1 Corinthians 15:1

As to that great heresy of some among you, ver. 12, that deny the resurrection, I shall now speak the very same which at my first preaching the gospel among you I taught, and which ye then embraced, and for some time, till these Gnostic false teachers crept in among you, ye never made question of;

1 Corinthians 15:2

By which also you were converted, and fetched out from the midst of the Gentile world, after what manner, if your memory serve you, I delivered the story to you with all the circumstances and explication of difficulties, unless your believing and receiving the gospel were light and rash and inconsiderate,

1 Corinthians 15:3

For one of the principal things which I told you, and which I myself had learned at my first believing the gospel, was this, that as Christ died for our sins,

1 Corinthians 15:4

And his body was laid in the grave, so on the third day, according to the prophecies of the scripture, he rose from the grave;

1 Corinthians 15:5

And after his rising appeared to Peter, Luke xxiv. 34, and then to the whole college of disciples, Luke xxiv. 36, consisting formerly of twelve, and so soon after again, though now one of them was wanting:

1 Corinthians 15:6

After that, he was seen in Galilee, Matt. xxviii. 7, by near five hundred believers or Christians at one time, of whom a great part are now still alive ready to testify it, but some of them are dead.

1 Corinthians 15:7

Besides all these, he was, presently after his resurrection, seen by James the bishop of Jerusalem, then by all the twelve apostles, John xx. 25.

[a] seen of James] What is here said of Christ’s appearance unto James is not mentioned in the Gospels, yet is it by St. Jerome mentioned from the tradition of the church, and that presently after his resurrection, before those other appearances which are here mentioned before it; which if it be true, it is necessary that ἔπειτα be not rendered afterward, but either as an ordinal of dignity, not of time, or as a form of numbering up several times, without exact observation of the order of them, then, besides, or in the next place, as the word is used in this Epistle, ch. xii. 28, ἔπειτα δυνάμεις, where nothing of order is considered. Now what James this was, is affirmed by St. Hierome also, that James, the brother of our Lord, whom he calls the thirteenth apostle, styled James the Just, saith Eusebius, l. 2. c. κγ., and, saith he,

f Comm. in Isa. HAMMOND ANNOTT. VOL. II. L

1 Corinthians 15:8

And after his ascension to heaven he spake from thence, and exhibited himself to be seen by me, who before had not seen him, being not a disciple of his then, but after his ascension converted by him, and received through his special favour into the number of his apostles, though most unworthy of that dignity.

[b] born out of due time] The full importance of this phrase ὡσπερεὶ ἐκτρώματι may best be taken from a proverbial form among the Romans, begun in Augustus’s time. It is, from Suetonius, taken notice of by Baronius, An. Ch. 44. n. 74, but somewhat misrepresented. The

1 Corinthians 15:9

For I having first been a great persecutor of Christianity, though by Christ I was thus miraculously called to be an apostle of his, am not yet worthy to be so esteemed, but being by Christ so constituted, am yet for that former life of mine inferior to all the rest of the apostles of Christ, who were never thus guilty.

1 Corinthians 15:10

Though being by his special favour so constituted, I have since laboured to walk worthy of it, and have been more industrious and laborious than all the rest that had been his disciples here: yet what I have thus done is not to be imputed to me in any manner, but to the grace and goodness of God that went along with me, and enabled me to do what I have done.

1 Corinthians 15:11

Well then, whether ye look upon me, or upon them to whom he appeared here on earth, and so

[a] conduct] Προπίμπειν is to accompany, to bring on the way, ver. 6, and to set forth, and, if need be, to provide for the necessaries of his journey. So Tit. iii. 13, where it is explained by ἵνα μηδὲν αὐτοῖς λείπη, that they want nothing. So Acts xv. 3, where they that were sent by the church of Antioch in all reason are to believed to have had the charge of their journey defrayed by them. As for the phrase ἐν

1 Corinthians 15:18

[b] refreshed my spirit] This phrase ἀνέπαιναν πνεῦμα, quieted the spirit, is taken out of the Greek translation, Zach. vi. 8; instead of which the Chaldee have עבירות ויעב, they have done my desire, that is, saith Maimonides, “they were acceptable and welcome to me.” See Joh. Coch. Tit. Talmud. p. 300.

