The Resurrection Body (15:35)

Certain of the Corinthians, with many Greeks, could not believe that a human body could enter the spiritual world. Thus the idea of the resurrection of the body was foolishness to them. This is therefore the next question with which Paul deals.

‘But some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what manner of body do they come?’

The question arises as to the nature of the resurrection body. The body dies and is laid in the grave where it corrupts and disintegrates, and becomes food for other creatures. Some are blown up into small pieces, others are destroyed by fire. From where then comes the resurrection body? And how can such a body enter into a spiritual world? How can it live on for ever? Of what is its nature?

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The Image of Our Resurrected Body In 1Co 15:35-49 Paul explains the transformation of our bodies at the resurrection of the saints.

1Co 15:37 “thou sowest not that body that shall be” – Comments – A farmer, in planting corn, does not plant the entire cornstalk. Instead, he plants just the kernels of corn.

1Co 15:41 “another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory” – Comments – Scientists estimate that there are 225 billion galaxies in the universe. Each galaxy consists of 500 million stars. This means that there are 10 25 stars in the universe, yet God knows them all by number and by name (Psa 147:4). The farthest stars detected by astronomers are 14 billion light years away from earth, or 84 billion trillion miles away. [185]

[185] Carl Baugh, Creation in the 21 st Century (Glen Rose, Texas: Creation Evidence Museum) , on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California), television program.

Psa 147:4, “He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.”

Science is also learning with the modern telescope that each star is unique with its own beauty and design. This fact is also confirmed in Scripture. If God calls each star by a unique name (Psa 147:4), it means that God sees each star as a unique creation. Today, man is calling stars and galaxies by numbers. This is because fallen man lacks the capacity to see each star’s uniqueness and to create for it a name.

Also, 1Co 15:41 says that each heavenly body varies in its glory, or radiance. This also, confirms that each star is uniquely different.

1Co 15:45 “the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” Comments – The phrase “the last Adam” means that there will never been the need for an additional redemption for mankind. Christ’s work on Calvary was total and complete for man’s eternal redemption. Otherwise, Jesus would have been called the “second Adam,” and others would have followed in order to complete our redemption. However, Jesus’ death and resurrection completed our redemption. There will be no other types of Adam.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

The nature of the resurrection:

v. 35. But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?

v. 36. Thou fool, that which thou sows is not quickened except it die.

v. 37. And that which thou sows thou sows not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat or of some other grain.

v. 38. But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body.

v. 39. All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.

v. 40. There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another.

v. 41. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory.

v. 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead.

Not to know, not to believe in, the resurrection of the body, that is a shame and disgrace for a Christian; but the manner of the resurrection is a secret which at best may be illustrated by analogous processes in nature. In this way Paul meets the question: How are the dead raised? With what kind of body, moreover, do they come? The lurking ideas of the impossibility and inconceivability of the resurrection of the body are both taken up; for the apostle realizes that someone might argue: The resurrection as proclaimed by the apostles is absurd; how can anyone conceive of a new body that is to rise out of a corpse that has been eaten by worms or has fallen into dust? As far as the first argument is concerned, Paul does not hesitate for a moment to charge its defender with mental stupidity, since all nature teaches that death is only a transition to further life: What thou sows is not made alive unless it die. The mystery of the resurrection is contained in every sprouting seed. The hull which serves as a covering, as a carrier for the seed-germ, will rot away and die, while the contents of the kernel, by a chemical process which only the Creator can explain, under the proper condition for germination, will rise up into new life.

To the argument that it is impossible to conceive of such a process, Paul answers with the analogy of the same picture: And what thou sows, not the body that shall be sows thou, but the naked grain, there being no difference whether it is of wheat or of one of the other grains. What we see before our eyes year after year may be impossible for us to comprehend, but it can no longer be said to be unreasonable. In placing the seed into the ground, the farmer or gardener knows that he is not planting a new body, which would but have to grow. He puts the naked, unclothed grain of any seed into the ground and does not permit himself to be deterred by the objection of some stupid person that has never seen things sprout, that his seed will merely rot in the soil. Experience has told the farmer that the grain of wheat, though in itself lifeless as a grain of sand, will yet, under the proper conditions, produce a new body. It is God that gives the sprouting seed the power and the plant its body, in accordance with His decree in creation, by which the continuance of life by this form of reproduction was determined. And He gives to each seed a body of its own. It is His miraculous working throughout, but that same power is able to return our bodies at the resurrection.

Paul now uses a second comparison to show with what form of body the dead will come: All flesh is not the same flesh, but different is that of men, different that of beasts, of four-footed animals, different the flesh of winged creatures, different that of fishes. All these creatures have flesh in their body, and yet it is not the same; there is variety not only in organization, but also in composition, as both the sense of feeling and of taste can testify. The God that exhibits such wonderful power in producing this variety will surely be able to provide a body for every person in the resurrection. Again, the apostle argues: And there are bodies heavenly and bodies terrestrial; but the glory of the heavenly bodies is one, and that of the earthly bodies another. The stars and all the heavenly bodies, by God’s creation, have a glory which differs from that of the bodies in this world, though the beauty of the latter in the manifold miracles of nature can well compare with them. Finally, the heavenly bodies differ among themselves in beauty and brightness, the sun, the moon, and the stars exhibiting a variety of glory which must be recognized at once: all are glorious, but in degrees. And the same God that produced all these miracles is fully able to produce bodies for His saints at the time of the resurrection which will be altogether suited to the glory of Christ’s coming kingdom. Paul therefore sums up all that he has advanced in the entire passage: So, indeed, is the resurrection of the dead. It is as reasonable as the recurring miracle of germination and new growth, and the bodies which it will make necessary can be provided by the same God that calls all the marvelous creatures before our eyes into existence. Simply because our bodies are now grossly material, it would be a mistake to conclude that they cannot, at God’s command, exist, in an entirely different and far higher state.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

1Co 15:35. Some man will say, How, &c.? If we will allow St. Paul to know what he says, it is plain from his answers, that he understands these words to contain two questions: First, “How comes it to pass, that dead men are raised to life again;would it not be better they should live on;why do they die to live again?” Secondly, “With what body shall they return to life?” To both these he distinctly answers, 1. That those who are raised to a heavenly state, shall have new bodies; and next, that it is fit men should die, death being no improper way to the attaining of these new bodies. He shews that there is so plain and common an instance of this, in the sowing of all seeds, that he thinks it a foolish thing to make a difficulty of it; and then proceeds to declare, that as they shall have new bodies, so they shall have better bodies than they had before; namely, spiritual and incorruptible bodies. See Locke on the Human Understanding, b. 2 : 100: 27 and Ward’s 48th Dissertation.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Co 15:35 . The discussion on the point, that the dead arise, is now closed. But now begins the discussion regarding the nature of the future bodies . This is the second, the special part of the apology, directed, namely, against the grounds upon which they disputed the resurrectio.

] but , notwithstanding of my arguments hitherto adduced, some one will say . Comp. Jas 2:18 . “Objicit in adversa persona quod doctrinae resurrectionis contrarium prima facie videtur; neque enim interrogatio ista quaerentis est modum cum dubitatione, sed ab impossibili arguentis,” Calvi.

] This general and not yet concretely defined expression is afterwards fixed more precisely by . The places and in such a parallel relation (see Hartung, Partik. I. p. 168 f.; Klotz, ad Devar. p. 362) that it does not, indeed, mean or again (Hofmann), but sets over against the that which is intended to be properly the scope of the question: but (I mean) with what kind of a body do they come? Then from 1Co 15:36 onward there follows the answer to the question, which has been thus more precisely formulate.

] namely, to those still alive at the Parousia, 1Th 4:16 f. The presents . and . bring what is in itself future vividly before us as a present object of contemplation . Comp. Dissen, ad Pind. Nem. iv. 39. So the same tense may bring the past also before us as present (Dissen, ad Dem. de Cor. p. 253). Erasmus puts it happily: “actio rei declaratur absque significatione temporis.”

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

C. Refutation of the denial of the resurrection of the dead, in reference to its mode; and the constitution of the resurrection body

1Co 15:35-50

35But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what [kind of, ] 36body do they come? Thou [om. Thou] fool,31 that which thou sowest is not quick ened, except it die: 37And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain [ of some of the other grains, ]: 38But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him [he willed, ], and to every seed his own body. 39All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh [om. kind of flesh]32 of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes33 [another flesh of birds], and another of birds [fishes]3.40There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial Isaiah 41 one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and 42another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. 43It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: It is sown a natural [an animal, ] body, it is raised 44a spiritual body. There Isaiah 34 a natural body, and there is [if there is an animal body, there is also] a spiritual body. 45And so it is written, The first man35 Adam was made [became, ] a living soul; the last Adam was made [om. was made] a quickening spirit. 46Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural [animal]; and after ward that which is spiritual. 47The first man is [was] of the earth, earthy: the second 48man is the Lord36 [om. the Lord] 37 from heaven. As is [was] the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49And as we have borne [wore, ] the image of the earthy, we shall also bear [we will wear, , or, let us wear, the image of the heavenly. 50Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit38 corruption.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1Co 15:35-38. After having established the belief in the resurrection of the dead, on the ground of Christs resurrectiona fact well attested and lying at the foundation of the whole Christian salvationand, besides, having exhibited the untenableness of the contrast on other grounds, he next proceeds to encounter those objections which related, partly, to the process itself, and, partly, to the result.But some one will say,He here introduces his opponents speaking in the character of persons who, not satisfied with the argument hitherto, now, for the first time, come in with their own reasons for doubting. [These persons are not to be confounded with sincere inquirers; rather, they belong to the class of mockers, such as Paul encountered at Athens. As Calvin says, nothing is more at variance with human reason than this article of faith; and, hence, there is hardly one which provokes such ridicule and calls out so many cavils].How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come ?The present tenses are not to be explained as setting forth the future in the form of the present because of its certainty, [Stanley]; but as exhibiting the case simply as a matter of thought. =Come into manifestation. Two distinct objections are here introduced, yet standing in close connection, as is seen from the copula . [The first originates in a sense of the impossibility of the resurrection, and so asks for the how, as a demonstration of the possibility of it; and the other seeks to puzzle by asking for the details of new organization, which, when given, it hopes to prove absurd. Alford resolves the two into one, regarding the second as only stating specifically what is involved more generally in the first. But certainly the mode of the Apostles reply implies two distinct points here]. The answers to both these questions now follow, so as to illustrate, first, the process of the resurrection by analogies drawn from vegetable life, and, next, the peculiarity of the resurrection body in its distinction from the present, partly, though analogies taken from the several spheres of creation, and, partly, from the difference between the first and the second Adam. He begins with an address to the deniers or the doubters of the resurrection, expressive at once of strong disapprobation and contempt.Fool!By this epithet he characterizes as irrational those who are inclined to boast of a high degree of rationality, inasmuch as they ought to have convinced themselves at once respecting the matter in question by an analogy so obvious. [The term does not necessarily express any bitterness of feeling, for our blessed Lord used the like to his doubting disciples (Luk 24:15). It was the senselessness of the objection that is here attacked; for it was folly to say, the body could not live again because it died. The case of the seed showed that disorganization was the necessary condition of organization. If the seed remain a seed, there is an end of it; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (Joh 12:24. So with the body (Hodge)] What thou sowest, thou, belongs not to fool, as if it were an emphatic addition to the vocative; but it belongs to the relative clause, and it is placed first to show that the readers ought to understand from their own experience the unreasonableness of the objection (Neander). [It is the pointed finger aiming at the objector present to the authors mind.Thou.] The human sowing is here contrasted with that of the divine in the implanting of human bodies in the grave (as Klopstock sings: The seed by God is sown, To ripen till the harvest day), but not the work of God in the development of the seed ()is not made alive, unless it die:What he means is, From the fact that the seed sown by man is not made alive without having first passed through a process of death and corruption, thou oughtest to infer that it is just so with the human seedthat dying and corruption furnish no ground for asserting the impossibility of the resurrection. By the use of the verb is made alive, instead of springs up () the type is brought closer to the antitype.After this reply to the first question, he turns to a more extended explanation of the nature of the new body, in answer to the second. From the process itself, he passes over to its contents and results by showing that, as in the process, there was a contrast in the development (first, death, and then life); so here there was a contrast, between the seed corn and the plant which sprung from it. The former is brought prominently to view in the construction of the sentence since it is set before us at the first in an absolute clause.And what thou sowest,i.e., as to that which thou sowest. not that body which is to appear dost thou sow,In view of the fact of which he is treating, the plant is here designated as a physical organism by the term body; and in contrast with this he calls that which is sown as, naked corn;,i.e., either undeveloped, or separated from its proper covering and from the life of the plant; the former explanation is better suited to the context,it may be . Comp. on 1Co 14:10.of wheat or some of the others: , sc., . In opposition to a gross identification of the present body with the resurrection body which lies at the ground of the objection urged, he here asserts a distinction between the twoa distinction, however, which does not exclude the identity of the fundamental substance or the germ. [That which springs up differs in outward form from that which is sown; yet it is so far the same, that we can say that that which is sown is precisely what springs up. The analogy here, therefore, is sufficient to destroy the force of the objection raised.]39 Mller interprets 1Co 15:37 of the intermediate state between death and the resurrection. He remarks Just as the old seed corn which is sown into death retains a sort of corporeity in ever changing forms (in the germ, in the blade, in the stalk) all through an intermediate state, until it, as it were, attains to its resurrection and glorification in the fresh, green corn, so also do human souls pass through their intermediate state, not without a certain sort of corporeity. But as the old appears again in a rejuvenated form, only when it has attained to a new and perfected kernel, so also, do those who sleep come to their full and glorified state in the resurrection of the body, which will take place at the end of the world. he next proceeds to show the divine causation in respect to the future body, thereby showing wherein all development, even the resurrection of the dead included, ultimately rests.But God giveth it a bodyThe Holy Scriptures know nothing of an independent development of nature without God, about which modern philosophy has so much to say. Bisping.as he hath pleased,The past tense here points back to. the original determination of the Creator, in accordance with which He goes on perpetually giving to each seed or germ a body, after its own fixed kind, or conducts it onward to the development of the same. [In all the continued processes of nature, the Creator abides by the primitive constitution of things. The uniformity of His operations should not lead us therefore, to ignore His perpetual free agency, and to regard the universe in the light of a dead mechanism. Nature is a live with an ever-present, ever-active God].and to each of the seeds, lit., sperms, not only of fruits, but also of animalsa gradation to 1Co 15:39. (Bengel).its own body., own, i.e., suited to the species, peculiar to the individual, produced from the substance of the seed. The argument here is this: that inasmuch as this is the way of Gods working, we may expect something of the like sort in relation to the germ of the human body, and that it is absurd to dispute this. [And still further; inasmuch as we cannot infer from looking at a seed what the plant is to be, so it is very foolish to attempt to determine from our present bodies what is to be the nature of our bodies hereafter. (Hodge)].

1Co 15:39-44. The diversities of organization in the several spheres of creation, and also the diversities in their glory, are next exhibited as analogous to the diversity between the present and the resurrection body, as that of a new and higher organization. He starts from the animal life, where man occupies the first position. With the unity of the genus (, flesh,) there exists a striking difference in the species.All flesh is not the same flesh;[De Wette explains flesh as the animal organism].but one is of men, and another flesh of beasts,, , properly, animals owned by man, such as sheep and oxen; but here in distinction from what follows, the word denotes quadrupeds in general.and another of birds, and another of fishes.The difference predicated here is not as to substance, but as to quality (Calvin); and this is manifold and marked. [If, then, we see such a variety in the organization of flesh and blood here, the inference is that we may find a still greater variety of organizations existing in other spheres. God is not limited in His power and wisdom, so that He must make all bodies a lake.](There are) also bodies celestial:It is not agreed whether the apostle here means the bodies of angels, or heavenly bodies, such as the sun, moon and stars. The first interpretation, taking the expression to mean bodies found in heaven, is maintained by Meyer and de Wette (comp. Mat 22:30); the second is the more common one, followed by Osiander and Neander, [Hodge and Alford]. The latter has no support in the usage of antiquity, and is vindicated, partly on the ground that the heavenly bodies were regarded by Plato, Plutarch, Galen, and others, as animated beings; and partly on the ground that in 1Co 15:38, the term bodies is applied to plants; and to this it may yet be added, that not only the clearness and the beauty with which the stars shine, but also the interest attached to this whole treatment of the idea of corporeity, explains this rare use of the word , body, as denoting a material whole bound together in unity of being. But it may be asked, whether the contrast between the stars viewed as heavenly bodies and the world of men, animals and plants, viewed as earthly bodies, is a suitable one? Perhaps, indeed, not so suitable as that between the bodies of angels and those of men and beasts. The latter would also touch and explain far better the distinction between the earthly body of death and the supramundane body of the resurrection (Osiander); and nothing unsuitable, nothing disturbing to the symmetry of the whole analogy, can be found in it. Moreover, we are led to the supposition that angels have bodies, from what our Lord says in Luk 20:35-36, of the equality between angels and the children of the resurrection in the future world. So far as the unfitness of this analogy to meet the case of the skeptics is concerned, it must be remembered that the apostle has not so much to do with these, as with a congregation established in the faith, to whom such a view of angels would be neither strange nor incredible.40This comparison between the two kinds of bodies is followed by an exhibition of their diversity in respect to glory. In the one case it is a heavenly radiance; Mat 28:3; and in the other case it is strength, beauty, grace, artificial culture, in their several manifestations (Meyer).There is one glory of the sun, etc.Not only do the heavenly bodies differ from the earthly in glory, but there is great diversity among the heavenly bodies themselves. The sun has one degree of lustre, the moon another, and even the stars exhibit a wonderful variety of size and brilliancy among themselves. The allusion here might naturally lead us to think of the various degrees of glory in the resurrection bodies, as compared with each other; but the context does not point to this, and all the allegorical deductions, such as we find in Tertullian and others, must be pronounced erroneous. [So Calvin:A mistake is here commonly fallen into in the application; it is supposed that Paul meant that, after the resurrection, the saints will have different degrees of honor and glory. This, indeed, is perfectly true, and is proved by other declarations of Scripture; but it has nothing to do with Pauls object. Paul is arguing here from existing diversities in the various organizations found throughout the universe, to prove that there may be still other and greater varieties yet to appearthat neither the wisdom nor power of God has been exhausted in the production of different kinds of bodies, and will be made more signally manifest in providing for saints a vesture suited to the glory of Christs coming kingdom]. In the next verse we have the apodosis of the comparison.So also (is) the resurrection of the dead.The connection is this: as we see so great a variety of forms above and below, there is abundant room for modifications of every sort in the human body, and it indicates only great narrowness of mind to infer from the condition of the dying human body that it could undergo no transformation. (Burger). The general proposition to which the comparison leads, viz., that there is a distinction between the constitution of the earthly body and that of the heavenly, is now more fully carried out.(It) is sown in corruption.The subject of the sentence is indicated by the connection. Instead of saying, it is buried, as pertinent to the case of the human body, he borrows his expression from the analogy above employed. [The bodies of the saints are as seed sown in the ground; and, hence, every graveyard or cemetery is most aptly termed, in German, Gods Acre. The dissolution that is there quietly going on, out of sight, is but preparing the way for a more glorious appearing, when the winter is past, and the millenial spring breaks upon us.] As the antithesis we have(it) is raised in incorruption:, is raised,the expression is not inconsistent with the figure. For we may take it in the middle sense, it raises itself, or, it rises, just as the plant does out of the seed corn. On account of what is said in 1Co 15:36, Neander interprets the sowing, not of burial in the grave, but of the development of life upon the earth; [and so Hodge: it is now a corruptible body, constantly tending to decay, subject to disease and death, and destined to entire dissolution. In this case the whole earth must be taken for Gods seed field, and our present condition must be regarded as, in some sort, an underground one]. The preposition in, in both clauses, expresses the condition in which the body is found in the two stages; in the first, the elements hitherto organically united are dissolving and scattering; and in the second, we are raised above all corruption and harm, above all pain, and disease, and suffering, into a state imperishable and fixed.It is sown in dishonor,, not simply denotes the unseemliness of the earthly body, and the humiliating infirmities of its corruptible state, by reason of which Paul elsewhere calls it our vile body (Php 3:21), but also, since he is speaking of burial, the foulness of the corpse, which is a reminder of the disgrace incurred in the penalty inflicted by death.it is raised in glory:By this he means the revelation of the dignity of the children of God in the resplendent brightness of their resurrection bodies, pervaded and glorified by the divine life. It is to be fashioned like unto the glorious body of the Son of God.it is sown in weakness, does not refer simply to the feebleness of the earthly body when living [Bloomfield], but also to its perfect powerlessness as a corpse, its inability to resist corruption.it is raised in power: denotes a fullness of strength, energy and elasticity, which a renewed vitality will confer on the resureection body, enabling it to execute all the purposes and volitions of the spirit with the utmost ease and readiness.All that is implied in these contrasts is condensed into the final one. It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.Respecting the term natural, [or, more properly, animal, psychical,] comp. on 1Co 2:14. The expression, natural body ( ), denotes, in general, an organization that corresponds to the soul (); and spiritual body ( ) one that corresponds to the spirit (). The former is one which carries the impress of the soul; the other, the impress of the spirit. The soul is that by means of which our spiritual part is linked to a physical lifea life of impulse and sensation, dependent for its nourishment upon a world of sense. The corporeity corresponding to this and determined by it, is precisely on this account made dependent upon this outward world, and is affected by it; and by reason of it, it is exposed to all that which has just been expressed by the words corruption, dishonor, and weakness, of which death is the catastrophe. The nature of the spirit is, on the contrary, a free, supermundane life of light and love in God; and the spiritual body is an organization suited to its character, being lifted above all dependence on the outward world, and the consequences following from it, and displays itself in incorruption, glory and power. The antithesis to the animal or natural body forbids our explaining the epithet spiritual here, as though it meant ethereal, or refined, [much less made of spirit, which would be a contradiction. Hodge].According to the ordinary reading, the following sentence would be simply a short and emphatic confirmation of what has already been said. But the better authenticated text, which we are by no means justified in setting aside as an easier reading, or as a correction, presents us here with two clausesthe second conditioned upon the first, which is supposed to be conceded.If there is an animal body,which the soul has as its corresponding organisma thing perfectly obviousthere is a spiritual body.i.e., the same must hold good also of the spirit; this likewise must have its corresponding organ as its means of expression, and as the instrument of its operations, [suited to the new order of things introduced by the coming of Christ], The emphasis here lies upon the word is. [If the one exists, so does the other].

