4 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:29
“Else--if there be no resurrection. what shall they do?--How wretched is their lot! they . . . which are baptized for the dead--third person; a class distinct from that in which the apostle places himself, "we" (1Co 15:30); first person.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Corinthians 15:29
“Who are baptized for the dead - Perhaps baptized in hope of blessings to be received after they are numbered with the dead. Or, "baptized in the room of the dead" - Of them that are just fallen in the cause of Christ: like soldiers who advance in the room of their companions that fell just before their face.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:29
“But it is, I believe, and instance perfectly singular for hoi nekroi to mean no more than one dead person; it is a signification which the words have nowhere else. And the hoi baptizomenoi ( the baptized ) seem plainly to mean some particular persons, not Christians in general, which yet must be the signification if the hoi nekroi ( the dead ) be understood of our Saviour.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 15:29
“Else what shall they do ... - The apostle here resumes the argument for the resurrection which was interrupted at 1Co 15:19. He goes on to state further consequences which must follow from the denial of this doctrine, and thence infers that the doctrine must be true. There is, perhaps, no passage of the New Testament in respect to which there has been a greater variety of interpretation than this; and the views of expositors now by no means harmonize in regard to its meaning.”
1 Corinthians 15:30-32
And why do we endanger: Paul turns to his own danger: I face death every day, kath hemeran apothnesko, a life only a sure resurrection could justify. Without it the saying of Isaiah 22:13 follows, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die, and the denial ends in despair.
1 Corinthians 15:30
“And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? - Is there any reason why we should voluntarily submit to so many sufferings, and every hour be in danger of losing our lives, if the dead rise not? On the conviction of the possibility and certainty of the resurrection, we are thus baptized for the dead. We have counted the cost, despise sufferings, and exult at the prospect of death, because we know we shall have a resurrection unto eternal life.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:30
“A gradation from those who could only for a little time enjoy this life (that is, those baptized at the point of death), to us, who could enjoy it longer, if we had not renounced the world for Christ [BENGEL].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
I face death every day: The Greek opens the second clause with ne, a particle used in solemn oaths. Paul swears by his pride in the Corinthians, the church he founded, that the danger is real. Every day of his ministry put his life at risk.
1 Corinthians 15:31
That we receive more as the reward of our suffering than what we endure here in the suffering itself, The blessed Apostle Paul proves; who by the divine condescension, being caught up into the third heaven and into paradise, testifies that he heard unspeakable words, who boasts that he saw Jesus Christ by the faith of sight, who professes that which he both learnt and saw with the greater truth of consciousness, and says: "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory which shall be revealed in us."
Cyprian · written before 258 · Treatise XI Exhortation to Martyrdom Addressed to Fortunatuspatristic
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:31
“To live in daily view and expectation of death, and yet have no prospect beyond it, must be very heartless and uncomfortable, and his case, upon this account, a very melancholy one. He had need be very well assured of the resurrection of the dead, or he was guilty of extreme weakness, in hazarding all that was dear to him in this world, and his life into the bargain.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 Corinthians 15:31
“I protest - (νὴ nē). This is a particle of swearing, and denotes a strong asseveration. The subject was important; it deeply interested his feelings; and he makes in regard to it a strong protestation; compare Joh 3:5. “I solemnly affirm, or declare.” By your rejoicing - Many manuscripts here read “by our rejoicing, but the correct reading is doubtless that which is in the present Greek text, by your rejoicing.”
wild beasts in Ephesus: For human motives renders the Greek kata anthropon, the reckoning of a man who expects nothing after death. On that reckoning the fight at Ephesus gained him nothing.
1 Corinthians 15:32
“If, after the manner of men, etc. - Much learned criticism has been employed on this verse, to ascertain whether it is to be understood literally or metaphorically. Does the apostle mean to say that he had literally fought with wild beasts at Ephesus? or, that he had met with brutish, savage men, from whom he was in danger of his life? That St. Paul did not fight with wild beasts at Ephesus, may be argued, 1. From his own silence on this subject, when enumerating his various sufferings, 2Co 11:23, etc.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:32
“If all hope of the resurrection is lost, let us eat and drink and lose not the enjoyment of the things present, for we have none to come.… The Epicureans say they are followers of pleasure because death means nothing to them, because that which is dissolved has no feeling, and that which has no feeling means nothing to us. Thus they show that they are living only carnally, not spiritually. They do not discharge the duty of the soul but only of the flesh.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · LETTER 59patristic
Cross references
1 Corinthians 15:32
- QuotingIsaiah 22:13But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
'Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die' (if the dead rise not)
1 Corinthians 15:33-34
Do not be deceived: Bad company corrupts good character quotes Menander's comedy Thais, homiliai kakai, a secular proverb aimed at the deniers whose company spread doubt. Verse 34 turns it into a command to sober up and stop sinning, and names the denial ignorance of God.