1 Corinthians 15:19

[c] church that is in their house] The word ἐκκλησία, the church, doth not only signify the place of assembling together, but the persons of those that use to do so, that is, all the Christians in any place. So in the beginning of this Epistle, having named the church which is in Corinth, he proceeds ἡγιασμένοις, κλητοῖς ἁγίοις, &c., the sanctified, the saints, that is, all the Christians in that place, which are meant by the word church preceding. And so here the church is all the members of the church of Christ, the Christians; and then οἶκος, house, signifying in like manner not the walls of the house, but the family, the persons in it, (as when it is said of Cornelius, that he was a proselyte, σὺν παντὶ τῷ οἴκῳ αὐτοῦ, with all his house, that is, he and all the persons in his family,) it is evident what is meant by the church in their house, that is, all the believers of their family. The same are called ἡ κατ’ οἶκον αὐτῶν ἐκκλησία, Rom. xvi. 4, the church or Christians belonging to their family: the prepositions in and with being promiscuously used in these writings. To this Theophylact further adds, that by this phrase is intimated the great piety of the masters of these families, that had “made all their house Christians,” (οὕτως ἦσαν εὐδόκιμοι, ὥστε τὸν οἶκον αὐτῶν πάντα ποιῆσαι πιστοὺς, τούτους γὰρ ἐκκλησίαν ὠνόμασεν,) and again, their “great hospitality to strangers.” For where, saith he, such virtues are, ἐκκλησία ὁ οἶκος ἐκεῖνος, “that house is a church.”

1 Corinthians 15:20

Which now, blessed be God, is much otherwise, for Christ being risen, he, by rising himself, raiseth all others with him, (as in the consecrating of the firstfruits the whole harvest is also consecrated,) and then we that are miserable here shall be rewarded there (and so his resurrection is a certain proof that other men shall have a resurrection also, which is the sum of the arguing from ver. 12. till this place).

1 Corinthians 15:21

For as one man brought death, so another brought resurrection into the world.

1 Corinthians 15:22

For as upon Adam’s sin, all that are partakers of his nature are concluded under the sentence of death pronounced against him; so all regenerate believers, all that are like, that belong to Christ, ver. 23, shall be raised to immortal life.

[d] Anathema Maran-atha] Of ἀνάθεμα, as it was the second degree of censures taken from the Jews, and accommodated to the use of the Christian church, somewhat hath been said, note [e] on ch. v. Now the addition of Maran-atha, μαρὰν ἀδὰ, to it, signifies the third and highest degree of excommunication, superadded to that second. For though some question have been of late made of it by learned men, yet there is little reason to doubt, but there were among the Jews those three degrees of excommunication. נְדוֹי, חֹרֵם, and שַׁבָּתָא: the first a remotion from familiar converse, ad quatuor passus, “for four paces;” the second more solemn, with execrations out of Moses’ law added to it; the third leaving the offender to divine vengeance. This last is denoted, without doubt, by the origination of the word שַׁבָּתָא, whatsoever that be. For three derivations it is capable of; two mentioned in Moed Katon, in these words, What is schammatha? Rab answered שַׁבָּתָא, There is death, and Samuel said שַׁבָּתָא יְהוָה, There shall be desolation. The third is from שַׁבָּתָא, Dominus venit, “The Lord comes.” That this third should not be it, there is only this pretence, that then there would be no reason for the dagesh or doubling

On Rom. xvi. 15.

1 Corinthians 15:23

But this with some distance of time betwixt: Christ the firstfruits some time before the rest, then all regenerate Christians at his last coming to judgment.

1 Corinthians 15:24

Then I mean, when in the conclusion of this world, of this spiritual kingdom of Christ in the church here below, he shall deliver up all his power exercised by himself and his commissioners into the hand of God his Father, having first destroyed all earthly dominions, pronouncing sentence on the great potentates, as well as the meanest men, or else having subdued all to his power, by converting some and destroying all others.

1 Corinthians 15:25

For to this purpose was the promise made to Christ, psalm cx, that his spiritual kingdom on earth should last so long, till God had brought all the world to be subject to him.

1 Corinthians 15:26

And of the enemies to be subdued death is the last, which therefore must be subdued (and so men raised from death).

