DIVISION V.: THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY. Some members of the Cor [2227] Church denied the resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:12), compelling the Ap. to enter on a systematic defence and exposition of this Christian doctrine. The question was not raised in the Church Letter; nor does Paul i... [ Continue Reading ]
“Now I give you to know, brothers” (_cf._ 1 Corinthians 12:3, for γνωρίζω): Paul writes, with a touch of blame, as though _informing_ the Cor [2234] of what the staple of his message had been, that on which their whole Christianity is built (_cf._ 2 Corinthians 13:5; Romans 6:3) _viz_., “the good ne... [ Continue Reading ]
§ 50. THE FACTS CONCERNING CHRIST'S RESURRECTION. The doubt which the Ap. combats strikes at the fundamental, probative fact of his Gospel. He must therefore go back to the beginning, and reassert the “first things” he had taught at Cor [2233] (1 Corinthians 15:1-4); to establish the resurrection of... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 answer the question put in 1 Corinthians 15:2, reinforming the readers: “For I delivered to you amongst the first things, that which I also received”. καὶ emphasises the identity of the παραδοθὲν and παραλημφθέν, involved in the character of a “faithful steward” (1 Corinthians 4... [ Continue Reading ]
καὶ ὅτι ὤφθη Κηφᾷ, εἶτα τοῖς δώδεκα : so much of the _evidence_ P. states as having been formally delivered to the Cor [2269] along with the facts attested; for these two clauses are under the regimen of παρέδωκα (1 Corinthians 15:3). The manifold testimony was detailed with more or less fulness at... [ Continue Reading ]
carries forward ὤφθη into a new sentence, independent of παρέδωκα … ὅτι : the four remaining manifestations P. recites without indicating whether or not they formed a part of his original communication. ἔπειτα (_cf._ 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Corinthians 15:46; 1 Corinthians 12:28) ὤφθη κ. τ. λ.: “Afte... [ Continue Reading ]
“After that, He appeared to James” _sc_. _James, the brother of the Lord_, as elsewhere in P. (Galatians 1:19; Galatians 2:9; Galatians 2:12), included in the ἀδελφοὶ τ. Κυρίου of 1 Corinthians 9:5 above (see note); associated with P. in Acts 15:13; Acts 21:18 (see notes). The manifestation to James... [ Continue Reading ]
ἔσχατον δὲ πάντων, ὡσπερεὶ τῷ ἐκτρώματι : “But last of all, as it were to the abortion (a creature so unfit and so repulsive), He appeared also _to me_ ”. ἔσχατον (adv [2277]) πάντων marks the conclusion of a long series; _cf._ 1 Corinthians 4:9, also Mark 12:22. ὡσπερεί, a frequent cl [2278] conjun... [ Continue Reading ]
ὁ ἐλάχιστος corresponds to ἔσχατον πάντων (1 Corinthians 15:8); “the least” properly comes “last”: _cf._ Ephesians 3:8, which enhances this expression; also 1 Timothy 1:15. ὃς οὐκ εἰμὶ ἱκανὸς καλεῖσθαι κ. τ. λ., “who am not fit to bear the name of apostle”. ἱκανὸς (lit [2292] _reaching up to, hinrei... [ Continue Reading ]
“God's grace,” which makes Paul what he _is_ (see 1 Corinthians 9:1 f.: the double εἰμὶ is firmly assertive “I am what I verily am”), is the _favour_, utterly undeserved, that summoned Saul of Tarsus from the foremost rank of the persecutors to the foremost rank amongst the servants of the Lord Jesu... [ Continue Reading ]
breaks off the comparison between himself and the other App., into which Paul was being drawn, to sum up the statement of fact and evidence concerning Christ's resurrection: “Whether then it were I (1 Corinthians 15:8 f.) or they (Kephas, the Twelve, the first disciples, James 5 ff.), _so_ we procla... [ Continue Reading ]
δὲ contrasts with the affirmation of all Christians (1 Corinthians 15:11) the contradictory dogma of τινὲς ἐν ὑμῖν. For their sake P. made the rehearsal of 1 Corinthians 15:1 ff. “But if Christ is preached, (to wit) that He is raised from the dead” not “it is preached that Christ, etc.”: the preachi... [ Continue Reading ]