1 Corinthians 15:33
“Be not deceived - By your false teachers, and by their smooth and plausible arguments. This is an exhortation. He had thus far been engaged in an argument on the subject. He now entreats them to beware lest they be deceived - a danger to which they were very liable from their circumstances.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:33
"Evil communications" refer to intercourse with those who deny the resurrection. Their notion seems to have been that the resurrection is merely spiritual, that sin has its seat solely in the body, and will be left behind when the soul leaves it, if, indeed, the soul survive death at all. good--not only good-natured, but pliant.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Sober up as you ought: Sober up translates eknepsate, a word for waking out of drunkenness. Some at Corinth had stopped fearing sin, living out the slogan of verse 32. Paul says to their shame that a church proud of its knowledge was ignorant of God, as 8:1 warns.
1 Corinthians 15:34
"Be sober as is right, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God," that is, those who sin. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual powers." But the rulers of darkness have power to tempt us. That is why concessions are made. Therefore also Paul says: "I buffet my body and bring it into subjection.
Clement of Alexandria · written before 215 · The Stromata Book 3patristic
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:34
“Awake to righteousness - Shake off your slumber; awake fully, thoroughly, δικαιως, as ye ought to do: so the word should be rendered; not awake to righteousness. Be in earnest; do not trifle with God, your souls, and eternity. Sin not - For this will lead to the destruction both of body and soul. Life is but a moment; improve it. Heaven has blessings without end. Some have not the knowledge of God - The original is very emphatic: αγνωσιαν γαρ Θεου τινες εχουσι, some have an ignorance of God; they do not acknowledge God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:34
“To righteousness - Which flows from the true knowledge of God, and implies that your whole soul be broad awake. And sin not - That is, and ye will not sin. Sin supposes drowsiness of soul.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:34
“The Greek expresses a continued state of abstinence from sin. Thus, Paul implies that they who live in sinful pleasures readily persuade themselves of what they wish, namely, that there is to be no resurrection. some--the same as in 1Co 15:12. have not the knowledge of God--and so know not His power in the resurrection (Mt 22:29).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Sown in Weakness, Raised in Power: The Two Adams
1 Corinthians 15:35-38
But someone will ask: Paul voices the Greek objection, how are the dead raised, and answers from the seed, which comes to life only when it dies. The sown seed looks nothing like the plant, yet God gives it a body, keeping identity across a total change of form.
1 Corinthians 15:35
“The objector could not understand how the dead are to rise, and with what kind of a body they are to come. Is it to be the same body? If so, how is this, since the resurrection bodies will not eat or drink, or beget children, as the natural bodies do?”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:35
“Some may wonder how decayed bodies can become sound again, scattered members brought together, and destroyed parts restored. Yet no one seems to wonder how seeds softened and broken by the dampness and weight of the earth grow and become green again. Such seeds, of course, are rotted and dissolved by contact with the earth. But when the generative moisture of the soil imparts life to the buried and hidden seeds by a kind of life-giving heat, they receive the animating force of the growing plant.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Death of Satyrus 2.55patristic
1 Corinthians 15:35
“But some man will say - An objection will be made to the statement that the dead will be raised. This verse commences the second part of the chapter, in which the apostle meets the objections to the argument. and shows in what manner the dead will be raised. See the Analysis. That objections were made to the doctrine is apparent from 1Co 15:12. How are the dead raised up? - (Πῶς Pōs.) In what way or manner; by what means.”
What you sow: The address You fool uses aphron, a man who lacks sense and fails to reason. The objector's own fields answer him. Every farmer buries seed in the ground and expects life to come up from it.
1 Corinthians 15:36
“Thou fool - Αφρον. If this be addressed, as it probably is, to the false apostle, there is a peculiar propriety in it; as this man seems to have magnified his own wisdom, and set it up against both God and man; and none but a fool could act so. At the same time, it is folly in any to assert the impossibility of a thing because he cannot comprehend it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:36
“That which thou sowest, is not quickened into new life and verdure, except it die - Undergo a dissolution of its parts, a change analogous to death. Thus St. Paul inverts the objection; as if he had said, Death is so far from hindering life, that it necessarily goes before it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:36
We must therefore conclude that it is in reference to the flesh that death is mentioned; which [flesh], after the soul's departure, becomes breathless and inanimate, and is decomposed gradually into the earth from which it was taken. This, then, is what is mortal. And it is this of which he also says, "He shall also quicken your mortal bodies." And therefore in reference to it he says, in the first [Epistle] to the Corinthians: "So also is the resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it rises in incorruption."