1 Corinthians 15:27

The evidence being clear, for all enemies, all things, no one excepted, that God will subdue them all under Christ; always supposing that God himself is excepted, of whom it is affirmed that he will put all things under Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:28

And when all is so subdued to Christ, then shall Christ lay down that office which till then he

¹³ shall deliver up, παραδῷ. ¹⁴ and the Father, καὶ Πατρὶ. ¹⁵ take away, or, bring to nought, καταργήσῃ. ¹⁶ so long until he put, ἄχρις οἱ ἐν θῇ. ¹⁷ is destroyed, καταργεῖται. ¹⁸ this is with an exception of him, ἐκτὸς τοῦ— ¹⁹ But

1 Corinthians 15:29

Now for them among you, ver. 12, which say there is no resurrection of the dead, and consequently that the dead shall not be raised at the coming of Christ, (which was the point in hand, ver. 23, and from that verse to this all betwixt being to be read as in a parenthesis, setting down the state of all things at and after that resurrection,) I shall only make this demand, Why then have they in their baptism made profession of their belief of it, (see vv. 14. 17,) it being certain that the dead, or the resurrection of the dead, (expressed here for brevity under that word the dead,) is one of the articles, and that a prime and special one, to the belief of which they were baptized, and to which baptism (being the putting in and taking out of the water) doth refer, as a significant emblem, first of Christ’s, then of our resurrection from the grave? And therefore to what end did these men in their baptism profess their belief of this article, if they believe it not? To be a baptized Christian, and not to believe the resurrection, is a strange ridiculous thing, an hypocrisy which they will never be able to answer to God or men, and that which actually deprives them of all benefits of baptism; and yet such are they, if they make doubt of this.

[c] for the dead] It is to little purpose to set down the several interpretations of this place, (see Justell. in Cod. Can. Eccl. Universæ, p. 173.) This which hath been set down in the paraphrase is most natural, rendering ὑπὲρ, for, answerable to the Hebrew על. For the νεκροὶ, the dead, is but the title in brief of that grand article of the Creed, that of the resurrection of the dead, just as among the Hebrews, על עבודה זרה, of or for strange worship, denotes that precept of the sons of Adam and Noah, which prohibiteth the worship of any strange gods, or על כבבת השם, of or for the benediction of the name, is the precept of worshipping and serving the one true God: and so generally titles of Constitutions and of Articles are abbreviates in a word or two. To this purpose it is the observation of the learned בְּ Jos. Scaliger, that not only the rabbins, but generally other doctors, notissimas et vulgo tritissimas sententias dimidiatas solent citare, “use to cite by abbreviature known and vulgar sentences,” instancing in δῶρον, Matt. xv. 5. So it appears by Suidas, using the proverb ἀπὸ καταδυσμένης, “from the sinking,” which is but the abbreviature of Ἀπὸ καταδυσμένης ὅ, τι ἂν λώσχε, κέρδος, “From a sinking ship, whatsoever thou gettest must be counted gain.” Of this interpretation of ὑπὲρ νεκρῶν, we have the testimony of Harmenopulus de sect. ια’, who, refuting the Marcionites, adds, ἀγνοούντες ὡς διὰ τὸ ἐπὶ ὁμολογίᾳ τῆς τῶν νεκρῶν ἀναστάσεως —τοῦθ’ οὕτως εἴρηται, “not knowing that it is spoken of the confession of the resurrection of the dead—.” Of this also see Chrysostom, tom. 3. p. 514. Of whose understanding of it, because I see

1 Corinthians 15:30

And why should we Christians ever adventure any danger that might possibly bring death upon us, if we were not assured that there were another life, wherein all our patience and valour for Christ should be rewarded by him? ver. 18.

[b] revealed] That ἀποκάλυψις doth not always signify a vision, or passively, a receiving a revelation by ecstasy or dream from God, but only a sense or notion, a meaning or interpretation of a piece of scripture, that through some figure (or the like) hath much difficulty in it, may appear by ver. 6, where, in opposition to the miraculous speaking of tongues, those four ways of expounding in the church are set down, and the first of them ἀποκάλυψις, revelation or expounding of sacred figures, &c. So ver. 26. ἀποκάλυψιν ἔχει, hath a revelation, as hath an interpretation, is of him that can expound any such figure, as the other is he that can interpret a strange language; and so here in this verse, that which is here hath a revelation, must be expounded by the prophets’ speaking, ver. 29. For thus it lies, Let the prophets speak, two or three, that is, so many in a meeting: If another that sitteth by have any revelation, that is, if whilst one is a speaking another be, or conceive himself able to expound the difficulty, then let the first, that is, the prophet then a speaking, hold his peace, give way to him; where, as the prophets’ speaking is all one with having a revelation, so the thing thus delivered being to be judged of by others, whether it be right or no, (let others judge, ver. 29,) is concluded not to be any special revelation from God; for if it were supposed such, it ought not to be subject to others’ judging of it. And then what is here said will clearly be explained by that which we read in Philo, (lib. Omnem probum liberum esse,) where, speaking of the doctors of the Jews, when they are set in the synagogues, Ὁ μὲν, saith he, τὰς βίβλους ἀναγινώσκει, “One reads the Bible,” some part of it, ἕτερος δὲ τῶν ἐμπειροτάτων ὅσα μὴ γνώριμα παρελθὼν ἀναγινώσκει, “and another of the more skilful, or doctors, passing through those that are not known,” that is, the more difficult passages, “expounds” This was called among the Jews μὴ, preaching or expounding in their synagogues. See note [c] on ch. i.

