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Text -- 1 Corinthians 15:36 (NET)

Strongs On/Off
Context
15:36 Fool! What you sow will not come to life unless it dies.
Parallel   Cross Reference (TSK)   ITL  
Table of Contents

Word/Phrase Notes
Robertson , Vincent , Wesley , JFB , Clarke , Calvin , TSK

Word/Phrase Notes
Barnes , Poole , Haydock , Gill

Verse Notes / Footnotes
, Geneva Bible

Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis , MHCC , Matthew Henry , Barclay , Constable , College , McGarvey , Lapide

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: 1Co 15:36 - -- Thou foolish one ( aphrōn ). Old word (a privative, phrēn ), lack of sense. It is a severe term and justified by the implication "that the obj...

Thou foolish one ( aphrōn ).

Old word (a privative, phrēn ), lack of sense. It is a severe term and justified by the implication "that the objector plumes himself on his acuteness"(Robertson and Plummer). Proleptic position of su (thou) sharpens the point. Sceptics (agnostics) pose as unusually intellectual (the intelligentsia), but the pose does not make one intelligent.

Robertson: 1Co 15:36 - -- Except it die ( ean mē apothanēi ). Condition of third class, possibility assumed. This is the answer to the "how"question. In plant life death p...

Except it die ( ean mē apothanēi ).

Condition of third class, possibility assumed. This is the answer to the "how"question. In plant life death precedes life, death of the seed and then the new plant.

Vincent: 1Co 15:36 - -- Thou sowest ( σὺ οπείρεις ) Thou is emphatic. Every time thou sowest, thou sowest something which is quickened only through dying...

Thou sowest ( σὺ οπείρεις )

Thou is emphatic. Every time thou sowest, thou sowest something which is quickened only through dying. Paul is not partial to metaphors from nature, and his references of this character are mostly to nature in connection with human labor. Dean Howson says: " We find more of this kind of illustration in the one short epistle of St. James than in all the writings of St. Paul" (" Metaphors of St. Paul." Compare Farrar's " Paul," i., 20, 21).

Vincent: 1Co 15:36 - -- Die Become corrupted. Applied to the seed in order to keep up the analogy with the body.

Die

Become corrupted. Applied to the seed in order to keep up the analogy with the body.

Wesley: 1Co 15:36 - -- To the inquiry concerning the manner of rising, and the quality of the bodies that rise, the Apostle answers first by a similitude, 1Co 15:36-42, and ...

To the inquiry concerning the manner of rising, and the quality of the bodies that rise, the Apostle answers first by a similitude, 1Co 15:36-42, and then plainly and directly, 1Co 15:42-43. That which thou sowest, is not quickened into new life and verdure, except it die - Undergo a dissolution of its parts, a change analogous to death. Thus St. Paul inverts the objection; as if he had said, Death is so far from hindering life, that it necessarily goes before it.

JFB: 1Co 15:36 - -- With all thy boasted philosophy (Psa 14:1).

With all thy boasted philosophy (Psa 14:1).

JFB: 1Co 15:36 - -- "thou," emphatical: appeal to the objector's own experience: "The seed which thou thyself sowest." Paul, in this verse and in 1Co 15:42, answers the q...

"thou," emphatical: appeal to the objector's own experience: "The seed which thou thyself sowest." Paul, in this verse and in 1Co 15:42, answers the question of 1Co 15:35, "How?" and in 1Co 15:37-41, 1Co 15:43, the question, "With what kind of body?" He converts the very objection (the death of the natural body) into an argument. Death, so far from preventing quickening, is the necessary prelude and prognostication of it, just as the seed "is not quickened" into a new sprout with increased produce, "except it die" (except a dissolution of its previous organization takes place). Christ by His death for us has not given us a reprieve from death as to the life which we have from Adam; nay, He permits the law to take its course on our fleshly nature; but He brings from Himself new spiritual and heavenly life out of death (1Co 15:37).

Clarke: 1Co 15:36 - -- Thou fool - Αφρον . If this be addressed, as it probably is, to the false apostle, there is a peculiar propriety in it; as this man seems to h...