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Vpatristic
1 Corinthians 15:36
“Death, so far from preventing quickening, is the necessary prelude and prognostication of it, just as the seed "is not quickened" into a new sprout with increased produce, "except it die" (except a dissolution of its previous organization takes place).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
just a seed: The Greek calls what you sow a bare grain, gymnos kokkos, a kernel of wheat with no stalk or leaf. The seed looks nothing like the plant it will become. The same person is raised in a body far beyond the one sown.
1 Corinthians 15:37
“And that which thou sowest - The seed which is sown. Not that body that shall be - You sow one kernel which is to produce many others. They shall not be the same that is sown. They will be new kernels raised from that; of the same kind, indeed, and showing their intimate and necessary connection with that which is sown.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:37
“Every such germ ("seed," 1Co 15:38) "shall have its own body," and be instantly recognized, just as each plant now is known from the seed that was sown (see on 1Co 6:13). So Christ by the same image illustrated the truth that His death was the necessary prelude of His putting on His glorified body, which is the ground of the regeneration of the many who believe (Joh 12:24).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
God gives it a body: The verb for designed is in a past tense in Greek, pointing back to God's will at creation. Genesis 1:11 set each seed to bear after its own kind. The resurrection body comes from the same Creator's decision.
1 Corinthians 15:38
“But God giveth it a body - And is there any other way of accounting for it but by the miraculous working of God’s power? For out of that one bare grain is produced a system of roots, a tall and vigorous stalk, with all its appendages of leaves, etc., besides the full corn in the ear; the whole making several hundred times the quantum of what was originally deposited.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:39-41
Not all flesh is the same: Men, animals, heavenly bodies and stars each have their own flesh or splendor, so a body need not resemble another to be real. The catalogue prepares for verse 44, where splendor measures the continuity between the natural body and the spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:39
“Indeed, since he proposes as his examples "wheat grain, or some other grain, to which God giveth a body, such as it hath pleased Him; " since also he says, that "to every seed is its own body; " that, consequently, "there is one kind of flesh of men, whilst there is another of beasts, and (another) of birds; that there are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial; and that there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars" -does he not therefore intimate that there is to be a…”
Tertullian · written before 220 · Against Marcion Book Vpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:39
“All flesh is not the same flesh - This verse and the following are designed to answer the question 1Co 15:35, “with what bodies do they come?” And the argument here is, that there are many kinds of bodies; that all are not alike; that while they are bodies, yet they partake of different qualities, forms, and properties; and that, therefore, it is not absurd to suppose that God may transform the human body into a different form, and cause it to be raised up with somewhat different properties in the future world.”
heavenly bodies and earthly bodies: The heavenly bodies here are the sun, moon and stars that verse 41 names next. Each order of creation has its own splendor, doxa in Greek. Different bodies within one creation prepare the reader for a raised body unlike the buried one.
1 Corinthians 15:40
“There are also celestial bodies,.... Or bodies in the heavens, as the sun, moon, and stars: and bodies terrestrial; or bodies on earth, animate and inanimate, men, beasts, trees, minerals, &c. But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another: though both sorts are bodies, yet their qualities differ, and there is a greater glory in the one than in the other.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:40
“There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial - The apostle certainly does not speak of celestial and terrestrial bodies in the sense in which we use those terms: we invariably mean by the former the sun, moon, planets, and stars; by the latter, masses of inanimate matter. But the apostle speaks of human beings, some of which were clothed with celestial, others with terrestrial bodies.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
star differs from star in splendor: The last clause shows variety inside a single class of heavenly body. Matthew Henry reads it as degrees of glory among the raised saints. Hodge limits the point to the difference between kinds of bodies.
1 Corinthians 15:41
“There is one glory of the sun ... - The sun has one degree of splendor, and the moon another, and so also the stars. They differ from each other in magnitude, in brightness, in beauty. The idea in this verse differs from that in the former. In that 1Co 15:40 Paul says, that there was a difference between the different classes of bodies; between those in heaven and those on earth. He here says, that in the former class, in the heavenly bodies themselves, there was a difference.”
1 Corinthians 15:42-44
So will it be with: Four contrasts apply the seed to the body in the grave: perishable and imperishable, dishonor and glory, weakness and power, natural and spiritual. Sown, speiretai, is Paul's word for burial through the passage, keeping the farm figure alive at every step.