§ 51. IF CHRIST IS NOT RISEN? Paul has intrenched his own position; he advances to demolish that of his opponents. His negative demonstration, taking the form of a destructive hypothetical syllogism, has two branches: he deduces (_a_), in 1 Corinthians 15:13-15, from the (supposed) non-existence of... [ Continue Reading ]
opposes (δὲ) the thesis of the τινὲς by a syllogism in the _modus tollens_ “sublato genere, tollitur et species” (Gr [2299]): if bodily resurrection is _per se_ impossible, then _there is no risen Christ_ (so Bg [2300], Mr [2301], Al [2302], Bt [2303], Ed [2304], El [2305], etc.); the abstract unive... [ Continue Reading ]
The implicit affirmative conclusion just intimated P. will develop afterwards. He has first to push the opposing axiom to further consequences. (1) if the fact is untrue, _the testimony is untrue_ “But if Christ is not raised, vain therefore is our proclamation, vain also your faith”. κενός (see not... [ Continue Reading ]
restates the position of the τινές (1 Corinthians 15:13; see note), in order to press it to another, even more intolerable conclusion: (1) 1 Corinthians 15:14-15 proved _the witness untrue_, if the fact is unreal; (2) 1 Corinthians 15:17-18 conclude _the effects unreal_, if the fact is unreal.... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:17-18 unfold this latter consequence in a form parl [2326] to the former: εἰ δὲ … ἄρα (1 Corinthians 15:14). For ματαία (syn [2327] with ἀργή, James 2:20; with ἀνωφελεῖς, Titus 3:9), see note on κενόν (1 Corinthians 15:14); a faith is “frustrate,” “null and void,” “which does not _s... [ Continue Reading ]
expresses the infinite bitterness of such a deception. In the right order of words (see txtl. note), μόνον is attached to ἠλπικότες (_cf._ Luke 24:21): “If in this life we have _only_ had _hope_ in Christ” no present deliverance from sin, no future inheritance in heaven “we are more than all men to... [ Continue Reading ]
Νυνὶ δέ (_cf._ 1 Corinthians 12:18) marks the logical point P. has reached by the _reductio ad impossibile_ of the negative proposition attacked in 1 Corinthians 15:12. Christ has been raised; therefore there is a resurrection of the dead (1 Corinthians 15:12-18): “now” the ground is cleared and the... [ Continue Reading ]
§ 52. THE FIRSTFRUIT OF THE RESURRECTION AND THE HARVEST. Paul has proved the actuality of Christ's personal resurrection by the abundant and truthful testimony to the fact (1 Corinthians 15:5-15), and by the experimental reality of its effects (1 Corinthians 15:17). In 1 Corinthians 15:20 _a_ he th... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:21-22 explain the identification of the risen Christ with those sleeping in death, which was assumed by the word ἀπαρχή. It rests on the fact that Christ is the antitype of Adam, the medium of life to the race as Adam was of death. This parl [2338] is resumed in 1 Corinthians 15:46... [ Continue Reading ]
But ἀπαρχὴ implies _difference_ in agreement, distinction in order along with unity in nature and determining principle. Hence the added qualification, ἕκαστος δὲ ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ τάγματι, κ. τ. λ.: “But each in his proper rank Christ (as) firstfruit; thereafter, at His coming, the (people) of Christ”. τά... [ Continue Reading ]
εἶτα τὸ τέλος : “ _Then_ (is) the end” sc., “at His coming”. Christ's advent, attended with the resurrection of His redeemed to eternal life, concludes the world's history; then “the harvest” which is “the end of the world” (Matthew 13:39 f., Matthew 13:49; _cf._ Revelation 14:15 f.), “the end of al... [ Continue Reading ]
sustains the representation of the τέλος just given by prophetic words of Scripture (_cf._ 1 Corinthians 15:3 f.): “For He must needs reign, until He has put all the enemies underneath His feet”. Not till _every_ enemy of God is vanquished can Christ's existing kingdom reach its end. P. is thinking... [ Continue Reading ]
