Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 15:15
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
15. Yea, and we are found false witnesses ] Not only is our authoritative proclamation of Christ’s Resurrection useless, but it is even false, though it has been made from the beginning. See Act 1:22; Act 2:24; Act 3:15; Act 3:21; Act 4:2; Act 4:10; Act 4:33; Act 5:30; Act 10:40; Act 13:30; Act 13:33-34, &c. Dean Stanley reminds us that this Epistle was written within twenty-five years of the event to which it refers with such unhesitating confidence. Yet that event is not merely affirmed, but is actually made the foundation of the Apostle’s whole argument. “There is a certain instinct within us generally which enables us to detect when a man is speaking the truth. Truth, so to speak, has a certain ring by which it may be known. Now, this chapter rings with truth.” Robertson. It certainly has not the appearance of having been written by a man who was endeavouring to persuade others of what he did not believe himself.
of God ] i.e. concerning Him, but the genitive (which is here found in the original) implies also that they had claimed to be God’s special ministers and witnesses.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Yea, and we are found – We are; or we shall be proved to be. It will follow, if the Lord Jesus was not raised up, that we have been false witnesses.
Of God – Respecting God. It will be found that we have affirmed that which is not true of God; or have said that he has done that which he has not done. Nothing could be regarded as a greater crime than this, whatever might be the immediate subject under consideration. To bear false witness of a man, or to say that a man has done what he has not done, is regarded as a grievous crime. How much more so to bear false testimony of God!
Because we have testified of God – Or rather against God ( kata tou theou). Our evidence has been against him. We have affirmed that which is not true; and this is against God. It is implied here that it would be a crime to testify that God had raised up the Lord Jesus if he had not done it; or that it would be affirming that of God which would be against his character, or which it would be improper for him to do. This would be so:
- Because it would he wrong to bear any false witness of God, or to affirm that he had done what he had not done;
- Because if the Lord Jesus had not been raised up, it would prove that he was an impostor, since he had declared that he would be raised up; and to affirm of God that he had raised up an impostor would be against him, and would be highly dishonorable to him.
If the dead rise not – If there is, and can be no resurrection. If this general proposition is true that there can be no resurrection, then it will apply to Christ as well as any others, and must prove that he did not rise. The argument in this verse is this:
(1) If it was denied that Christ was raised, it would prove that all the apostles were false witnesses of the worst character; false witnesses against God.
(2) This the apostle seems to have presumed they could not believe. They had had too many evidences that they spoke the truth; they had seen their uniform respect for God, and desire to bear witness of him and in his favor; they had had too conclusive evidence that they were inspired by him, and had the power of working miracles; they were too fully convinced of their honesty, truth, and piety, ever to believe that they could be false witnesses against God. They had had ample opportunity to know whether God did raise up the Lord Jesus; and they were witnesses who had no inducement to bear a false witness in the case.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
There is nothing in these two verses but what the apostle had before said, viz. That if Christ were not risen, the apostles preaching and the Corinthians believing were both of them vain and false. Only what the apostle, in the former verse, called preaching, he here calleth witnessing:
We are (saith he) false witnesses of God. To be false witnesses for men, or in the name of men, is against the ninth commandment, and a sin of no ordinary magnitude; but to be a false witness of God, is a much higher sin. This title of witnesses was at first given to the apostles by Christ, Act 1:8; afterwards often (especially in the Acts) applied to them, Act 1:22; 2:32; 4:33; 5:32; 10:39,41; particularly Paul applieth it to himself, Act 22:15; 26:16. It is true, the apostles, who either saw Christ while he was on earth after his resurrection, or in heaven, as Paul did, Act 9:1-43, were in the strictest sense eye witnesses; but yet in a larger sense this notion agreeth to all ministers, who testify, upon the hearing of the ears, and upon reading the Scriptures, the same thing which the apostles testified, though not upon the same evidence. Now to aifirm a thing, as from God, for truth, which is in itself false, is a very high transgression; which (saith the apostle) we must be guilty of, if Christ be not raised; and
if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. testified of Godthat is,concerning God. The rendering of others is, “against God”[Vulgate, ESTIUS,GROTIUS]: the Greekpreposition with the genitive implies, not direct antagonism (as theaccusative would mean), but indirect to the dishonor ofGod. English Version is probably better.
