Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 15:37
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]:
37. and that which thou sowest ] “There are two parts in this similitude: first that it is not wonderful that bodies should arise again from corruption, since the same thing happens in the case of the seed; and next that it is not contrary to nature that our bodies should be endowed with new qualities, when from naked grain God produces so many ears clothed with a wonderful workmanship.” Calvin. Tyndale renders, And what sowest thou? thou sowest not that body that shall be
but bare grain ] i.e. naked grain. A nakid corn, Wiclif. Our version follows Tyndale here, only substituting grain for corne.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And that which thou sowest – The seed which is sown.
Not that body that shall be – You sow one kernel which is to produce many others. They shall not be the same that is sown. They will be new kernels raised from that; of the same kind, indeed, and showing their intimate and necessary connection with that which is sown. It is implied here that the body which will be raised will not be the same in the sense that the same particles of matter shall compose it, but the same only in the sense that it will have sprung up from that; will constitute the same order, rank, species of being, and be subject to the same laws, and deserve the same course of treatment as that which died; as the grain produced is subject to the same laws, and belongs to the same rank, order, and species as that which is sown. And as the same particles of matter which are sown do not enter into that which shall be in the harvest, so it is taught that the same particles of matter which constitute the body when it dies, do not constitute the new body at the resurrection.
But bare grain – Mere grain; a mere kernel, without any husk, leaf, blade, or covering of any kind. Those are added in the process of reproduction. The design of this is to make it appear more remarkable, and to destroy the force of the objection. It was not only not the grain that should be produced, but it was without the appendages and ornaments of blade, and flower, and beard of the new grain. How could anyone tell but what it would be so in the resurrection? How could any know but what there might be appendages and ornaments there, which were not connected with the body that died?
It may chance of wheat … – For example; or suppose it be wheat or any other grain. The apostle adduces this merely for an example; not to intimate that there is any chance about it.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 37. Thou sowest not that body that shall be] This is decomposed, and becomes the means of nourishing the whole plant, roots, stalk, leaves, ear, and full corn in the ear.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
And when it again riseth, or shooteth up, it is not bare grain, without either stalk or ear, which was the body by them sown.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
37. not that body that shall beabody beautiful and no longer a “bare grain”[BENGEL]. No longerwithout stalk or ear, but clothed with blade and ears, and yieldingmany grains instead of only one [GROTIUS].There is not an identity of all the particles of the old and the newbody. For the perpetual transmutation of matter is inconsistent withthis. But there is a hidden germ which constitutes the identity ofbody amidst all outward changes: the outward accretions fall off inits development, while the germ remains the same. Every such germ(“seed,” 1Co 15:38)”shall have its own body,” and be instantly recognized,just as each plant now is known from the seed that was sown (see on1Co 6:13). So Christ by thesame image illustrated the truth that His death was the necessaryprelude of His putting on His glorified body, which is the ground ofthe regeneration of the many who believe (Joh12:24). Progress is the law of the spiritual, as of the naturalworld. Death is the avenue not to mere revivification orreanimation, but to resurrection and regeneration(Mat 19:28; Phi 3:21).Compare “planted,” &c., Ro6:5.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be,…. The sower, for instance, does not take a stalk of wheat in its blade, and ear, and full corn in the ear, encompassed with the husk, and sow it in the earth, which is the body or form in which it appears when it rises up again, and is come to its full growth:
but bare grain (or naked grain) it may chance of wheat, or some other grain; wheat, or any other grain, is cast into the earth naked, beat out of the husk; and that selfsame grain rises up again, clothed with additional verdure, beauty, and fruitfulness; and so the body which comes out of its mother’s womb naked, and returns naked again, Job 1:21 to which the apostle seems to allude, will rise again the same body, though with additional glories and excellencies; so that if it should be asked, how is it possible that a dead body can be raised up again? the possibility of it may be seen, in the quickening and raising up of a grain of wheat, that first rots and dies; and if it be inquired with what body the dead will be raised, it may in some measure be observed in this instance, that though it will be the same body, yet with different and excelling qualities: this simile seems to have been much in use among the Jews, to illustrate this doctrine, and we have some traces of it still in their writings o:
“Cleopatra the queen asked R. Meir, saying, I know that the dead shall live, for it is written, “they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth”, Ps 72:16 but when they rise, shall they rise naked, or shall they rise in their clothes? to which he replied, much more than wheat: for as wheat is buried, , “naked”, it comes forth, (or springs up,) with many clothings; and how much more the righteous, who are buried in their clothes?”