1Co 15:45-49. According to Ewald, the sense and connection of this passage may be given thus: This order of succession in the whole course of the worlds history, it is impossible should be otherwise. The finer forms always follow the grosser; those more spiritual succeed the more sensuous. Christ could appear only after Adam; and the purely heavenly Christ, as an external manifestation, is yet to be looked for. In like manner, the entire glorified humanity can only follow upon the present.And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul,The citation is from Gen 2:7, with the addition of the qualifying words first and Adam; [ , from the LXX, being a literal rendering of the Hebrew , lit., for, or, unto a living soul; and to this the following expression is accommodated: .The expression living soul, as used in Genesis, is often taken to indicate an order of being superior to the brute, and is the text of many an argument to prove the immortality of the soul. The incorrectness of this assumption will be readily seen by referring to Gen 1:20-21; Gen 1:24 and elsewhere, in which passages the words translated living soul are applied also to the entire lower creation. They are used indifferently of man and beast to express animal life in general; and it is in this light that the apostle uses them as the very course of his argument shows. Adam is spoken of as a living soul, not to prove his immortality, but rather his mortality. It is by means of the soul that he and all descended from Him, are linked to this changing and corruptible world, and so become the heirs of corruption. The only superiority ascribed to man in the history of creation, is found in the fact that God breathed into him the breath of life, and in this it is intimated that in the act of becoming a living soul, man at the same time was endowed with higher capacities, which brought him into relationship with God, and made him capable of communing with Him, and so of rising to a spiritual existence. But the possibilities here involved for leading a true, spiritual life, could only be carried out by his abiding in fellowship with God and partaking of the Divine Spirit. And had this been maintained by obedience, there is every reason to believe that the higher life of the spirit would have glorified the lower and made it partaker of immortality without the intervention of death. But by reason of the Fall, this possibility was cut off, and man becoming animal () or as our version renders it natural in the very elements of his character, or in the springs of his existence, became at the same time mortal. Herein lay the necessity for the new creation through the intervention of a Redeemer who shall be nothing less than a quickening spirit]. That the Apostle wished to have the following clause also, regarded as a scripture quotation, is an assumption as groundless as that the whole was taken out of the Apocrypha. That which was affirmed in scripture respecting the first man Adam, suggests to his mind the thought of Christ, the antitype of Adam; the lower plain upon which Adam was said to stand, points to the higher. Already by the addition of the epithets first and Adam, the apostle gives us to recognize the significance of the scripture language, and introduces the contrast which he wished to set up.the last Adam, a quickening spirit.He attaches his own words directly to the passage from Scripture, as if to intimate, that the latter as necessarily followed from the former, according to its typical significance, as though it had been already spoken. He, therefore, merely gives expression to the inference which is implied in the passage itself, without any intimation that it also did not belong to the language of Scriptureit being a self-evident result plainly contained there. (Let a person read the first clause, and man became a living soul, dwelling thoughtfully upon the expression living soul, and then repeat, the last Adam, a quickening spirit, somewhat less slowly and loud, Meyer, Ed. 3.) The whole sentence, however, is by no means, to be regarded as a logical parenthesis, as though 1Co 15:46, were to be connected immediately with 1Co 15:44; but it enters directly into the whole course of thought, and was designed to be a confirmation of the preceding statement (1Co 15:44) from Scripture, which, by its declaration in regard to the first Man, that he became a living soul, from whence the soul-body or animal organization proceeded, points directly to that higher state which was first realized in the last Adam, viz., to the quickening Spirit on which the spiritual body was founded.The adverb so introduces the scripture text a-corresponding to that which had just been asserted and likewise confirming it. Adams becoming a living soul is represented as the effect of Gods breathing into him the breath of lives, . This is the term used to express the principle of life taken absolutely, which has its source in the divine Spirit, of which the soul of man is the efflux forming the bond or nexus between his body and his spirit, [See Delitzsch, Ed. 2. Part II. Sec. 3, and Heard, Tripartite Nature of Man, p. 3645]. The man, however, is , living soul, wherein body and spirit meet in living union. By means of this union is he constituted and made capable of a spiritual life; or in other words, herein consists the foundation of his moral and intellectual culture and final glorification into a divine life (Beck, Seelenl., p. 9.) This life of the spirit as it increases in intensity is destined to make the soul, and by means of it the body likewise ever more and more, the proper image and exponent of itself, so that the two-fold life of man, as in a natural and necessary way it has the soul for its uniting bond, so also in an ethical and voluntary way it has the spirit as an all-pervading and controlling principle. [See Delitzsch, Part 2. Sec. 5]. The first man, not as yet having transcended the character of a living soul (with which, however, sin must not as yet be supposed, nor even the necessity of its occurrence, but only the susceptibility for it, Meyer, Ed. 3,) since his personal life, by a free act of his own, had not appropriated as it should the Divine life of the spirit, but had apostatized from it through sin, which ran its fatal course in subjecting man more and more to the power of death, required now a new beginning which should actually lead to that glorification for which he was originally intended. This was to be achieved by such an appropriation of the Divine life of the Spirit that the result should be a quickening spirit. And this is just what we find in the other and second Adam who winds up the history of the race; since soul and body are in Him thoroughly pervaded by the Divine life and He as the perfected and glorified One, has the power continually to beget this same life in others, and so by renewing and transforming them, actually to develop the original capacities and intent of our common nature. But for the very reason that this quickening Spirit was obliged to assimilate every thing to itself, there arose a necessity for its bursting this earthly covering in order to fashion for itself a new and glorified organ. Neander.Now, it is evident, that the point of time from which Christ became this quickening Spirit was, not His birth, but His resurrection; for until that moment He was in the likeness of sinful flesh and had an animal body; and it was not until after He had solved the problem of maintaining the original sinlessness of the spirit through all the stages of His natural life in a world of sin, that He, who, by a living resemblance, was the representative of a humanity that had become flesh in all its natural susceptibility to sin and death, became in like manner the representative and head of a humanity spiritually and divinely glorified, by virtue of having glorified human nature through the power of the Spirit, and in the maintenance of a perfect obedience, and of thus having overcome the curse of sin (Beck, Lehrwiss., p. 465 ff. 472), The point of transition from the one to the other stage is His resurrection. Through this, in the very might of that love which led him to incur judgment and lay down His life for the deliverance of the lost, He became henceforth in His newly quickened and glorified corporeity the divine organ for that life-renewal, that quickening of the dead, which reaches its perfect realization at the resurrection, and so, a quickening spirit (comp. Rom 8:11). The verb to be supplied is not , is, but , became. While it belongs to the soul to be only living, and that through the spirit; so, on the contrary, does it belong to the Spirit to make alive, to impart the divine life-power which it has in itself, or which it is in a personal way (Osiander and Meyer). As the expression, the first man, designates the founder of the human race whose type is impressed upon all who spring from him, so does the expression, the last Adam, designate Him from whom issues the second final development of humanity that leads on to perfection.

And now, since it were natural to wish that the perfect had existed from the beginning, he proceeds to state the law of the divine order.Howbeit, not first the spiritual, but the animal; afterward the spiritual.Such is the established order in the development of humanity; and this order he means to set forth as something necessary, [founded in the very plan of the entire creation, the analogies of which were to be seen everywhere. Nature, through all the stages of existence, forms an ever-ascending series. In all the realms of life we mount from the lowest organizations to those more refined and complete. Why this was so ordered the apostle does not pretend to say. The reason for it is deeper than science can go, and is among the hidden things of the Eternal Wisdom. Al i that Paul means to assert here is, that such is the order required by the general constitution of things]. First, the earthly nature must needs manifest itself in Adam, and then only could it attain afterwards to a higher development (Neander). The adjectives, spiritual and animal, had better be taken here in a general way, as designating different stages of life, without supplying the noun body.That the natural is first, and then the spiritual, is shown in the instances of the two great heads of humanity.The first man (is) of the earth, earthy;By the epithet earthy, which relates to the body, and not to the whole man as imbued with earthly affections, he designates that physical conformation which corresponds to his origin as taken from the earth. With this is connected the animal state. But the inward quickening of the body, which proceeds primarily from the spirit, does not take place directly; but through the operation of the soul, which, in man, by virtue of the breath of the Creator; is, as it were, formed out of the essence of the spirit in the body (Beck, Seelenl., p. 31). Now, inasmuch as in the creation of the first man there existed, first of all, a body fashioned out of the dust of the earth, this, at the start, could only bear the impress of the soul, which mediated the quickening power of the spirit. And such a body carries in itself the possibility of death, which, however, is only realized through sin (Gen 3:19; Comp. Rom 5:12 ff.), i.e., the alienation of the soul, which determines the condition of the body, from the Divine Spirit-life. Apart from this, however, it has the possibility also of not dying, which might have been realized through the perpetual appropriation of this spirit-life by means of which, as the soul advanced in spiritual glorification, it would become ever more qualified for the progressive quickening and glorification of the body (comp. Osiander, p. 777). As the antithesis we havethe second man is from heaven.The fuller reading of the received text, the Lord from heaven, is opposed by an overwhelming balance of authorities; and the rejection of the words the Lord is not to be explained on the ground that it did not seem to suit as the proper contrast for earthy. It is far more likely that some transcribers attempted to fill out what appeared to be an imperfect antithesis, by adding the Lord in the margin by way of a gloss, and that this afterwards crept into the text. By the term Lord; (which would belong not to the subject, but to the predicate, and as the nobler designation would be put before the other), there would be exhibited the divine glory, the supramundane exaltation and power of the second man coming from heaven, in contrast with the earthly imperfection and weakness of the first man springing from the earth; and this certainly would not simply refer to his bodily life, but to his entire personality, which carries in itself the fulness of the spirit, and of divinely quickening power; from which, then, it might be inferred in regard to the expression earthy, that it denoted the earthly constitution and characteristics of the entire person of the first man.In the case of the shorter reading, however, the question arises whether it means the heavenly origin of the second Man, in relation to His human life; which, then, in case the term earthy refers to the body of the first man, might be referred in like to manner to Christs corporeity (hence the heretical assumption that Christs body was from heaven); 41 or whether it means the final appearing of the second man, His second advent, for the perfection of His work, of which the resurrection of the dead is a part. The whole context appears to imply the latter (comp. 1Co 15:22-23; 1Co 15:45; 1Co 15:49). 42 What is here meant, therefore, is His coming from Heaven at His second Advent, which will take place in celestial, glory and in His transfigured humanity. And this presents to us the real antithesis to the earthiness of the first-man.

The following verses express the fact that the peculiar qualities of each of these two heads are reflected in those of the persons who belong to them severally, viz., in respect to the natural body on the one side, and the spiritual body on the other. This is what is meant by and .As the earthy, such they also that are earthy:By the latter are meant those who have descended from Adam, and like him are of an earthy nature.and as the heavenly, such they also that are heavenly.By the latter are meant those belonging to Christ in their state of heavenly perfection, or those who are taken up with Christ, the glorified, in the fellowship of His glorified life in heaven. Comp. Eph 2:6, and hath made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; and Php 3:20, Our citizenship is in heaven; to which may be added still further, 1Co 15:21. Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body. The latter is here carried out in 1Co 15:49, in the same antithesis as in 1Co 15:48.And as we bore,namely, during our earthly life,the image of the earthy,i.e, the animal body (Php 3:21, the body of our humiliation)we shall bearnamely, at the time of His appearing, from the resurrection onward,the image of the heavenly.i.e., the spiritual body which is made like unto His glorious body. In the verbs and , he places himself and his readers at the turning point of the second Advent, when they will have the life which they led in their earthy state behind them, and that of their heavenly state just before them.,an image taken from dress. It means to wear as a garment; it occurs also in tragedy in relation to bodies ( ), and particular parts of the body, such as the hair. The more feebly attested reading , we shall bear, corresponds to the entire connection and force of thought. The other, , let us bear, would introduce a. paranesis, which would constrain us to take the word image in an ethical sense. So Chrys., and Theoph.: By the image of the earthy he means evil deeds, and by the image to the heavenly, good deeds. It is in connection with this reading also that the following verse is interpreted in an ethical sense, which, however, is in contradiction with the uniform usage of the words flesh and blood. Perhaps, however, it was the ethical interpretation of 1Co 15:50, that gave rise to the reading. [Stanley, in obedience to the preponderance of authority, gives preference to the hortatory form of this sentence, which he acknowledges to be in no connection with the context].

1Co 15:50. He here winds up the whole of this exposition respecting the body in which believers should come forth, and confirms the declaration, we shall bear the image of the heavenly, by a solemn asseveration.Now this I say,It is a formula for emphasizing a subsequent statement, and implies no concession to his opponents. , as in 1Co 7:29, not because, but,that

1Co 15:49 rests on 1Co 15:45, not on that which here follows.flesh and bloodBy these words, according to Theodoret, are intended [not our sinful, fallen nature, as some, like Chrys., understand it construing the words in an ethical sense; but] our mortal nature, which, as suchcannot inherit the kingdom of God;or, as Lange, the constitution originating in natural birth. It is the animal body in its present organization. Flesh denotes the earthly substance of the body and blood, the animal element in it, according to its corruptible nature. That this corporeal constitution cannot enter the kingdom of God without change, is still further shown from the incompatibility between the two.neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.Corruption, not as distinct from flesh and blood, as the dead are distinguished from the living; but the word exhibits to us prominently a characteristic of our present state, which sets it in marked contrast with the constitution of the kingdom of God, as that of an imperishable life is here the abstract for the concrete . The present expresses a constant relation (Meyer), and an established truth. The idea of time is not here taken into account.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Skepticism would fain wear the aspect of an enlightenment that transcended the ordinary scope of faith, of a more comprehensive and loftier view of the world which was justified in looking down upon a belief in the doctrines of revelation as a sign of narrowness and bigotry. But, regarded rightly, the narrowness will be found on its part. It is skepticism that betrays a lack of sound reason, which, at the same time, includes a lack in the higher moral constitution. There lies at the foundation of it a dullness of thought, a dislike for the labor of profound contemplation, a disposition to be readily satisfied with what is most obvious, and to abide within the wonted circle of human notions. Nay, still more there is at the bottom of it a pride of understanding which delights in the supposed discoveries of truth, and is opposed to the acknowledgment of a wisdom surpassing its own range of thought and opinioneven a wisdom to which it is the business and duty of the human under standing to submit, cordially accepting its doctrines and endeavoring to understand them more, and more, if it is ever properly to come to itself, since it here enters upon its own proper ground, the Spirit of God, and in the light of truth is enabled to recognize more and more, on every side, the nature and laws of Divine providence, and the manifold ways of God, and the correspondencies which exist between the natural creation in its varied developments and the kingdom of grace or the work of redemption in all its rich unfolding.

2. The resurrection of the dead, stands in close analogy with various phenomena which constantly present themselves to our notice, and in which the creative omnipotence of God displays itself from year to year. In these death, dissolution, and corruption, are seen to be the conditions of a new lifestages of transition to new forms of existence. The kernel contained in the ripened fruit, conceals a vital germ, which, when the kernel is planted in the soil and there dissolved, bursts forth and springs up into a new growth in conformity with the constitution originally given it by the Creator, and by means of His ever-present, everywhere active, power. Essentially the same process occurs in the resurrection of the dead. Corruption is only the dissolution of that which was the result of a previous vital development, in order that the germ of a new body which was included in the inmost kernel of the old, may break forth and unfold itself into a new and living organism. But the new is not [as some suppose, the restoration of the old, a recomposition of the same particles that existed in the old body,] but of another and nobler quality [and better suited to be the organ of a perfectly sanctified spirit]. In the resurrection body we enter upon a distinct and higher stage of life than that occupied by the body which has been laid in the earth. [The apostle calls it a building of God, a house not made with hands in contrast with the former, in which, as the seat of pain, and suffering, and sin, we groaned being burdened. What its particular attributes and peculiarities are, it doth not yet appear. It is sufficient for us to know, that it will be like unto Christs glorious body; and from the hints afforded us in the account given of His several appearances to His disciples, we may obtain some idea of its superior adaptation for the service of the spirit]. It must be understood that we are here speaking only of those who have been taken unto a fellowship with the new divine life in Jesus Christ, and have come within the sphere of His redeeming grace; or, in other words, who belong to that new development which proceeds from the last Adam. [What the condition of those will be who are to come forth to the resurrection of damnation, we are not here informed, and on this point to offer conjecture would be to go beyond our province].

