1 Corinthians 15: the resurrection of Christ and of the dead

Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus, probably between AD 53 and 55, to the church he had founded in Corinth (Acts 18; 1 Corinthians 16:8). Corinth was a commercial Roman colony, proud of its wealth and wisdom. The letter deals with factions, immorality, lawsuits, marriage, food offered to idols, worship and gifts, and ends with this long chapter on the resurrection. Paul places it last because it gathers the whole gospel.

Paul says that some in Corinth were saying there is no resurrection of the dead (15:12). What they meant is debated. They did not deny that Jesus rose, for Paul takes it for granted that they had believed the gospel as he preached it (15:1-2, 11). Several explanations have been given. Many Greeks thought of the body as a prison, and the soul's release from it as the hope of life after death; the idea of a raised body seemed foolish, as the reaction at Athens shows (Acts 17:32). Others suggest the Corinthians held that they had already entered the fullness of spiritual life (compare 4:8), so that nothing bodily remained to come. Probably both ideas had a part.

Parts of the chapter are older than the letter. In 15:3-5 Paul says he is passing on what he had himself received, using the verbs for handing on tradition. Many scholars, including many who doubt the resurrection, date this summary to the first years after the crucifixion, since Paul met Peter and James in Jerusalem within a few years of his conversion (Galatians 1:18-19). It is among the earliest Christian statements that survive.

The chapter is a sustained argument within a letter, and the reader should follow its logic step by step. Paul moves from established facts (the gospel received and the witnesses) to consequences (if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised) and then to the positive case (Christ has been raised, as firstfruits). He answers an objection ('How are the dead raised?') and ends with a statement of the future. It mixes tradition (verses 3-7), debate (12-19, 29-34), exposition of Genesis (21-22, 45-49) and apocalyptic revelation (51-57).

The central claim must be understood in its first-century setting. Resurrection (anastasis) in Jewish thought meant the rising of the body, not the survival of the soul alone. It was a hope found in the later Old Testament (Daniel 12:2; Isaiah 26:19) and held by the Pharisees. Paul's language of a 'spiritual body' (soma pneumatikon) must therefore not be read as 'immaterial body'. In Greek the pairing is of a body animated by the soul (psychikon) with one animated by the Spirit (pneumatikon). The adjective describes what empowers the body, not what it is made of.

Two verses are especially difficult. Verse 29 speaks of people being baptised for the dead, and no one knows exactly what it meant to the Corinthians; Paul refers to it as something 'they' do and uses it only in passing. Verse 28 says that the Son will be subjected to the Father. The context is Christ's work as the Messiah who reigns to put down enemies and then hands back the kingdom; it is not a statement about his being, and the New Testament elsewhere teaches his full deity (John 1:1; Colossians 2:9).

Verses 1–2

Paul reminds the Corinthians of the gospel he preached, which they received, in which they stand, and by which they are being saved if they hold it fast, unless they believed in vain. 'In vain' (eike) means without result or reality: a warning against a faith with no content.

Verses 3–8

What he received he handed on as of first importance.

• First, Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
• Second, he was buried.
• Third, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures; the verb is in the perfect tense (egegertai), 'has been raised and remains risen'.
• Fourth, he appeared (ophthe, was seen) to Cephas, then to the Twelve, then to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom were still alive when Paul wrote (an invitation to ask them), then to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all to Paul himself, whom he calls one untimely born (ektroma), a word for a miscarriage that some think was an insult used against Paul. 'According to the Scriptures' appears twice: the death and the resurrection fulfil the Old Testament.

Verses 9–11

Paul calls himself the least of the apostles, unfit to be called one because he persecuted the church of God. By the grace of God he is what he is, and grace was not in vain. This is what the apostles preached and what the Corinthians believed.