and again p,
“says R. Eliezer, all the dead shall stand in the resurrection of the dead, and shall rise with their garments on; from whence do you learn this? from the seed of the earth, especially from wheat; for as wheat is buried “naked”, and comes forth with many clothings, much more the righteous, who are buried in their clothes.”
o T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol, 90. 2. p Pirke Eliezer, c. 33.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Not the body which shall be ( ). Articular future participle of , literally, “not the body that will become.” The new
body () is not yet in existence, but only the seed (, grain, old word, as in Mt 13:31).
It may chance ( ). Fourth class condition as in 14:10 which see. Paul is rich in metaphors here, though usually not so (Howson, Metaphors of St. Paul). Paul was a city man. We sow seeds, not plants (bodies). The butterfly comes out of the dying worm.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Not that body that shall be. Or, more literally, that shall come to pass. Meeting the objector’s assumption that either the raised body must be the same body, or that there could be no resurrection. Paul says : “What you sow is one body, and a different body arises;” yet the identity is preserved. Dissolution is not loss of identity. The full heads of wheat are different from the wheat – grain, yet both are wheat. Clement of Rome, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians, arguing for the resurrection of the body, cites in illustration the fable of the phoenix, the Arabian bird, the only one of its kind, and which lives for a hundred years. When the time of its death draws near it builds itself a nest of frankincense, myrrh, and other spices, and entering it, dies. In the decay of its flesh a worm is produced, which, being nourished by the juices of the dead bird, brings forth feathers. Then, when it has acquired strength, it takes up the nest with the bones of its parent and bears them to Heliopolis in Egypt.
Bare [] . Naked. The mere seed, without the later investiture of stalk and head.
It may chance [ ] . Lit., if it happen to be : i e., whatever grain you may chance to sow.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And that which thou sowest,” (kai ho speireis) “And what thou sowest.” What stupidity would be considered in a person who seeing another sowing grain or planting seed would object, “Don’t you know that grain will rot?”
2) “Thou sowest not that body that shall be,” (ou to soma to genesomenon speireis) “Thou sowest not the body that is going to come (forth), “actuality of the lower- resurrection of grain to plant-body life established a valid principle of necessary inference for the human body-resurrection.
3) “But bare grain. (alla’ gumnon kokkon) “But a naked or uncovered grain or kernel,” is all that is sown, differing in appearance, but little from rock and sand, except it has the germ of life.
4) “It may chance wheat, or some other grain: “ (ei techoi sitou he tinos ton loipon) “it may be (a naked wheat grain) or someone of the rest (of grains).” No matter what the grain of seed, the life after its kind, is inherent in the grain. Even so the life of every man, on the higher plane, requires a body fitted for its habitation after death and the resurrection, Dan 12:1-2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
37. Thou sowest not that body that will spring up. This comparison consists of two parts — first, that it is not to be wondered that bodies rise from rottenness, inasmuch as the same thing takes place as to seed; and secondly, that it is not at variance with reason, that our bodies should be restored in another condition, since, from bare grain, God brings forth so many ears of corn, clothed with admirable contrivance, and stored with grains of superior quality. As, however, he might seem to intimate, by speaking in this way, that many bodies will therefore rise out of one, he modifies his discourse in another way, by saying that God forms the body as it pleases him, meaning that in that also there is a difference in respect of quality.