This higher stage of corporeal existence has its analogies in the broad range of creation; since here also, we behold manifold distinctions and degrees of organization, as well in the sphere of animal life as among the higher orders of being, including man and angels, and also among the celestial bodies shining with varied glory. Somewhat corresponding to the distinctions here observable, will be the superiority of the resurrection-body in the comparison with the earthly bodya superiority, which viewed in the contrasts presented at the time of death and of resurrection, is expressed in the antithesis between corruption and incorruption, weakness and power, dishonor and glory.
3. The resurrection as illustrated by the account of the divine plan in mans creation. Much light is cast upon the great distinction between the present and the resurrection-body, by the divinely revealed economy of the Creator, or, in other words, by the divinely ordained development of the human race, as set forth in Scripture. The all-quickening Spirit of God first produced a creature with a living soul. The soul, as the vehicle and instrument of his life-power, by which being quickened, the earthly body prepared for it by God becomes animal or psychical, i.e. conformed to the character of the soul, is the organism of a personal life which is capable either of appropriating to itself ever more and more that divine spiritual life in which it is rooted, or of apostatizing from it. In the case of apostasy, such as actually occurred, instead of a progressive glorification of the earthly, physical body into a heavenly, spiritual one, there would ensue a progressive mortality and corruption. And such man has already incurred. Nevertheless, that condition for which he was originally constituted and destined, was still bound to come to pass. Through a Divine act of love, a new process of development was introduced into the human race, which, as in the first instance, entered into life through the quickening power of the divine Spirit, and in the like manner, involved the possibility of a free self-determination in both directions, i.e., a true human life according to soul and body. But by a style of conduct opposed to that pursued in the first stage of development or by its head, the first Adamby the perpetual appropriation and maintenance of the divine, spiritual life amid all the temptations of our lower nature, and amid all the difficulties, struggles and necessities which attended upon a loving entrance into the accursed state of the first Adamic humanity, this reached a height upon which the animal nature, glorified into a truly spiritual condition, becomes the principle of a like glorification for the earthly animal race of man (in so far as this enters into the fellowship of the second Adam), so that everything which had been corrupted by means of sin is again restored, and aims at rising to the highest stage of life which had been ordained from the beginning as the proper goal of all human endeavor, but which had become unattainable after the apostasy. Now after that we have become incorporated into the second Adam by faith, by means of which His Spirit as an inwardly sanctifying power takes possession of our personal life, and delivers it from all selfishness, and all entanglement with our earthly sensuous being, and attracts it with all its powers and entire organism into the service of the Divine life, and assimilates it to that; there then follows, as the natural completion of this process, an unfolding of the germ of this Divine spiritual life that has been implanted in this organism (after the process of dying which belonged to the old Adamic state, has been gone through with) into a new organism which corresponds to the glorified body of the second Adam.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Starke:

1Co 15:35. Hedinger: Shall I rise again out of the grave, the dust, the fire, the abyss of the sea, and appear in beauty and glory? Reason says, No. Oh, blindness! Ask the beautiful fruit-bearing stalk, what and where it was a short time ago.

1Co 15:36. Thou fool. Paul here calls conceited reason by its right name, in order to rebuke unbelief (Gal 3:1). To him who believes in the infinite knowledge, wisdom and power of God, and in the creation where God brought all things out of nothing, it will not be hard to believe that God knows where every little particle of dust of this or that body or member is, and how that which has been mingled in with the seeds of other bodies is to be again separated from them, and how each particle is to be brought again to its place, so that each body may be the same body. 43 If it is possible that a corrupted little seed of corn shall spring up to new life and verdure, and bring forth new kernels, although thy reason cannot comprehend how this can happen; then it is not impossible that God should quicken again the bodies that have been dissolved.There is such a depth and breath in the works of God, that our feeble understanding becomes lost in them, even as a little drop of water is swallowed up in the great sea.

1Co 15:37 f. That the nature of every plant, with all its peculiarities is included in the little seed-corn, and springs from that, is certainly a work of Gods wisdom and omnipotence. If He now produces from the buried kernel a particular plant which bears upon its stalk many other like kernels, how can we doubt that God would be both able and willing, according to His own infinite power, to bring forth out of the seed of a decaying human body a like result once more? (Luk 18:27.)

1Co 15:43. The most beautiful of mankind, during their whole life, are but dirt, and are obliged to conceal much that they have both upon and in themselves; but the resurrection will glorify all that, and render our bodies perfectly pure vessels.

1Co 15:45. We must carry about with us this mortal body in humility, endure it with patience, and let it die with fresh courage. In this way we rightly labor towards transforming it into that glorious and spiritual body which we expect from the second Adam.

1Co 15:47. Hedinger: Since the earthly Adam, endowed with earthly attributes, came first, and the second spiritual Adam followed after, so must that body which we inherit from Adam first be earthly and born, ere it become spiritual according to the image of the second Adam.

1Co 15:48. Every thing in its own timethe body must first lay off its earthly qualities through death, and after that spring up anew.What at last is born anew at the resurrectionshould not this be glorious? 1Co 15:49. Here upon earth the glory of the divine image mirrors itself in believers to some degree; but at the resurrection they will possess all this glory in its perfection.

1Co 15:50. Perhaps thou wouldst gladly journey on to heaven with thy body and soul without dying, and so inherit its glory (2. Cor. 1Co 5:4); but that which is to live there must first perish, ere it be made anew.

Berlenb. Bibel:

1Co 15:35 f. Man takes too much upon his phantasy, and means to see every thing thereby. Happily such are first pointed to the operations of Nature. For the lower and the transient world is an image of the higher and the enduring. If such wise spirits would investigate more exactly the operations of Nature, this would enable them to read in living characters, what follies they, with their wisdom perpetrate before God. Even in natural things we do not succeed in understanding how one thing and another transpires; and how much more will this be the case in heavenly mysteries (Wis 9:16).It is a folly which emanates from the pool of our corrupt hearts to be always inquiringhow? how? If we take our reason only with us and use it beyond its proper limits, it turns to unreason. We should learn to understand that things come from a higher hand, and abide in the way of faith.

1Co 15:37. The outer hulls do not germinate, but are sloughed off from the inner germ, decay and mix with earth; but the germ itself springs up again in living green. Accordingly it is not precisely the same body with all its dust that is to rise again. Yea, even during this life, this mortal body is subject to a perpetual change, so that in a short time not one particle of that which we once were, remains in us, [so it is not necessary in maintaining the identity of the body to preserve the same material particles of which it was at any one time composed]. Though our bodies are in continual flux, yet no one says that we become new men every quarter of a year.

1Co 15:38. The best is concealed in order that we may not confound Nature with God. Nature hides itself. There God alone is master, and has the key. If we do not go to Him we shall bring nothing out.

1Co 15:44. We must not draw our conclusions from one body to another, and say: A body is a body. No; great distinctions exist among bodies. There is a spiritual body which is through and through like pure spirit, as well as a natural and beastly body.

1Co 15:45. God has created men not purely spiritual, in order that they may not exalt themselves, but ever be mindful of their dependence. The natural life is, in respect to the other life, only as a field; but in the field a spiritual seed is sown which shall hereafter spring up through the power of the second Adam.

1Co 15:46. The state of weakness comes first: otherwise, we would not know how to esteem that of highest glory, nor yet to distinguish between the two. Hence, this order is good; and he who takes it into account will avoid the miserable snares which are spread by reason.

1Co 15:47. The first and the second manthese two are as wide asunder in their nature as heaven and earth, yea, as God and the creature; and yet one has come to the other, so that we have share in both.

1Co 15:48. We must not become more earthly than Adam was. The Heavenly Adam was provided in order that we may and should again erect ourselves upon Him. In this way, then, do those that are heavenly spring from Him by a new birth and life in Him. But if this is to happen, our old earthly man, must and will, in thought, word, work, become united to Christ, in his sufferings and death, and the new man arise in us.This is the great mystery, on account of which God became man, and proposes now to exhibit us as the children of God through His incarnation.

Rieger:

1Co 15:35 ff. In inquiring after the exact ground, how any event comes to pass, every thing for the most part turns upon the intention of the inquirerwhether he inquire from a desire of learning, and a delight in the truth, or from doubt and pleasure in mocking; whether he does it from faith and for the sake of advancing in knowledge, or simply to find pretext for unbelief. The difficulty in respect to the resurrection is the dying and the dissolutton; but this, indeed, in a thousand cases, is the only way to new life and verdure, and fruitfulness. This thou wouldst question, if thou hadst not seen it so often.It is enough that now the way through death to life is so pictured before our eyes. What God does daily and yearly in the realm of Nature, this He does in the kingdom of His Son, for the destruction of the last enemy. Let the change and expansion and manifold increase in the seed that is sown be what it may, yet all this has had its ground and cause in the seed itself. Even so the resurrection is but a quickening and up-springing of that very thing which has died.What else is the denial of the resurrection but an ignoring of the power of God, which can produce out of its inexhaustible fulness just what it will. 1Co 15:42 ff. Precious foundation for our patience,to suffer under the body of this death, because the germ of a future spiritual body exists therein! How deep down into the inheritance of Adam: until thou returnest again to dust! How highly exalted in the inheritance of Christ: until we shall become like unto His glorious body! Lord Jesus, prepare me that I may bear thy heavenly image.

1Co 15:50. The natural life which we have in common with other living creatures upon the soil of earth, is not fit for the kingdom of God; it would be far too weak to sustain the powers in exercise there.

Heubner:

1Co 15:35. All question after the how in the mysterious doctrines of religion must be asked with modesty, with a recognition of the limits of our knowledge, with the design of warding off unbelief and strengthening faith; and hence, not in those cases where all comprehension on our part is absolutely denied. Close reflection, strictly carried out, will never stumble at revelation.

1Co 15:37. The present and the future life are related as germ and fruit; hence, the resurrection is not the creation of a new organism. The study of nature should help revelation, and should lead us to the Lord of Nature and the Giver of Revelation Especially does the ever-recurring change from death to life, which we see in nature, assist a Christians faith in the resurrection.

1Co 15:39 ff. The inexhaustible manifoldness of the kingdom of God opens to our contemplation an unfathomable sea.

1Co 15:42 ff. The fundamental stuff remains, but development gives it another body. We know nothing of the innermost, finest parts of the body, and it is from these that the main stuff of the future body is formed. Since the heavenly body will not be like the earthly, it will be no burden to man. Finite spirits also must necessarily have an organ (contrary to Kant).

1Co 15:45 ff. Christ, the Regenerator of man, gives the spiritual lifeHe creates in us not only the new life of regeneration, but His spirit and His power will directly quicken our bodies.

W. F. Besser:

1Co 15:47. Great is the miracle of creation, by which God called the first man out of the earth into a natural life; but greater still is the miracle of Redemption, by which God has created a spiritual body, of which the sinful, earthly children of the sinful, earthly Adam were utterly destitute. Although now the work of redemption is greater than the work of creation, yet is it not more difficult to believe that the Lord will make our natural body a spiritual body, according to the likeness of His perfected spiritual body, than it is to believe that He made our natural body from a clump of earth?

1Co 15:49. The true Christophori, or Christ-bearers, are Christians, here, in faith; there, in sight.

1Co 15:50. The flesh and blood of the lost may and will rise, not to the inheritance of the kingdom, but to suffer the pain of eternal fire. But, in order that flesh and blood may rise to the inheritance of the kingdom, the present form of flesh and blood must be done away; first, through spiritual regeneration in baptism, and then through the physical change in the grave, in order that a spiritual flesh and blood may spring therefrom, according to the fashion of the flesh and blood of Christ.The Christian burial is the blessing of the body to be redeemed from corruption (Rom 8:23).

[Robertson: 1Co 15:46-49. The natural precedes the spiritual. I. The universality of this law, as seen: 1. In the order of creation; 2. In the progress of the Jewish nation; 3. In the progress of the human race. II. The spiritual instances of this law: 1. Our natural affections precede our spiritual; 2. The moral precedes the spiritual. III. The stages through which we pass: 1. Through temptation; 2. Through sorrow].

Footnotes:

[31]1Co 15:36.The Rec. has instead of . It is however feebly attested, and is a correction. [The more infrequent nominative was more likely to be altered, as in several instances it has been, into the vocative. It is however found in A. B. D. E. F. G., Sinait. and some cursives, while the vocative is given only in K. L., many cursives, Orig., Epiph., and some others.C. P. W.].

[32]1Co 15:39.The which some [Rec. et al.] have put before is thrown out [by Matth., Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford, and Bloomfield], on the authority of the best MSS. [A. B. D. E. F. G. K. L. Sinait., 60 cursives, Syr. (later) Copt., Aeth., Greek and Latin Fathers, and indeed is sustained by no important MS.]. The same word before is better sustained [B. D. E. F. G. Siuait., several copies of the Vulg., Copt., Theophyl., Text., Ambrst.], but it is rejected by Meyer as a mechanical addition.

[33]1Co 15:39.The position of before . is not so well attested as the reverse order. [It has for it only F. G. K. L., the larger number of cursives, the later Syr., Theodt., Oecum., hut against it A. B. D. E. Sinait, 6 cursives, 3 Latin MSS., the Vulg., Copt., Syr., (Pesch.), Chrys., Dam.. Theophyl., Orig., Tert. The order of the words in this verse appears much deranged in many MSS., though the general sense is not thereby affected.C. P. W.]

[34]1Co 15:44.The Rec. has , , but a better attested reading is . ., . [The uncials A. B. C. D. F. G. Sinait., 9 cursives, the Ital., Vulg., Copt., Aeth., Arm., are all in favor of the latter reading, which is adopted by Lachmann, Tischendorf, Alford and Stanley. It was natural from the similarity of the preceding and the commencement of the succeeding clauses that a transcriber should omit . It must however be conceded that the internal evidence is against Lachmanns reading, for as Reiche aud Bloomfield remark the sentiment thus becomes jejune and hardly like Pauls usual style. The whole sentence is omitted in several cursives and Chrys., but Meyer accounts for the omission by the homoteleuton.C. P. W.].

[35]1Co 15:45.According to the best MSS. is to be retained. Its omission in some [B. K. 3 cursives, Did. Iren., (Lat.) Tert., (once)], may be explained by an attempt to conform to the contrasted . .

[36]1Co 15:47.The Rec. has , after . ., but according to the best MSS. it should be thrown out as a gloss. [It was suspected by Griesbach, and erased by Lachmann, Tischendorf and Alford, following B. C. D. (1st hand) E. F. G., Sinait., (1st hand), 17, the Ital., Vulg., Copt., Aeth.. Arm., and many Greek and Latin writers. In the Dialogue against the Marcionites printed among Origens works, and in Tertul. against the same the insertion of , is ascribed to the heretics. Comp. Tisch. N. T. 7th edit.C. P. W.].

[37]1Co 15:49.The evidence for instead of is strong, but the word does not seem suitable in this place. See Exegetical Notes. [The documentary authoity for the subjunctive (adopted by Lachmann and Stanley seems absolutely decisive (A. C. D. E. F. G. K. L. Sinait. above 20 cursives, the Ital., Vulg., Copt., Goth., Slav., Theodt., Orig., (de la Rne), Cyr., Macar., Caes., Bas., Meth., Chrys., (in expos.), Max., Epiph., pseud-Athan., Damasc, Iren., (Latin), Tert., Cypr., Hilar., Jerome). The Rec. however has for it, the important testimony of B., a number of cursives, the Syr., (both), Arab., Aeth., Arm., Orig.. (other editions) Cyr., (giaph. and nest.), Theodt., Theophyl., Oecum. These two last especially mention and explain both readings. (See their remarks in Tischendorfs N. T.). The subjunctive certainly seems untenable, as an ethical exhortation at this point would appear wholly out of place, and was adopted only to avoid making the apostle contradict what he had said in 1Co 15:50.C. P. W.].

[38]1Co 15:50.Lachmann reads , but it is not satisfactorily attested [C. (1st hand) D. (1st hand) F. G. Ital. Vulg., Copt., Syr.,(Pesch). and the Latin writers. Meyer thinks it was occasioned by its similarity in sound with .

[39][But it may be asked, wherein consists the identity between the natural and the spiritual body? Certainly not in the material particles of which the two are composed, nor yet in the sameness of structure. All suppositions of this sort, which find a picture of the resurrection in Ezekiels vision of the dry bones, are set aside by the force of the analogy which the apostle uses. Not even during our earthly state can it be said that the identity of our body in the several stages of existence, consists in the identity of the particles which compose it. These, as science teaches us, are in continued flux day by day. By some mysterious process of life, are we gathering to ourselves new material and passing off the old; and as to the matter of our composition we are no more the same in two successive moments than is the river that we call by the same name and yet is ever passing. Yet, no one thinks of questioning the identity of our persons, or of our bodies. Amid this constant change there is something fixed which makes us recognizable as the same from the cradle to the gravesomething which gives form, and feature, and organization, to this ever moving current of matter which is momentarily condensed into what we call our bodies. And what is this but the plastic principle of life which is ever shaping the materials which nature gives it for its own uses, and in accordance with an inward law which moulds us after our kind? Here then we have the true substance of the bodythat which stands underneath the outward phenomenon of a corporeal form and imparts to its sole reality. And if this be so, it is easy to see that when by death the materials of our present structure are all dissolve and scattered abroad, this vital, organiflc principle, abiding still in connection with the spirit, and in the presence of Christ, may, by the viwer which He, through His eternal Spirit, worketh in oiu spirits, at the resurrection gather to itself and assimilate new materials of a wholly different kind, suited to that new condition of things which shall be ushered in at the glorious appearing of our Redeemer. How far this new form may resemble the old, so as to enable us to identify acquaintances and friends, is a matter on which Scripture gives us some faint hints. At our Saviours transfiguration Moses and Elias seem to have been recognized for what they were: and after His resurrection. His disciples were enabled to know their Lord. And there is nothing unreasonable in supposing that the resemblance between our present and glorified bodies will be sufficiently strong to enable ns to know our old associates again and so keep up a continuity between our earthly and heavenly state. It is at any rate, a pleasant thing to think such an identification possible].

[40][But with all these arguments in favor of regarding the apostle as meaning angelic bodies, Kling prefers the other acceptation. And so Calvin, Bloomfield, Henry, Poole, Barnes, Hodge who, while speaking of it as doubtful, gives it the preference. But one naturally inclines to go with Meyer, De Wette, and Alford, Stanley, in supposing angelic bodies to be meant. All the accounts given of the angels imply the possession of a material vehicle, more subtil and glorious than that of man, capable of visibility or invisibility, at the option of spirit within; and Paul speaks of being clothed upon with his house, which is from heaven (2Co 5:2): and certainly this view suits the case in hand far better].

[41][This passage was used by the early heretics of the Gnostic to sustain their doctrine that our Lord was not really born of the Virgin Mary, but was clothed in a body derived from Heaven; in opposition to whom the early creeds declare that Ho was as to His human nature consubstantial with man, and as to His divine nature consubstantial with God. Hodge.

[42][This is the view given by Meyer and other commentators, both ancient and modern. But Bloomfield, and Alford, and Hodge, and de Wette, and many others, prefer the reference to the heavenly origin of His entire personality as the God-Man. This view is ably supported by Bp. Bull, in his Jud. Eccl. Cathol. 1Co 5:5, and is also rendered probable from Joh 3:13, where the Son of Man is spoken of as He that came down from Heaven.]

[43][This comment is founded on the false assumption once so prevalent, that the identity of the present and the resurrection bodies was to consist in the identity of the material particles out of which the present body is composed].