1 Corinthians 15:31

I for my part protest by that which I take most joy in of any thing in the world, my fidelity to Christ, that I daily run the hazard of death, which sure I should not do if I had not confidence of another life after this.

1 Corinthians 15:32

Certainly all the hazards which I ran at Ephesus, Acts xix. being, as to man, to the eye of man, or as far as men’s purposes could go, set to combat with wild beasts, that is, sentenced and condemned (2 Cor. i. 9.) to that kind of bloody execution on their theatres, (though by the providence of God I was

²⁰ For, ‘Ewel. man. ²¹ also, kal. ²² do we run hazards, κυβυνεδομεν. ²³ according to

[d] after the manner of men I have fought with beasts] That St. Paul here refers to that which befell him at Ephesus, Acts xix, may appear, 1st, by 2 Cor. i. 8, where he mentions his great persecution in Asia, (of which Ephesus was the metropolis,) and pressure so heavy, that, saith he, I despaired even of life, having the sentence of death passed on him, as far as he could guess of himself, and so making his deliverance a wonderful unexpected act of God’s, a kind of raising him from the dead; 2dly, by the mention of fighting with beasts, which was a punishment that malefactors were condemned to in those days. And of that, particularly in Asia, we have an instance in those first times in the bEpistle of the church of Smyrna there, about the martyrdom of

b Euseb. l. 4. c. 15.

1 Corinthians 15:33

And it will concern you, that are not yet thus seduced, to take heed that such speeches and discourses as these, such atheistical temptations to sensuality upon pretence of the no future state, no being after that of this life, do not work upon you; the very conversing with such disputers as these may corrupt such easy seducible credulous people as it seems some of you are.

[e] good manners] What χρηστὰ ἤθη here signifies, may perhaps be best understood by Hesychius in the word εὐήθης, which he there explains by βλὰξ, χρηστοήθης, ἀνόητος: by which it appears that the phrase refers not to goodness of manners, as that signifies actions, and as Hesychius renders ἤθια, συνηθεῖς τρόποι, (for which the ordinary print reads τόποι,) and κακοηθείας, κακοτροπίας, but to simplicity and de-

1 Corinthians 15:34

It is all reason and more than time that you should truly (see note [a] Luke xvi.) or throughly rouse yourselves out of that drowsy condition of sin that you have gone on in, at least some of you, ver. 12, that by their behaviour and discourse shew themselves to be mere heathens still: of whom I tell you, that it may work shame in you, that you have such men among you, rather than that you permit yourselves to be tempted to imitate them.

1 Corinthians 15:35

But some object, that if men die, how can they live again? or what kind of body shall they have, that which they had being rotten in the grave? (see note [c] Acts xv.)

1 Corinthians 15:36

As for you that take upon you to order otherwise, are you the planters of the gospel? or did the apostles that planted give none but you directions, that you must do contrary to all other churches, particularly to Jerusalem, and suffer women to speak in your churches?

But this is a foolish objection, for even in corn that is sowed, the rotting of the corn is necessary to the enlivening of it, or springing of it up again.

1 Corinthians 15:37

If any man be a prophet, or have any other spiritual gift or affiliation, let him receive these directions as the commands of the Lord, or not pretend to be a true prophet. For the apostles (and such am I) being the men intrusted by Christ to convey the gospel to the world, and to preserve order in the church, are to be obeyed by the prophets themselves; and in matters of difference the resolution is to be made by the apostles as the governors of the church, not by the prophets or the spiritual.

And it is not the custom to sow that very thing which after comes up, the blade and ear and corn in it, but only the corn without the rest, as the corn of wheat, or the like.

