1 Corinthians 15 - Summary

Historical setting

Paul writes to the church at Corinth, a prosperous Greek city and Roman colony in the mid-first century. The Corinthian believers are mostly non-Jewish converts, familiar with Greek and Roman thought but new to Jewish religious ideas. Among them, some deny the resurrection of the dead, a belief unusual in the Greek philosophical world where the soul alone was thought to survive death. Paul, who had founded this church and visited it before, writes to address this crisis of faith.

Life and customs

Resurrection of the body was a Jewish belief, but most Greeks found it philosophically absurd. They held that the soul or spirit was immortal and valuable, while the body was corruptible and base, things to escape from rather than restore. Baptism for the dead, mentioned in verse 29, was apparently a practice some Corinthians had adopted, though its exact meaning is debated by historians. When Paul refers to "beasts at Ephesus" in verse 32, he likely means hardship and danger, not literal combat, as a metaphor. Sin and law were linked in Jewish thought: sin gained its power through the law's prohibition, as verse 56 states. Finally, "flesh and blood," meaning the mortal, perishable human body, could not by nature enter the kingdom of God without transformation, a point Paul emphasizes in verse 50.

What the text says

Paul opens by restating the gospel he taught them, on which their salvation depends, in verses 1 to 2. In verses 3 to 8, he gives the earliest known summary of the resurrection: Christ died for sins, was buried, rose on the third day, and appeared to Cephas, the Twelve, then to over five hundred believers at once, then to James, then to all apostles, and finally to Paul himself, whom he describes as "one born out of due time" because his encounter came later and he had persecuted the church.

Verses 12 to 19 present his logical argument: some at Corinth say there is no resurrection of the dead. But if the dead do not rise, then Christ did not rise; if Christ did not rise, faith is useless and believers are still in their sins; those who died as believers have simply perished, and hope in Christ gives only misery in this life. Verse 20 reverses this: Christ has indeed risen and is "the firstfruits," a harvest term implying others follow. By a man, Adam, came death; by a man, Christ, comes resurrection. All die in Adam; all shall be made alive in Christ, but in order: first Christ, then believers at his coming, then the end when he delivers the kingdom to God.

Verses 25 to 28 describe Christ reigning until all enemies are under his feet, with death as the last enemy. Verses 29 to 34 appeal to their own practices and Paul's suffering: why be baptized for the dead if resurrection is false? Why does Paul face danger daily unless the dead rise? Verse 33 warns against corrupting talk.

Verses 35 to 49 answer the question "with what body?" using a seed analogy: what is sown dies and transforms into a different body, which God gives. As there are different kinds of flesh and different celestial glories, so resurrection bodies differ from earthly ones. Adam was a living soul; Christ, "the last Adam," is a quickening spirit. The spiritual came after the natural in order. As the earthy Adam made earthly people, the heavenly Christ makes heavenly people. Believers have borne Adam's image; they shall bear Christ's.

Verses 50 to 58 conclude with a mystery: not all will sleep in death, but all will be changed. At the last trumpet, the dead rise incorruptible and the living are changed. Corruption puts on incorruption, mortality puts on immortality. Death loses its sting because sin, its power, loses its strength through the law, but God gives victory through Christ. Therefore believers should be steadfast, knowing their labour is not in vain.

Takeaways

• Paul grounds Christian hope on the fact of Christ's bodily resurrection, without which the faith is empty and believers remain unforgiven.
• Resurrection is not escape from the body but transformation of it into an incorruptible, spiritual form, ordered and renewed by God.
• The resurrection of believers depends on and follows Christ's, and gives meaning to all Christian endurance and work.