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

(35) But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? (36) Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: (37) And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: (38) But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. (39) All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. (40) There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. (41) There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. (42) So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: (43) It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: (44) It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. (45) And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (46) Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. (47) The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. (48) As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. (49) And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (50) Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Who they were which put the question, how are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? is not said; but we have reason to he thankful it was put, that the Apostle, under divine teaching, might answer it as he hath here completely done, and that God the Holy Ghost hath caused both question and answer to be recorded. No form of words can be more plain, than Paul hath used, to bring the Church acquainted with the pleasing doctrine. And no images or similitudes more striking, in a way of illustration I do not think it necessary to add a word on this point, which the Lord himself hath explained. The striking figure of the corn, which by dying and rotting in the earth is made to live; and the diversity of flesh, to shew that there will be diversity of degrees in the resurrection; and the different glories of the heavenly bodies, which is another similitude as taken from them, in illustration of the same; these all beautifully explain while they prove the doctrine. But, passing by these, which are so plain as to need no comment, I would beg to offer an observation or two on that part which the Apostle dwells upon, in reference to the resurrection, when considering Christ the second Adam, so called, as a quickening spirit. The last Adam (saith he) was made a quickening spirit. And the Apostle draws this most precious and blessed conclusion from it, that as in the Adam-nature of the first man, such are they that are earthy; so, in the received nature of the second Man, are they that are heavenly. All which corresponds to what Christ himself taught, that as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them: even so the Son quickeneth whom he will, Joh 5:21 .

I beg the Reader’s close attention, to this point. It is in my view most sweet and blessed. And every truly regenerated child of God, conscious of his union and oneness With Christ, will find it, under the Holy Ghost’s teaching, most sweet and blessed indeed.

I shall not in this place stay to dwell on that grand point, (though it is the foundation of every other,) in respect to the blessedness of the resurrection itself, I mean that Christ’s resurrection is the sole cause of ours. This I will take for granted, the child of God hath been taught by the Holy Ghost, and knows it as a practical and living principle in his renewed nature. Daily experience in his access to the throne, and rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, hath brought home the sweet truth to his soul, that Christ was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification, Rom 4:25 ; This he bottoms his joy, and hope, and comfort wholly upon. But what I have now particularly in view is from what the Apostle hath here said of Christ, the second Adam, as a quickening spirit, to observe how blessedly secured the resurrection of the Lord’s people, is from this divine principle. It is by virtue of the union and oneness with Christ, as members of his body, of his flesh; and of his bones, that Christ quickens his people, and raiseth up the bodies of his saints at the last day.

Now, in proof of this most precious and soul-refreshing doctrine, there are one or two interesting points to be attended to, which set this subject in the clearest light, and which not only explain the principles of the resurrection, as all coming from Christ himself, but render the expectation of it a joy unspeakable, and full of glory. I beg the Reader to examine them one by one.

And first. Taught as we are to consider Christ and his people one, and to behold, him as a quickening spirit, it immediately follows, that from that quickening, as the Head of his body the Church, every individual member of his body shall be raised, and brought into life at the last day. This was what Jesus himself preached at the grave of Lazarus, when he said, I am the resurrection and the life, Joh 11:25 . And the same his servant Paul was commissioned to tell the Church, when he said, your life is hid with Christ in God, when Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory, Col 3:3-4 . So that Christ himself is the life of his people, precisely, as the head of an human body is the life of that body, and the efficient principle of communicating new life to the dust of his saints, is in him, and front him. This the Lord himself preached by Ezekiel also, when he said, 0 my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, 0 my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you. Then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken, and performed it, saith the Lord, Eze 37:12-14 . So, again, by the Prophet Isaiah, the same blessed truth is proclaimed, and certified to be accomplished in the same way. Yea, God the Father gives his Personal word in the confirmation of it also. Thy dead men, said God the Father to his dear Son, as Christ mediator, thy dead men shall live. To which Christ is represented as answering, together with my dead body shall they arise. Then comes Christ’s call to his dead: Awake and sing ye that dwelt in dust. Compare this with what the Holy Ghost hath said by Paul concerning them which sleep in Jesus, when the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, 1Th 4:13 to the end. Then God the Father takes up the conversation again, and by a beautiful figure, explains how the glorious act shall be accomplished: thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead, Isa 26:19 . As in the wintry season of the year, there is nothing in the whole vegetable creation, so unpromising as the dry sticks of herbs, and yet from their root there comes forth in the spring moisture to give them new life and verdure; so Christ, the root of his people, in the morning of the resurrection, reanimates the dust of his mystical body, and his dew is the sole cause of their renewed life. To this effect also is that sweet promise. Psa 110:3 .

From hence it very fully appears, that in Christ’s resurrection, the resurrection of his people is not only secured, but by it effected. Christ himself is the sole efficient cause. It is accomplished by their union with him, according to what he said, because I live ye shall live also, Joh 14:19 . And what I be the Reader most particularly to consider, indeed it is the grand point I am laboring under God the Spirit, teaching to impress upon his mind, that the resurrection of the just. (justified believers in Christ,) differs wholly from the ungodly, the unregenerate, and uncalled. The hour is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth, Joh 5:28 . But this is said to be effected on the graceless dead by the naked power of God, in hearing his voice. Not so, the members of Christ’s mystical body. They arise from their union with Him, as a quickening spirit. And the Holy Ghost gives his further confirmation to it, by his servant Paul, when speaking to the Church, If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness; that is, the body not being renewed, because it was never intended while in the present time-state, when the spirit at regeneration is made holy in Christ, returns, at the time appointed, as a body of sin and death, to the dust of the earth, and there remains until the morning of the resurrection. But the spirit being life because of righteousness, that is, being one with Christ, and interested in Christ’s righteousness; the body sleeps in Jesus, and is His by redemption also. And, therefore, the Holy Ghost adds by the Apostle: But, if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit which dwelleth in you, Rom 8:10-11 . The indwelling Spirit of Christ becomes the sole efficient cause of raising the body from the grave of death at the resurrection, as the Spirit of Christ became the sole efficient cause of raising the soul from the grave of sin at regeneration. I hope that I have explained myself to the Reader’s apprehension, on this most soul comforting subject, and from those precious scriptures of God, very fully shewn, the sweetness of that glorious office-character of Christ, as it concerns his people, that as Paul hath here said, the last Adam is a quickening Spirit. Secondly. It is another grand point in the doctrine of the resurrection to have in view, and, under divine teaching, always to keep in remembrance, and live in the enjoyment of, that the bodies of believers will arise the same identical bodies as they go down to the grave. As Christ arose the very same body as was put into the sepulchre, so shall his people. As was the Head, so must be the members. Job was taught this precious truth, and rejoiced in it, ages before redemption-work was accomplished : Job 19:25-27 .

And Paul most decidedly confirms the same, when saying, this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Indeed, on the supposition that this was not the case, the doctrine of the resurrection would be lost. If the Lord gave to his people a new body, this would not be resurrection, but a creation. And in this sense, what is become of the mystical body of Christ? Wonderfully changed it will be indeed, and prepared for the everlasting enjoyment of God in glory. So Paul describes. And blessed be God, so we shall find it. It will be no longer the subject of sin, and sorrow, and temptation, and evil. It was sown a natural body, it will be raised a spiritual body. And, as spirits are not liable to bodily infirmities, all the cares and disquietudes to which our flesh is heir, in this mortal state , will be known and felt no more. But, identity will be preserved. The very person that I now am, and that you now are, will be then the same. The hand that is writing those humble lines of the Poor Man’s Commentary, and the eye that reads them, or the ear that hears them, will be the same. Changed from weakness to power, and from dishonor to glory, we shall be but, personally, the very beings we now are. Jesus will change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things, unto himself. Phi 3:21 .

I must detain the Reader no longer. But may the Lord the Holy Ghost lead every truly called, and regenerated believer into an heart-felt enjoyment of these soul-refreshing things. In the blessed expectation of it, we may all cry out with Job; 0 hide me in the grave, and keep me secret till the set time, and remember me! All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Job 14:13-14 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Basis of Unity

1Co 15:35

The Apostle is discoursing upon the resurrection. He is not supposing that a man is objecting to the doctrine or the fact of resurrection, he is simply asking a question as to method or manner: “Some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” It is vital to remember that the man is not disputing the doctrine or the fact of resurrection, he is not exciting himself in any controversial sense about that; he is puzzled as to method, way, scheme, process. I want, therefore, by adaptation of the text to show how possible it is to be right in certain great central convictions, and to be altogether in a muddle as to accidentals, exteriors, and mutable circumstances: in short, I want to find that there may be more union in the world than we suppose; that our differences are differences of opinion, and not differences of faith. “Some man will say, How?” He is not therefore to be regarded as a man who denies the fact of the resurrection. His imagination may have led him to think there may be twenty different ways by which the fact of resurrection may be realised; he is simply, therefore, on the outside, asking an outside question. If he came up and said, There is no resurrection; the Apostle is mistaken at the very centre and head of this question; there is no such thing as the anastasis on which he is elaborating his eloquence, the case would be altogether different. But the man, instead of denying the fact or resurrection, says, How is it to be brought about, in what particular way does this resurrection take place: is it in this way, or in that? There he is simply speculating, forming opinions and offering opinions; he is not therefore a disbeliever. He who accepts resurrection is a believer. He may agree with nobody on the face of the earth as to how that resurrection is to be consummated. Have not I a right to my opinion as much as any other man? Certainly; but your opinion amounts to nothing. Opinion works within a very limited range: if you confine it within that range, and utter it modestly, every man will be glad to hear it: light comes out of friction, discussion properly conducted is educative: but as to your having a right to your opinion, there may not be so much in the claim as one would infer from the emphasis and inclusiveness of your tone. Your opinion will change. Opinion was made to change. Opinion is but a weather sign; it was warm yesterday, it is frosty to-day, it will be thawing tomorrow: that is the way of opinion. But the thing to be remembered is this, there are certain things that are not open to opinion. Opinion has nothing to do with them; they live in a sanctuary that was never violated by so frivolous a trespasser as opinion. That is often forgotten, and therefore we live in continual excitement and tumult and controversy, and we have sectarianism and bigotry and internecine war on all sides of the Church; one little bigot trying to slay another, and to make out that he is the man who carries in his little head infinity, and houses in his suspicious heart eternity. Keep opinion in its proper place. Some man will say, How? and he has a right to say it: but if any man shall contradict certain things he is a lunatic, he is not to be tolerated at large: simply because those things do not come in for judgment at all, they come in for acceptance, and this we can prove.

Health is not a matter of opinion. It is a matter of fact. It a man should arise, and say, “In my opinion, health is of little or no consequence, and no attention ought to be paid to its cultivation,” you would not listen to him. He must start with this admission, that health is of supreme importance: now, let him deal out his nostrums as he will, let him say it ought to be cultivated in this way, rather than in that; in order to cultivate health a man ought to eat much meat, or to eat none at all; he ought to drink water, or he ought to take some little stimulant with his food; he ought to rise at such an hour, and retire at such a corresponding hour. There opinion plays and speculates and pronounces itself with more or less accurate emphasis. But opinion is not called upon to offer judgment upon the absolute necessity of health. If the Church would believe that, there would be a reconstruction of ecclesiastical Europe; men would shake hands, who before could not do so, because each hand had a sword in it.

Law is not a matter of opinion. A law, this law, that law, may be matters of opinion; but the thing we are agreed upon is that law is essential. You see, therefore, how there may be a central truth on which all men are agreed, and how there may be an infinite debatable land on which men may exercise their powers of controversy until the day of doom. The mischief is that men attach far too much importance to the things that are mere matters of opinion. They should now and then say to one another, Brethren, although men have many minds, and there are a million different opinions among us as to particular laws, let us stand together on this rock, that without law, society is insecure, progress is impossible. If the Church would apply that doctrine to all the affairs with which it concerns itself, we should have many men allied in kindliest fellowship, who are now living a life of religious, and therefore bitter, estrangement.

The sacredness of life is not a matter of opinion. No man would arise and say, Let us discuss whether life is sacred. Discussion is inadmissible: opinion has no standing ground here; it must take its chatter otherwhere. Give up the sacredness of life, and you give up society, progress, education, civilisation; you give up everything that gives value, dignity, and divinity to being. Once admit that it is of no consequence how you treat a little child, you may set your foot upon it and crush it if you like, once admit principles of that kind, and your commonwealth is wrecked. All society must be the father of every child within it, and the poorer the child, the fatherlier should be the social instinct and the social homage and care. Here again as to varieties of methods of training life, some man will say, How is the child to be schooled? at what age is schooling to begin? at what age is schooling to end? what is to be the educational process through which the child shall pass? There you have matters of opinion, and reference must be made to the court of experience, to the arbitrator called history. But distinguish between the indisputable, called the sacredness of life, and the mutable and the opinionable, called method, process, and way of doing things. For want of knowing this the Church is a beargarden. It would be amazing, if we were not familiar with it, into what fumes little men can throw themselves about matters of opinion, and how the less the man the bolder he will say, Have I not as much right to my opinion as any other man? Certainly: but neither your opinion nor any other man’s opinion amounts to anything in this discussion. We are pledged to the sacredness of life; now, after that, let us exchange views, let us discuss the matter, dispassionately, wisely, and hopefully. Discussion shows that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in any man’s philosophy; the conflict of opinion shows that the question is larger than was at first supposed. When a man lives by himself and keeps his opinions as so many curiosities, pins them down and unpins them, and takes them up and puts them back again, and closes the case and locks them up, he is apt to think that he has seen all that God has to show: if he would come out into society, if he would debate with other men, if he would measure swords with stronger hands, if he would get into the whirl and harmony and action of things, he would find that no one man is all men, and that no one opinion is all wisdom.

Take the question of honesty. Honesty is not a matter of opinion. If we can say, Is it worth while being honest? society is gone. Society must have its rocky foundations. What would you say to a man who raised the question to you, whether honesty, after all, is a thing worth caring about? Would you appoint that man as a clerk in your office? I do not ask whether you would appoint him as a clerk in somebody else’s office; I am at this moment talking about your office. The man says, Well, on the whole, as to honesty, what does it amount to? There are some things let us repeat again and again till we get the thought well driven into our heads that are not subject to opinion, they do not belong to the region of opinion: they are central essences, eternal verities, and when we exercise what is called judgment or form what is called opinion, we must have reference to that which is changeable, and not to that which is immutable.

For want of knowing this, Christians fall upon one another’s throats, and never was so much blood shed in all the world as over the neglect of such discrimination as we are now endeavouring to point out. A man is not an infidel because he has difficulties about questions, methods, and ways; a man is not an infidel who has renounced ecclesiastical forms and ecclesiastical orthodoxies: a man may have cut away all the outside and environment of his life, and still he may be a son of God, a brother and apostle of truth, a child of music, a citizen of the new Jerusalem.

Let us see whether we can apply these thoughts to matters more distinctively religious. The fool hath said in his heart, “There is no God.” Then we have no discussion with him at all; he is outside: but if all the world could say in one personality, “I believe in God,” then any differences that may arise after that are matters of opinion, and are matters comparatively frivolous and trivial. To believe in God call him by what name you please God, Father, Force, Secret, Jove, to believe in God is the vital faith. That begets reverence, awe, noblest veneration, sense of infinity and majesty; that sets up the standard by which all other rights and claims are measured and assessed. Some man will say, How? He must not, therefore, be called an atheist. If a man shall say, I cannot follow pulpit reasoning or Church teaching, or what is generally regarded as popular theology; but as a man of science, and devoted to patient investigation of what I consider facts, I am bound to say that there is an inscrutable Power, a Force, a Secret, do not call that man an atheist. He has seized the reality. He is one of the men who will say, How? But if he asks that question modestly, tremblingly, and in the true spirit of science, which is a spirit of serenity and of hopefulness and divine imagination, he is not to be blasted as a leper and looked upon as a foe and a pestilence in society. Having got into the presence of a Force, a Secret, an Inscrutability, he may, by-and-by get farther. He will not get farther if you discourage him, if you take away his reputation, or make an assault upon his character; but if he says, There is above all things, and within them, a Secret Life or Force that explains all things, he is at God’s door, the next knock, and he may be inside. There are those who take a very hostile relation to essential truths, and they are to be regarded and stigmatised and avoided accordingly. I could have no communication with a man who blatantly, immodestly, and vulgarly said, “There is no God.” I do not live in his universe, I do not speak his language, I have simply nothing at all to do with him. He is not an agnostic, he is an atheist a denier. I draw, therefore, broad lines between a man who says, “I do not know, I wish I knew!” and the man who denies and repudiates the whole conception of God. With such persons I have no connection; I do not know them; and when they appear to be anxious to disestablish the Church, I say, Never! I prefer the Church, the Pope, to such atheism as yours.

Let us therefore carefully distinguish between a man who denies resurrection, and a man who says, “How are the dead raised up? and with what body shall they come?” between a man who says, “There is a Force, a Secret, there is what you call God,” and the man who says, “There is no God, for the only god we can worship is the sum-total of humanity.”

Take another fundamental doctrine that God only can destroy sin, or obliterate it, if that be more in harmony with scientific findings, or can neutralise it if destruction be an impossibility. Let any man assent to that, and he is evangelical. There may be different theories, even of the work of the blessed Christ; wise and learned men have differed in their interpretations of Christian doctrine, and yet they have been at one on the basis of this truth, that sin can only be neutralised by Divine agency. That is to say, it lies not within the scope of the sinner to undo his work or recreate his soul. This also admits of the proof of illustration. Man cannot undo his own work in all instances, if he can do so in any, which is questionable. Destroy a flower: now let any man undo his work, and put that flower as it was. He cannot. Let him tear one little leaf from a flower, now let him put it back again; let him undo his work. He cannot. Let a man take up the crystal vase and dash it into a thousand pieces, and put it together again as it was. He cannot. He can perform a kind of small miracle to which he may justly call the attention of his friends as exhibiting a piece of rare handiwork, but the crystal is not what it was before. There is plenty of riveting, and cementing, and covering up of defects and flaws done with great skill, but the crystal is wounded at the heart, it cannot be undone. Recall a sound. You have uttered a word bring it back. You cannot. It must go on long as eternity endures. Science has its mysteries as well as theology. Now the reasoning may stand thus: if a man cannot undo the work of his hand, how can he undo the work of his heart? If he cannot put together a crystal which he has broken, how can he put together a character which he has shattered? If a man cannot recall a sound uttered by his own voice, how can he recall some act of treason, some deed of felony against the throne of God?

Here we find the basis of true union. Do not go up and down amongst a man’s opinions asking which of them you can adopt: inquire into the man’s central purpose and thought and life; how does the man stand fundamentally, in relation to vital and essential truths? and having discovered that, join him in fellowship, and say, regarding opinions, Do not exaggerate their importance, do not look upon them as final; it is the delight of life to grow in judgment, to vary in opinion; this is a sign of vitality, and educative progress and civilisation, but we are agreed in this, are we not? that we believe in God. Things are not under the rule of what is called fortuitousness or chance, or the misrule of mere accident; there is above all things and within them a shaping Hand, a directing Mind, a sovereign Power: on that let us hold sweet fellowship; let us weep together, it need be, before this great mystery that we may be strengthened by the very expression of our emotions. We do believe in this, do we not? that man cannot undo his own sin; that if it is to be undone or neutralised it must be done by Divine agency. Are we agreed there? Then let us hold fellowship, communion; and let us never forget that we have seen that the forgiveness of sin is nothing short of a Divine miracle: as to theories, opinions, speculations, theological dreamings, and imaginings, we have nothing to do with these; we are at one on a greater central fact.