1 Corinthians 15:38

But if any man doubt of it, resist the directions, let him continue to do so, his will be the danger of it.

And when such a single corn is sown without any ear or chaff about it, God causeth it to come in this or that form, a root and blades and ears of wheat, and proportionably from other seeds, according to the property of each.

1 Corinthians 15:39

To conclude therefore, prophesying, teaching, exhorting is the thing by which the church is most profited, and for the gift of tongues, it is that that they which have may be allowed to use, if they do it according as I have directed.

And as it is among us, one sort of flesh differs very much from another, so much more a body of a man here on earth may differ in qualities from a glorified body in heaven. 40-42. Two things are observable in the resurrection: 1. the improvement of all men’s estate, who dispositions. ἐντροῦν ὑμῖν λόγῳ.

1 Corinthians 15:40

Let all things therefore be done according to the custom of the church, (which is the rule of decency,) and according to the orders and directions which now and at other times have or shall be given you by me. And this is all I shall now add on this subject.

CHAP. XV.

MOREOVER, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye 1 stand;

1 Corinthians 15:43

The body here hath some dishonourable deformed parts, ch. xii. 3, others weak and feeble, subject to, or decayed by, diseases and age; but the future body is quite contrary, glorious and strong.

1 Corinthians 15:44

The body here is sustained by meat and drink, but in the future state it will be a body immortal, that wants nothing to sustain it. Such bodies indeed there are of both these sorts.

1 Corinthians 15:45

One such as Adam is mentioned to have had, Gen. ii. 7, and such as we had from Adam, who communicated life to his posterity; the other we shall receive from Christ, that restores them from the grave when they have been dead.

1 Corinthians 15:46

The immortal body was not first formed, but that which needed sustenance, so as without that it was to perish; and after that the immortal body is to be returned to us instead of that mortal.

1 Corinthians 15:47

The stock of the animal life was Adam, so called as an earthly man, made out of the earth: the stock of the immortal, Christ the Lord, that came down from heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:48

Such a body as Adam himself had, such have all we mortal men: and such a body as Christ now hath, such shall we, that live like him, according to his example and precept, have at the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:49

And as we have first been made like the mortal Adam, so shall we be made like the immortal Christ, when we come to heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:50

One thing only I shall add, that it is not possi-

[ʃ] flesh and blood] That flesh and blood signifies that state of growing, feeding, corruptible bodies, such as these we carry about us, there is little doubt. How, or with what propriety it comes to do so, may receive some light from that of Homer, Ἰλιάδ. ε’. 341. There of the gods he saith:

Οὐ γὰρ σῖτον ἔδουσ’, οὐ πίνονσ’ αἴθοπα οἶνον, Τοῦνεκ’ ἀναίμονεῖς εἰσι, καὶ ἀθάνατοι καλέονται.

“They eat no meat, nor drink no wine; therefore they have no blood, and are called immortal.” Thus in the gospel it is said of the saints in heaven, which are clearly answerable to the soberest notion of their gods, that they neither eat nor drink, and from thence (agreeably to that which Homer concludes from thence) they are here said not to be flesh and blood, nor, as it follows, corruptible, denoting the difference betwixt the natural body we have here, and the spiritual hereafter.

1 Corinthians 15:54

[g] in victory] The Hebrew phrase לֵאד, which is ordinarily rendered εἰς νίκος, Lam. v. 20. 2 Sam. ii. 26. Job xxxvi. 7. Jer. iii. 5. Amos i. 11, doth in all of them signify for ever, and is rendered εἰς τὸν αἴωνα, Isa. xiii. 20, and εἰς τέλος, to the end, psal. xiii. 2; and so it is in this place, Death shall be for ever (or perfectly or finally) devoured.

1 Corinthians 15:55

[h] where is thy sting] These words are taken out of Hosea, ch. xiii. 14, where yet we read, I will be thy plague. And some have conjectured, that instead of the Hebrew אֵהִי, I will be, the Greek read אֵיה, where? But R. Tanchum and Ebn Jannahius, saith Mr. P., affirm that the Hebrew אֵהִי is all one with אֵיה, and so signifies where, in that very chapter of Hosea, ver. 10, אֵהִי מַלְכֵּךְ, where is thy king? and so then the Septuagint’s rendering will be literal, and the apostle’s words lightly varied from it.

CHAP. XVI.