1 Corinthians 15:42
“So also is the resurrection of the dead - So great is the difference between the body which fell, and that which rises. It is sown - A beautiful word; committed, as seed, to the ground.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:42
“In the same manner, therefore, as Christ did rise in the substance of flesh, and pointed out to His disciples the mark of the nails and the opening in His side (now these are the tokens of that flesh which rose from the dead), so "shall He also," it is said, "raise us up by His own power." And again to the Romans he says, "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies." What, then, are mortal bodies?”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Vpatristic
It is sown in dishonor: Dishonor names the corpse as it is laid in the grave, stripped of strength and beauty. Glory and power describe the body Philippians 3:21 promises, made like Christ's own glorious body. Burial becomes a sowing.
1 Corinthians 15:43
“It is sown in dishonour - Shocking to those who loved it best, human nature in disgrace! It is raised in glory - Clothed with robes of light, fit for those whom the King of heaven delights to honour. It is sown in weakness - Deprived even of that feeble strength which it once enjoyed.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:43
“It is sown in dishonour - In the grave, where it is shut out from human view; hurried away from the sight of friends; loathsome and offensive as a mass turning to decay. There is, moreover, a kind of disgrace and ignominy attending it here, as under the curse of God, and, on account of sin, sentenced to the offensiveness of the grave. It is raised in glory - In honor; in beauty; honored by God by the removal of the curse, and in a form and manner that shall be glorious.”
1 Corinthians 15:43
“But what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is sown in the earth and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid in the earth, into which seeds are also cast? And for this reason he said, "It is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory." For what is more ignoble than dead flesh? Or, on the other hand, what is more glorious than the same when it arises and partakes of incorruption?”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Vpatristic
a spiritual body: Natural translates psychikos, the adjective from psyche, the living being Adam became in verse 45. A spiritual body is still a body. The Holy Spirit gives it its life, and the natural body is the proof that a spiritual one exists.
1 Corinthians 15:44
“It is sown in this world a merely animal body - Maintained by food, sleep, and air, like the bodies of brutes: but it is raised of a more refined contexture, needing none of these animal refreshments, and endued with qualities of a spiritual nature, like the angels of God.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:44
“It is sown a natural body - Σωμα ψυχικον· An animal body, having a multiplicity of solids and fluids of different kinds, with different functions; composed of muscles, fibres, tendons, cartilages, bones, arteries, veins, nerves, blood, and various juices, requiring continual support from aliment; and hence the necessity of labor to provide food, and skill to prepare it; which food must be masticated, digested, and refined; what is proper for nourishment secreted, brought into the circulation, farther elaborated, and prepared to enter into the composition of every part; hence growth and nutrition; without which no organized body can possibly exist.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:44
“You are sown as are all other things. Why, then, do you wonder whether you will rise again like the rest? You believe the seed because you see it. You do not believe the rising again because you do not see it. "Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed." Yet, before the proper season arrives, not even the seed is believed. For not every season is suitable for seeds to grow. Wheat is sown at one time and comes up at another time. At one time the vine is grafted.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Death of Satyrus 2.60patristic
1 Corinthians 15:45-46
So it is written: Paul cites Genesis 2:7, the first man Adam became a living being, and sets beside it the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. Last Adam names Christ the second and final head of humanity, closing the argument begun at verse 21.
1 Corinthians 15:45
“And so it is written, - Gen 2:7. It is only the first part of the verse which is quoted. The first man Adam was made a living soul - This is quoted exactly from the translation by the Septuagint, except that the apostle has added the words “first” and “Adam.” This is done to designate whom he meant. The meaning of the phrase “was made a living soul” (ἐγένετο εις ψυκὴν ζωσαν egeneto eis psuchēn zōsan - in Hebrew, נפשׁ חיה nephesh chayaah is, became a living, animated being; a being endowed with life.”
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:45
“The first Adam was made a living soul - God gave him such life as other animals enjoy: but the last Adam, Christ, is a quickening spirit - As he hath life in himself, so he quickeneth whom he will; giving a more refined life to their very bodies at the resurrection.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:45
“For there had been a necessity that, in the first place, a human being should be fashioned, and that what was fashioned should receive the soul; afterwards that it should thus receive the communion of the Spirit. Wherefore also "the first Adam was made" by the Lord "a living soul, the second Adam a quickening spirit." As, then, he who was made a living soul forfeited life when he turned aside to what was evil, so, on the other hand, the same individual, when he reverts to what is good, and receives the quickening Spirit, shall find life.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 5patristic
1 Corinthians 15:45
"Man became (was made to become) a living soul," that is, endowed with an animal soul, the living principle of his body. the last Adam--the LAST Head of humanity, who is to be fully manifested in the last day, which is His day (Joh 6:39).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Cross references
1 Corinthians 15:45
- QuotingGenesis 2:7“Then the LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.”