Recur to the question: if a man were to say to you, “There is no such thing as honesty,” what would you think of him? Suppose a man should say to you, “There is no such thing as truth,” what judgment would you form about that man’s character? how far would you trust him? in what estimation would you hold every word he utters? Suppose a man should say to you, “Virtue is an impossibility: there is no virtue: it is a mere name,” would you admit him to your household confidence, would you open the door to him, and bid him heartily welcome to your hospitality? Has he not a right to his opinion as much as any other man may have? He says, “There is no honesty I have come to see you: there is no truth I have come to spend an evening at your fireside: there is no virtue I have come to make my home in your house.” How would that suit? We are not now talking theology: we are talking the kind of common-sense without which society cannot co-exist one moment. Here you insist upon unity, faith in essential verities: yet when a man says, “There is no God,” we are prone to represent him as a very vigorous and independent thinker. I say no. He was right who called him “fool.” But how we contradict ourselves; in what a mesh of inconsistency we live! If a man should say to us, “There is no truth, there is no honesty, there is no virtue, there is no right, there is no wrong,” we should avoid that man as we should avoid a pest: but if a man shall deny all these things, which he really does, though not apparently, by denying the existence of God, we call him an advanced thinker, a progressive and independent mind. I do not. I say that any man who denies the existence of God is the most dangerous character that lives. I will refer you to the consummation of his life. I have never known a man give up what we call religion, that is, in its essentials and fundamentals, and grow; he never grew in tenderness, in sympathy, in beneficence, in love of art, in love of music, in love of children. He cannot grow. The economy of the universe is dead against him. Many a man I have known who was not distinguished for greatness and energy of mind, but who has been distinguished by simplicity and earnestness of religious faith, whose life has been a continual and beneficent progress; he has mellowed, softened, chastened, and become more generous, more charitable, more helpful to his neighbour. To accept God is to grow up into light and liberty and manhood. This is the testimony we bear, and the flying years do not diminish they intensify our emphasis.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

35 But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

Ver. 35. But some man will say ] Some epicure will object, and say, How can these things be? A privatione ad habitum non datur regressus. See Trapp on “ Act 17:18 “

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

35 50 .] The argument passes from the fact of the resurrection, already substantiated, to the MANNER of it: which is indicated, and confirmed, principally by analogies from nature .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

35 .] The new difficulty is introduced in the form of a question from an objector. This is put first generally, ., In what manner , and next specifically, ( , ‘what I mean, is.’) , With what kind of body ., do they (pres. transferring the action to that time, as before: so Meyer and De W.: or rather perhaps, as assuming for the moment the truth of the resurrection as a thing actually happening in the course of things) come (forth at that time)?

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Co 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 forth the manner of its occurrence and the nature of the new body to be assumed. P. has still in view the unbelieving “some,” and pursues the dialectical and apologetic vein of the foregoing context. The deniers found in the inconceivability of the process (1Co 15:35 ) a further and, in their eyes, decisive objection against the reality of the fact. In vindicating his doctrine upon this side, P. therefore confirms its truth; he traces its analogies in nature, and its harmony with the order of Divine revelation; and the first half of his grand argument culminates in the second. See Edwards’ subtle analysis of 1Co 15:35-44 .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

1Co 15:35 . : this form of interlocution belongs to Jewish dialectic (see parls.); cf. 1Co 15:12 , also , Rom 9:19 , and the familiar Pauline challenge, ; “How are the dead raised up? With what sort of ( ) body moreover do they come?” two distinct questions. might indeed introduce the same question in an altered form (Mr [2469] , Bt [2470] , El [2471] , Sm [2472] ), but the vbs. and the interr [2473] prons. are both different. The first ( cf. Luk 1:34 , Joh 3:9 ; Joh 6:52 , Heb 2:3 , 1Jn 3:17 ) intimates the impossibility of the thing , and is answered in 1Co 15:36 ; the latter, the inconceivability of the manner , answered in 1Co 15:37 ff. (so Cm [2474] , Cv [2475] , D.W [2476] , Hf [2477] , Ed [2478] ). The sceptics advance their second question to justify the first: they say, “The resurrection P. preaches is absurd; how can any one imagine a new body rising one of the perished corpse a body suitable to the deathless spirit?” The vbs. are logical pr [2479] , as concerned with general truths ( cf. 1Co 15:26 ); “actio rei declaratur absque significatione temporis” (Er [2480] ). ( cf. Joh 5:29 ; 1Th 4:14 , ) graphically represents the difficulty of the objectors: “In what bodily form do we picture the dead coming on the scene?”

[2469] Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[2470] J. A. Beet’s St. Paul’s Epp. to the Corinthians (1882).

[2471] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians .

[2472] P. Schmiedel, in Handcommentar zum N.T. (1893).

[2473]nterr. interrogative.

[2474] John Chrysostom’s Homili ( 407).

[2475] Calvin’s In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii .

[2476].W. De Wette’s Handbuch z. N. T.

[2477] J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht , ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[2478] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

[2479] present tense.

[2480] Erasmus’ In N.T. Annotationes .

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Co 15:35-41

35But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? And with what kind of body do they come?” 36You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies; 37and that which you sow, you do not sow the body which is to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. 39All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish. 40There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. 41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory.

1Co 15:35 “someone will say” This is Paul’s use of a literary technique called diatribe. This question/answer format is also seen in the OT in Malachi and in the NT in Romans and 1 John. The subject of the literary work is carried forward by a dialog between the writer and a supposed objector. Here the argument is moved on to a slightly different theme. First, some of the factious groups denied the resurrection of Christ and thereby the resurrection of all believers. Now Paul addresses those who question the form of the resurrection body.

“with what kind of body do they come” One source of the conflict concerning a resurrected body comes from the negative view of the physical body in some schools of Greek philosophy. The Greeks often viewed the material as evil (i.e., Gnosticism) and even worse, the physical body as the prison-house of the eternal divine spark or soul within all humans. This cultural/philosophical background came into direct conflict with Paul’s Hebraic (i.e., Pharisaic) background of the affirmation of a physical, bodily after-life.

1Co 15:35-41 Paul uses a series of illustrations that show the continuity, and yet difference, between the physical body and the spiritual body.

1. seed vs. mature plant, 1Co 15:37

2. human vs. animal flesh, 1Co 15:39

3. heavenly body vs. earthly bodies, 1Co 15:40

4. night lights vs. Sun light, 1Co 15:41

1Co 15:36 “You fool” People who claim to know God, but think and act in inappropriate ways are often characterized as poor thinkers! Paul’s sarcastic comments, so frequent in I and 2 Corinthians, reveal this type of person. They were so confident that they possessed knowledge that they could not see nor recognize true knowledge!

SPECIAL TOPIC: TERMS FOR FOOLISH PEOPLE

1Co 15:37 “That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies” Paul again is following Jesus’ words (cf. Joh 12:24). This is the use of phenomenological language (i.e., the way things appear to the five senses). This is not meant to be a scientific statement, but an agricultural metaphor of new life from hard, seemingly dead, seeds.

The term “unless” denotes a third class conditional sentence, which means potential action.

“perhaps” This is an incomplete fourth class conditional (cf. 1Co 14:10). Paul is asserting the possibility of different kinds of grain seeds.

1Co 15:39-40 “another. . .another” The first, used four times in 1Co 15:39 and three in 1Co 15:41, is allos and the next “another” is used three times in 1Co 15:40 and is heteros. The distinction between these two was explicit in classical Greek, but almost gone in Koine Greek. In this context the distinction seems to remain:

1. allos, another of the same kind (cf. 1Co 15:39; 1Co 15:41)

2. heteros, another of a different kind (cf. 1Co 15:40)

1Co 15:40-41; 1Co 15:43 “glory” See SPECIAL TOPIC: GLORY (DOXA) at 1Co 2:7.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

some man = some one. App-123.

what = what kind of.

the dead. App-139.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

35-50.] The argument passes from the fact of the resurrection, already substantiated, to the MANNER of it: which is indicated, and confirmed, principally by analogies from nature.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 15:35. ) some one, who dares deny the fact itself, because he is ignorant of the manner, in which it is accomplished, inasmuch as death has been so great a destruction, and it is asserted that the resurrection will be so glorious.-, but then) An Epitasis [Emphatic addition.]-, do they come?) The living are said to remain, 1Co 15:6. The dead to have gone away, ; Chrys. de Sacerd., p. 494: and to return, Psa 90:3; Ecc 12:7. But when they revive, they come; and they are said rather to come, than to return, on account of their complete newness [of their resurrection state and body]: see the verses following; comp. Act 1:11, note. Paul, writing to the Corinthians who had doubts as to the question, whether [there is a future resurrection at all], so treats of the question how [it is to be], as to express the identity of the falling [dying] and the rising body somewhat more faintly, as it were, and more sparingly than he is wont to do on other occasions.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 15:35

1Co 15:35

But some one will say, How are the dead raised?-Some troubled themselves to know how the dead are raised. [The objection was urged that, though the historical testimony and natural fitness are in favor of believing that Christ rose from the dead as an earnest that we shall be raised, is our bodily resurrection possible, can we conceive such a thing? We cannot be expected to believe what is impossible and inconceivable.]

and with what manner of body do they come?-Are they raised up in the same bodies as those in which they lived here, or, if not, what are the properties of the bodies in which they are raised?

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

How Are The Dead Raised Up?

1Co 15:35-50

But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body. All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. (vv. 35-50)

We have come in our study to the latter part of this great chapter. Having settled the question of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle takes up another problem that has perplexed and exercised the minds of many. If there is to be a resurrection of the dead, in what body will they arise? In answering this he gives us a special divine revelation, and we should remember that apart from revelation this is a matter of which we can know nothing. We are just as ignorant today of what comes after death as those philosophers were five hundred years before Christ whose discussions and dialogues on life, death, and immortality have been embalmed for us in the dialogues of Plato. Men still read of Socrates, Glaucas, Plato, Aristotle, and all the rest of them, and know no more today than they did then, for if God has not spoken all is mere speculation at the best. But He has spoken, He has given us His sure Word, and we may have the certainty of the knowledge that, All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2Ti 3:16). Let us hear then what God Himself, the Creator of all, the God of the resurrection, has to say on this subject.

In the eighth chapter of Romans the apostle Paul comes to the close of his wonderful exposition of our threefold salvation: salvation from the guilt of sin, salvation from the power of sin, and salvation from the presence of sin; and he looks on to the time when we who believe shall receive the redemption of the body. We have already received the redemption of our souls, we are already saved from the guilt of sin and the judgment due to sin, but we are still in poor failing human bodies. Christians get sick just as other people do, and Christians die just as other folk die. Every little while somebody rises up with a new gospel to tell us that we may have the redemption of the body in this life, and that no Christian need ever be sick if we will just claim the Lord as our healer. But no matter how fervently they believe it, no matter how faithfully they teach it, they all take cold if they sit in a draft, they all get indigestion when they eat things that do not agree with them, they all get sick and die eventually, unless they get run over by an automobile and die by accident. They are just as truly subject to sickness and death as other people are. All the great faith healers of the past are dead, and all of those of the present will die soon unless the Lord Jesus should come in our lifetime and we should be changed and caught up to meet Him without passing through death. Those under the Adamic sentence all die. But, thank God, there is redemption for the body. The hour is coming when our Lord Jesus Christ shall return from heaven and shall transform these bodies of our humiliation and make them like unto the body of His glory. And this is just as true of the decayed bodies of those who have died as it is of those who are living when our blessed Savior returns. But this at once presents a difficulty.

The natural mind says, I can understand how He can touch this mortal body of mine and quicken it into immortality if I should be living when He returns, but if I should die before He comes, and my body go back to the dust from which it came, and that dust be scattered to the four winds of the heavens, I cannot understand how it could be raised again. I may have a body in resurrection, but it will surely be another body; I shall not actually be raised from the dead. Scripture answers that objection in the passage we have just read, Some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? In other words, in what way are they brought from the tomb, and what kind of a body will they have in the resurrection? The apostle says, Take a lesson from nature, thou simple one. The word fool here is rather strong; he is not insulting his readers by calling them fools in the sense in which we use the word, but the Greek word means, unthinking one. If you would only stop to think, you would realize that there are many analogies in nature to the resurrection. We can think of some apart from these given in Scripture. Take the caterpillar crawling along the leaves. Suddenly a strange alteration comes over it and it spins a cocoon around itself. Its whole appearance is changed and it dies to its old life altogether. It stays in that cocoon a while and eventually it emerges, and out comes, not a caterpillar but a beautiful butterfly, a lovely creature which is able to soar up into the air, and no longer crawls upon the ground, the grass or the leaves. It is a wonderful picture of what the resurrection may be.

The apostle uses the illustration of a farmer sowing grain. He sows it, to use the words that are so often used at funeral services, in the sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. The bare grain is sown by the farmer who believes that when it falls in the ground and seems to rot away that will not be the end of it. It will come forth into a fuller life than it has known before. But when the resurrection of that grain takes place, he does not see grain such as he has sown coming up from the ground; he first sees a blade of green, and by-and-by quite a stalk arises and then a head of wheat, oats or barley. Thou [simple one], that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him, and to every seed his own body. There is no mistake made. If wheat is sown, it is wheat that rises from that grain; if he sows oats then oats will rise; if barley is sown, barley arises from that grave. There is absolute identity and yet a wonderful change. That beautiful head of grain is much more lovely to look upon than the simple little seed that went into the ground. And so with the resurrection body; there will be absolute identification in some way to the body that died. How much of that grain is in the seed of wheat? Get down to the root of the wheat stalk and you will still find the little shell out of which this stalk has come. Just so will it be in the resurrection. God will not have to use every part of this body. I do not possess today a particle of the body that I had a few years ago. When I was a boy in school, they said that the body changes every seven years. Now they say it changes every three years. I am not conscious of that change except, of course, that I know that my nails and hair grow and have to be cut. In just the same way my entire body is changing continually. There is not a bit of this body today that I had three-and-a-half years ago, and yet I know that I am I. I say to you, You are looking so much better than you were when I last saw you, or maybe you are looking a little worse; and you do not say, Well, that is because you never saw me before if you havent seen me for three-and-a-half years. No, you are the same person, and the body is your body, and you know it is, and yet there is not a cell in it that was there three-and-a-half years ago. And so we say that there is identity but not necessarily the using of the entire body that is put into the grave when the Lord raises us in resurrection.

The next thing the apostle stresses is that there are different kinds of flesh. We do not understand the differences, and yet we know that they are there, and that we never pass from one to another.

There is one kind of flesh of men. Men are made to live upon the earth, and that is the only way they are comfortable There is another kind of flesh, that of beasts, and they can live even in the earth. Think, for instance, of the bear or the raccoon, who as winter approaches go into a burrow or a hollow tree and become dormant for the period of several months until spring comes again, and then they emerge. That would be impossible for a man, but it is not for beasts. The beast is adapted to this environment; its body is different to that of a human being.

And there is another flesh, that of fish, and it is adapted to an environment that neither beasts nor men can live in. They may enter into that kind of environment for a limited period, but would drown if they had to be kept under water continually The fish is at home there; he is so constituted by God that when he is taken out of the water, he dies. One of the great German writers has well said, If fish are philosophers, if they are capable of thinking, I am absolutely certain that every philosophical fish is quite sure that it is impossible for any creature to live out of water. It knows that when drawn out of the water it finds itself gasping and will soon die.

Then there is the flesh of birds, and the bird is suited to fly in the air, differing altogether from mankind or beasts or fish. And so, if there are differences here on earth, why need you wonder about the difference between bodies suited to heaven and bodies suited to this lower scene?

There are also celestial bodies, that is, heavenly bodies, and bodies terrestrial, earthly bodies. Our Lord Jesus came into this world and took a terrestrial body, but after having made satisfaction for our sins on the cross, He came forth in resurrection in a celestial body, and in that body He ascended through the heavens into the very presence of God where he ever liveth to make intercession for us. His celestial body is the pattern of what ours shall be; we shall have bodies in resurrection that are not subject to the laws that control us now. When we turn to Scripture and hear our blessed Lord talking with the Sadducees who denied that there was any resurrection, we get a little better understanding of this. They came and said, Here was a woman who had a husband, and he died, and the brother of that man married the woman, and he died, and there were no children. Then another brother married her, and this went on until she had been married seven times, and they had all died. Last of all the woman died also. Whose wife shall she be in the resurrection? They thought they had put a puzzling question. But the Lord Jesus simply said, You do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God. They that are accounted worthy to attain to that age (that is, the coming glorious age of the kingdom and the resurrection) neither marry, nor are given in marriagefor they are like unto the angels, being children of the resurrection (Luk 20:27-36). The angels are sexless. They do not propagate their kind. Each is an individual creation; and believers, in the resurrection, will be like unto the angels. That means that in resurrection we are not going to be men and women as we are now, but we will simply be redeemed people with no sex distinctions whatsoever, because the day will have gone by when the human race is to be propagated as now.

Then again in this epistle where the apostle is reproving believers for making a great fuss about questions of foods, some that are clean and some that are unclean, he says, Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them (6:13). What is he telling us here? As long as we are in this world, our bodies have to be nourished by food, and so this body has a digestive tract by means of which we are able to take from our food those elements that repair the waste, and build up our physical constitutions. But in the resurrection that will not be so, and therefore the whole digestive tract as we now know it, is to be destroyed. It is not that you will not be able to eat, for Jesus took a piece of broiled fish and some honeycomb after His resurrection, but it was not necessary that there should be any digestive tract to dispose of it. We shall have bodies that are unchanging. All the changes of time will have come to an end and our bodies will be like to the glorified body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But even when we have our celestial bodies there will be differences in the glories that we shall enjoy. So the apostle turns to contemplate the material celestial orbs, the sun, the moon, and the stars. Notice how they differ in glory. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. We read elsewhere, They that turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars for ever and ever (Dan 12:3). And when we get our resurrected bodies, they will be bodies of light like that body in which our blessed Lord was manifested on the Mount of Transfiguration, and as Saul of Tarsus saw Him when he said, I sawa light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun (Act 26:13).

In that day there will be differences in glory according to the measure of our devotedness to Christ down here, for he says, So also is the resurrection of the dead. We are all saved by the same grace and through that same grace we will be raised and changed at the coming of the Lord. But we will not all be rewarded in the same way, for reward is for faithful service, and I am afraid many of us are going to lose a great deal at the judgment seat of Christ because we have not been more true and real in all our ways down here. The day is soon coming when you and I would give worlds, if we possessed them, if we had only let God have His way absolutely in our lives. The greatest joy, the greatest blessing that can come into any life is wholehearted surrender to the will of God, no matter what it may seem to mean, no matter how difficult it may seem at the time. The things that many of us have dreaded are the things that brought us the greatest blessing as we have sought to walk with our gracious God and Father. In that day when the Lord looks over our lives, when He goes over everything with us, when He says, Well done, thou good and faithful servantenter thou into the joy of thy Lord, how we shall rejoice to have His approbation, and how we shall wish that we had been more devoted. There is not one soul with Christ today who looks back on his earthly life and says, I wish I had not been quite so out-and-out for God; I wish I had been less self-denying; I wish I had been more concerned about my own comforts. But I fancy there are many who say, If I had my life to live over again, no matter what suffering, what rendings of the heartstrings it might mean, I would never hesitate a moment to let God have His will in everything in my life. It is not a question of whether or not we get to heaven. All who are saved by grace will be there, but there will be a difference in our rewards.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Observe the impersonal pronoun all through these verses. Thus you will see there is identification between the bodies that die and the bodies that rise, and yet there are differences in appearance. There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body. Could you have identification brought out more clearly than that? The body that is sown is the one that is raised, and yet it is changed. It will be incorruptible. Death occurs only a few hours before corruption begins; but the new body will be incorruptible; it will be a glorified body. Just what that means may be seen from what the disciples beheld on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw the blessed Lord Jesus shining in that glory and they beheld Moses and Elijah, we read, in the same glory with Jesus. Moses, a man who had died, and yet was there in the glorified body. Elijah, a man caught up to heaven without dying, and he was in the glorified body.

