1 Corinthians 15

— are fallen asleep.] Are dead. It was doubtless with a view to the joyful hope of a resurrection both of body (see Matt. xxvii. 52.) and of soul, that the departed saints in the Old Testament, as well as in the New, are said to fall asleep, to sleep, to sleep with their fathers, &c. Parkhurst.

7. • James: Surnamed the Just, the brother, that is, kinsman of our Lord, according to the tradition of the church. Drs. Hammond and Whitby.
8. • last of all he was seen of me also, About two years after His ascension, and several times after that. Pyle.

as of one born out of due time. He thus speaks of himself as one wholly unworthy of the name of an Apostle. The Hebrews were wont to compare vile and mean persons to abortions; the Romans too had a similar expression of reproach. Schleunner.

Ver. 2. Upon the first day of the week] Which was the day of their publick assemblies, the day on which

Anno DOMINI 30.

1 Corinthians 15:9

9, 10. For I am the least of the apostles, &c.] In these two verses St. Paul hath left us an example of the following virtues. 1. Of humility and a mean opinion of our own performances, even when highly useful and commendable, in allowing to others their just praises, and esteeming them better than ourselves: “I am the least of the Apostles.” 2. Of a frequent recollection even of those faults, from which it is our happiness to be perfectly reclaimed, which is an admirable expedient for correcting spiritual pride, and exciting caution and vigilance: “I am not meet to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” 3. Of a very extraordinary diligence and zeal, to make reparation by the following part of our lives for former omissions, neglects, or notorious crimes: “I laboured more abun

1 Corinthians 15:11

11. Therefore whether it were I or they, &c.] But, whether it were my labour or theirs, all comes to the same thing. Christ hath been by us preached, so to have died and so to have risen; and accordingly by you believed. Bp. Hall.

12. • how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? St. Paul probably refers to the philosophers among them. For Corinth abounding in such persons, who looked upon the resurrection of the flesh as a thing both impossible and absurd, see the note on ver. 35, they might put a new construction on the doctrine of the resurrection, saying that it imported only a renovation of manners, or a resurrection from the death of sin unto a life of righteousness, and so was performed already in that baptism in which we are raised with Christ from the dead, Col. ii. 12. Dr. Whitby.

13. But if there be no resurrection of the dead, That is, if that doctrine be in the general altogether incre

The fruit of the resurrection. Anno DOMINI 19.

1 Corinthians 15:17

17.—ye are yet in your sins.] Your faith is in vain settled upon a dead and perished Redeemer; and so ye are yet under that woful condemnation which is due to your sins, from which only the resurrection of Christ can acquit and discharge you. Bp. Hall.

1 Corinthians 15:18

18.—which are fallen asleep in Christ] Who have died in or for this faith in Christ. Dr. Wells.

1 Corinthians 15:19

19.—we are of all men most miserable.] “We,” that is, the same persons denoted by the word the last time he used it, but a few lines before: namely, the witnesses of Christ’s resurrection, and the preachers of His Gospel; who then suffered many afflictions on account of it in this life; and were wretched indeed if they had no prospect of being the better for it in another; as were certainly in proportion also their first followers. For in that age, all that lived godly in Christ Jesus suffered persecution, 2 Tim. iii. 12; and even as the Apostle reminds them, that they were appointed thereunto, 1 Thess. iii. 3. Abp. Secker.

1 Corinthians 15:20

20. But now is Christ risen from the dead.] The proof of the resurrection of the dead lies chiefly in verses 12—19; the rest of the chapter is taken up in illustrating, vindicating, and applying it. The proof is indeed very short, but most solid and convincing: that which arose from Christ’s resurrection. For that not only proved a resurrection to be in fact not impossible, but, which was much more, as it proved Him to be a Divine teacher, it proved the doctrine of a general resurrection, which He so expressly taught. Dr. Doddridge.

—and become the firstfruits of them that slept.] So that our resurrection is a certain consequence of His. St. Paul alludes here to the nature and design of the firstfruits under the law, Lev. xix. 24; Deut. xxvi. 12, &c. All the harvest was consecrated and sanctified by the firstfruits being offered. Pyle, Dr. Wells.

Christ is said to be “risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept;” not that He was the first that was raised from the dead; for Elijah and Elisha raised some, and so did our Saviour Himself in His lifetime: but the Apostle here alludes to the firstfruits among the Jews, which were a pledge and an earnest of a future harvest. In like manner the resurrection of Christ is called “the firstfruits of them that slept,” because it is an earnest of that general harvest, which shall be at the end of the world, when “the angels, the reapers, shall come to gather the elect from the four winds.” But the resurrection of others before Christ was no earnest of this, because they were raised, but Christ is said to “rise from the dead by His own

by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

1 Corinthians 15:21

21.—by man came also &c.] The wisdom of God so ordering it, that the same nature which had lost life and immortality, should regain them. Dr. Whitby.

