Bible Commentaries
1 Corinthians 15

Verses 1-58

XV The Immortality of Body and Soul —This is the last big topic of the letter, and Paul’s last complaint. Some persons at Corinth were spreading erroneous views on the subject, about which his three visitors had probably told him. Two opinions are possible about the nature of the false teaching:

1. That only the soul is immortal—the body perishes after death and is never raised up or restored. Such belief in immortality as existed among pagans of the Greek tradition was of this kind. They regarded the idea of bodily immortality as ridiculous, Acts 17:30-33. Such a doctrine among Christians would therefore very likely have a pagan origin.

2. That only those Christians who are alive at Christ’s second coming will receive immortality— those who die before that perish altogether. This opinion, though uncommon, seems to have been taught in some Jewish apocalyptic tracts (not included in Scripture) and some such view was circulating among the Christians of Thessalonica about five years before this, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-16.

The first view best fits the chapter as a whole, and is much the more widely held. Yet some passages seem to imply that the immortality even of the soul had been denied, vv 19, 29-32, and it appears that the false teachers had not all denied the bodily resurrection of Christ, as we should have expected if they all held the first error only. It is possible that both kinds of error were taught at Corinth, and in that case Paul first directs his words at the two (vv 12-34) and afterwards at the first one. For the history of preChristian beliefs about immortality, see §§ 595a, 598l, and E. F. Sutcliffe’s The Old Testament and the Future Life.

1-11 Evidence of Christ’s Resurrection —This is a summary of what he had previously taught them.

1. ’Make known’: for ’remind’—perhaps a sign of impatience.

2. ’If you hold . . .’: most scholars prefer a different order: (’I wish to remind you) in what words I preached to you, if you hold them fast . . .’

3. ’Received’: from the other apostles.

3-4. ’Scriptures’: refer to the OT prophecies, not to the Gospels, most of which were not yet written.

5-8. He mentions six appearances of the risen Lord, chosen no doubt because there were still living and well-known witnesses of them all, and omits others (e.g. to Mary Magdalen) probably because the witnesses were dead or unknown.

5. ’Cephas’: Christ’s appearance to St Peter on the day of his resurrection is nowhere described but is alluded to in Luke 24:34. ’The eleven’: the best texts say ’the twelve’—a round number, for it must refer to the supper on the day of resurrection, when both Judas and Thomas were absent.

6. Either some occasion not mentioned in the Gospels, or the meeting on a mountain in Galilee described in Matthew 28:16-18.

7. ’James’: not John’s brother, who had been dead many years, but James the Less, the cousin of our Lord, who was still alive and was seen by Paul about a year after this, Acts 21:18f. This appearance of our Lord is mentioned nowhere else in the NT.

8. ’Born’, i.e. his conversion with his call to the Apostolate was a violent and sudden change comparable to a premature birth.

10. i.e. it is the grace of God that has made me what I am. ’More abundantly’: he means that he has gained more converts.

11. ’I . . . they’: something like ’laboured more fruitfully’ must be understood.

12-28 If there is no Resurrection, Christ has neither risen nor conquered Death —The erroneous teachers admitted the Christ had risen—Paul argues in 12-19 that if they were consistent, they would deny it, and thereby deny all his work of redemption. It is in this portion (12-34) that the second type of error seems at times to be in Paul’s mind.

13. i.e. any argument which they used to show the impossibility of a resurrection would tell equally against Christ’s.

14. The resurrection was the proof of the atoning power of the Passion: without it we must believe that Jesus was merely a good man who had sacrificed himself in vain. (See v 17.)

15. ’Against God’: ’About God’.

17. ’in your sins’: their baptism was an empty ceremony if Christ’s work had been a failure.

18-19. His opponents seem to teach that even the souls of dead Christians no longer exist.

19. ’This life’: this present world. Its good things often have to be renounced for the sake of fidelity to God. But the verse may perhaps mean: If in this (new) life in Christ we possess nothing but hopes (i.e. empty hopes) we are . . .’