if so beas theyassert. It is not right to tell untrue stories, though they are toldand seem for the glory of God (Job13:7).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God,…. The apostles were chosen to be witnesses of the resurrection of Christ; he appeared to them, and was seen by them for this purpose; and they were sent into all the world, to bear their testimony to this truth, which they accordingly did: now if Christ is not risen, they have bore a false testimony; and what greater scandal, or a more odious character can be fixed upon a man, than to be a false witness? but God forbid that such an imputation should be fastened upon the holy apostles of Christ, who cannot be thought to have any sinister end in publishing such a falsehood; who were sure on account of declaring it, and abiding by it, to meet with nothing but hatred, reproach, persecution, poverty, and death; but this is not all, nor the worst; for if they are false witnesses, they are false witnesses of God; they are of his suborning; he selected them as witnesses; he must put this lie into their mouths, and send them into the world under his authority to publish it; than which to say nothing can be thought of more blasphemous and execrable; and yet this must follow, upon a denial of the resurrection of Christ:
because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ, whom he raised not up, if so be the dead rise not; it may be read, “we have testified against God”, as the Vulgate Latin does; for as it must be bringing a false testimony from God, so it must be bearing a false testimony against him, to say that he raised Christ from the dead, when he is not risen; which must be the case, if there is no resurrection of the dead.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
False witnesses of God ( ). Late word, but , to bear false witness, old and common. The genitive ( ) can be either subjective (in God’s service) or objective (concerning God). Either makes good sense.
Because we witnessed of God ( ). Vulgate has adversus Deum. This is the more natural way to take and genitive,
against God not as equal to (concerning). He would indeed make God play false in that case,
if so be that the dead are not raised ( ). Condition of first class, assumed as true. Note both intensive particle
indeed and inferential particle
therefore .
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God;” (euriskometha de kai pseudomartures tou theou) “And we are even found (to be) false or lying witnesses of God” – or that false witnessing is about God, the worst kind of an impostor.
2) “Because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ;” (hoti emarturesumen kata tou theou hoti egeiren ton christon) “Because we witnessed (that) as to God he raised up Christ.” Paul vowed that God had raised Jesus. Were he and all the other apostles liars, impostors, hallucinating, or ignorant?
3) “Whom he raised not up,” (hon ouk egeiren) “Whom he did not raise up.” But he did, Act 2:36; Rom 1:4. The syllogistic dilemma submits that the resurrection was a fact or the mass of witnesses lied, inescapably.
4) “If so be that the dead rise not.” (eiper ara nekroi ouk egeirontai) “if dead persons (bodies or corpses) are not raised up,” as some skeptics among you in Corinth and other churches claim. Joh 5:28; Joh 11:25; Luk 24:46; Rom 8:11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
15. We are also found to be false witnesses. The other disadvantages, it is true, which he has just now recounted, were more serious, as regards us — that faith was made vain — that the whole doctrine of the gospel was useless and worthless, and that we were bereft of all hope of salvation. Yet this also was no trivial absurdity — that the Apostles, who were ordained by God to be the heralds of his eternal truth, were detected as persons who had deceived the world with falsehoods; for this tends to God’s highest dishonor.
The expression, false witnesses of God, we may understand in two ways — either that by lying they used the name of God under a false pretext, or that they were detected as liars, in testifying what they had received from God. The second of these I rather prefer, because it involves a crime that is much more heinous, and he had spoken previously as to men. (36) Now, therefore, he teaches that, if the resurrection of Christ is denied, God is made guilty of falsehood in the witnesses that have been brought forward and hired by him. (37) The reason, too, that is added, corresponds well — because they had declared what was false, not as from themselves, but from God.