'The first man Adam was made a living soul' ('it is written')
the natural, and then the spiritual: The order runs from Adam to Christ in history, and in each believer from the body of this life to the raised body. Creation comes first, and glory follows it. Verse 47 names the two men who stand at either end.
1 Corinthians 15:46
“That was not first which is spiritual - The natural or animal body, described 1Co 15:44, was the first; it was the body with which Adam was created. The spiritual body is the last, and is that with which the soul is to be clothed in the resurrection.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:46
“For the breath of life, which also rendered man an animated being, is one thing, and the vivifying Spirit another, which also caused him to become spiritual. And for this reason Isaiah said, "Thus saith the Lord, who made heaven and established it, who founded the earth and the things therein, and gave breath to the people upon it, and Spirit to those walking upon it;" thus telling us that breath is indeed given in common to all people upon earth, but that the Spirit is theirs alone who tread down earthly desires.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Irenaeus Against Heresies Book 5patristic
1 Corinthians 15:47-49
The first man was of: the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. Verse 49 answers the question of verse 35 with a name: we shall bear the likeness of the heavenly man in the resurrection body itself.
1 Corinthians 15:47
“He himself made the heavens, and by descending from thence showed himself to us as the Lord. Christ was not the second man in order of time; but in this respect, that as Adam was a public person, who acted in the stead of all mankind, so was Christ. As Adam was the first general representative of men, Christ was the second and the last.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:47
“The first man is of the earth, earthy,.... He was formed out of the earth, Gen 2:7 and the word there used signifies red earth.”
those who are of heaven: Earthly translates choikos, made of dust, the word Genesis 2:7 uses for the ground Adam was formed from. Every descendant of Adam shares his dust-born nature. Those united to Christ will share the nature of the man from heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:48
“As is the earthy, etc. - As Adam was, who was formed from the earth, so are all his descendants; frail, decaying, and subject to death. As is the heavenly - As is the heavenly state of Adam and all glorified beings, so shall be the state of all those who, at the resurrection, are found fit for glory.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:48
Paul, too, very plainly set forth the material, animal, and spiritual, saying in one place, "As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy;" and in another place, "But the animal man receiveth not the things of the Spirit;" and again: "He that is spiritual judgeth all things."
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Ipatristic
1 Corinthians 15:48
“As is the earthy--namely, Adam. they . . . that are earthy--All Adam's posterity in their natural state (Joh 3:6, 7). the heavenly--Christ. they . . . that are heavenly--His people in their regenerate state (Php 3:20, 21).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
the likeness of the heavenly man: Many early manuscripts read the verb as a command to bear the likeness of the heavenly man, and others read it as a promise. The Berean follows the promise, and Hodge reads the promise as the sense the argument requires. Adam's son bore Adam's likeness in Genesis 5:3.
1 Corinthians 15:49
“And as we have borne the image of the earthy - As like our first father, we are frail, decaying, dying; as we are so closely connected with him as to be like him. This does not refer, mainly, to one bearing his moral character, but to the fact that we are, like him, subject to sickness, frailty, sorrow, and death. We shall also bear the image of the heavenly - The Lord Jesus Christ, who was from heaven, and who is in heaven.”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:49
The flesh, therefore, when destitute of the Spirit of God, is dead, not having life, and cannot possess the kingdom of God: [it is as] irrational blood, like water poured out upon the ground. And therefore he says, "As is the earthy, such are they that are earthy."
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Vpatristic
At the Last Trumpet: Death Swallowed Up
Now I declare to you: Flesh and blood is a common Jewish idiom for mortal humanity, which as perishable cannot inherit the kingdom unchanged. The next verses describe that change of the body.