He adds, to every seed its own body By this clause he restricts what he had said respecting another body; for he says that, while the body is different, it is in such a way as to retain, nevertheless, its particular kind.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(37, 38) God giveth it a body.Here it is implied that, though the seed grows up, as we say, in the ordinary course of Nature, it is God who not only has originally established but continually sustains that order. Each seed rises with its own body; a corn seed grows up into corn, an acorn into an oak. All through this passage the word body is used in a general sense for organism, so as to keep strictly and vividly before the reader the ultimate truth to illustrate which these analogies are introduced. The points of analogy between the sowing and growth of seed and the life and resurrection of man are not, as some writers put it(1) the seed is sown, and man is buried; (2) the seed rots, and mans body decays; (3) the seed grows up, and man is raised. Such a series of analogies are misleading, for there is no necessity for the body of man to decay, but only a necessity for it to die (1Co. 15:51-52). The points of analogy are these:(1) The seed is sown in the earth, and man is born into the world; (2) the seed dies and decaysman dies; (3) the seed grows through its very decayman rises through death.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
37. Not body that shall be The planter does not sow it a plant and then have it come up a plant. But a seed is sown and a plant is grown. Just so you bury a putrid corpse, and it comes forth an angel-like body. But to the apostle’s legitimate conception the new plant is but a transfiguration of the old seed, and the new body is but a molecular rearrangement of the old corpse. The old corpse is the primitive material out of which the new body is made; just as in the change of 1Co 15:52, the old is the material for the new.
Bare grain Naked kernel, not a living stalk, with fresh branches, foliage, and flower; as it is in its upspringing.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1Co 15:37 . ] And what thou sowest, not the body, which is to be, sowest thou . makes the attention rest upon itself first in general, independently of what follows, which forms a complete sentence by itself. See on Mat 7:24 ; Mat 10:14 ; Luk 21:6 . What shall spring out of the grain, the plant , Paul calls ., because he has it before his mind as the analogue of the resurrection-body. The emphasis, however, lies upon .
] a naked grain , which is not yet clothed , as it were, with a plant-body (see what follows). Comp. 2Co 5:3 . To this future plant-body corresponds the future resurrection-body with which that, which is buried and decays, is clothed. That it is not the soul or the of the departed which corresponds to the (Holsten), is shown by ; comp. with 1Co 15:42 ff.
] it may be of wheat . Here, too, does not mean, for example , but, if it so happens (that thou art just sowing wheat). See on 1Co 14:10 .
] neuter . We are to supply from the connection . Comp. Ngelsbach on the Iliad , p. 304, Exo 3 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
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 :
Ver. 37. And that which thou sowest ] This is an answer to the epicure’s second demand, 1Co 15:35 , with what body do they come? with a dead, diseased, rotten body, &c.? No, no, saith the apostle. Sin is only rotted with its concomitancies, infirmities; but the rotting of the body is but as the rotting of a kernal under the clod, that it may arise incorruptible. Or as the melting of an old piece of plate in the fire, to bring it out of a better fashion. Christ was buried in a garden, to note that death doth not destroy our bodies, but only sow them: the dew of herbs will revive them again. See Trapp on “ 1Co 15:18 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
37 .] Before, the death of the seed was insisted on: now, the non-identity of the seed with the future plant . There is a mixture of construction, the words being pendent , as the sentence now stands. The two constructions as De W. observes are, , . . , and , . . .
He names the plant , having already in his eye the application to the Resurrection.
] if it should so happen, peradventure : not, ‘ for example .’ See on ch. 1Co 14:10 .
, scil. .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 15:37-38 make answer to the second branch of the question of 1Co 15:35 , by the aid of the same profound analogy. , , “And what thou sowest not the body that will come to be dost thou sow”. It is the object of the sower to realise a new in his seed. If any one interrupted him with the question, “What sort of a body can the grain take that you drop in the earth to rot?” the sower would dismiss him as a fool; he has seen in this case “the body that is to be”. Now the actuality of the lower resurrection vindicates the conceivability of the higher. states not merely a future certainty ( that shall be; quod futurum sit , Vg [2486] ), but a normal process ( oriturum , Bz [2487] : quod nascetur , Cv [2488] , Bg [2489] ). , “but a naked grain” unclothed with any body, wanting the appearance and furnishing of life ( cf. 2Co 5:3 , , ). For (“if it should chance, of wheat”), see note on 1Co 14:10 : the kind of grain is indiff. “or of any of the rest (of the seeds)”. The grain of wheat gives to the eye no more promise of the body to spring from it than a grain of sand. stands in opposition to God the lifegiver responding to the sower’s trustful act [2490] “But God gives it a body, according as He willed” ( ) not “as He wills” (according to His choice or liking), but in accordance with His past decree in creation, by which the propagation of life on the earth was determined from the beginning (Gen 1:2 f.; for the vb [2491] , cf. note on 1Co 12:18 ). To allege an impossibility in the case is to impugn the power and resources of the Creator ( cf. Act 26:8 ), manifested in this very way every spring-time. The Divine will is the efficient nexus between seed and plant ( cf. 1Co 12:6 ). “And (He gives) to each of the seeds a body of its own ( )”. This added clause meets the finer point of the second question of 1Co 15:35 ; God will find a fit body for man’s redeemed nature, as He does for each of the numberless seeds vivified in the soil. “How unintelligent to think, as the Pharisees did, that the same body that was buried must be restored, if there is to be a resurrection! Every wheat-stalk contradicts thee!” (Mr [2492] )
[2486] Latin Vulgate Translation.
