ἄφρων (opposite of φρόνιμοι, 1 Corinthians 4:10; 1 Corinthians 10:15) taxes the propounder of these questions not with moral obliquity, but with mental stupidity (see parls.). Wanting the art [2481] (cf. Luke 12:20), the word is an assertion rather than an exclamation: “Insensé que tu es, toi qui te crois si sage!” (Gd [2482]). Some attach σὺ as subject to ἄφρων, but this weakens the adj [2483], and the pron [2484] is required to give due emphasis to ὃ σπείρεις following. With a little sense, the questioner might answer himself; every time he sows his garden-plot, he assumes the principle denied in regard to man's material form, viz., that death is the transition to a further life “that which thou thyself sowest, is not made alive except it die”.This answers πῶς ἐγείρονται; by ref [2485] to the analogy of nature. P. does not explain, any more than Jesus, the modus operandi of the Resurrection; what he shows is that the mystery raises no prejudice against the reality, for the same mystery is wrapped up in every vegetating seed. ἐγείρονται in the question is substituted by ζωοποιεῖται in the answer (see note on 1 Corinthians 15:22; cf. other parls.), since it is life that rises out of the dying seed, and the Resurrection is an evolution, not a reinstatement. Our Lord uses the same figure with the like implication, but another application, in John 12:23 f.

[2481] grammatical article.

[2482] F. Godet's Commentaire sur la prem. Ép. aux Corinthiens (Eng. Trans.).

[2483] adjective.

[2484]ron. pronoun.

[2485] reference.

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Old Testament