I am at the same time well aware that there are some that give another rendering to the particle κατα The old interpreter renders it against. (38) Erasmus, on the other hand — concerning. (39) But, as it has also among the Greeks the force of ἀπό, (from,) this signification appeared to me to be more in accordance with the Apostle’s design. For he is not speaking here of the reputation of men, (as I have already stated, (40)) but he declares that God will be exposed to the charge of falsehood, inasmuch as what they publish has come forth from him.
(36) “ Et aussi il auoit desia parle du deshonneur qui en reuindroit aux hommes, c’est a dire aux Apostres et autres prescheurs;” — “And besides, he had spoken previously of the dishonor that resulted from it to men — that is to say, to the Apostles and other preachers.”
(37) “ Comme subornez;” — “As it were hired.”
(38) In accordance with this Wiclif (1380) renders the words thus — “We haw seide witnessynge agens God.” — Ed.
(39) Raphelius adduces two instances of Ταῦτα μὲν δὴ κατα πάντων Περσῶν ἔχομεν λέγειν — being employed by classical writers in the sense of concerning. “And these are things that we may affirm concerning all the Persians.” — (Xen. Cyrop., Book 1 page 6, line 33.) ‘ ̔Ο κατα τῶν τεχνῶν καὶ ἐποστημε̑ν λέγειν εἰώθαμεν ταυτὸν καὶ κατα τὢς ἀρετὢς φατέον ἐστίν “What we are accustomed to say in reference to the arts and sciences, may also be said in reference to virtue.” — (Plutarch, chapter 4.) Bloomfield suggests that the Apostle probably employed κατα in the “very rare” sense of concerning, “as wishing to include the sense — to the prejudice of — which falsification would occasion, inasmuch as it would almost imply a want of power in God to raise the dead, for the Gentile philosophers denied it.” — Ed.
(40) See p. 19.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Yea, and we are found false witnesses.Not mistaken witnesses, but witnesses testifying to what they know to be false. This is another result involved in a denial of the doctrine of the resurrection, that the Apostles must be regarded as false witnessesnot deceived, but deceivers. The suppressed part of the argument here is the absurdity of the Apostles being such. There was no motive for them to speak untruth.
If so be that the dead rise not.Better, if the dead be not raised.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. False witnesses The supposition not only empties our faith of all value, but it makes all of us apostles perjurers. Paul admits no excuse on grounds of the apostles being mistaken, deceived by false perceptions or excited imaginations. It is an issue of personal veracity.
Of God False reporters of, or in regard to, God.
Of God The Greek (in spite of Alford) can hardly be otherwise rendered than against God. The charge is, that we have testified against God what he never did; and what either the laws of nature or the corruptness of matter forbids him to do. And, says Grotius ingeniously: “If any one adulterates the coin of the king, he is most severely punished. Miracles are the coin of God.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Yes, we are found false witnesses of God, because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ, whom he did not raise up, if so be that the dead are not raised.’
Now we come to see why Paul went into such detail as to the witnesses of the resurrection. With Peter, James the Lord’s brother, the twelve, all the Apostles and the covenant community all involved as witnesses the Corinthians will certainly be disassociating themselves from the whole church if they deny their reliability. In order to deny the resurrection they will have to declare them all false witnesses. That is, they will have to declare the accepted revealers of God and those who had walked with Christ on earth to be false witnesses about God.
For they had all seen Christ when He had been raised from the dead, and bore witness of God that He had raised Him up. Yet if we dogmatically say that the dead do not rise then Christ cannot have risen. For if He has then at least some dead do rise. Thus either the Apostles and their fellow-believers are liars and false witnesses about God or it is possible for the dead to rise.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Co 15:15 . We should not, with Lachmann, place only a comma after 1Co 15:14 ; for 1Co 15:15 carries independently its full confirmation with it, and its awful thought comes out all the more impressively, when taken independently of what precedes it. The emphasis of the verse lies in the God-dishonouring . . In this phrase must, in conformity with what follows, be genitivus objecti (not subjecti , as Billroth would make it: “false witnesses, whom God has,” comp. Osiander, et al .): persons who have testified what is false against God .