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 s... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:27-28 are a supplement to 1 Corinthians 15:20-26. They reaffirm, in new words of Scripture, the unlimited dominion assigned to Christ (1 Corinthians 15:25-27 _a_), in order to reassert more impressively the truth that only through His absolute victory can the kingdom of God be consu... [ Continue Reading ]
§ 53. THE EFFECT OF UNBELIEF IN THE RESURRECTION. To clinch the argument for the truth and the necessity of the Christian resurrection and to bring it home to the readers, the Ap. points out how futile Christian devotion must be, such as is witnessed in “those baptised for the dead” and in his own d... [ Continue Reading ]
There are certain conditions of interpretation bearing on the sense of the much discussed expression οἱ βαπτιζόμενοι ὑπὲρ τῶν νεκρῶν which bar out a large number of attempted explanations: (_a_) οἱ βαπτιζόμενοι, unless otherwise defined, can only mean _the recipients of Christian baptism_, in its we... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:31-32 _a_. In no slight jeopardy do P. and his comrades stand; for his part he declares, “Daily _I am dying_; my life at Ephesus has been that of a combatant with wild beasts in the arena _for what end_, if there is no resurrection?” With καθʼ ἠμέραν ἀποθνήσκω _cf._ 2 Corinthians 4:... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:33-34 deliver Paul's judgment upon the situation: the disbelief in the Resurrection declared in the Cor [2458] Church is of a piece with its low ethics (1 Corinthians 3:1 ff., 1 Corinthians 4:18 to 1 Corinthians 5:2) and its heathen intimacies (1 Corinthians 8:10; 1 Corinthians 10:1... [ Continue Reading ]
Ἀλλὰ ἐρεῖ τις : this form of interlocution belongs to Jewish dialectic (see parls.); _cf._ 1 Corinthians 15:12, also ἐρεῖς μοι, Romans 9:19, and the familiar Pauline challenge, τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν; “How are the dead raised up? With what sort of (ποίῳ δέ) body moreover do they come?” two distinct question... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:35-42 _a_. § 54. THE MANNER OF THE RESURRECTION. We enter on the second part of the Apostle's argument touching the Resurrection: see the analysis, _Introd_. to Div. V. He has established the truth of the doctrine and the certainty of the event, and proceeds consequently to set fort... [ Continue Reading ]
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... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:37-38 make answer to the second branch of the question of 1 Corinthians 15:35, by the aid of the same profound analogy. καὶ ὃ σπείρεις, οὐ τὸ σῶμα τὸ γενησόμενον σπείρεις, “And what thou sowest not the body that will come to be dost thou sow”. It is the object of the sower to realis... [ Continue Reading ]
The rest of the § goes to sustain 1 Corinthians 15:38 _b_, showing the inexhaustible variety of organic forms in the Divine economy of nature and the fitness of each for the life it clothes. This is manifest, to begin with, in the varied types of animal life: οὐ πᾶσα σὰρξ ἡ αὐτὴ σάρξ, “All flesh is... [ Continue Reading ]
The possibility of a future body unimaginably diff [2494] from the present is indicated in the contrast suggested by the diff [2495] _regions_ of the two: “Bodies also heavenly there are, and bodies earthly”. The σὰρξ of 1 Corinthians 15:39 is now dropped, for it belongs only to the σῶμα ἐπίγειον. W... [ Continue Reading ]
Even amongst the σωματα ἐπουράνια there are varieties, just as amongst the ἐπίγεια (1 Corinthians 15:39), such as are indicated by the diff [2518] of aspect in the visible celestial objects: “There is one glory of sun, and another glory of moon, and another glory of stars for star differs from star... [ Continue Reading ]
_a_ sums up what has been advanced in 1 Corinthians 15:36-41, and presents it in six words: οὕτως καὶ ἡ ἀνάστασις τῶν νεκρῶν, “So indeed is the resurrection of the dead”. It is as _possible_ as that plants of wholly diff [2522] form should shoot from the seed sown by your own hand; and the _form_ of... [ Continue Reading ]