1 Corinthians 15:22

22. For as in Adam all die, &c.] As the death of all mankind came by Adam, so the resurrection of all mankind comes by Christ. The wicked shall be raised by His power, as their Lord and Judge; the righteous shall be raised by virtue of their union with Him as their head. Burkitt.

The coming of Christ, when He did, was no hardship to those, who lived before it. For though His personal appearance was late, yet that doth not hinder, but the earliest ages may have been greatly the happier for it: we learn indeed from Scripture, that “there is no salvation in any other.” But we learn also, that the salvation procured by Him extends from the beginning of time to the end of it: that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive:” that good persons in the first ages, as well as in the following, were redeemed by His blood, who being foresordained from eternity to be “manifested in due time,” is therefore in the efficacy of His death, “the Lamb alain from the foundation of the world.” Abp. Secker.

1 Corinthians 15:24

24. Then cometh the end, &c.] That is, the end of the world, when Christ will deliver up His kingdom to God the Father; namely, His mediatorial kingdom, which, as Mediator, He received from His Father; not His natural and essential kingdom, which, as God, He had with His Father from eternity; this shall never be delivered up, for of this His kingdom there shall be no end: but at the end of the world, Christ having subdued all His and His church’s enemies, and put down all rule, authority, and power both in the world: and in the church, He shall deliver up His mediatorial kingdom to His Father, and reign no longer as Mediator, and as deputed by His Father; but He shall still reign, eternally reign, as God equal with the Father; for His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion endureth to eternal ages. Burkitt. The full manifestation of that dominion, which Christ in His human nature acquired, by dying, and rising, and living again, (for which manifestation every other act of His regal authority is opening the way, will be in that hour when He shall “come with the holy angels to sit upon the throne of His glory, and all nations being gathered before Him,” shall sentence the wicked, both men and devils, to everlasting punishment, but bestow on the righteous life eternal. After which, the ends of this whole dispensation being now accomplished, He shall

Anno DOMINI 19. The fruit of the resurrection. Anno DOMINI 58.

1 Corinthians 15:25

25. For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.] To this purpose was the promise made to Christ, Ps. cx, that His spiritual kingdom on earth should last so long, till God had brought all the world to be subject to Him. Dr. Hammond.

1 Corinthians 15:26

26. The last enemy—is death.] Which accordingly shall at this time be universally destroyed by the universal resurrection, as of the just, so also of the wicked. Dr. Wells.

1 Corinthians 15:27

27.—But when he saith.] That is, when the Psalmist saith. Reference is here made to Ps. viii. 6. The scope of that Psalm is to display and celebrate the great love of God to man, not only in his creation, but especially in his redemption by Jesus Christ; whom, as He was man, He advanced to the honour and dominion there mentioned, that He might carry on that great and glorious work. Poole.

1 Corinthians 15:28

28.—then shall the Son also himself] Lay down His kingly office in governing His church; and as man “be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God,” the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, “may be,” without the intervention of a Mediator, “all in all,” by a full communication of Himself to all His saints, and an intimate union with them. Drs. Whitby and Hammond.

1 Corinthians 15:29

29. Else what shall they do] The Apostle reverts to the subject of the 23d verse, all the intermediate passage being in a parenthesis. Dr. Hammond.

—why are they then baptized for the dead?] That is, who are baptized in the faith and profession, as of other articles of the Creed, so of this in particular of the resurrection of the dead, and consequently in hope of the resurrection. As if the Apostle had said, As for those among you in the church of Corinth, who are baptized persons, and yet deny the resurrection of the dead, I would demand of them, why they have in their baptism made a profession of believing the article of the resurrection? why were they baptized in this faith, if they now renounce it? To be a baptized Christian, and yet to deny the resurrection, is a flat and plain contradiction. Dr. Hammond, Burkitt. This appears to be the undoubted sense and design of the phrase,

1 Corinthians 15:30

30. And why stand we in jeopardy every hour?] Why do we Christians expose our very lives to continual danger for the sake of the Gospel, if there be no resurrection to a future state of retribution? Dr. Wells.