20-28. If the dead do not rise, Christ has not fully undone the evil wrought by the Fall, nor has he been made king of all created things.

20. ’Firstfruits’, i.e. first instalment or earnest. Originally the word meant the consecration of the first sheaf, but was now used much like ???aß??, cf.Ephesians 1:14.

21-22. The comparison between Christ and Adam is often in Paul’s mind (see vv 45-49 below, and above all Romans 5:12-21). ’In Adam’: owing to Adam’s sin. ’All . . . alive’, seems to refer primarily to the spiritual life, and therefore to the redeemed only, the resurrection of sinners being ignored for the moment.

23. ’But every one (will rise) in his own rank (or class): . . . next they that are Christ’s (will rise) at his coming’. The last-mentioned are the faithful who had died before Christ’s second coming —this seems clear from 1 Thessalonians 4:15-16. He again omits the resurrection of sinners as irrelevant.

24. ’Kingdom’: ’His royal power’. This seems to mean our Lord’s office of redeemer and Messiah, which ceases when all the redeemed are gathered. A mediator is no longer needed: v 28 seems to have the same meaning. God the Son of course retains his human nature for ever. ’Virtue’, i.e. power. The three words refer to hostile powers, human or diabolical.

25. ’He (Christ) must reign (as Messiah) until he (God the Father) has, etc.’ Adaptation of Ps 109 (110):1, ’Sit thou at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool’.

26. ’After all other enemies death himself shall be destroyed, for he (God the Father) "has placed ALL things under his (Christ’s) feet"’. The last words are from Psalms 8:8. Paul means that, if there were no resurrection, this prophecy would remain unfulfilled.

26c-28. Perhaps the best way to take these difficult words is: ’When he (Christ) shall say that all things are subject to himself (with the exception, of course, of him (i.e. the Father) who has made all things subject to him)—when, I say, all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will become subject . . .’ In this way the first words of 28 are taken as a repetition of the last words of 26. ’All in all’: everything in all creation, i.e. in all the redeemed creation there will no longer be anything alien or opposed to God.

29-34 Other Arguments for the Resurrection—29. For what good will they do . . .’ The meaning is very doubtful. Perhaps some persons at Corinth had desired to become Christians but had been overtaken by death before they could be baptised and some Christian friends had been allowed to undergo a (purely symbolical) baptism for them to show that the dead were counted as Christians. If so, the practice was soon dropped for fear of misunderstanding. Here again and in

30-32 Paul seems to be dealing with a teaching that dead Christians had perished.

30. Why do we (the Apostles) risk death, if our only hope of immortality is to remain alive till Christ comes?

31. Apparently when Paul was at Corinth, in frequent danger and bodily weakness, some Corinthians had said of him: ’He dies daily’. Paul now reminds them of these admiring words. ’I die daily—1 call to witness your own boast, which I have to my credit, thanks to Christ Jesus’.Cf.2 Corinthians 4:11-12.

32. The phrase ’fight with wild beasts’ apparently meant ’lead a hunted, insecure life’. ’If I have lived a hunted life (as the world would call it) at Ephesus, what have I gained by it? He was still at or near Ephesus. The dangers he refers to seem to have been owing to Jewish plots (Acts 20:19), not the great riot which came after this date. (Acts 19:23-40). It seems best to join the next two sentences. ’If the dead . . . let us’, etc. The last words are from Isaiah 22:13.33. ’Evil . . .’: a line from a comedy of the Greek poet Menander, but it had probably become a proverb. ’Bad company is the ruin of a good character’. It is here a warning against the authors of the false ideas on immortality.

34. Come to your senses, as you ought to do, . . . it is an ignorance (not a knowledge) of God that some of you have’. There seems to be another scornful reference to the word knowledge as in ch 8, cf. Christ’s words to the Sadducees on the same subject: ’You err, not knowing . . . the power of God’, Matthew 22:29.