Thou fool - Αφρον . If this be addressed, as it probably is, to the false apostle, there is a peculiar propriety in it; as this man seems to have magnified his own wisdom, and set it up against both God and man; and none but a fool could act so. At the same time, it is folly in any to assert the impossibility of a thing because he cannot comprehend it

Clarke: 1Co 15:36 - -- That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die - I have shown the propriety of this simile of the apostle in the note on Joh 12:24 (note), t...

That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die - I have shown the propriety of this simile of the apostle in the note on Joh 12:24 (note), to which I must refer the reader. A grain of wheat, etc., is composed of the body or lobes, and the germ. The latter forms an inconsiderable part of the mass of the grain; the body, lobes, or farinaceous part, forms nearly the whole. This body dies - becomes decomposed, and forms a fine earth, from which the germ derives its first nourishment; by the nourishment thus derived the germ is quickened, receives its first vegetable life, and through this means is rendered capable of deriving the rest of its nourishment and support from the grosser earth in which the grain was deposited. Whether the apostle would intimate here that there is a certain germ in the present body, which shall become the seed of the resurrection body, this is not the place to inquire; and on this point I can with pleasure refer to Mr. Drew’ s work on the "Resurrection of the Human Body;"where this subject, as well as every other subject connected with this momentous question, is considered in a very luminous and cogently argumentative point of view.

Calvin: 1Co 15:36 - -- 36.Thou fool, that which thou sowest The Apostle might have replied, that the mode, which is to us incomprehensible, is nevertheless easy with God. H...

36.Thou fool, that which thou sowest The Apostle might have replied, that the mode, which is to us incomprehensible, is nevertheless easy with God. Hence, we must not here form our judgment according to our own understanding, but must assign to the stupendous and secret power of God the honor of believing, that it will accomplish what we cannot comprehend. He goes to work, however, in another way. For he shows, that the resurrection is so far from being against nature, that we have every day a clear illustration of it in the course of nature itself — in the growth of the fruits of the earth. For from what but from rottenness spring the fruits that we gather out of the earth? For when the seed has been sown, unless the grains die, there will be no increase. Corruption, then, being the commencement and cause of production, we have in this a sort of picture of the resurrection. Hence it follows, that we are beyond measure spiteful and ungrateful in estimating the power of God, if we take from him what is already manifest before our eyes.

TSK: 1Co 15:36 - -- fool : Luk 12:20, Luk 24:25; Rom 1:22; Eph 5:15 that : Joh 12:24

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Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: 1Co 15:36 - -- Thou fool - Foolish, inconsiderate man! The meaning is, that it was foolish to make this objection, when the same difficulty existed in an unde...

Thou fool - Foolish, inconsiderate man! The meaning is, that it was foolish to make this objection, when the same difficulty existed in an undeniable fact which fell under daily observation. A man was a fool to urge that as an objection to religion which must exist in the undeniable and everyday facts which they witnessed. The idea is, "The same difficulty may be started about the growth of grain. Suppose a man who had never seen it, were to be told that it was to be put into the earth; that it was to die; to be decomposed; and that from the decayed kernel there should be seen to start up first a slender, green, and tender spire of grass, and that this was to send up a strong stalk, and was to produce hundreds of similar kernels at some distant period. These facts would be as improbable to him as the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. When he saw the kernel laid in the ground; when he saw it decay; when apparently it was returning to dust, he would ask, How can these be connected with the production of similar grain? Are not all the indications that it will be totally corrupted and destroyed?"

Yet, says Paul, this is connected with the hope of the harvest, and this fact should remove all the objection which is derived from the fact that the body returns to its native dust. The idea is, that there is an analogy, and that the main objection in the one case would lie equally well against the acknowledged and indisputable fact in the other. It is evident, however, that this argument is of a popular character, and is not to be pressed to the quick; nor are we to suppose that the resemblance will be in all respects the same. It is to be used as Paul used it. The objection was, that the body died, and returned to dust, and could not, therefore, rise again. The reply of Paul is, "You may make the same objection to grain that is sown. That dies also. The main body of the kernel decays. In itself there is no prospect that it will spring up. Should it stop here, and had you never seen a grain of wheat grow; had you only seen it in the earth, as you have seen the body in the grave, there would be the same difficulty as to how it would produce other grains, which there is about the resurrection of the body."

