^15:20But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ^15:21For since death came through a man,¹¹ the resurrection of the dead also came through a man.¹²^15:22For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. ^15:23But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ comes, those who belong to him.¹³^15:24Then¹⁴ comes the end,¹⁵ when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power. ^15:25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. ^15:26The last enemy to be eliminated is death. ^15:27For he has put everything in subjection under his feet.¹⁶ But when it says “everything” has been put in subjection, it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to him. ^15:28And when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.

^15:29Otherwise, what will those do who are baptized for the dead?¹⁷ If the dead are not raised at all, then why are they baptized for them? ^15:30Why too are we in danger every hour? ^15:31Every day I am in danger of death! This is as sure as¹⁸ my boasting in you,¹⁹ which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. ^15:32If from a human point of view I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus,²⁰ what did it benefit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.²¹^15:33Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals.”²²^15:34Sober up as you should, and stop sinning! For some have no knowledge of God—I say this to your shame!

The Resurrection Body

^15:35But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” ^15:36Fool! What you sow will not come to life unless it dies. ^15:37And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare seed²³—perhaps of wheat or something else. ^15:38But God gives it a body just as he planned, and to each of the seeds a body of its own. ^15:39All flesh is not the same: People have one flesh, animals have another, birds and fish another.²⁴^15:40And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The glory of the heavenly body is one sort and the earthly another. ^15:41There 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.

^15:42It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.²⁵^15:43It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; ^15:44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ^15:45So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living person”;²⁶ the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ^15:46However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. ^15:47The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. ^15:48Like the one made of dust, so too are those made of dust, and like the one from heaven, so too those who are heavenly. ^15:49And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear²⁷ the image of the man of heaven.

Read in Logos

1 Corinthians 15:19–20: If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Footnotes

11 Or “through a human being” (a reference to Adam).
12 Or “through a human being” (a reference to Jesus Christ).
13 Grk “then those who belong to Christ, at his coming.”
14 This is a continuation of the previous sentence in the Greek text. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
15 Grk “then the end” or “then (is) the end.” Paul explains how the “end” relates to resurrection in vv. 25–28.
16 A quotation from Ps 8:6.
17 Many suggestions have been offered for the puzzling expression baptized for the dead. There are up to 200 different explanations for the passage; a summary is given by K. C. Thompson,” 1 Corinthians 15, 29 and Baptism for the Dead,” Studia Evangelica 2.1 ( 87), 647–59. The most likely interpretation is that some Corinthians had undergone baptism to bear witness to the faith of fellow believers who had died without experiencing that rite themselves. Paul’s reference to the practice here is neither a recommendation nor a condemnation. He simply uses it as evidence from the lives of the Corinthians themselves to bolster his larger argument, begun in 15:12, that resurrection from the dead is a present reality in Christ and a future reality for them. Whatever they may have proclaimed, the Corinthians’ actions demonstrated that they had hope for a bodily resurrection.
18 Or, more literally, “I swear by the boasting in you.”
19 Although the witnesses for the shorter reading (𝔓46 D F G Ψ 075 0243 1739 1881 𝔐) are not as strong as for the addition of ἀδελφοί (adelphoi, “brothers”) at this juncture (א A B K P 33 81 104 365 1175 2464 lat sy co), it is difficult to find a reason why scribes would either intentionally or unintentionally drop the address here. Thus, the shorter reading is slightly preferred.
20 For location see ; ; ; .
21 An allusion to Isa 22:13; 56:12.
22 A quotation from the poet Menander, Thais 218, which Paul uses in a proverbial sense.
23 Grk “and what you sow, you do not sow the body that will be, but a bare seed.”
24 Grk “all flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one (flesh) of people, but another flesh of animals and another flesh of birds and another of fish.”
25 Grk “it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption.” The “it” refers to the body, as v. 44 shows.
26 Grk “living soul”; a quotation from Gen 2:7.
27 A few significant witnesses have the future indicative φορέσομεν (phoresomen, “we will bear”; B I 6 630 1881 sa) instead of the aorist subjunctive φορέσωμεν (phoresōmen, “let us bear”; 𝔓46 א A C D F G Ψ 075 0243 33 1739 𝔐 latt bo). If the original reading is the future tense, then “we will bear” would be a guarantee that believers would be like Jesus (and unlike Adam) in the resurrection. If the aorist subjunctive is original, then “let us bear” would be a command to show forth the image of Jesus, i.e., to live as citizens of the kingdom that believers will one day inherit. The future indicative is not widespread geographically. At the same time, it fits the context well: Not only are there indicatives in this section (especially vv. 42–49), but the conjunction καί (kai) introducing the comparative καθώς (kathōs) seems best to connect to the preceding by furthering the same argument (what is, not what ought to be). For this reason, though, the future indicative could be a reading thus motivated by an early scribe. In light of the extremely weighty evidence for the aorist subjunctive, it is probably best to regard the aorist subjunctive as original. This connects well with v. 50, for there Paul makes a pronouncement that seems to presuppose some sort of exhortation. G. D. Fee (First Corinthians [], ) argues for the originality of the subjunctive, stating that “it is nearly impossible to account for anyone’s having changed a clearly understandable future to the hortatory subjunctive so early and so often that it made its way into every textual history as the predominant reading.” The subjunctive makes a great deal of sense in view of the occasion of 1 Corinthians. Paul wrote to combat an over-realized eschatology in which some of the Corinthians evidently believed they were experiencing all the benefits of the resurrection body in the present, and thus that their behavior did not matter. If the subjunctive is the correct reading, it seems Paul makes two points: (1) that the resurrection is a bodily one, as distinct from an out-of-body experience, and (2) that one’s behavior in the interim does make a difference (see 15:32–34, 58).