] is not to be taken, with Erasmus, Beza, Wolf, Raphel, de Wette, and others, as in respect to God, of God (Schaefer, ad Dem . I. p. 412 f.; Valck. ad Phoen . 821; Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 272); for the context requires the reference to be as much in opposition to God as possible, and hence requires the sense: against, adversus (Vulgate). Comp. Mat 26:59 ; Mat 26:62 ; Mat 27:13 ; Mar 14:56 ; Mar 14:60 ; Mar 15:4 , al. ; Xen. Apol . 13 : , Plato, Gorg . p. 472 B. Every consciously false giving of testimony that God has done something, is testimony against God, because an abuse of His name and injury to His holines.
, . . .] whom He has not raised, if really thus (as is asserted) dead persons are not raised . Regarding and , see Klotz, l.c. pp. 178, 528. Observe here (1) the identity of the category , in which Paul places the resurrection of Christ and the bodily resurrection of the dead; (2) the sacredness of the apostolic testimony for the former; (3) the fanatical self-deception , to which he would have been a victim, if the appearances of the Risen One had been psychological hallucinations, so that the whole transformation of Saul into Paul nay, his whole Gospel would rest upon this self-deception, and this self-deception upon a mental weakness which would be totally irreconcilable with his otherwise well-known strength and acuteness of intellect.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
Ver. 15. False witnesses of God ] For they might safely say with Jeremiah, Lord, if we be deceived, thou hast deceived us.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
15 .] Not to be joined with the former verse, as Lachm., al., and Meyer: for it does not depend on . . . ., but has its reason given below.
, moreover .
. .] false witnesses concerning God (gen. obj.), not ‘ belonging to God ’ (gen. subj.), as Billroth: and false witnesses, as bearing false testimony (see below), not, as Knapp, as pretending to be witnesses, and not being : there is no such distinction as Mller attempts to lay down (Diss. Exeget. de loco Paul. 1Co 15:12-19 , cited by De Wette) between , ‘qui falsum testimonium dicunt,’ and , ‘qui mentiuntur se esse testes:’ see reff., and compare (De Wette) see reff., and compare (De Wette) , .
] not, as commonly, and even Meyer, ‘ against God :’ but as E. V., of, or concerning God : see, besides ref., Plut. de Liberis Educandis, 4: . , . , , . , . .
] If in reality, as they assert , , compare Plato, Protag. p. 319 ( 27), , , , , and see Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 343.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Yea, and = Moreover.
false witnesses. Greek. pseudomartur. Only here and Mat 26:60.
have. Omit.
testified. Greek. murtureo. See p. 1511.
of = against. Gr. kata. App-104.
if so be that = if (App-118.2. a) at least.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
15.] Not to be joined with the former verse, as Lachm., al., and Meyer: for it does not depend on . …, but has its reason given below.
, moreover.
. .] false witnesses concerning God (gen. obj.), not belonging to God (gen. subj.), as Billroth: and false witnesses, as bearing false testimony (see below), not, as Knapp, as pretending to be witnesses, and not being:-there is no such distinction as Mller attempts to lay down (Diss. Exeget. de loco Paul. 1Co 15:12-19, cited by De Wette) between , qui falsum testimonium dicunt, and , qui mentiuntur se esse testes: see reff., and compare (De Wette) see reff., and compare (De Wette) , .
] not, as commonly, and even Meyer, against God: but as E. V., of, or concerning God: see, besides ref., Plut. de Liberis Educandis, 4:- . , . , , . , . .