And then we read that It is raised in power. How weak this poor body is! The spirit often is willing, but the flesh is weak. We find ourselves hindered by the body, but the day is coming when instead of being a hindrance to the spirit the body will be like wings to that spirit, and we will be able to go to the uttermost parts of the universe on the business of the Lord easier than we could cross the street today.

It is raised a spiritual body. Do not misunderstand that. A spiritual body is not a body made of spirit. God is a Spirit and is not said to have a body. He took a body when the Lord Jesus Christ became incarnate. In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily-or, in a body (Col 2:9). You and I are spirits each dwelling in a body.

But I am not all spirit; I am also soul. I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1Th 5:23). The soul is the seat of my emotional nature, the seat of all my natural instincts; as a man, it is my human self; but the spirit is the highest part of my nature to which God can make Himself known. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God (Rom 8:16). As a Christian I ought to be constantly under the control of the spirit, I ought to live according to the highest part of my nature; but every little while I find that instead of being controlled by the spirit part of me, I am controlled by my soul, and I am more or less a creature of emotions. I am easily influenced this way or that emotionally, and often to my detriment and that of others. And this is called here the natural body. The word translated natural is simply the Greek adjective from the word soul, that is, a soulish body. This body is the suited vehicle for the expression of the emotions of my soul. The spirit is often willing to do certain things but the flesh is weak. The body being a soulish body is a hindrance to the spirit. But in resurrection I shall have a body that is spiritual, that is, a body suited to and dominated by the spirit. There will be nothing then to hinder the full expression of the spirit, and I shall be absolutely subject to God who is a Spirit.

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Adam was the head of the old creation; God formed him out of the dust of the ground. If you do not believe that, wait a while, and your body will go back to the dust and prove that Scripture is right. God breathed into this man Adam, and he became a living soul and he is the progenitor of the race. But the Last Adam is our Lord Jesus. He is the risen One and so has become a quickening Spirit. He breathed on His disciples and said, Receive ye the Holy Spirit, and we are linked with Him. He is the Last Adam, the Lord from heaven, and we are going to have bodies like He now has. As linked with Adam I have a body like his, but in resurrection I shall have a body like that of the blessed Lord Himself.

Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. The first man was of the dust, dusty-or of the dirt, dirty. That is what man is by his relationship with Adam. The Second Man is the Lord from heaven, our blessed glorified Savior. The very word Adam means red clay. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. As we have borne the image of the earthy, and as we have looked like our first father, and had the appearance of the natural man in this world, so we shall bear the image of the Savior. I think this helps to explain a passage which has bewildered people: When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is (1Jn 3:2).

A lady said to me one day, If we are all going to be like Him we will all look alike, and how are we ever going to know each other? That is not what it says. We have borne the image of the earthy; we are like Adam, but we do not all look the same. The wonder of it is that if it were possible for the one billion eight hundred million men and women of the world to pass before you, you would never find two that are exactly alike. Sometimes we find two people so nearly alike that we can hardly tell them apart, but there is always some little difference. The infinite variety in creation is amazing when you think that there is so little to work with: only one nose, one mouth, two ears, two eyes, one chin, two cheeks, and one forehead! And yet the Creator has made over one billion eight hundred million different specimens in each generation, and each generation diverse from every other. I do not know much about music, but I am always dumbfounded when I think how much can be made from seven tones. I cannot understand it. I should have thought all the music would have been written years ago, and that nobody could by any possibility make up another air. But there are symphonies that can be written that men have never dreamed of. So with the human family, there is infinite variety and yet we are all like the first man Adam.

And now in the resurrection body there will be infinite variety too, and yet all shall be like Him in that we shall have incorruptible bodies and yet every one different. We shall know each other yonder as we have never known each other down here. What a wonderful hope is this that Scripture puts before believers!

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

How: Job 11:12, Job 22:13, Psa 73:11, Ecc 11:5, Eze 37:3, Eze 37:11, Joh 3:4, Joh 3:9, Joh 9:10

with: 1Co 15:38-53, Mat 22:29, Mat 22:30, Phi 3:21

Reciprocal: Rom 9:19 – Thou Col 2:8 – philosophy Jam 2:20 – O vain

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE RESURRECTION BODY

With what body do they come?

1Co 15:35

The Prayer Book contains several phrases which express the Christian Faith as regard the future life: I believe in the Resurrection of the body (Apostles Creed). I look for the Resurrection of the dead (Nicene Creed). Dost thou believe in the Resurrection of the flesh? (Baptismal Service). All men shall rise again with their own bodies (Athanasian Creed). The resurrection of the body, the flesh, the deadthe coming again with their own bodies.

The general conclusion is, we believe not only in the life everlasting, but that men shall live again after this earthly life; that there shall be a revival of personal identity.

The early belief in the Resurrection was not a stupid credulity. The Corinthians were intellectual, the objections natural then and natural now. As we have stood by the open grave we have known their force, and often asked ourselves, With what body do they come? Will the child rise a child? the old man an old man? the cripple maimed? the blind sightless? Will the resurrection body be of the same material and form, only reconstructed? Is this the Christian Faith? If not, With what body do they come?

The Apostle meets these objections by analogy.

I. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.There is no question, then, of regathering the particles of the dead body; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Not one of the particles composing a human body seven years ago exist in that body to-day; they have passed into new combinations and forms. St. Paul points us to the analogy of the seed and the planta parable of wondrous force and beautiful simplicity. With what manner of body do they come? Certainly not with the same body. The plant is entirely unlike the seed from which it sprang. The resurrection body will not be the body which we now possess. The seed is not identical with the plant; it is the parent of the organism, the form of which is determined by God. So also is the resurrection of the dead.

II. Yet the resurrection body will, in a real sense, be our own body.When clothed with it we shall be the same persons that we are now. The Thames is the same river now that it was a hundred years ago, flowing from the same source, created by the same force, coursing in the same channel; it is still the Thames, though not a drop of its water to-day was there ten years ago. The old man to-day says, I am the same person that I was twenty, fifty years ago; though not a single particle of my body is the same, yet I am the same. So in the resurrection, it will be our body, only the identity will not be that of form or of particles, but that of a permanent force and character which make it what it is and constitute its unity. God giveth it a body, remember, not as it pleaseth Him, but as it pleased Himaccording to a certain law, which is His eternal will, that, through whatever changes the seed or germ of life should pass, something there shall be which shall connect its latest with its earliest stage.

III. The resurrection body will be the manifested expression of ourselves.This, then, will be the resurrection bodyourselves, essentially ourselves. We are perpetually judging men by what we have learned to call their expression. We look into a face and say, There is kindness, sympathy, tenderness; or, There is pride, temper, passion, avarice. But we often judge wrongly; for this self-expression is, as at present, imperfect; in the resurrection body it will be full, complete, the perfect expression of the inmost spirit. According to the lives we live now, we shall be hereafter. The character formed here will determine our future expression. Our very bodies will be our condemnation or our glory in that day. We shall then wear the garb of holiness, or the livery of sin; and every man shall know even as he is known.

Rev. Prebendary J. Storrs.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Co 15:35. When advocates of error cannot offer a just defense of their own position, nor show an honest objection to that of their opponent, it is often a trick of theirs to pose a quibbling question which they think will puzzle him. As if a man is required logically to account for all the apparent difficulties that his position may suggest. Nothing could be farther from the truth, nor from the universal practice of reasonable men in accepting a conclusion that has been shown to be fundamentally sound, notwithstanding any incidental items that cannot be explained. Such a subterfuge as herein described was resorted to by the promoters of the heresy that Paul was exposing, when they asked with what body do they [the dead] comet Even if Paul could not have answered such a question, that would not have proved that the dead could not come to life again.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 15:35. But some one will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what manner of body do they come? Two questions are asked here. The firstHow are the dead raised?is answered half scornfully.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Our apostle, having fully proved the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, in the foregoing part of the chapter, comes next to answer the objections that might be made against the body’s resurrection.

And first, That it seems impossible that the dead should rise: to this he answers, That it is as possible for the dead to rise, as it is for corn sown in the earth to be quickened after it dies in the earth; corn sown rots and dies, yet doth not perish by dying, but rises up green and fresh. Thus the body sown in the grave is not lost: though the parts of the body by death are dissolved, yet they are not annihilated; they are scattered, but they are not perished; they lose not their entity, when they part with their relation to humanity; whatsoever we lose at death, is not lost to God; his knowledge is infinite, and his power unlimited: it is as easy for God to raise our bodies out of the dust, as to make them at first out of nothing; therefore Christ told the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection, that they erred, not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God, Mat 22:29.

The next objection against the body’s resurrection is this: Who, say the objectors, can describe with what bodies the dead shall arise? Our apostle’s answer is to this effect: That our bodies shall arise the same in substance and kind the same, but differs in qualities, coming up with blade and ear, and corn in it; it does not rise in the same figure in which it was sown, but it rises in the same nature in which it was sown; that which was sown wheat, rises wheat. Thus our bodies sown in the grave shall rise substantially the same, but different in qualities.

Here note, That those who did not believe the resurrection of the body, judged it not only an impossible thing, but an unworthy thing for God to raise the dead; they looked upon the body as the sepulchre and prison of the soul, and accounted it the soul’s chiefest happiness to be delivered from the body, esteeming it a real punishment to the soul to be again reunited to so great a clog as the body is.

Therefore to this objection the apostle returns a satisfactory answer, by showing the happy chanage which shall pass upon the raised body; declaring, that though it shall arise the same body in substance, yet vastly different in qualities; of a mortal body sown, it shall rise a spiritual body; of a vile body, be made a glorious body.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

“How Are The Dead Raised Up?”

Though they professed belief in God, the Corinthian brethren wanted to know how he would raise the dead. They also wondered what body would exist in the resurrection. The apostle explained that God accomplishes a resurrection yearly. Farmers sow a single grain expecting to receive the stalk, blade and head, or ear. God is wise and gives each grain a special body that is adapted to its own special needs. Obviously, God can work a resurrection and get great results ( 1Co 15:35-38 ).

Next, Paul turned to the second question, which was “with what body do they come?” He showed that there are many forms of fleshly creatures, yet they are all still considered flesh. The apostle then went on to say that there is a difference between the earthly bodies, just mentioned, and the heavenly bodies, yet all have bodies. Heavenly bodies may be angels, or the planetary bodies. Even the sun, moon, and stars have bodies, though they differ in appearance from one another and, certainly, from other bodies with which men are familiar ( 1Co 15:39-41 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

1Co 15:35. But some man possibly will say, How are the dead raised up After their whole frame is dissolved? And with what kind of bodies do they come? From the dead, after these are mouldered into dust. By the apostles answer to these inquiries, it appears that he considered the inquirer as not so much desiring to have his curiosity satisfied, respecting the nature and qualities of the bodies raised, as suggesting the impossibility of the resurrection in question taking place. He therefore begins with proving the possibility of the resurrection, by appealing to the power of God displayed in raising grain from seed which is rotted in the ground, and in giving to each of the kinds, when it is grown up, the body proper to it: also in making bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial, each having its own properties by which it is distinguished from all others. And from these instances of the power of God, he infers that the resurrection of the dead is possible, 1Co 15:36-42. As to the inquiry, with what kind of bodies men will be raised, his answer is given from the middle of 1Co 15:42-54. But what he advances respects only the properties of the bodies of the righteous, which he contrasts with the properties of the bodies which were laid in the grave. And with respect to the righteous, who are found alive on the earth at the coming of Christ, he declares that their bodies will be changed in a moment, and rendered incorruptible and immortal, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

II. The Mode of the Resurrection of the Body. 1Co 15:35-58.

After demonstrating the essential part played by the resurrection in the Christian salvation, the apostle sets himself to answer the objections which this doctrine might raise. These objections were probably uttered ironically by certain members of the Church of Corinth who wished to parade their wisdom. It was not difficult, indeed, to turn the doctrine into ridicule, especially if it was understood in the gross way in which it was taught by the Rabbins, who regarded the resurrection as a restoration pure and simple of the present body by the reunion of the material elements of which it was composed. This is proved by numerous sayings in the Talmud; and it was probably this point of view at which the Sadducees placed themselves to ridicule this belief; as it is also by representing the resurrection in this way that scoffers of our own day give point to their sarcasms.

The apostle begins by answering two objections which human wisdom raises against the resurrection of the body: 1Co 15:35-49; then he explains what will happen to the bodies of those who do not pass through death: 1Co 15:50-53; finally, he closes with a triumphant conclusion: 1Co 15:54-58.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

But some one will say, How are the dead raised? and with what manner of body do they come?

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE RESURRECTION

1Co 15:35-39

35. But one will say: How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?

36. Thou fool, that that thou sowest is not quickened except it may die. Does not Paul contradict Jesus when he says Thou fool, for He said, Whosoever shall call his brother a fool is in danger of Hell fire? Suffice it to say there is no contradiction, because though the E.V. has them use the same word, yet they did not. Jesus said mooros, which means a natural fool who is inevitably irresponsible. Hence it is wicked to reproach your brother for natural disability which he can not help. Paul said aphroon which means a spiritual fool, i. e., a fool in spiritual things because he rejects the Holy Spirit.

37. That which thou sowest thou sowest not the body which shall be, but naked grain, if it may happen of wheat or of some one of the rest.

38. And God giveth to it a body as He wished, and to each one of the seeds its own body. You sow your wheat. It is dry dead grain. The beautiful green blade grows up, bearing a nice flower. There is no similitude whatever between the latter and the former. Yet there is perfect identity. It is not only wheat, but it produces the same kind of wheat. If you sow bearded wheat it will produce the same species. Hence we see from this illustration that while the resurrection body will be perfectly identical with the body I have had in this life, i. e., it will be the very same body, yet there will be no similitude whatever, no more than there is between the dead grain and the beautiful green blade and flower.

39. All flesh is not the same flesh, one flesh of men, another of beasts, another of birds and another of fishes. This verse does not argue the resurrection of animals.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

1Co 15:35-49. Paul now meets the objection, How are the dead raised? in what kind of a body do they come back from the tomb? Only a fool (in the Hebrew rather than the Greek sense), he tartly says, would ask such an unbelieving question. The objectors own experience (thou thyself is very emphatic) shows him that the seed must die when sown or it will not be quickened. It is not identical with the body that is to be, it is a naked grain of wheat or whatever it may be, and God gives it a body corresponding to the particular species. It is not clear how far Paul would have pressed the metaphor to imply an organic connexion between the old and the new. The old body perishes and God provides a new one, and the new is very unlike the old. The universe shows the same principle of variety, the flesh of men, beasts, birds, and fish; heavenly and earthly bodies; sun, moon, and stars. So the resourcefulness of God is seen in the resurrection, where the new body differs so astonishingly from the old. The dead body is placed in the ground like the seed, and as the seed dies (1Co 15:36) the body decomposes; it is sown in corruption, it rises incorruptible. Dishonoured and powerless, it is raised in glory and strength; sown a natural body, it comes forth a spiritual body. The natural body is one fitted to be the organ of the personality in its natural earthly condition; the spiritual body is such a body as corresponds to mans future condition as spirit. That both types of body exist Paul proves by Scripture (Gen 2:7). Only 1Co 15:45 a is actually a quotation, but Paul possibly means to represent 1Co 15:45 b as also from Scripture; much greater freedom is taken in the Targums. If so, he may argue, like Philo, from the double account of mans creation (Gen 1:26 f; Gen 2:7) to two distinct creations, and in 1Co 15:46 be opposing the view that the spiritual preceded the natural in historical manifestation. The first man is of earthly origin and made of dust, the second man is from heaven. Many scholars find here the doctrine of a pre-existent Heavenly Man, with slender justification. Each class follows its prototype. We successively belong to both; in this life we bear the image of the earthy, in the resurrection life we shall bear that of the heavenly.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

SECTION 29 OUR RESURRECTION BODIES WILL BE QUITE DIFFERENT FROM OUR PRESENT BODIES CH. 15:35-53

But some one will say, How are the dead ones raised? and with what kind of body do they come? A senseless man! Thou, that which thou sowest is not made alive unless it die. And that which thou sowest, not the body which will come into being dost thou sow, but naked grain, of wheat it may be, or of some of the others. But God gives to it a body according as His will was; and to each of the seeds a body of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh. But there is one of men, and another flesh of cattle, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes. And heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But of one kind is the glory of the heavenly ones, and of another kind that of the earthly ones. One glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars. For star from star differs in glory.

So also the resurrection of the dead ones. It is sown in corruption: it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour: it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness: it is raised in power. There is sown a soul-governed body: there is raised a spiritual body. If there is a soul-governed body, there is also a spiritual one. So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul, (Gen 2:7.) The last Adam, a life-giving Spirit. But not first is the spiritual, but the soul-governed, then the spiritual. The first man is from earth, a man of dust: the second Man is from heaven. Such as the man of dust, such also the men of dust and such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones. And according as we have worn the image of the man of dust, let us wear also the image of the heavenly one.

I mean this, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit God’s kingdom; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. See, a mystery I tell you. All of us will not sleep: but all of us will be changed; in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For, one will blow a trumpet: and the dead will be raised incorruptible; and we shall be changed. For it must need be that this corruptible thing put on incorruption, and this mortal thing put on immortality.

1Co 15:35. Adverse questions which Paul knows some one will ask.

With what-kind-of body: expounds how are the dead ones raised, by giving the special point of difficulty in the process of the resurrection.

Are raised, do they come: vivid description, as though we saw them now rising and coming out of the grave.

They come: from the standpoint of living men, of those who are coming back to the land of the living. A senseless one! in 1Co 15:36 suggests that these questions are not for information but to raise an objection. That the objection is made, not to Paul’s proofs, but to the doctrine proved, viz. that the dead will rise, suggests that this objection had been actually brought and was perhaps one ground of the assertion that there is no resurrection. The objectors evidently thought that resurrection implies that our present bodies or others like them will continue into the future life. This they could not conceive; and therefore said that dead men do not rise. But Paul, after disproving this denial in 28 by proving that Christ has risen and that there is a life beyond death, truths inconsistent with the denial, will now show that the just uncovered ground of the denial is itself a misconception of the nature of the resurrection.

In Mat 22:23 ff we have a similar objection to the fact of the resurrection, based on the same crude notion, common even in Christian ages, that the raised bodies will be exactly the same as those laid in the grave. Our Saviour, like Paul, meets it by proving that there is a life beyond the grave, assuming that this implies a resurrection of the dead; and by showing how incorrect are the common ideas about the life of the risen ones.

1Co 15:36-38. A senseless one! Thou etc.; rebukes the folly of the objection underlying these questions by pointing the man to a matter belonging to his own daily life.

Made-alive, die: appropriately chosen to suggest the analogy between the dead Christian and the seed hidden from sight in the ground and there perishing as a seed that it may pass into a more abundant life. This analogy teaches that there may be a continuity and a development of life in spite of the dissolution of its outward form; and that death may itself be the only possible way to a higher life. Thus in the very plants under our feet we have a pattern and a prophecy of our own resurrection, and a rebuke to those who deny its possibility. 1Co 15:37 adds to the analogy pointed out in 1Co 15:36 a proof from it that continuity of life does not imply continuity of bodily form.

Body; keeps before us the analogy of a dead man.

Naked grain: in contrast to the beautifully clothed plant which will grow from it.

Wheat, or some of the others; suggests the variety of seeds, thus preparing the way for to each of the seeds in 1Co 15:38. 1Co 15:38 solemnly introduces God as the Maker of the body which will grow.

His-will-was: literally, has-willed: same words and teaching in 1Co 12:18.