Is not quickened - Does not become alive; does not grow.

Except it die - See the note on Joh 12:24. The main body of the grain decays that it may become food and nourishment to the tender germ. Perhaps it is implied here also that there was a fitness that people should die in order to obtain the glorious body of the resurrection, in the same way as it is fit that the kernel should die, in order that there may be a new and beautiful harvest.

Poole: 1Co 15:36 - -- He saith not: Thou fool in anger, (which is that using of this term which our Saviour saith, Mat 5:22 brings a man under the danger of hell fire),...

He saith not: Thou fool in anger, (which is that using of this term which our Saviour saith, Mat 5:22 brings a man under the danger of hell fire), but in the way of a grave and authoritative reproof, calling them fools for their want of a due understanding of the things and ways of God. He lets them know, that they might as well ask, how the grain of wheat, which they ordinarily sowed in their field, did rise again; for that grain also rotteth under the clods of the earth, under which it is buried, before it again riseth.

Haydock: 1Co 15:35-50 - -- How do the dead rise again? He now answers the objections these new teachers made against the resurrection. St. John Chrysostom reduces them to the...

How do the dead rise again? He now answers the objections these new teachers made against the resurrection. St. John Chrysostom reduces them to these two questions: how is it possible for them to rise? and in what manner, or with what qualities, will they rise? To shew the possibility, he brings the example of a grain of wheat, or of any seeds, which must be corrupted, and die as it were in the ground, and then is quite changed, comes up with a blade, a stalk, and an ear quite different from what it was when sown, and yet comes to be wheat again, or to be a tree that produces the same kind of fruit: so God can raise our bodies as he pleaseth. He also tells them that there are very different bodies, terrestrial, and celestial, some more, some less glorious, differing in beauty and other qualities, as God pleaseth. As the sun is brighter than the moon, and as one star is brighter than another, so shall it be at the general resurrection. But all the bodies of the elect shall be happily changed to a state of incorruption. (ver. 42.) Here the bodies even of the just are subject to corruption, to decay, liable to death, but they shall then rise to a state of incorruptibility and immortality: And so he answers the second question, that here every one's body is a weak, sensual, animal body, clogged with many imperfections, like that of Adam after he had sinned; but at the resurrection, the bodies of the saints shall be spiritual bodies, blessed with all the perfections and qualities of a glorified body, like to that of Christ after he was risen. ---

St. Paul also, comparing the first man ( Adam ) with Christ, whom he calls the second or the last Adam, (ver. 45) says that the first Adam was made a living soul, (i.e. a living animal, or a living creature, with a life and a body that required to be supported with corporal food) but that Christ was made a quickening Spirit: he means, that though he had a true mortal body by his nativity of his Virgin Mother, yet that by his resurrection he had a glorified body, immortal, that needed no corporal food, and that he would also give such spiritual and immortal bodies to those whom he should make partakers of his glory. ---

But not first that which is spiritual, &c. (ver. 46) that is, both in Adam and in us, and even in Christ, the body was first mortal, which should afterwards be made spiritual and immortal by a happy resurrection. ---

The first Adam (ver. 47) was of the earth, earthly, made of clay, and with such a body as could die, but the second man (Christ) was from heaven, heavenly: not that he took a body from heaven, as some ancient heretics pretended, but he was heavenly not only because he was the Son of God, but in this place he seems to be called heavenly even as to his body, after his resurrection, his body being then become spiritual and immortal. ---

Such as is the earthly man, &c. (ver. 48) that is, as the first man, Adam, was earthly by his earthly and mortal body, so were we and all his posterity earthly; but such as the heavenly man, Christ, was heavenly, and rose with a heavenly and immortal body; so shall all those be heavenly, to whom he shall give a spiritual, a heavenly, and an immortal body at their happy resurrection. ---