] If in reality, as they assert, , compare Plato, Protag. p. 319 ( 27), , , , , and see Hartung, Partikellehre, i. 343.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 15:15. , false witnesses) It is not lawful to declare concerning God what is not so; although it may seem to give glory to Him. False witnesses are, for instance, traders, who, for the sake of their gain, give fictitious accounts of earthquakes, inundations, and other great calamities, which have happened in distant countries, and lead souls otherwise not too credulous to thoughts and conversations concerning divine judgments, good in the proposition (thesis), but erroneous in the supposition (hypothesis) on which the proposition rests.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 15:15
1Co 15:15
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised.-If there be no resurrection, then Christ was not raised; and if Christ was not raised, the apostles bore false witness when they claimed to have seen him alive after his burial. They told a falsehood when it could bring no present good, but bring much suffering, and finally death; and if false, there could be no hope of anything but infamy and shame. Yet if Christ was not raised the apostles bore false witness of God. To bear witness of God, or his words and deeds, so as to mislead men in their faith in and duty to God is a more heinous offense than to bear false witness of men. It is a grievous sin to bear false witness of men. It is a terrible sin against God and man to bear false witness of what God does and says, for it misleads men where eternal interests are at stake. Peter said to Ananias: Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God (Act 5:4), showing that it is a greater crime to lie to and of God than of man.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
faults, Exo 23:3, Job 13:7-10, Rom 3:7, Rom 3:8
we have: Act 2:24, Act 2:32, Act 4:10, Act 4:33, Act 10:39-42, Act 13:30-33, Act 20:21
whom: 1Co 15:13, 1Co 15:20
Reciprocal: Pro 30:6 – and Isa 43:10 – my witnesses Mat 28:16 – the eleven Rom 11:2 – how he maketh 1Co 6:14 – God Heb 13:20 – brought Jam 1:26 – this
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 15:15. The Corinthian brethren would not intend to accuse the apostles of fraud, yet their theory about the resurrection implied that the preachers were guilty of it. They had preached that Christ was raised from the dead, but Paul has shown that it was false according to the teaching held at Corinth.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 15:15-17. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God, etc. The repetition and reiteration, in slightly varied forms, of the same truth gives to the statement momentous emphasis. How strikingly the expiatory character of Christs death, as taught at Corinth, and there joyfully embraced, comes out here, and quite incidentally, in connection with the resurrection of Christwhich if not true, argues the apostle, we are yet in our sinsmust strike every candid reader.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Vv. 15. And what in this case are the apostles who have borne witness to the world of an unreal fact? Impostors, and impostors of the worst kind, for their testimony bears on a false fact which they dared to ascribe to God Himself! The verb , we are found, expresses the idea of surprisal: Lo, we are taken in the flagrant sin of falsehood! The word , false witnesses of God, might be understood in the sense: Divine messengers giving false testimony; the gen. being made dependent on alone. Or it might be explained in the sense: Falsely calling ourselves messengers of God; depending in this case on the term taken as a whole. But the explanation which best agrees with the context is this: Testifying falsely in regard to God; in the sense that, as is said afterwards, the apostles ascribe to God a work which He never really did. The gen. is that of the object: false witnesses regarding God, and even according to the following words: , against God. Such a testimony is indeed an act of impiety, an act of violence to God Himself. For is it not to assail His honour to ascribe an act to Him which He never really did? It is exactly the same as if an act done by Him were denied.
The conj. , if truly, recalls the saying of the : If the thing is real, as they allege.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised.
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
15. And we are even found false witnesses of God, because we testified according to God that He raised the Christ, whom He raised not if the dead are not raised. In this verse Paul settles the matter that the doctrine of the resurrection must rise or fall with the Christhood of Jesus, which is an eternal failure if He be not risen.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
If there were no resurrection of the body, the apostles would not just be in error, they would be false witnesses against God. They would be saying something untrue about God, namely, that He raised Jesus Christ when He really had not. This would be a serious charge to make against the man who had founded their church and claimed to represent God. Really by denying the resurrection the unbelieving Corinthians were the false witnesses.