Verses 12–19

If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some say there is no resurrection? Paul draws out the consequences. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, preaching is empty, faith is empty, the apostles are false witnesses against God, believers are still in their sins, and those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If our hope in Christ is for this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Verses 20–28

But in fact Christ has been raised, the firstfruits (aparche) of those who have fallen asleep. In the Old Testament the firstfruits were the first sheaf of the harvest, offered to God as a pledge that the rest would follow (Leviticus 23:10-11). Christ's resurrection is the first part of the harvest. Since death came through a man, resurrection comes through a man: as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive, meaning all who are in Christ. There is an order: Christ the firstfruits, then those who belong to him at his coming, then the end, when he hands the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule, authority and power. Paul draws on Psalm 110:1 (he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet) and Psalm 8:6 (all things under his feet). The last enemy to be destroyed is death. The Son will be subjected to the Father so that God may be all in all.

Verses 29–34

Paul asks what those who are baptised for the dead are doing, if the dead are not raised. Interpretations are many: baptism by living believers on behalf of the dead, baptism of converts who take the place of believers who have died, or baptism in view of the resurrection. Paul says he is in danger every hour and has fought with wild beasts at Ephesus (literally or figuratively). If the dead are not raised, the motto would be, eat and drink, for tomorrow we die (Isaiah 22:13). The saying that bad company corrupts good character is a proverb that most scholars trace to the Greek poet Menander.

Verses 35–49

Someone asks, how are the dead raised, and with what kind of body? Paul answers sharply, calling the questioner a fool, and gives the analogy of the seed. What is sown does not come to life unless it dies, and what is sown is not the body that will be, but a bare kernel. God gives it a body as he chooses. There are different kinds of bodies, and different splendour among them. So with the resurrection: sown perishable, raised imperishable; sown in dishonour, raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. The first man Adam became a living being (Genesis 2:7); the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall bear the image of the man of heaven.

Verses 50–58

Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Paul tells a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet (compare 1 Thessalonians 4:16). The perishable must put on the imperishable. Then Scripture will be fulfilled: death is swallowed up in victory (Isaiah 25:8), and the taunt of Hosea 13:14 is turned against death itself. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore the believers are to be steadfast, because their labour in the Lord is not in vain.

First Corinthians 15 is the fullest New Testament treatment of the resurrection. It teaches that the gospel itself consists of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, in fulfilment of Scripture. It teaches that the bodily resurrection of Jesus is a historical event, backed by named witnesses, and that the Christian hope rests on it. If Christ has not been raised, Paul says, faith is futile; this makes the faith depend on a fact, not a feeling.

The chapter teaches the resurrection of believers as the completion of salvation. The body is not discarded; it is raised, changed and glorified. This fits Daniel 12:2, Isaiah 26:19 and Job's confidence that he would see God (Job 19:25-27), and the renewal of creation in Romans 8:18-23. The chapter also shows the Bible's pattern of two heads. Adam and Christ stand for humanity under death and humanity under life, as Romans 5:12-21 sets out (see the class on Romans 5).

The end of history is the defeat of death and the handing of the kingdom to God. Christ now reigns and his enemies are being put down; at the end death is destroyed.

Everything in the chapter concerns Christ. He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, which points to the suffering of the Servant in Isaiah 53 and to the sacrifices; he was buried; he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. Paul does not name the Old Testament texts. Peter and Paul quote Psalm 16:10 for the resurrection (Acts 2:25-31; 13:35), which is fulfillment; Hosea 6:2 and the sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:40) have often been connected to the third day, and the Hosea link is an echo.

He is the firstfruits (15:20, 23), the Old Testament offering of the first sheaf, which the festival law required on the day after the Sabbath (Leviticus 23:11). That is a type: the harvest pattern finds its meaning in his resurrection. He is the last Adam (15:45), the head of a new humanity, and the Lord who reigns until his enemies are under his feet, in fulfilment of Psalm 110:1 and Psalm 8:6 (compare Hebrews 2:5-9). He destroys death, the last enemy, and the quotation of Isaiah 25:8 is applied to the day of his triumph.

He is also the one who was seen: the list of witnesses stands because the claim is that the crucified Jesus is alive. The resurrection is the vindication of his claims, the pledge of ours and the beginning of the new creation.