“There is sown a psychic body; there is raised a spiritual body.” This dictum grounds the antithesis unfolded in 1 Corinthians 15:42 f. upon its proper basis; the diff [2540] is not a matter of condition merely, but of _constitution_. Corruption, dishonour, feebleness are, in great part, penal infli... [ Continue Reading ]
puts into words of Scripture the law of development affirmed, thereby showing its agreement with the plan of creation and its realisation in the two successive heads of the race. Into his citation of Genesis 2:7 (LXX) P. introduces πρῶτος and duplicates ἄνθρωπος by Ἀδάμ (_ha'adâm_), to prepare for h... [ Continue Reading ]
might have been expressly aimed at the Philonian exegesis; it affirms a development from lower to higher, from the dispensation of ψυχὴ to that of πνεῦμα, the precise opp [2553] of that extracted from Genesis 1:2 by Philo. (ἀλλʼ οὐ) “Nay, but not first is the spiritual, but the psychic after that (ἔ... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Corinthians 15:47-49 draw another contrast between the two “men,” types of the two eras of humanity, which is suggested by the words χοῦν ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς (‘ _aphâr minha'adamâh_) of Genesis 2:7. The first is ἐκ γῆς, χοϊκός (_terrenus_, Vg [2556]; more literally, _pulvereus_, Bz [2557]); the second is... [ Continue Reading ]
Τοῦτο δέ φημι, ἀδελφοί (see note, 1 Corinthians 7:29) introduces, with a pause, an emphatic reassertion of the ruling thought of the previous § that of the opposition between the psychic body of the First Adam and the spiritual body of the Second; manifestly the former is unfit for God's heavenly ki... [ Continue Reading ]
§ 56. VICTORY OVER DEATH. The second part of the argument of this chapter has now reached the same platform as the first (_cf._ §§ 51 and 54). The Resurrection of the Body, it has been shown, is an essential part of the Divine world-plan and necessary to the fulfilment of God's kingdom through Chris... [ Continue Reading ]
This bodily change, indispensable in view of the incompatibility just affirmed, is the object of a momentous _revelation_ communicated to P., to which he calls our earnest attention: “Lo, I tell you a mystery!” On μυστήριον, see note to 1 Corinthians 2:1. P. began by demonstrating _the historical fa... [ Continue Reading ]
The necessity for change, negatively declared in 1 Corinthians 15:50, is now reaffirmed positively, as a necessity lying in the nature and relations of the changed: “For this corruptible (perishable) is bound (δεῖ : _cf._ 1 Corinthians 11:19) to put on incorruption (imperishableness), and this morta... [ Continue Reading ]
This clothing of the saints with immortality fulfils a notable O.T. word respecting the Day of the Lord: “Then will be brought to pass the word that is written, _Death has been swallowed up_ (κατεπόθη, the vb [2571] adopted in 2 Corinthians 5:4 as above) _unto victory_!” ὅταν, with its double clause... [ Continue Reading ]
At this climax P. breaks into a song of triumph over Death, in the strain of Hosea's rapturous anticipation of Israel's resurrection from national death. [Many interpreters, however, put the opp [2574] sense on Hosea 13:14, as though God were summoning Death and the Grave to ply all their forces for... [ Continue Reading ]
is set aside by Sm [2585], and Clemen (_Die Einheitlichkeit d. paul. Br., ad loc_ [2586]), after Straatmann and Völter, as a “marginal note” of some early Paulinist, on the ground that it is out of keeping with the lyrical strain of the passage, and with the absence of the anti-legal polemic from th... [ Continue Reading ]
briefly directs the previous teaching against the unsettlement caused by Cor [2587] doubts. This unbelief was taxed in 1 Corinthians 15:32 ff. with sensualism and ignorance of God; its _enervating effect on Christian work_ is here indicated. For ὥστε with impv [2588], _cf._ 1Co 3:21, 1 Corinthians 4... [ Continue Reading ]