1 Corinthians 15:31

31. I protest by your rejoicing &c.] Either I protest by all that joy which I have in your conversion to Christianity; or I protest by all that rejoicing which I have in common with you and all Christians under the heaviest sufferings, for the sake of Christ Jesus our Lord. Burkitt, Dr. Whitby.

—I die daily.] I hardly pass a day but I am in danger of death, for the sake of my Christian profession. Pyle.

1 Corinthians 15:32

32. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus,] Slaves and the greatest malefactors were sometimes condemned to fight with wild beasts in the amphitheatres, as a punishment for the most heinous crimes. Grotius and others interpret these words metaphorically, as if St. Paul spoke of his contests with impious and ferocious men, who are often compared to wild beasts on account of their savage and brutish manners: the reason of this interpretation is, that there is no mention found, in the Acts of the Apostles or elsewhere, of this combat of the Apostle with beasts. However, since there is express notice here taken of the place, which was the scene of this combat; since in other places there were not wanting very bitter enemies, to oppose the Apostle; and since it was not unusual for the professors of the Christian faith to be cast by tyrants to wild beasts; it seems most correct to interpret this passage of a combat, properly so called, wherein the Apostle fought with beasts in the theatre at Ephesus. Schleusner. That this was a real, not a metaphorical, combat with beasts, may be collected from what the Apostle tells the Corinthians, 2 Cor. i. 8; and from the phrase, “manner of men,” which means the barbarous custom of the men of that age. The fighting, here alluded to, in all probability happened in some tumult, of which there is no mention in the history of the Acts, previous to the riot of Demetrius, related in Acts xix. Dr. Macknight.

—let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.] This, which may be called the Epicurean’s manual or creed, hath been the favourite maxim of the sensual and profane in all ages. Accordingly Isaiah tells us, that the wicked, in derision of his prophecy concerning the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldeans, said to one another, “Let us eat and drink; for to morrow we shall die,” Isa. xxii. 13. The author of the book of Wisdom likewise hath very well expressed the sentiments of the wicked in his time, chap. ii. 1-9; from

The manner of the resurrection. Anno DOMINI 19.

1 Corinthians 15:33

33. Be not deceived:] By such speeches and discourses as these; such atheistical temptations to sensuality upon pretence of there being no future state. Dr. Hammond.

1 Corinthians 15:34

34. For some have not the knowledge of God.] Such of the Corinthians as denied the resurrection and a future state, shewed great ignorance both of God’s character as moral Governour of the world, and of His perfections, especially His power and goodness set forth in the works of creation. Dr. Macknight.

35.—How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? The Apostle, having proved the doctrine of the resurrection in the former part of the chapter, proceeds in this place to answer two objections to it. The first, that it seems impossible the dead should rise; the second, relating to the sort of bodies with which they should rise. Burkitt.

1 Corinthians 15:36

36. Thou fool, that which thou sowest &c.] He answers the first objection by observing, 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: and the second, ver. 37, 38, by saying that our bodies shall arise the same in substance, though not in quality, as corn sown rises, not in the same figure, but in the same nature, in which it was sown. Burkitt. The philosophers judged it a thing unworthy of God to raise the body and unite it again to the soul, whose happiness consisted in being delivered from it: the Apostle gives a full and satisfactory answer to the objection by showing the happy change which shall pass upon the raised body. Dr. Whitby, Burkitt.

— except it die:] To illustrate the possibility of the resurrection, the Apostle appeals to a thing which men every day behold, and which is little less wonderful than the resurrection itself: the reproduction of grain from seed sown, which does not grow unless it be rotted in the ground. But after its body is destroyed, something springs out of it, which, by a wonderful process, the effect of the power of God, acts in the reproduction of the same kind of grain, not bare as it was sown, but richly adorned with blades, stalk, and ear. Dr. Macknight.

1 Corinthians 15:39

39—41. All flesh is not the same &c.] The Apostle here by several illustrations, drawn from the animal

1 Corinthians 15:41

41. There is one glory of the sun, &c.] The Apostle here represents the different degrees of glory, which good men shall be invested with at the resurrection, by the different glory and splendour of the heavenly bodies. “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.” So that the more any man suffers for God, and the more patiently he suffers, the more bully and virtuously, the more charitably and usefully he lives in this world; the more good works will accompany him into the next, and the greater and more glorious reward he may hope to receive there: which, as the Apostle reasons in the conclusion of the chapter, ought to be a mighty encouragement to every one of us, not only to be “stedfast and unmoveable,” that is, fixed and resolute in the profession and practice of our religion; but “abounding likewise in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as we know that our labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Abp. Tillotson.