According as etc. The purpose of God, formed in the eternal past, is the eternal archetype with which correspond even the plants growing today. That God gives to the wheat from His Own infinite resources a body corresponding to the mystery of His Own eternal will, is the strongest contrast to sowing the body which will come to be.

Each of the seeds; suggest the immense variety of seeds. Each of these will have a body of its own, a body appropriate to itself. Consequently the variety of vegetable bodies is as great as the variety of seeds.

1Co 15:39-41. Paul now develops a thought suggested by each of the seeds, viz. the immense variety, and variety of kinds, of living bodies.

Cattle: useful domestic animals, horses, oxen, sheep, etc. Same word in Act 23:24; Rev 18:13; Luk 10:34.

Heavenly bodies; might denote in itself, the glorified bodies of the inhabitants of heaven. But here it can only denote the sun, moon, and stars. For the glory of the heavenly ones can be no other then the glory of the sun etc. Thus Paul himself defines the heavenly bodies. As in English so sometimes in classic Greek inanimate substances are called bodies. And the vegetable body given in 1Co 15:38 to a grain of wheat opens the way for inorganic bodies here.

Earthly bodies; may, in itself, include all material objects. But 1Co 15:39 directs and confines our attention to living bodies: just as 1Co 15:41 limits heavenly bodies to the stars etc. The word bodies puts in comparison the objects which live and move on earth with those brilliant objects which move or seem to move above our heads and infinitely beyond our reach. Paul thus reminds us that not only is there an infinite variety of material and living forms around us but that far above us there are other bodies; and then goes on to say that these heavenly bodies, which by their splendor awaken our rapt admiration, are of altogether another kind, differing entirely from every one of the endless varieties of earthly bodies.

Glory: admiration, or the objective quality which evokes it; see under Rom 1:21. The splendor which excites our admiration of the sun, moon, and stars, is altogether different from the manifold beauty which evokes our admiration of the works of God on earth.

One glory of the sun etc.; carries the proof of variety still further. Not only is there infinite variety in the objects which surround us on earth, and not only are all these entirely different from those which shine in the canopy of heaven, but even in these latter the law of variety is seen. All are glorious: but their glories differ. One step further. If the stars were all alike Paul would probably have written, according to Greek idiom, another glory of the star, naming one as representative of all. He therefore justifies the plural stars, by saying that the law of variety holds good even to the utmost limit of the visible creation, and that even stars differ among themselves. This is much better than taking the word stars to include sun and moon. Thus by a graphic delineation Paul has taught us that endless variety is a law of creation; and that amid this endless variety there is nevertheless an infinite distance between the endless varieties around us and the endless varieties above us.

1Co 15:42 a. Applies the foregoing facts to the matter in hand. Cp. Dan 12:3.

So also etc.; refers only to the difference between earthly and heavenly bodies. Of differences among resurrection bodies, we have no mention in 29. The endless variety of earthly bodies is mentioned only to show that this variety does not preclude the possibility of an altogether different order of risen bodies, in which all will be glorious but infinitely diverse. At the same time, the careful assertion of the difference between star and star suggests, perhaps with design, different degrees of heavenly brightness.

1Co 15:42-44 a. Expounds so also, by four powerful contrasts between the body laid in the grave and that raised from it.

It is sown; recalls the metaphor of 1Co 15:37 f, which overthrew the objection that our present bodies are unfit for the world to come. Conversely, the word body in 1Co 15:37 f kept before us the matter for which the metaphor was used.

In corruption: dissolution actually going on while the body is being laid in the grave.

Incorruption: a state which abides undimmed for ever; see under Rom 2:7.

Dishonour: as if of no value. It was a technical term, in the days of free Athens, for a kind of outlawry involving loss of the rights of citizenship and of state protection. And this meaning would doubtless occur to Paul’s readers and was perhaps designed by him. Funeral pomp is but a mask hiding the truth that the body carried to the grave has lost the rights of humanity. Instead of the kind attentions rendered to it a few days ago, it is left alone in the dark and silent grave, as the meanest living body would not be. In absolute contrast to this is the splendor, exciting universal admiration, in which Christ’s people will rise from the dead.

In glory: see Col 3:4.

Weakness: the absolute powerlessness of the corpse, so that the once powerful arm can no longer do the slightest work.

In power: the wonderful and various capacity of the resurrection body.

Soul-governed: literally soulish, an adjective bearing the same relation to

soul as Spiritual to spirit. Cp. 1Co 15:45. Same word in 1Co 2:14. See note below. Paul no longer contrasts the conditions in which the body is buried and raised, but the constitutions of the dead and the rising bodies, derived from the first and the Last Adam. He thus introduces new ideas which he at once develops.

1Co 15:44 b. Soul-governed; describes the human body not only when dead but, as the quotation from Genesis 2 proves, as it sprang from the Creator’s hands. It is therefore independent of man’s conduct, and even of sin. Our present bodies and their action are subject to the laws of the soul, i.e. of bodily or animal life, which in turn depends upon food, temperature, etc., and is exposed to disease and mechanical injury We are therefore not absolute masters of our own bodies. At least physically our animal nature rules us, i.e. determines what we shall do. And such a body, ruled by forces he could neither control nor fully understand, was given to Adam in Paradise. Our future bodies will be entirely permeated and controlled by our spirits, the seat of our intelligence. Consequently, the resurrection body, instead of limiting the spirit, will be a perfect manifestation of its nature and a passive instrument of its will. Then will our deliverance from, and conquest of, the material world be complete. And our submission to God, complete. For the human spirit, while ruling with undisputed sway over the body and the emotions, will itself be animated wholly by the Spirit of God. The body to be laid in the grave is subject to the laws of animal life: the raised body will be subject only to spirit.

There is also: in the unchangeable purpose of God.

1Co 15:44 b repeats for emphasis the assertions of 1Co 15:44 a, in a form which declares that the former assertion implies the latter. The soul-governed body is imperfect: and in the works of God all imperfection is a prophecy of its own consummation. Again, although our body is soul-governed, we ourselves are spiritual: 1Co 2:14-15; contrast Jud 1:19. And the soul-governed body of those set free from the moral sway of the animal life reveals the change awaiting their body.

1Co 15:45. So also etc.; adds to the assertion of 1Co 15:44 b a quotation from Gen 2:7 in harmony with it.

First: inserted by Paul to give prominence to the fact that Adam was the beginning of the human race.

Adam: the Hebrew word rendered man in Gen 2:7. It is added here to direct attention to him who bore it as his proper name. By God personally inbreathing the principle of life into a lifeless but organized body, the man, who before was only a lifeless body, became a living soul. The soul was a result of the entrance of the principle of life into a mortal body. That the word soul is used in Gen 2:7 to designate the entire man who thus sprang into being, implies that of man thus created the soul, i.e. the animal life, was the distinctive name-giving element. This designation therefore proves that the body of man as first created was a soul-governed body.

The last Adam: Christ, as being, like Adam, head and representative of the race, on whom hang the fortunes of the whole. Ancient Jewish writers give the same title to the expected Messiah. See quotations from Schoettgen given on page xix. Its use here is explained and justified by Rom 5:12-19, with which it is a remarkable coincidence.

The last: because after Him there will be no other head of the race; or, more probably, because Paul has in view the final appearance of Christ.

Life-giving: an attribute of spirit, the principle of life; as is living of soul, an individual manifestation of life. We may supply either has become or will become: for the life which Christ will give results from His death and resurrection which have already taken place. 1Co 15:45 b is but a repetition of 1Co 15:22 b. For spirit is the one and only principle of life. Therefore, that Christ’s return to earth will clothe us in living bodies, proves him to be a life-giving spirit. And the body He will give can be no other than spiritual. For a soul-governed body is imperfect; and therefore inconsistent with final victory.

Gen 2:7 was quoted to prove, by his very designation, that Adam as created was imperfect. This imperfection, by its contrast with what we know will be a perfect state, proves the difference asserted in 1Co 15:44 a between the body laid in the grave and that to be raised from it. Hence, after the quotation Paul simply adds an assertion of his own.

1Co 15:46. The spiritual: wider than spiritual body. Paul asserts a principle, possibly as broad as creation, viz. that God does not begin by creating matter completely under the control of spirit, but under control, more or less, of natural forces and animal life. To conquer matter thus swayed by other forces, and to bring it under its own absolute rule, is the task set before spirit. It was Adam’s work to bring into subjection to his own spirit not only (Gen 1:28) the world around him but his body and its appetites.

Then the spiritual: emphatic statement of the true order.

This verse casts important light on the story of Paradise. Adam was not created full-grown in moral and spiritual life, so that all he had to do was to retain his position. He was fully equipped for conquest: but the victory was not yet won. Paul tells us that it is so always. The task of our life is to gain complete control of our bodies and bodily life. Our reward will be to have resurrection bodies completely controlled, physically and morally, by the spirit within.

1Co 15:47-48. Further contrast of the two heads of the race, determining the nature of the bodies we receive from them respectively.

From earth, a man of dust: so Gen 2:7, literally rendered, formed man dust from the earth. Dust is the finest inorganic material. Adam was a man of dust.

From heaven: whence Christ will come (Php 3:20) with all the powers of heaven to be Head of the glorified human race; in contrast to Adam who came from the earth beneath us, with all material infirmities, to be the beginning of a race which could not of itself rise above its source. What Adam was, a man of dust, they are who live a life inherited from him. And what Christ is, such are they who partake His life. This comparison pertains only to those elements which come from the heads of the race. Because Adam’s body was soul-governed, so are ours. Christ’s glorified body, which will some day return to earth, is purely spirit-governed. And since He, equally with Adam, is Head of the race, we shall have bodies like His.

1Co 15:49. Image of the man-of-dust: our present human body.

Image of the heavenly one: our resurrection body, which will be conformed to the body of His glory, Php 3:21.

Let us wear: so read by all recent editors, except that we shall (A.V. and R.V. text) is in Westcott’s margin: a various reading similar to Rom 5:1. The change is in a single letter. In both cases the subjunctive reading is the more difficult, but is supported by preponderate documentary evidence. We shall wear would simply announce the coming glory. Let us wear, (or better, let us put on for wear,) reminds us that it depends upon ourselves whether we share that glory, and exhorts us so to act now as to obtain it. Such exhortation is an appropriate corrective to the absolute assertions of 1Co 15:43-48. The image of the heavenly cannot be the moral image of Christ. For, the image of the man-of-dust can be no other than bodily likeness to Adam: and the whole context refers to the resurrection.

1Co 15:50. I mean, or assert: same word in same sense in 1Co 10:19. Paul now puts into plain words the practical meaning of his teaching in 1Co 15:44-49 about the soul-governed body of dust, etc.

Flesh and blood: Mat 16:17; Gal 1:16; Eph 6:12; Heb 2:14. Bodies such as we now have, consisting of flesh and blood and therefore subject, to the laws of animal life, cannot inherit the kingdom of God: i.e. while wearing them we cannot obtain the royal inheritance (see 1Co 6:10) belonging to us as sons of God.

Cannot; marks the absolute incompatibility of a natural body with the kingdom in which matter is wholly controlled by spirit. After the concrete, flesh and blood, Paul mentions the abstract quality, corrupting, (never absent now where flesh is,) which prevents our present bodies from entering the kingdom of God; in absolute contrast to incorruption, (1Co 15:42,) which marks all that pertains to that kingdom. Thus 1Co 15:50 b gives a reason for the fact asserted in 1Co 15:50 a.

1Co 15:51. Mystery: something unknown had not God revealed it. See note under 1Co 3:4; cp. Rom 11:25; also 1Th 4:15, This we say to you by the word of the Lord. This mystery, contained in 1Co 15:51-52, explains how we who now dwell in flesh and blood may, in spite of 1Co 15:50, inherit the kingdom of God.

All of us will not sleep; (see Appendix B) cannot mean that all will live till Christ comes. For, with death all around, Paul certainly could not say this. Had he meant this, the error at Thessalonica (1Th 4:13) would have been his own express teaching. The word not negatives all, not shall sleep. [See Moulton’s good note in Winer’s Grammar p. 695.] Paul denies that all, an all including himself and his readers, will die; but asserts that, although some will escape death, not one will escape a total bodily change.

All of us; covers in both places the whole race; as suggested by the general term flesh and blood. The repetition lays emphasis on the absolute universality of the change.

1Co 15:52. In a moment etc.: cp. 1Th 5:3; Mat 24:44; Luk 17:26 ff.

Twinkling of an eye: dwells upon, and intensifies, the idea of suddenness. In the midst of the world’s busy life and without any previous warning, Christ will lay His hand upon the wheels of time and they will stop at once and for ever. This warns the readers that the absence of all signs of Christ’s coming is no proof that it is not near.

Trumpet: so 1Th 4:16; Mat 24:31. As at Sinai (Exo 19:16) so the last coming of Christ will be announced by an appeal to the ears of men.

The last trumpet: the last of the many signals during the present age of probation, marking the end of the age. This mention of a trumpet Paul supports, in face of those who denied the supernatural, by declaring that one will blow it, and that then the dead ones will rise and the living be changed.

Incorruptible; keeps before us the difference (1Co 15:43) between our present and future bodies.

We: 1Th 4:15 : the living, in contrast to the dead ones. It implies clearly that Paul did not know that long ages would pass before Christ’s coming. But, that he confidently expected to survive the Day of Christ, we cannot fairly infer. For, in rhetorical figure he frequently identifies himself with that which he describes: so 1Co 6:15; 1Co 10:22; 1Co 10:29; Rom 3:7; Rom 7:14 ff: cp. Jas 3:9. Probably, in this matter hope and fear alternated with his circumstances and his frame of mind. In 2Co 5:6-8 he certainly ponders the possibility of his own death. Still, finding himself preserved from day to day amid peril, and not knowing how soon Christ will appear, he would naturally look upon himself as being left for the coming of Christ, in contrast to those who had fallen asleep; and might speak of himself, as here, in contrast to those who will die before Christ comes.

Shall-be-changed; refers here only to the survivors: for the dead are already mentioned. But it is true (cp. 1Co 15:51) of all, both dead and surviving. For the word simply denotes change, whether by death and resurrection or without them. It is used here because change is all that can be asserted of those who will not die. This change is the chief part of the mystery which harmonizes 1Co 15:50 with our entrance into the kingdom of God.

1Co 15:53. Must-needs: since flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.

This corruptible thing: the body. Cp. 1Co 15:43.

Put-on: clothe itself as with a garment. So 2Co 5:3 f. The contrast of corruptible and incorruption marks the greatness of the needed change.

This mortal: so 2Co 5:4 : more definite, and therefore more forceful, than corruptible. Paul lingers, in repetition, over the coming change. The body doomed to decay will clothe itself with absence of decay: and the body doomed to death will clothe itself in deathlessness. He thus concludes 29 with its chief thought, viz. the necessary difference between our present and future bodies.

SECTION 29 is introduced by a question uncovering an objection to the teaching in 28 that the dead will rise, an objection based on the supposed impossibility of the process of resurrection. The objection was perhaps prompted by the crude teaching of some Jews that the resurrection body will be exactly the same as that laid in the grave. This objection Paul rebukes by pointing to God’s works in nature, to the difference between the seed sown and the plant which perpetuates its life, and between the endless variety of living bodies on earth and the objects which shine and move above us in the sky. He declares that there is a similar difference between our present and future bodies, a difference of which he gives four powerful parallel descriptions. He thus shows that against his teaching the objection of 1Co 15:35 has no force. The story of Genesis tells us that the human body, even as at first created, and according to a constant divine order, is imperfect. But through our relation to Christ we shall receive bodies like His. In other words, a change is absolutely necessary before we can attain the goal of our being. And it will come. Though all will not die, every one will pass through the needful change from mortality to immortality. Of this teaching Php 3:21 is an epitome.

This section rebukes the teaching, common in all ages, that our future bodies will consist of the same material particles as those we now wear; and thus removes the objection to the resurrection based on this error. In harmony with this section we must interpret Rom 8:11. Yet our future bodies will have some definite (each his own body) but now inconceivable relation to our present bodies. We learn also that Adam as he sprang from the Creator’s hands, although unstained by sin, was not, even touching his body, perfect. With him as with us maturity of manhood is the prize of battle and victory.

The word SOUL now claims attention. For the argument of 1Co 15:44-46 turns evidently upon the difference between soul and spirit. (see note under Rom 8:17.) These verses teach that soul is inferior to spirit, and bears to our present mortal bodies received from Adam a relation similar to that of spirit to the resurrection body we shall receive from Christ; and that the order in time of our present and future bodies accords (1Co 15:46) with the nature of soul and spirit respectively. Unfortunately the true sense of the word soul is much obscured by the necessity of rendering it by various English words.

In both Testaments and in classic Greek the word soul denotes usually that in which a lifeless object differs from a living one. It is the life; not as a life-giving principle (the spirit) but as that which itself lives. It is rendered life in Mat 16:25; Mat 2:20; Mat 6:25, and numberless cases. Consequently, the various manifestations of life are attributed to the soul, especially in the Old Testament; e.g. hunger, thirst, need and satiety of food, sensation, desire, and all kinds of emotion. Cp. Pro 10:3; Pro 27:7; Pro 25:25; Psa 31:10. It also denotes living creatures, as themselves manifestations of life. This use is conspicuous in Gen 1:20-30, where the words living soul (A.V. living creature) designate the lower creatures, especially fishes and quadrupeds. Similarly, as being the basis of individual life, human as well as animal, it denotes ah individual man: Gen 2:7; Gen 46:18. Very strangely it is used for a corpse: Num 6:6. In Rev 6:9 we have the disembodied souls of murdered men.

We may therefore define the soul to be the life common to men and animals; the spirit, in contrast to the soul, that which is very rarely (e.g. Isa 1:14) used of God and the word spirit very rarely (Ecc 3:21) of animals, Spirit is declared to be the essence of God. Spirit is that principle which, entering into an organized material form, gives it life; and thus itself assumes an individual, and in man a personal, existence: the soul is the actual individual life resulting from the entrance of the life-giving spirit into a material form, a life conditioned in its nature and its development by the material form it animates. Hence the order in 1Th 5:23. The soul is that which is nearest to the body and in great part ruled by the body, the seat of bodily emotions, sensations, desires. The spirit is that which is nearest to God, and which thinks and knows. On man’s spirit the Spirit of God, Himself the bearer of the mind of God, directly acts. The spiritual man is he who obeys the influences which through his own spirit the Spirit of God exerts upon him. The soul-governed man (1Co 2:14, Jud 1:19) is he who obeys the emotions which the material world, acting on him through his body, evokes in his soul. So far as we obey the Holy Spirit, He imparts to our own spirit (which in the unsaved is very weak) power to control the emotions which arise in the soul, and thus to rule our own body and defy the influences of the world. Thus our whole being becomes spiritual and holy. But, so far as we obey the emotions of the soul, our own spirit, the seat of thought and knowledge, falls under their sway, which is practically the sway of the body, and under subjection to the material world around us. Cp. Jas 3:15. Animals are altogether soul-governed. For their entire action is determined by emotions excited either by simple sensation, or sensation joined with something like memory. And so far as man is soul-governed does he sink towards the level of animals.

Of the use of the word spirit to denote the highest part in man only faith traces (e.g. Aristotle, On the World ch. iv.) are found in classic Greek. Consequently, the word soul there covers the entire domain of man’s immaterial nature. But Aristotle, in a most instructive passage, Nic. Ethics bk. i. 13, distinguishes three elements in the human soul, of which the first two and the third correspond very nearly to the soul and spirit in the New Testament. The lowest of these elements man has in common with vegetables, viz. the life which is nourished and grows. Similarly and popularly, in the New Testament body and soul denotes sometimes the entire man: Mat 10:28. In these cases the soul is the whole immaterial part of man, including the spirit. But this popular use does not set aside the plain distinction, here, and 1Th 5:23; Heb 4:12, of soul and spirit.