1 Corinthians 15:50
“Among the other [truths] proclaimed by the apostle, there is also this one, "That flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God." This is [the passage] which is adduced by all the heretics in support of their folly, with an attempt to annoy us, and to point out that the handiwork of God is not saved. They do not take this fact into consideration, that there are three things out of which, as I have shown, the complete man is composed-flesh, soul, and spirit.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies Book Vpatristic
3 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:50
“Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom - This is a Hebrew periphrasis for man, and man in his present state of infirmity and decay. Man, in his present state, cannot inherit the kingdom of God; his nature is not suited to that place; he could not, in his present weak state, endure an exceeding great and eternal weight of glory. Therefore, it is necessary that he should die, or be changed; that he should have a celestial body suited to the celestial state.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:50
“But first we must be entirely changed; for such flesh and blood as we are clothed with now, cannot enter into that kingdom which is wholly spiritual: neither doth this corruptible body inherit that incorruptible kingdom.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:50
"Flesh and blood" of the same animal and corruptible nature as our present (1Co 15:44) animal-souled bodies, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Therefore the believer acquiesces gladly in the unrepealed sentence of the holy law, which appoints the death of the present body as the necessary preliminary to the resurrection body of glory.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
1 Corinthians 15:51-52
Listen, I tell you a mystery: Paul tells a mystery the Old Testament had not stated: sleepers and living alike will all be changed. It comes in an instant, en atomo, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.
1 Corinthians 15:51
You ask in what sense it was said, and how it should be read in the first letter of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians: "We shall all indeed rise again, but we shall not all be changed" (1 Corinthians 15:5). Or according to some examples: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all indeed be changed," for both are found in Greek manuscripts. Concerning this, Theodore Heracleotes, who was from the city once called Perinthus, spoke in the Apostle's little commentaries: "We shall all indeed not sleep, but we shall all be changed."
Jerome · written before 420 · Letter 119patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:51
“English Version is supported by some of the oldest manuscripts and Fathers. The Greek is literally "We all shall not sleep, but," &c. The putting off of the corruptible body for an incorruptible by an instantaneous change will, in the case of "the quick," stand as equivalent to death, appointed to all men (Heb 9:27); of this Enoch and Elijah are types and forerunners.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
at the last trumpet: Israel's trumpets called the people to assemble and to march, as Numbers 10:2 directs. The last trumpet sounds the final summons, the trumpet of God named at 1 Thessalonians 4:16. The dead rise, and the living change at once.
1 Corinthians 15:52
“In a moment - Εν ατομῳ· In an atom; that is, an indivisible point of time. In the twinkling of an eye; as soon as a man can wink; which expressions show that this mighty work is to be done by the almighty power of God, as he does all his works, He calls, and it is done. The resurrection of all the dead, from the foundation of the world to that time, and the change of all the living then upon earth, shall be the work of a single moment.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:52
“Then at the sound of the trumpet the earth and its people shall tremble, but you shall rejoice. The world shall lament and groan when the Lord comes to judge it. The tribes of the earth shall smite the breast. Once mighty kings shall shiver in their nakedness. Then shall Jupiter, with all his progeny, indeed be shown aflame, and Plato with his disciples will be marked a fool. Aristotle's argument shall be of no avail. You may be a poor man and country bred, but then you shall exult and laugh and say: behold the crucified, my God!”
Jerome · written before 420 · Letter 14.11patristic
1 Corinthians 15:52
“The trumpet was sounded to convoke the people on solemn feasts, especially on the first day of the seventh month (the type of the completion of time; seven being the number for perfection; on the tenth of the same month was the atonement, and on the fifteenth the feast of tabernacles, commemorative of completed salvation out of the spiritual Egypt, compare Zec 14:18, 19); compare Ps 50:1-7.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
For the perishable must be: The necessity in must be clothed is dei, the word used of Christ's reign in verse 25, so the change is built into the resurrection. Endysasthai is clothing language, the verb Paul uses for putting on Christ, so the same person is changed.
1 Corinthians 15:53
“The blossom of the resurrection is immortality and incorruption. What is richer than everlasting rest? What is a source of greater gain and satisfaction than perpetual security? Here is the manifold fruit, the harvest, whereby man's nature grows more vigorous and productive after death.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On the Death of Satyrus 2.54patristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:53
“For this corruptible ... - It is necessary that a change should take place, either by dying and then being raised, or by being changed without seeing death; for we cannot enter heaven as we are now. Must put on - The word used here (ἐνδύνω endunō ) properly means to go in, to envelope, to put on as a garment; and then to put on any thing; as the soul is, as it were, clothed with, or invested with a body; and here it means, must be endued with, or furnished with.”
1 Corinthians 15:54-55
When the perishable has been: When the perishable is clothed with the imperishable, Isaiah 25:8 is fulfilled: death has been swallowed up in victory. Verse 55 adds the taunt of Hosea 13:14, death mocked to its face in defeat.
