1 Corinthians 15:55,56

“Where is thy sting, O death? O death, where is thy victory? 56. Now the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.”

The text varies considerably in the MSS., influenced no doubt by the differences between the Hebrew text and that of the LXX. Hos 13:14 says, according to what seems to me the most probable translation: “How shall I ransom them from the power of the grave? How shall I deliver them from death? How should I be thy plague, O death? How should I be thy destruction, O grave?” The meaning is this: “Yea, I should have done so, hadst thou repented, O Israel! O death, I should have swallowed thee as thou swallowest up men! O grave, I should have been to thee what thou art to them, thy grave! But to act thus for thee, impenitent Israel, is impossible.” The LXX. have translated thus: “I will deliver them from the power of the grave, and I will ransom them from death. Where is thy right (thy judgment), O death? where is thy sting, O grave!” What in Hebrew is given as a regret on God's part, as an expression of the desire He had to bestow a great blessing on Israel, becomes in the LXX. a promise to grant this extraordinary benefit, as soon as the desired condition shall have been fulfilled. This signification of the LXX., which is followed by the apostle, corresponds therefore, though only indirectly, with that of the Hebrew text. In the first question, the T. R. with the Byz. and the Greco - Lats. reads κέντρον, sting, and in the second νῖκος, victory. The Alex. reverse the words. Perhaps this second reading is the result of a correction after the LXX., who read δίκη (like enough to νῖκος) in the first and κέντρον in the second. Any-how the term νῖκος, victory, is connected in Paul's mind with the εἰς νῖκος of the preceding verse. It corresponds to δίκη, judgment, in the LXX. And it is not difficult to understand how the two translations may have arisen from the same Hebrew term. The latter, debarim, may be either the plural of dabar, word, and hence sentence (the δίκη, judgment, of the LXX.), or the plural of deber, destruction, and hence victory (the νῖκος of Paul). In the second question, the word κέντρον, sting, is the translation of the Hebrew kétev, ruin. This word denotes the murderous power which death exercises over men. By this figure κέντρον, sting, death is represented as a venomous animal, a wasp, or a scorpion, which has become harmless through the loss of its sting.

According to the T. R. and the Byz., the apostle apostrophizes death (θάνατε) in the first question and Hades in the second, this is the exact reproduction of the Hebrew text and of the LXX., whereas in the Alex. and Greco-Latin texts he addresses death both times. The first reading seems to be a correction after the Hebrew and Greek texts. To this reason Edwards adds another, and a very interesting one. He points out that Paul never uses the term Hades (Romans 10:7, he substitutes ἄβυσσος, the abyss), a circumstance which is to be explained, no doubt, by his fear of the superstitious ideas which, among the Greeks, attached to the name. Philo himself is careful to distinguish between the true and the false Hades.

This final defeat of death embraces two things: the resurrection of the dead and the immortality of the glorified living. In this saying, Hosea has risen to the sublimest view of Divine salvation. No doubt he described this complete triumph only hypothetically. But as the spokesman of faith in Christ, the apostle proclaims it as a certain reality: γενήσεται ὁ λόγος (1 Corinthians 15:54)!

Now he gives, in two powerful and concise sayings, the moral explanation of that defeat of death which he has just celebrated beforehand.

Vv. 56. A subjective sense is often given to the two propositions of this verse; they are taken to describe man's feeling in view of death. The consciousness of sins committed is that which gives to death its sting, its agonizing power; and the threatenings of the law are what produce in man the lively and painful consciousness of his sin. Or again, this second proposition is explained according to Romans 7:8; Romans 7:13; it is the law which, by provoking our inward lusts, renders sin more active in the heart and life; comp. Romans 3:20. But in a discussion on the resurrection, what have we to do with the trouble experienced by the dying man and the peace enjoyed by believers? Does this peace secure their resurrection? 1 Corinthians 15:18 proves that it is not so. The same is the case with the action of the law on the human conscience and heart, and with its abolition. None of these can explain the resurrection. But this is the apostle's object. He wishes to show how the power exercised by death has been broken, not only in the experience of believers, but in its entire reality: how it is possible for the believer to rise again, and not how it is possible for him to die in peace. Father Didon recently said, when speaking of the Socialistic manifestations of our day: “There is only one way of protecting ourselves against such forces, and that is to penetrate to the conditions which engender them.” And this is precisely what the apostle does here. He penetrates to the profound conditions which laid the foundation of the reign of death, to explain how the Lord abolished them and thus gained the gigantic result, the death of death. He seems to go down with Jesus Himself into the mysterious laboratory where death distils its poisons, to show us how the conqueror set himself to bring this occult and malignant power to an end. Here we are in the domain of facts the most objective and real in the history of humanity.

The moral bases of the reign of death are these two: sin and the law. It was by sin that death gained its power over man: “In the day thou disobeyest thou shalt die” (Gen 2:17). “As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin...” (Romans 5:12). It is said in this same chapter: “As by man came death...” (1 Corinthians 15:21-22). If he had not sinned, man, mortal though he was in his bodily nature, would have been raised without passing through this dissolution of his being to the sphere of imperishable life. It was because of sin that death could pierce man with its fatal arrow; comp. Romans 8:10: “The body is dead because of sin.” But what gave sin this terrible power exercised by it? The law, answers the apostle. This thought is explained by the words, Romans 5:13: “Sin is not imputed where there is no law.” When there is no law, there may be faults, but not positive disobedience, revolt. It is violated law which gives sin the character of high-handed sin, as the Old Testament calls it, transgression wrought with consciousness and freedom, rebellion. Consequently law alone can make sin an act meriting deprivation of life, capital punishment. If sin is the sting whereby death seeks to kill us, it is the law which makes this sting penetrate deeply enough to reach the springs of life and change them into springs of death. The throne of death thus rests on two bases: sin, which calls for condemnation, and the law which pronounces it.

Consequently it was on these two powers that the work of the Deliverer bore.