[2487] Beza’s Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).
[2488] Calvin’s In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii .
[2489] Bengel’s Gnomon Novi Testamenti.
[2490]
[2491] verb
[2492] Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
bare = naked. Greek. gumnos. Always translated “naked” elsewhere.
it may chance = if (App-118. b) it should happen.
of some other = of some one (Greek. tis) of the rest (Greek. loipos. App-124.)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
37.] Before, the death of the seed was insisted on: now, the non-identity of the seed with the future plant. There is a mixture of construction, the words being pendent, as the sentence now stands. The two constructions as De W. observes are, , . . ,-and , . . .
He names the plant , having already in his eye the application to the Resurrection.
] if it should so happen,-peradventure: not, for example. See on ch. 1Co 14:10.
, scil. .
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 15:37. , not the body that shall be) viz., the body that is beautiful, and no longer bare grain.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 15:37
1Co 15:37
and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind;-The naked grain is sown, not the body that shall be.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Reciprocal: Lev 11:37 – sowing seed Mar 4:27 – and grow 2Co 2:14 – which
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 15:37. Bare is from GUMNOS, which literally means “naked.” The Englishman’s Greek New Testament uses the indefinite article “a” in connection with it, making the phrase read, “a bare grain.” The verse means that a man puts a mere grain of any kind in the ground from which he expects a crop; not the grain just as he placed it in the soil. And when it dies and decomposes, it partakes of the materials around it and from them a new body Is formed with added parts. And while it is another body in one sense, in another it is the same, for the new growth is produced out of the old seed or body. Paul uses this circumstance to illustrate the death and resurrection of the body of a faithful servant of Christ.
According to the theory of the ones in Corinth whose heresy Paul was exposing, and of all others today who say that our bodies will never come from the grave at the last day–accord-ing to them, the grain should just all remain in the ground, and in another spot of the earth the farmer would dig up some other grain and consider it as his new crop. No, the bodies of the saints will all come forth, but they will be in another form which will be like that of Christ at his coming (Php 3:21). It may chance of wheat, etc. Paul uses the wheat for his illustration, but the same reasoning would be true of any other grain.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Vv. 37, 38. And when 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 a body of its own.
The , and, marks the transition to the second question. The answer to it will be much more developed. The first question implied an inexplicable mystery, and the answer could only be given by means of a not less mysterious analogous fact, borrowed from the life of nature. Here it is otherwise, for the point in question is the nature of the new body, which will result from this unfathomable operation, in contrast to the nature of the present body.
In translating: when thou sowest, we have tried to render more exactly the meaning of the construction used by the apostle than when it is translated: as to what thou sowest. Literally, the meaning is this: What thou sowest, thou dost not sow it (as being) the body which is to spring up… This singular form, in which the expression: that body that shall be, is the grammatical apposition of: what thou sowest, is intended to express very forcibly the essential identity of the present and the future body.
The expression bare grain tacitly contrasts the grain stripped of all covering or ornament with that wealth of organs (leaves, calyx, corolla), which forms the beauty of the developed plant. By making use of this expression, the apostle no doubt means to suggest the nakedness of the human body when it is laid in the earth. Holsten applies the term bare [naked] to the soul divested of its body in Hades. But the subject in question is the body, and not the soul. The phrase signifies neither perhaps, nor for example, as some translate, but: if so be, that is to say: according to the kind of grain thou hast in hand, at the time when thou sowest.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare [naked] grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind;
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 37
That body that shall be; that is, the plant itself, with its foliage and fructification.–But bare grain,–mere grain; that is, the seed only. The meaning is, that, in the same manner, the body which rises will be of a very different nature from that which is committed to the ground.