1 Corinthians 15:42

42. So also is the resurrection of the dead.] This is evidently to be understood of the resurrection of the righteous, since their bodies alone will undergo the happy change here described; although the arguments produced to prove that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, apply both to the righteous and to the wicked. Burkitt, Dr. Macknight.

— It is sown in corruption; &c.] St. Paul here contrasts the qualities of the body in its present and future state, in four particulars: in its present state, it is subject to death and dissolution, to disgrace and deformity, to infirmity, decay, and impotence; and it is “a natural,” or an animal “body,” suited to the wants of this lower, sensible, animal state, in which we now live; in its future state it will be incorruptible, glorious, vigorous, and spiritualized by an exemption from its present imperfections, and by the acquisition of numerous perfections, which it will continually employ in subjection to the soul. Burkitt.

1 Corinthians 15:45

45. And so it is written, &c.] And as we read in Gen. Anno DOMINI 19. Of the changing of them, that shall be found alive at the last day. Anno DOMINI 50.

1 Corinthians 15:46

46. — but that which is natural;] So that we must first receive our elementary and natural body, ere we can receive our spiritual and incorruptible. Bp. Hall.

1 Corinthians 15:47

47 — 49. The first man is of the earth, earthy: &c.] The sense of these three verses may be thus given: Weak and mortal we must needs be here, being extracted from one that was himself so. But when we shall be begotten again from the dead by Christ, the second Adam, our heavenly Saviour, our bodies shall also partake of the heavenly and immortal qualities of His, and live eternally without sickness, decay, or death. Pyle.

The first man, in whom all the rest were contained, and therefore fell with him and in him; he was formed out of the dust of the ground, and so was a mere man, and no more. But the second man came down from heaven, and was the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Almighty God there, before He came from thence, yea, from all eternity. He was “the Lord from heaven,” and came from thence in a way suitable to His own divine glory, by being conceived of the Holy Ghost, and born of a pure virgin, so as to become man, and yet be God too in the same person. And being thus God as well as man, He was every way qualified to repair the loss that mankind sustained by the fall of the first Adam, and to restore them to their first estate as perfectly as if they had never fallen from it. Bp. Beveridge.

1 Corinthians 15:50

50. Now this I say, brethren, &c.] The Apostle sums up his reply to those who ask, “with what bodies the dead shall come,” ver. 35, by affirming that at the resurrection we shall not have such bodies as we now have, for “flesh and blood,” that is, our bodies in their present natural, decaying, mortal state, are not adapted to taste or enjoy the spiritual pleasures of heaven. Dr. Wells, Burkitt.

— neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.] Our

present corruptible bodies are not fitted to that state of incorruptibility. Dr. Wells.

1 Corinthians 15:51

51. Behold, I shew you a mystery;] A secret not yet discovered to you: that, with respect to those who are found alive at the day of judgment, though they do not die at all, yet must they all be changed before they go to heaven. Dr. Hammond.

1 Corinthians 15:52

52. — the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.] At that instant the dead bodies of the saints shall be raised up to a glorious and immortal constitution, and those that are then alive shall be transformed into the same brightness and immortality. Pyle.

1 Corinthians 15:54

54. — Death is swallowed up in victory.] Or, is so perfectly conquered, that there shall be no death any more. Dr. Wells. Allusion is here made to Isai. xxv. 6. — The troubles and labours of the present world, and the dissolution of the body, do still take place as warnings and chastisements for sinners. But the sorrows are not comfortless, nor the dissolution final. The dominion of death consisted in this, that it rendered that dissolution final and irreparable: and the devil is said to have the power of death, because, by seducing man to sin, he subjected him to that irretrievable dissolution. That death should be destroyed and men restored to happiness, by the Messiah, is confessed by very eminent Jewish writers, who therefore apply to Him in the most rigorous sense the passage from Isaiah here referred to. Dean Stanhope.

1 Corinthians 15:56

56. The sting of death is sin;] Sin was the first and baneful cause, and is the only terror of death; and the malignancy of sin is from this, that it is the transgression of a just and righteous law of God. Pyle.

1 Corinthians 15:58

58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, &c.] The Apostle concludes his discourse on this great subject, the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, with an exhortation to Christian duty. “Be ye stedfast,” that is, in the faith of the Gospel in general, and in the belief of this particular article of our Christian faith: “unmoveable,” by any temptations or tribulations, either from the faith and hope of the Gospel, or from obedience to its precepts: “always abounding in the work of the Lord,” with a zeal and activity in God’s