1 Corinthians 15:35-37
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
C. The Manner of the Resurrection[a]
35 [b]But someone may say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?”
The Resurrection Body. 36 [c]You fool! What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.(A) 37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind;
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- 15:35–58 Paul imagines two objections that the Corinthians could raise: one concerning the manner of the resurrection (how?), the other pertaining to the qualities of the risen body (what kind?). These questions probably lie behind their denial of the resurrection (1 Cor 15:12), and seem to reflect the presumption that no kind of body other than the one we now possess would be possible. Paul deals with these objections in inverse order, in 1 Cor 15:36–49 and 1 Cor 15:50–58. His argument is fundamentally theological and its appeal is to the understanding.
- 15:35–49 Paul approaches the question of the nature of the risen body (what kind of body?) by means of two analogies: the seed (1 Cor 15:36–44) and the first man, Adam (1 Cor 15:45–49).
- 15:36–38 The analogy of the seed: there is a change of attributes from seed to plant; the old life-form must be lost for the new to emerge. By speaking about the seed as a body that dies and comes to life, Paul keeps the point of the analogy before the reader’s mind.
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