Therefore, (ver. 49) as we have borne the image of the earthly man, (that is, have been made mortal, and also by sin subject to the corrupt inclinations of this mortal body) so let us bear also the image of the heavenly one, by a new life imitating Christ, by which means we shall be glorified with him, both as to soul and body. ---

Now this I say, and admonish you, brethren, (ver. 50) that flesh and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God; i.e. those that lead a sensual and carnal life, nor the corruption of sin, deserve the state of incorruption in glory. (Witham)

Haydock: 1Co 15:36-38 - -- This chapter is addressed to some among the Corinthians who denied the resurrection: St. Paul, therefore, in order to cure this philosophical opinion,...

This chapter is addressed to some among the Corinthians who denied the resurrection: St. Paul, therefore, in order to cure this philosophical opinion, gives them his counsel and advice in this chapter; and lest he might be thought to preach up a new doctrine, in the beginning of his admonitions he informs them that he is preaching no other gospel than what he has always taught, and wherein they believe. (Estius)

Gill: 1Co 15:36 - -- Thou fool,.... Not transgressing the law of Christ, which makes him that calls his brother a fool in danger of hell fire; for the apostle said not thi...

Thou fool,.... Not transgressing the law of Christ, which makes him that calls his brother a fool in danger of hell fire; for the apostle said not this in anger, and from a malevolent disposition, as that rule supposes, but out of zeal for truth, and to reprove the stupidity and folly of such a bold objector; in opposing the veracity and power of God, in setting up his reason above divine revelation, and in not attending even to natural philosophy itself; in which professing to be wise he might be justly called a fool, and therefore sends him to the husbandman to learn of him how to answer his own queries:

that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die; and which is more especially true of a grain of wheat: our Lord observes the same; see Gill on Joh 12:24, and designs by the simile his own death, and resurrection, and the fruit following thereon. This seed being cast into the earth corrupts, rots, and dies, and then is quickened, and rises up in stalk, blade, and ear. Which shows that the dissolution and corruption of the body by death is so far from being an objection to its resurrection, that it is necessary to it, even as the dying and putrifying of the seed, or grain of wheat, is necessary to its quickening and rising up again; and that if God is able to quicken a seed or grain that is rotten and entirely dead, and cause it to rise up in verdure and with much fruit, as he does every year in millions of instances, why should it be thought incredible that God should quicken dead bodies, when the one is as much an instance of his power as the other? The Claromontane exemplar reads, "except it die first"; and so the Vulgate Latin version.

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Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

Geneva Bible: 1Co 15:36 ( 21 ) [Thou] fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: ( 21 ) You might have learned either of these, Paul says, by daily experi...

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Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: 1Co 15:1-58 - --1 By Christ's resurrection,12 he proves the necessity of our resurrection, against all such as deny the resurrection of the body.21 The fruit,35 and t...

MHCC: 1Co 15:35-50 - --1. How are the dead raised up? that is, by what means? How can they be raised? 2. As to the bodies which shall rise. Will it be with the like shape, a...

Matthew Henry: 1Co 15:35-50 - -- The apostle comes now to answer a plausible and principal objection against the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, concerning which observe t...

Barclay: 1Co 15:35-49 - --Before we begin to try to interpret this section we would do well to remember one thing--all through it Paul is talking about things that no one reall...

Constable: 1Co 7:1--16:13 - --III. Questions asked of Paul 7:1--16:12 The remainder of the body of this epistle deals with questions the Corin...

Constable: 1Co 15:1-58 - --F. The resurrection of believers ch. 15 The Apostle Paul did not introduce the instruction on the resurr...

Constable: 1Co 15:35-49 - --3. The resurrection body 15:35-49 Paul next addressed the objection that the resurrection of the...

Constable: 1Co 15:35-44 - --Analogies from nature 15:35-44 The apostle proceeded to offer two sets of analogies (seeds, vv. 36-38; and types of bodies, vv. 39-41) that he then ap...

