1 Corinthians 15

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

• Codex Vaticanus (325–350)
• Codex Sinaiticus (330–360)
• Papyrus 123 (4th century; extant verses 3–6)[1]
• Codex Alexandrinus (400–440)
• Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (c. 450; extant verses 41–58).
• Codex Freerianus (c. 450; extant verses 3, 15, 27–28, 38–39, 49–50)[2]
• Codex Claromontanus (c. 550)

Now I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain.

— 1 Corinthians 15:1–2, New Revised Standard Version[3]

3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures 4 and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

— 1 Corinthians 15:3–7, New Revised Standard Version[4]

The kerygma of death, burial, resurrection and appearance, and the specific appearances to Peter and the Twelve in verses 3–5, are assumed to be an early pre-Pauline kerygma or creedal statement.[note 1] Biblical scholars note the antiquity of the creed,[note 2] possibly transmitted from the Jerusalem apostolic community.[note 3][note 4] though the core formula may have originated in Damascus,[9] with the specific appearances reflecting the Jerusalem community.[note 5] It may be one of the earliest kerygma's about Jesus' death and resurrection, though it is also possible that Paul himself joined together the various statements, as proposed by Urich Wilckens.[11] It is also possible that "he appeared" was not specified in the core formula, and that the specific appearances are additions.[12] According to Hannack, line 3b-4 form the original core, while line 5 and line 7 contain competing statements from two different factions.[13] Prive also argues that line 5 and line 7 reflect the tensions between Petrus and James.[14]

The kerygma has often been dated to no more than five years after Jesus' death by Biblical scholars,[note 3] though Bart Ehrman states "Among scholars I personally know, except for evangelicals, I don't now[sic] anyone who thinks this at all."[15][note 6] Gerd Lüdemann maintains that "the elements in the tradition are to be dated to the first two years after the crucifixion of Jesus [...] not later than three years".[16]

For orthodox Christians, the resurrection, believed by them to be a physical resurrection, is the central event of the Christian faith. While the authenticity of line 6a and 7 is disputed, MacGregor argues that linguistic analysis suggests that the version received by Paul seems to have included verses 3b–6a and 7.[17] According to Christian apolgist Gary R. Habermas, in "Corinthians 15:3–8, Paul records an ancient oral tradition(s) that summarizes the content of the Christian gospel."[18] N.T Wright describes it as "the very early tradition that was common to all Christians."[19]

In dissent from the majority view, Robert M. Price,[14] Hermann Detering,[20] John V. M. Sturdy,[21][22] and David Oliver Smith[23] have each argued that 1 Corinthians 15:3–7 is a later interpolation. According to Price, the text is not an early Christian creed written within five years of Jesus' death, nor did Paul write these verses. In his assessment, this was an Interpolation possibly dating to the beginning of the 2nd century. Price states that "The pair of words in verse 3a, "received / delivered" (paralambanein / paradidonai) is, as has often been pointed out, technical language for the handing on of rabbinical tradition", so it would contradict Paul's account of his conversion given in Galatians 1:13–24, which explicitly says that Paul had been taught the gospel of Christ by Jesus himself, not by any other man.[14][note 7]

According to Larry Hurtado, soon after his death Jesus' followers believed he was raised from the dead by God and exalted to divine status as Lord (Kyrios) "at God's 'right hand',"[25] which "associates him in astonishing ways with God."[26][note 8] According to Larry Hurtado, powerful religious experiences were an indispensable factor in the emergence of this Christ-devotion.[28] Those experiences "seem to have included visions of (and/or ascents to) God's heaven, in which the glorified Christ was seen in an exalted position."[29][note 9] Those experiences were interpreted in the framework of God's redemptive purposes, as reflected in the scriptures, in a "dynamic interaction between devout, prayerful searching for, and pondering over, scriptural texts and continuing powerful religious experiences."[32] This initiated a "new devotional pattern unprecedented in Jewish monotheism", that is, the worship of Jesus next to God,[33] giving a central place to Jesus because his ministry, and its consequences, had a strong impact on his early followers.[34] They were persuaded that this devotion was required by God through revelations, including those visions, but also by inspired and unprompted speech and "charismatic exegesis" of the Jewish scriptures..[35]

In the Jerusalem ekklēsia, from which Paul may have received this creed, the phrase "died for our sins" probably was an apologetic rationale for the death of Jesus as being part of God's plan and purpose, as evidenced in the scriptures.[36] The phrase "died for our sins" was derived from Isaiah, especially Isaiah 53:4–11,[37][note 10] and Maccabees 4, especially 4 Maccabees 6:28–29:[web 1]

Surely our diseases he did bear, and our pains he carried; whereas we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded because of our transgressions, he was crushed because of our iniquities: the chastisement of our welfare was upon him, and with his stripes we were healed. All we like sheep did go astray, we turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath made to light on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, though he humbled himself and opened not his mouth; as a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before her shearers is dumb; yea, he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and with his generation who did reason? for he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people to whom the stroke was due. And they made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich his tomb; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to crush him by disease; to see if his soul would offer itself in restitution, that he might see his seed, prolong his days, and that the purpose of the LORD might prosper by his hand: Of the travail of his soul he shall see to the full, even My servant, who by his knowledge did justify the Righteous One to the many, and their iniquities he did bear.