1 Corinthians 15:54
“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption,.... As at the coming of Christ, both the bodies of living saints, and of dead ones being raised, will: and this mortal shall have put on immortality; which will be the case, in the resurrection morn: then shall be brought to pass that saying that is written; then that passage will have its full accomplishment, which stands in Isa 25:8 where it is read, he will swallow up death in victory, or "for ever".”
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:54
“Death is swallowed up in victory - Κατεποθη ὁ θανατος εις νικος. These words are a quotation from Isa 25:8, where the Hebrew is בלע המות לנצח billa hammaveth lanetsach: He (God) hath swallowed up death in victory; or, for ever. These words in the Septuagint are thus translated: κατεπιεν ὁ θανατος ισχυσας· Death having prevailed, or conquered, hath swallowed up. But in the version of Theodotion, the words are the same with those of the apostle.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Cross references
1 Corinthians 15:54
- QuotingIsaiah 25:8“He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.”
'Death is swallowed up in victory' ('the saying that is written')
Paul adapts Hosea 13:14, and he uses victory where the Greek Old Testament has penalty. The change ties the taunt to the saying of verse 54, death swallowed up in victory, from Isaiah 25:8. The word for sting, kentron, is the goad of Acts 26:14.
1 Corinthians 15:55
“Now, if the dominion of death operates only in the dissolution of the flesh, in like manner death's contrary, life, ought to produce the contrary effect, even the restoration of the flesh; so that, just as death had swallowed it up in its strength, it also, after this mortal was swallowed up of immortality, may hear the challenge pronounced against it: "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? " For in this way "grace shall there much more abound, where sin once abounded.”
Tertullian · written before 220 · On the Resurrection of the Fleshpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:55
“O hades, the receptacle of separate souls, where is thy victory - Thou art now robbed of all thy spoils; all thy captives are set at liberty. Hades literally means the invisible world, and relates to the soul; death, to the body. The Greek words are found in the Septuagint translation of Hosea xiii, 14.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
Cross references
1 Corinthians 15:55
1 Corinthians 15:56-57
The sting of death is: Sin gives death its sting, and the law gives sin its power by exposing sin without curing it, as Romans 7 develops. Verse 57 answers the whole chain with one gift, the victory given through our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 15:56
“The sting of death is sin - The apostle explains himself particularly here: death could not have entered into the world if sin had not entered first; it was sin that not only introduced death, but has armed him with all his destroying force; the goad or dagger of death is sin; by this both body and soul are slain. The strength of sin is the law - The law of God forbids all transgression, and sentences those who commit it to temporal and eternal death. Sin has its controlling and binding power from the law.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:56
Baptism destroys the sting of death. For you descend into the water laden with your sins. But the invocation of grace causes your soul to receive this seal, and after that it does not lead you to be swallowed up by the dread dragon. You go down "deadly indeed in sin," and you come up "alive unto righteousness."
Cyril of Jerusalem · written before 386 · Catechetical Lecture 3:11-12patristic
thanks be to God: The verb gives is a present participle in Greek, a victory handed over now and completed at the resurrection. The risen Lord Jesus Christ supplies it. Romans 7:25 closes its argument about sin and the law with the same thanks.
1 Corinthians 15:57
“The Lord Jesus fought the contest, and to us the victory was given — not by merit, not by obligation, but by the grace and love of God the Father, Who made us victors through the contest of His Son.”
Theophylact of Ohrid · written before 1107 · Commentary on 1 Corinthianspatristic
1 more voice on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:57
“But thanks be to God; - See the notes at Rom 7:25. Which giveth us the victory - Us who are Christians; all Christians. The victory over sin, death, and the grave. God alone is the author of this victory. He formed the plan; he executed it in the gift of his Son; and he gives it to us personally when we come to die.”
Therefore, my beloved brothers: The argument ends in its practical result, a church steadfast and immovable, no longer shaken by the denial. Since the dead do rise, labor in the Lord is never in vain, answering the despair of verse 32.
1 Corinthians 15:58
“Be ye steadfast - Ἑδραιοι, from ἑδρα, a seat; be settled; confide in the truth of this doctrine of the resurrection, and every thing that pertains to it, as confidently as a man sits down on a Seat, which he knows to be solid, firm, and safe; and on which he has often sat. Unmovable - Αμετακινητοι, from α, negative, and μετακινεω, to move away; let nothing shake your faith; let nothing move you away from this hope of the Gospel which is given unto you.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
1 Corinthians 15:58
“Let us also endeavour, by cultivating holiness in all its branches, to maintain this hope in its full energy; longing for that glorious day, when, in the utmost extent of the expression, death shall be swallowed up forever, and millions of voices, after the long silence of the grave, shall burst out at once into that triumphant song, O death, where is thy sting?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)evangelical
1 Corinthians 15:58
“THE apostle had been putting forth all his strength to prove the doctrine of the resurrection, yet he was not diverted from his habitual custom of making practical use of the doctrine which he established. He proves his point, and then he goes on to his "therefore," which is always an inference of godliness. He is the great master of doctrine: if you want the Christian creed elaborated, and its details laid out in order, you must turn to the epistles of Paul; but at the same time he is always a practical teacher.”
