1 Corinthians 15:26

ἔσχατος ἐχθρὸς καταργεῖται ὁ θάνατος : “(As) last enemy death is abolished” in other words, “is abolished last among these enemies”. ἔσχατος is the emphatic part of the predicate; and καταργ. (see 1 Corinthians 1:28) is in pr [2385] tense, of what is true now in God's determination, in the fixed succession of things (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:13). Death personified, as in 1 Corinthians 15:55; Isaiah 25:8; Revelation 20:14. If all enemies must be subdued, and death is last to fall, then“the end” (1 Corinthians 15:24) cannot be until Christ has delivered His own from its power and thus broken Death's sceptre. This ver. should close with a full stop. Καταργεῖται ὁ θάνατος is the Christian counter-position to the Ἀνάστασις οὐκ ἔστιν of Cor [2386] philosophy; the τινὲς of 1 Corinthians 15:12 say, “There is no resurrection”; P. replies, “There is to be no death ”. The dogma of unbelief has been confuted in fact by Christ's bodily resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:13 ff.); in experience, by the saving effect thereof in Christians (1 Corinthians 15:17); and now finally in principle, by its contrariety to the purpose and scope of redemption (1 Corinthians 15:21-26), which finds its goal in the death of Death. Hofmann makes τὸ τέλος in 1 Corinthians 15:24 adverbial to 1 Corinthians 15:26 (“at last,” cf. 1 Peter 3:8), with the ὅταν clauses as its definitions and the γὰρ clause parenthetical: “then finally, when etc., when etc. (for etc.), as last enemy death is abolished”. His construction is too artificial to be sustained; but he sees rightly that this ver. is the climax of the Apostle's argument.

[2385] present tense.

[2386] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.