35-58 Bodily Resurrection Is not contrary to Reason — The doctrine of a bodily resurrection is a part of revealed truth, an article of Catholic faith. Paul does not attempt to give here a proof of it, but only to remove some difficulties and objections. On the question how far the risen body will be materially identical with the body that dies, theologians differ: the majority teach that some particles at least will be common to both, but others (e.g. Billot) hold that this is not necessary.

This passage is an equally good answer to either of the two possible errors (see Introd. to chapter). Next to ch 13 it is the most eloquent passage in the letter, and shows the same wonderful originality of poetic writing used as a vehicle of close argument. to may conveniently be taken in three parts.

35-41 Some Parallels in Nature —First, the history of a seed shows resemblances to both death and transformation.

36. ’Quickened’: ’Brought back to life’.

37. ’Bare grain’, i.e. without stalk, blade, husk, etc., yet all these will appear again as the plant grows.

38. ’As he will’: ’As he has decreed’, i.e. in fixing the laws of nature.

39-41. He shows that in the visible universe the words ’body’ and ’flesh’ are applicable to a vast diversity of forms, suggesting that there may be other and even more marvellous ’bodies’ as yet unknown to us.

40. ’Bodies celestial’—the sun, stars, etc. named in 41. Though not alive, each has its own unity and a certain independence. ’Glory’, i.e. excellence, perfection.

41. ’For star . . .’ The ’for’ may indicate that he is quoting a familiar saying or proverb.

42-50 The Risen Body far excels the Natural Body — This is inferred both from the preceding facts and from the resurrection of Christ.

42. ’It’—the body. ’Is sown’—dies and is buried.

44. ’Natural body’. endowed with that natural life which we share with all men (good and bad). ’Spiritual body’: not a body made of spirit, an immaterial body (which would be a contradiction), but a material body perfectly fitted to be the instrument of a soul elevated and transfigured by union with God, in short, a body like our Lord’s body after his resurrection. ’If . . .’: ’As surely as there is . . .’45. He begins a comparison between Adam and Christ, Adam being considered as type of the ’natural’ i.e. unregenerate men. ’Living soul’: (Genesis 2:7) animate being. ’Quickening’: ’Life-giving’. Spirit the word implies supernatural life.

46. ’It was not the spiritual (life) that came first’.

47. ’The first man was from the earth, made of dust. The second man was from heaven’. So run the best texts.

48. Such as the man of dust was, such are the men of dust (in general)— meaning men in this present life, especially the nonChristians. ’They . . .’: the redeemed after their resurrection. They will resemble the risen Christ, the ’heavenly man’.

49. ’Let us bear’, etc. Logically we should expect: ’We shall bear’, etc. (the natural conclusion of his reasoning) and one of our best texts in fact reads thus and may well be right. The Douay text must mean: Let us live so that we may bear, etc.

50. ’Flesh and blood’: human nature in its present frail state. There must be a change, to make this material body everlasting.

51-58 The Last Change and the Triumph over Death — 51. ’Mystery’: ’A secret’: a newly revealed truth. The best texts read: ’We shall not all sleep (i.e. die) but we shall all be changed’, i.e. those who are living at our Lord’s appearance will undergo an immediate transformation (see end of 52).

52. Fuller description in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. ’An we . . .’, i.e. the living. The use of’ we ’does not mean that Paul was certain that he would himself be alive, cf. § 914g-l.

54. ’Death . . .’ From Isaiah 25:8, where the meaning of the Hebrew text, as Paul knew very well, is: ’He has swallowed up death for ever’. The Hebrew of ’for ever’ could be literally translated ’in victory’ and Paul here chooses to use the literal sense so as to join it with the first words of 55 which are an adaption of Os 13:14.

56. Death derives its power from sin, for it came into the world as a punishment for sin, and sin would not be recognized as sin if the Law did not denounce it. The two thoughts are fully set forth in Rom chh 5 and 7.

58. ’Knowing. . . .’ Their glorious future is secure even if they die before Christ’s coming.