— Isaiah 53:4–11, Hebrew-English translation[38]

Be merciful to your people, and let our punishment suffice for them. Make my blood their purification, and take my life in exchange for theirs.

— 4 Maccabees 6:28–29, New Revised Standard Version[39]

According to Geza Vermes, for Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:3 may have referred to Genesis 22, narrating the Binding of Isaac, in which Abraham is willing to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, obeying to the will of God.[40]

"Raised on the third day"[note 11] is derived from Hosea 6:1–2[42] and Jonah:

Come, and let us return unto the LORD; for He hath torn, and He will heal us, He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us, on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His presence.

— Hosea 6:1–2, Hebrew-English translation[43]

Matthew 12:38-42:

For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me has not been in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I but the grace of God that is with me. 11 Whether then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so you believed.

— 1 Corinthians 15:8–11, New Revised Standard Version[44]

In verses 12–19, Paul, in response to some expressed doubts of the Corinthian congregation, whom he is addressing in the letter, adduces the fundamental importance of the resurrection as a Christian doctrine. Through those verses, Paul is stressing the importance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and its relevance to the core of Christianity. Paul rebukes the church at Corinth by saying that if Jesus did not resurrect after the crucifixion, then there is no point in the Christian faith.[45]

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.

— 1 Corinthians 15:17, King James Version[46]

In verses 20–28, Paul states that Christ will return in power and put his "enemies under his feet" (25) and even death, "the last enemy", shall be destroyed: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."[47]

1 Corinthians 15:27[48] refers to Psalm 8:6.[49] Ephesians 1:22 also refers to this verse of Psalm 8.[49]

Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead do not rise at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead?

— 1 Corinthians 15:29, New King James Version[50]

Verse 29 suggests that there existed a practice at Corinth whereby a living person would be baptized instead of some convert who had recently died.[51] Teignmouth Shore, writing in Ellicott's Commentary for Modern Readers, notes that among the "numerous and ingenious conjectures" about this passage, the only tenable interpretation is that there existed a practice of baptising a living person to substitute those who had died before that sacrament could have been administered in Corinth, as also existed among the Marcionites in the second century, or still earlier than that, among a sect called "the Corinthians".[52] The Jerusalem Bible states that "What this practice was is unknown. Paul does not say if he approved of it or not: he uses it merely for an ad hominem argument".[53]

The Latter Day Saint movement interprets this passage to support the practice of baptism for the dead. This principle of vicarious work for the dead is an important work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the dispensation of the fulness of times. This interpretation is rejected by other denominations of Christianity.[54][55][56]

³³Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits." ³⁴Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.

— 1 Corinthians 15:33–34, New King James Version[57]

Verse 33 contains a quotation from classical Greek literature. According to the church historian Socrates of Constantinople[58] it is taken from a Greek tragedy of Euripides, but modern scholarship, following Jerome[59] attributes it to the comedy Thaĩs by Menander, or Menander quoting Euripides. It might not have been a direct quote by Paul: "This saying was widely known as a familiar quotation."[60] Whatever the case may be, this quote does seem to appear in one of the fragments of Euripides' works.[61]

The Last Trump, illumination by Facundus, 1047. Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional de España.

The chapter closes with an account of the nature of the resurrection, that in the Last Judgement the dead will be raised and both the living and the dead transformed into "spiritual bodies" (verse 44).[62]

⁵¹Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed – ⁵²in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ⁵³For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

— 1 Corinthians 15:51–53, New King James Version[63]

Verses 51–53 emphasise that through the power of Jesus Christ "Death is swallowed up in victory" (verse 54). Referring to a verse in the Book of Hosea (13:14), Paul asks: "O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?" (verse 55), thus equating sin with death and the Judaic Law, which have now been conquered and superseded by the victory of Christ.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to 1 Corinthians 15:

FATHER, [...] this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 1 God our Savior desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 2 There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved 3 than the name of JESUS.[64]

Readings from the text are used at funerals in the Catholic Church, where mourners are assured of the "sure and certain expectation of the resurrection to a better life".[65]

In the book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling, the inscription on the headstone of Harry Potter's parents has the engraving of the words: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death".[66] This is taken from the King James Version of 1 Corinthians 15:26.[67][68]

The King James Version of verses 20–22 and 51–57 from this chapter is cited as texts in the English-language oratorio "Messiah" by George Frideric Handel (HWV 56).[69]