College: 1Co 15:1-58 - --1 CORINTHIANS 15 VIII. MISUNDERSTANDING OF BELIEVERS' RESURRECTION (15:1-58) A. THE GOSPEL PAUL PREACHED (15:1-11) 1. Relation of the Corinthians ...

McGarvey: 1Co 15:36 - --Thou foolish one, that which thou thyself sowest is not quickened except it die [comp. Joh 12:24]:

Lapide: 1Co 15:1-58 - --CHAPTER 15 SYNOPSIS OF THE CHAPTER He proves the resurrection of the dead against the false teachers who denied it:— i. From the fact of Christ'...

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Introduction / Outline

Robertson: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction) First Corinthians From Ephesus a.d. 54 Or 55 By Way of Introduction It would be a hard-boiled critic today who would dare deny the genuineness o...

JFB: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction) The AUTHENTICITY of this Epistle is attested by CLEMENT OF ROME [First Epistle to the Corinthians, 47], POLYCARP [Epistle to the Philippians, 11], and...

JFB: 1 Corinthians (Outline) THE INSCRIPTION; THANKSGIVING FOR THE SPIRITUAL STATE OF THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH; REPROOF OF PARTY DIVISIONS: HIS OWN METHOD OF PREACHING ONLY CHRIST. ...

TSK: 1 Corinthians 15 (Chapter Introduction) Overview 1Co 15:1, By Christ’s resurrection, 1Co 15:12. he proves the necessity of our resurrection, against all such as deny the resurrection o...

Poole: 1 Corinthians 15 (Chapter Introduction) CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 15

MHCC: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction) The Corinthian church contained some Jews, but more Gentiles, and the apostle had to contend with the superstition of the one, and the sinful conduct ...

MHCC: 1 Corinthians 15 (Chapter Introduction) (1Co 15:1-11) The apostle proves the resurrection of Christ from the dead. (1Co 15:12-19) Those answered who deny the resurrection of the body. (1Co...

Matthew Henry: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction) An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians Corinth was a principal city of Greece, in that partic...

Matthew Henry: 1 Corinthians 15 (Chapter Introduction) In this chapter the apostle treats of that great article of Christianity - the resurrection of the dead. I. He establishes the certainty of our Sa...

Barclay: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction) A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS OF PAUL The Letters Of Paul There is no more interesting body of documents in the New Testament than the letter...

Barclay: 1 Corinthians 15 (Chapter Introduction) Jesus' Resurrection And Ours (1Cor 15) 1Cor 15 is both one of the greatest and one of the most difficult chapters in the New Testament. Not only is...

Constable: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction) Introduction Historical Background Corinth had a long history stretching back into the...

Constable: 1 Corinthians (Outline) Outline I. Introduction 1:1-9 A. Salutation 1:1-3 B. Thanksgiving 1:4-9 ...

Constable: 1 Corinthians 1 Corinthians Bibliography Adams, Jay. Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage in the Bible. Phillipsburg, N.J.: Presb...

Haydock: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction) THE FIRST EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE, TO THE CORINTHIANS. INTRODUCTION. Corinth was the capital of Achaia, a very rich and populous city...

Gill: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO 1 CORINTHIANS This was not the first epistle that was written by the apostle to the Corinthians, for we read in this of his having ...

Gill: 1 Corinthians 15 (Chapter Introduction) INTRODUCTION TO 1 CORINTHIANS 15 The apostle, in this chapter, recommends the Gospel, and gives a summary of it, proves the resurrection of Christ,...

College: 1 Corinthians (Book Introduction) FOREWORD Since the past few decades have seen an explosion in the number of books, articles, and commentaries on First Corinthians, a brief word to t...

College: 1 Corinthians (Outline) OUTLINE I. INTRODUCTION - 1:1-9 A. Salutation - 1:1-3 B. Thanksgiving - 1:4-9 II. DISUNITY AND COMMUNITY FRAGMENTATION - 1:10-4:21 A. ...

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