How this psalm is built
The form: An argument for the resurrection of the dead in three parts: the fact of Christ's resurrection (verses 1 to 11), the consequences of denying it (verses 12 to 34), and the manner of the resurrection and the nature of the raised body (verses 35 to 58), as Hodge classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The handed-down gospel | Verses 3 to 5 give the gospel as a series of that clauses, that Christ died, that He was buried, that He was raised and that He appeared. Paul says he received it and passed it on, the same pair of verbs he uses of the Lord's Supper at 11:23, and the list of those who saw the risen Christ follows at verses 5 to 8.Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 15:3. | 1 Corinthians 15:3, 1 Corinthians 15:4, 1 Corinthians 15:5 |
| The chain of ifs | Verses 12 to 19 run as a chain of conditions. If there is no resurrection, Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised the preaching is worthless, faith is futile, the dead in Christ have perished and believers are to be pitied. Verse 20 breaks the chain with But Christ has indeed been raised.John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 15:13 to 20. | 1 Corinthians 15:13, 1 Corinthians 15:17, 1 Corinthians 15:20 |
| Sown and raised | Verses 42 to 44 set four pairs side by side: sown perishable and raised imperishable, sown in dishonour and raised in glory, sown in weakness and raised in power, sown a natural body and raised a spiritual body. The pairs apply the seed of verses 36 to 38 to the body laid in the grave.The chapter's text counted from the store, The Berean Standard Bible text of 1 Corinthians 15:42 to 44 (translation id 3). | 1 Corinthians 15:42, 1 Corinthians 15:43, 1 Corinthians 15:44 |
| Adam and Christ | Verses 21 and 22 set Adam, through whom death came, beside Christ, through whom the resurrection comes. Verses 45 to 49 return to the pair as the first man and the last Adam, the man of dust and the man from heaven, whose likeness believers will bear.Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 15:22 and 15:45. | 1 Corinthians 15:22, 1 Corinthians 15:45, 1 Corinthians 15:49 |
The debated reading: baptized for the dead
7 more paragraphs on the patterns
Verse 29 asks what those will do who are baptized for the dead, and the practice it names is nowhere else described in Scripture. John Chrysostom reads it as the confession of the resurrection of the dead made at every baptism, and he names and rejects a practice of the followers of Marcion, who baptized the living in place of the dead (Homilies on First Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 15:29). Charles Hodge sets out the many readings of the verse and holds that none is certain (An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 15:29). Tertullian knows the same practice and holds that Paul mentions it without approving it (Against Marcion 5.10).
The debated reading: the Son made subject
Verse 28 says that the Son Himself will be made subject to the Father, so that God may be all in all. Augustine of Hippo reads the subjection of the Son as man, in the form of a servant, while He remains equal to the Father as God (On the Trinity 1.8.15). John Calvin reads the handing over of the kingdom as the close of the rule Christ now holds as Mediator, with no loss of His deity (Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 15:24 to 28).
The Scriptures the chapter quotes
The chapter cites Psalm 8:6 at verse 27, Isaiah 22:13 at verse 32, Genesis 2:7 at verse 45, Isaiah 25:8 at verse 54 and Hosea 13:14 at verse 55, and verse 25 draws on Psalm 110:1. Verse 33 quotes a line known from Menander's play Thais.
What the chapter hands forward
Verse 58 turns the hope of the resurrection into a command to keep working, and chapter 16 turns at once to the work at hand, the collection for the saints at Jerusalem.
Keep studying
Studies36
- Paul and the Poets
- The Rapture: the Blessed Hope and the Four Timings
- The Seven Brothers and Their Mother
- Adam
- Adam to Noah
- Afterlife Vocabulary
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Words12
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 15:1 and Frederic Godet, Commentary on First Corinthians, on 1 Corinthians 15:1 and 15:35.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the First Epistle to the Corinthians; Charles Hodge, An Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians; Frederic Godet, Commentary on First Corinthians; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians; John Chrysostom, Homilies on First Corinthians; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.