The clumsy rendering soul-governed is due to our lack of an adjective corresponding to soul, as spiritual corresponds to spirit. the control of the soul over the body justifies the imported idea governed.

Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament

15:35 {20} But some [man] will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

(20) Now that he has proved the resurrection, he demonstrates their doltishness, in that they scoffingly demanded how it could be that the dead could rise again: and if they did rise again, they asked mockingly, what manner of bodies they should have. Therefore he sends these fellows, who seemed to themselves to be marvellously wise and intelligent, to be instructed of poor rude farmers.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

3. The resurrection body 15:35-49

Paul next addressed the objection that the resurrection of the body is impossible because when a person dies his or her body decomposes and no one can reassemble it. The Corinthians seem to have wanted to avoid thinking that the material body was essentially good. Hellenistic dualism seems to have influenced their thinking about the human body and, therefore, the resurrection. Dualism is the philosophy, so common in pagan Greek thought, that the body is only the husk of the real "person" who dwells within. The more one can live without the constraints that the body imposes the better. The biblical view, on the other hand, is that the body is essentially good and just as much a part of the real "person" as the immaterial part (cf. Gen 2:7). The original readers did not, and most people do not, view very positively a resurrection that involves simply resuscitating human corpses. Paul proceeded to show that the resurrection of believers was not that but a resurrection of glorified bodies. Paul taught a more glorious future for believers than the present "spiritual" existence that some in Corinth lauded.

"The Corinthians are convinced that by the gift of the Spirit, and especially the manifestation of tongues, they have already entered into the spiritual, ’heavenly’ existence that is to be. Only the body, to be sloughed off at death, lies between them and their ultimate spirituality. Thus they have denied the body in the present, and have no use for it in the future." [Note: Fee, The First . . ., p. 778.]

"Dead" (Gr. nekros) appears 11 times in 1Co 15:1-34 but only three times after 1Co 15:34. This indicates a shift in Paul’s argument.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Analogies from nature 15:35-44

A key word in this section of Paul’s argument is "body" (Gr. soma), which occurs 10 times compared to no times in the first 34 verses. The apostle proceeded to offer two sets of analogies (seeds, 1Co 15:36-38; and types of bodies, 1Co 15:39-41) that he then applied to the resurrection of the dead (1Co 15:42-44).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

This objection to the resurrection has to do with the reconstruction of the body out of the same physical elements that it formerly possessed. Obviously it would be impossible to reassemble the same cells to reconstruct a person after he or she had been dead for some time. This is the primary problem that Paul solved in the rest of this pericope.

For example, if someone died at sea and sailors buried him, a fish might eat his body. The atoms and molecules of his body would become part of the fish. If a fisherman caught and ate the fish, its body would become part of the fisherman’s body. If the fisherman died and an undertaker buried him in the ground and someone eventually sowed wheat over his grave, the fisherman’s atoms and molecules would go into the wheat. A third person might eat the wheat, and so on. How could the first person’s body ever come together again?

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 24

THE SPIRITUAL BODY

THE proofs of the Resurrection which Paul has adduced are satisfactory. So long as they are clearly before the mind, we find it possible to believe in that great experience which will finally give us possession of the life to come. But after all proof rises doubt irrepressible, owing to the difficulty of understanding the process through which the body passes and the nature of the body that is to be. “Some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?” Not always in an unbelieving and scoffing spirit; often in mere perplexity and justifiable inquisitiveness, will men ask these questions.

Paul answers both inquiries by referring to analogies in the natural world. Only by death, he says, does seed reach its designed development; and the body or form in which seed rises is very different in appearance from that in which it is sown. These analogies have their place and their use in removing objections and difficulties. They are not intended or supposed to establish the fact of the Resurrection, but only to remove difficulties as to its mode. By analogy you can show that a certain process or result is not impossible, you may even create a presumption in its favour, but you cannot establish it as an actuality. Analogy is a powerful instrument for removing objections, but utterly weak for establishing positive truth. Seed lives again after burial, but it does not follow that our bodies will do so. Seed, when it rots away beneath the soil, gives birth to a better thing than that which was sown, but this is no proof that the same result will follow when our bodies pass through a similar treatment. But if a man says, as Paul here supposes he may, “Such a thing as this resurrection you speak of is an unnatural, unheard of, and impossible thing, the best reply is to point him to some analogous process in nature, in which this apparent impossibility or something very similar is actually brought to pass.”

Even outside the circle of Christian thought these analogies in nature have always been felt to remove some of the presumptions against the Resurrection and to make room for listening to evidence in its favour. The transformation of the seed into the plant and the development of the seed to a fuller life through apparent extinction, the transformation of the grub into the brilliant and powerful dragonfly through a process which terminates the life of the grub-these and other natural facts show that one life may be continued through various phases, and that the termination of one form of life does not always moan the termination of all life in a creature. We need not, these analogies tell us, at once conclude that death ends all, for in some visible instances death is only a birth to a higher and freer life. Neither need we point to the dissolution of the natural body and conclude that no more perfect body can be connected with such a process, because in many cases we see a more efficient body disengaged from the original and dissolving body. Thus far the analogies carry us. It is doubtful whether they should be pushed further, although they might seem to indicate that the new body is not to be a new creation, but is to be produced by virtue of what is already in existence. The new body is not to be irrespective of what has gone before, but is to be the natural result of causes already working. What these causes are, or how the spirit is to impress its character on the body, we do not know.

It is not impossible, then, nor even quite improbable, that the death of our present body may set free a new and far more perfectly equipped body. The fact that we cannot conceive the nature of this body need not trouble us. Who without previous observation could imagine what would spring from an acorn or a seed of wheat? To each God gives its own body. We cannot imagine what our future body; subject to no waste or decay, can be; but we need not on that account reject as childish all expectation that such a body shall exist. “All flesh is not the same flesh.” The kind of flesh you now wear may be unfit for everlasting life, but there may await you as suitable and congenial a body as your present familiar tenement. Consider the inexhaustible fertility of God, the endless varieties already existing in nature. The bird has a body which fits it for life in the air; the fish lives with comfort in its own element. And the variety already existing does not exhaust Gods resources. We read at present but one chapter in the history of life, and what future chapters are to unfold who can imagine? A fertile and inventive man knows no bounds to his progress; will God stand still? Are we not but at the beginning of His works? May we not reasonably suppose that a truly infinite expansion and development await Gods works? Is it not entirely unreasonable to suppose that what we see and know is the measure of Gods resources?

Paul does not attempt to describe the future body, but contents himself with pointing out one or two of its characteristics by which it is distinguished from the body we now wear. “It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” In this body there are decay, humiliation, weakness, a life that is merely temporary; in the body that is to be decay gives place to incorruptibility, humiliation to glory, weakness to power, animal life to spiritual.

The present body is subject to decay. Not only is it easily injured by accident and often rendered permanently useless, but it is so constituted that all activity wastes it; and this waste needs constant repair. That we may constantly seek this repair, we are endowed with strong appetites, which sometimes overbear everything else in us and both defeat their own ends and hinder the growth of the spirit. The organs by which the waste is repaired themselves wear out, so that by no care or nourishment can a man make out to live as long as a tree. But the very decay of this body makes way for one in which there shall be no waste, no need of physical nourishment, and therefore no need of strong and overbearing physical appetites. Instead of impeding the spirit by clamouring to have its wants attended to, it will be the spirits instrument. A great part of the temptations of this present life arise from the conditions in which we necessarily exist as dependent for our comfort in great measure on the body. And one can scarcely conceive the feeling of emancipation and superiority which will possess those who have no anxiety about a livelihood, no fear of death, no distraction of appetite.

The present body is for similar reasons characterised by “weakness.” We cannot be-where we would, nor do what we would. A man may work his twelve hours, but he must then acknowledge he has a body which needs rest and sleep. Many persons are disqualified by bodily weakness from certain forms of usefulness and enjoyment. Many persons also, though able to do a certain amount of work, do it with labour; their vitality is habitually low, and they never have the full use of their powers, but need continually to be on their guard, and go through life burdened with a lassitude and discomfort more difficult to bear than passing attacks of pain. In contradistinction to this and to every form of weakness, the resurrection body will be full of power, able to accomplish the behests of the will, and fit for all that is required of it.

But the most comprehensive contrast between the two bodies is expressed in the words, “It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” A natural body is that which is animated by a human life and is fitted for this world. “The first man Adam was made a living soul,” or, as we should more naturally say, an animal. He was made with a capacity for living; and because he was to live upon earth, he had a body in which this life or soul was lodged. The natural body is the body we receive at birth, and which is suited for its own requirements of maintaining itself in life in this world into which we are born. The soul, or animal life, of man is higher than that of the other animals, it has richer endowments and capacities, but it is also in, many respects similar. Many men are quite content with the merely animal life which this world upholds and furnishes. They find enough to satisfy them in its pleasures, its work, its affairs, its friendships; and for all these the natural body is sufficient. The thoughtful man cannot indeed but look forward and ask himself what is to become of this body. If he turns to Scripture for light, he will probably be struck with the fact that it sheds no light whatever on the future of the natural body. Those who are in Christ enter into possession of a spiritual body, but there is no hint of any more perfect body being prepared for those who are not in Christ.

The spiritual body which is reserved for spiritual men, is a body in which the upholding life is spiritual. The natural life of man both forms to a human shape, and upholds, the natural body; the spiritual body is similarly maintained by what is spiritual in man. It is the soul, or natural life, of man which gives the body its appetites and maintains it in efficiency; remove this soul, and the body is mere dead matter. In like manner it is the spirit which maintains the spiritual body; and by the spirit is meant that in man which can delight in God and in goodness. The body we now have is miserable and useless or happy and serviceable in proportion to its animal vitality, in proportion to its power to assimilate to itself the nutriment this physical world supplies. The spiritual body will be healthy or sickly in proportion to the spiritual vitality that animates it; that is to say, in proportion to the power of the individual spirit to delight in God and find its life in Him and in what He lives for.

We have already seen that Paul refuses to consider the resurrection of Christ as miraculous in the sense of its being unique or abnormal; on the contrary, he considers resurrection to be an essential step in normal human development, and therefore experienced by Christ. And now he enunciates the great principle or law which governs not only this fact of resurrection, but the whole evolution of Gods works: “first that which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual.” It is this law which we see ruling the history of creation and the history of man. The spiritual is the culminating point towards which all of the processes of nature tend. The gradual development of what is spiritual-of will, of love, of moral excellence-this, so far as man can see, is the end towards which all nature constantly and steadily is working.

Sometimes, however, it occurs to one to question the law “first that which is natural, afterward that which is spiritual.” If the present body hinders rather than helps the growth of the spirit, if at last all Christians are to have a spiritual body, why might we not have had this body to begin with? What need of this mysterious process of passing from life to life and from body to body? If it is true that we are here only for a few years and in the future life forever, why should we be here at all? Why might we not at birth have been ushered into our eternal state? The answer is obvious. We are not at once introduced into our eternal condition because we are moral creatures, free to choose for ourselves, and who cannot enter an eternal state save by choice of our own: first that which is natural, first that which is animal, first a life in which we have abundant opportunity to test what appears good and are free to make our choice; then that which is spiritual, because the spiritual can only be a thing of choice, a thing of the will. There is no spiritual life or spiritual birth save by the will. Men can become spiritual only by choosing to be so. Involuntary, compulsory, necessitated, natural spirituality is, so far as man is concerned, a contradiction in terms.

Human nature is a thing of immense possibilities and range. On the one side it is akin to the lower animals, to the physical world and all that is in it, high and low; on the other side it is akin to the highest of all spiritual existences, even to God Himself. At present we are in a world admirably adapted for our probation and discipline, a world in which, in point of fact, every man does attach himself to the lower or to the higher, to the present or to the eternal, to the natural or to the spiritual. And although the results of this may not be apparent in average cases, yet in extreme cases the results of human choice are obtrusively apparent. Let a man give himself unrestrainedly and exclusively to animal life in its grosser forms, and the body itself soon begins to suffer. You can see the process of physical deterioration going on, deepening in misery until death comes. But what follows death? Can one promise himself or another a future body which shall be exempt from the pains which unrepented sin has introduced? Are those who have by their vice committed a slow suicide to be clothed here after in an incorruptible and efficient body? It seems wholly contrary to reason to suppose so. And how can their probation be continued if the very circumstance which makes this life so thorough a probation to us all-the circumstance of our being clothed with a body-is absent? The truth is, there is no subject on which more darkness hangs or on which Scripture preserves so ominous a silence as the future of the body of those who in this life have not chosen God and things spiritual as their life.

On the other hand, if we consider instances in which the spiritual life has been resolutely and unreservedly chosen, we see anticipations here also of the future destiny of those who have so chosen. They may be crushed by diseases as painful and as fatal as the most flagrant of sinners endure, but these diseases frequently have the result only of making the true spiritual life shine more brightly. In extreme cases, you would almost say, the transmutation of the tortured and worn body into a glorified body is begun. The spirit seems dominant; and as you stand by and watch, you begin to feel that death has no relation to the emotions, and hopes, and intercourse you detect in that spirit. These which seem, and are, the very life of the spirit, cannot be thought of as terminated by a merely physical change. They do not spring from, nor do they depend upon, what is physical; and it is reasonable to suppose that they will not be destroyed by it. Looking at Christ Himself and allowing due impression to be made upon us by His concernment about the highest, and best, and most lasting things, by His recognition of God and harmony with Him, by His living in God, and by His superiority to earthly considerations, we cannot but feel it to be most unlikely that such a spirit should be extinguished by bodily death.

This spiritual body we receive through the intervention of Christ. As from the first man we receive animal life, from the second we receive spiritual life. “The first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam a quickening spirit. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” The image of the first man we have by our natural and physical derivation from him, the image of the second by spiritual derivation; that is to say, by our choosing Christ as our ideal and by our allowing His Spirit to form us. This Spirit is life giving; this Spirit is indeed God, communicating to us a life which is at once holy and eternal.

The mode of Christs intervention is more fully described in the words, “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Everywhere Paul teaches that it was sin which brought death upon man; that man would have broken through the law of death which reigns in the physical world had he not by sin brought himself under the power of things physical. And this poisonous fang was pressed in by the Law. The strength of sin is the Law. It is positive disobedience, the preference of known evil to known good, the violation of law whether written in the conscience or in spoken commandments, which gives sin its moral character. The choice of the evil in presence of the good-it is that which constitutes sin.

The words are no doubt susceptible of another meaning. They could be used by one who wished to say that sin is that which makes death painful, which adds terror of future judgment and gloomy forebodings to the natural pain of death. But it must be owned that this is not so much in keeping with Pauls usual way of looking at the connection between death and sin.

Christs victory over death is thus explained by Godet: “Christs victory over death has two aspects, the one relating to Himself, the other concerning men. He first of all conquered sin in relation to Himself by denying to it the right of existence in Him, condemning it to nonexistence in His flesh, similar though it was to our sinful flesh; {Rom 8:3} and thereby He disarmed the Law so far as it concerned Himself. His life being the Law in living realisation, He had it for Him, and not against Him. This twofold personal victory was the foundation of His own resurrection. Thereafter He continued to act that this victory might extend to us. And first He freed us from the burden of condemnation which the Law laid on us, and whereby it was ever interposing between us and communion with God. He recognised in our name the right of God over the sinner; He consented to satisfy it to the utmost in His own person. Whoever appropriates this death as undergone in his room and stead and for himself, sees the door of reconciliation to God open before him, as if he had himself expiated all his sins. The separation established by the Law no longer exists; the Law is disarmed. By that very fact sin also is vanquished. Reconciled to God, the believer receives Christs Spirit, who works in him an absolute breach of will with sin and complete devotion to God. The yoke of sin is at an end; the dominion of God is restored in the heart. The two foundations of the reign of death are thus destroyed. Let Christ appear, and this reign will crumble in the dust forever.”

It is then with joy and triumph Paul contemplates death. Naturally we shrink from and fear it. We know it only from one side: only from seeing it in the persons of other men, and not from our own experience. And what we see in others is necessarily only the darker side of death, the cessation of bodily life and of all intercourse with the warm and lively interests of the world. It is a condition exciting tears, and moaning, and grief in those that remain in life; and though these tears arise chiefly from our own sense of loss, yet insensibly we think of the condition of the dead as a state to be bewailed. We see the sowing in weakness, in dishonour, in corruption, as Paul says; and we do not see the glory, and strength, and incorruption of the spiritual body. The dead may be in bright regions and be living a keener life than ever; but of this we see nothing: and all we do see is sad, depressing, humiliating.

But to “faiths foreseeing eye” the other side of death becomes also apparent. The grave becomes the robing room for life eternal. Stripped of “this muddy vesture of decay,” we are there to be clothed with a spiritual body. Death is enlisted in the service of Christs people; and by destroying flesh and blood, it enables this mortal to put on immortality. The blow which threatens to crush and annihilate all life breaks but the shell and lets the imprisoned spirit free to a larger life. Death is swallowed up in victory, and itself ministers to the final triumph of man. Our instincts tell us that death is critical and has a determining power on our destinies. We cannot evade it; we may depreciate or neglect, but we cannot diminish, its importance. It has its place and its function, and it will operate in each one of us according to what it finds in us, destroying what is merely animal, emancipating what is truly spiritual. We cannot as yet stand on the further side of death, and look back on it, and recognise its kindly work in us; but we can understand Pauls burst of anticipated triumph, and with him we can forecast the joy of having passed all doubtful struggle and anxious foreboding, and of finally experiencing that all the evils of humanity have been overcome. With a triumph so complete in view, we can also listen to his exhortation, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

But if we have any fit conception of the magnitude of the triumph, we shall also cherish some worthy idea of the reality of the conflict. Those who have felt the terror of death know that it can be counterbalanced only by something more than a surmise, a hope, a longing, only indeed by a fact as solid as itself. And if to them the resurrection of Christ approves itself as such a fact, and if they can listen to His voice saying, “Because I live, ye shall live also,” they do feel themselves armed against the graver terrors of death, and cannot but look forward with some confident hope to a life into which the ills they have here experienced cannot follow them. But at the same time, and in proportion as the reality of the future life quickens hope within them, it must also reveal to them the reality of the conflict through which that life is reached. By no mere idle naming of the name of Christ or resultless faith in Him can men pass from what is natural to what is spiritual. We are summoned to believe in Christ, but for a purpose; and that purpose is that, believing in Him as the revelation of God to us, we may be able to choose Him as our pattern and live His life. It is only what is purely spiritual in ourselves that can put us in possession of a spiritual body. From Christ we can receive what is spiritual; and if our belief in Him prompts us to become like Him, then we may count upon sharing in His destiny.

This is the permanent incentive of the Christian life. This present experience of ours leads to a larger, more satisfying experience. Beyond our horizon there awaits us an endlessly enlarging world. Death, which seems to bound our view, is really but our real birth to a fuller, and eternal, and true life. “Therefore be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” The promptings of conscience do not delude you; your instinctive hopes will not be put to shame; your faith is reasonable; there is a life beyond. And no effort you now put forth will prove vain; no prayer, no earnest desire, no struggle towards what is spiritual, will fail of its effect. All that is spiritual is destined to live; it belongs to the eternal world: and all that you do in the Spirit, all mastery of self and the world and the flesh, all devoted fellowship with God-all is giving you a surer place and a more abundant entrance into the spiritual world, for “your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary