Discovery Box1 Corinthians 15:3-4
Context15:3 For I passed on to you as of first importance 1 what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 15:4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised 2 on the third day according to the scriptures,
1 Corinthians 15:25-27
Context15:25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 15:26 The last enemy to be eliminated is death. 15:27 For he has put everything in subjection under his feet. 3 But when it says “everything” has been put in subjection, it is clear that this does not include the one who put everything in subjection to him.
1 Corinthians 15:32
Context15:32 If from a human point of view I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus, 4 what did it benefit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die. 5
1 Corinthians 15:44-49
Context15:44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 15:45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living person”; 6 the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 15:46 However, the spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. 15:47 The first man is from the earth, made of dust; the second man is from heaven. 15:48 Like the one made of dust, so too are those made of dust, and like the one from heaven, so too those who are heavenly. 15:49 And just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear 7 the image of the man of heaven.
1 Corinthians 15:53-56
Context15:53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 15:54 Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen,
“Death has been swallowed up in victory.” 8
15:55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?” 9
15:56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
[15:3] 1 tn Grk “among (the) first things.”
[15:4] 2 tn Grk “he has been raised/is raised,” using a Greek tense that points to the present effect of the act of raising him. But in English idiom the temporal phrase “on the third day” requires a different translation of the verb.
[15:27] 3 sn A quotation from Ps 8:6.
[15:32] 4 map For location see JP1 D2; JP2 D2; JP3 D2; JP4 D2.
[15:32] 5 sn An allusion to Isa 22:13; 56:12.
[15:45] 5 tn Grk “living soul”; a quotation from Gen 2:7.
[15:49] 6 tc ‡ A few significant witnesses have the future indicative φορέσομεν (foresomen, “we will bear”; B I 6 630 1881 al sa) instead of the aorist subjunctive φορέσωμεν (foreswmen, “let us bear”; Ì46 א A C D F G Ψ 075 0243 33 1739 Ï latt bo). If the original reading is the future tense, then “we will bear” would be a guarantee that believers would be like Jesus (and unlike Adam) in the resurrection. If the aorist subjunctive is original, then “let us bear” would be a command to show forth the image of Jesus, i.e., to live as citizens of the kingdom that believers will one day inherit. The future indicative is not widespread geographically. At the same time, it fits the context well: Not only are there indicatives in this section (especially vv. 42-49), but the conjunction καί (kai) introducing the comparative καθώς (kaqws) seems best to connect to the preceding by furthering the same argument (what is, not what ought to be). For this reason, though, the future indicative could be a reading thus motivated by an early scribe. In light of the extremely weighty evidence for the aorist subjunctive, it is probably best to regard the aorist subjunctive as original. This connects well with v. 50, for there Paul makes a pronouncement that seems to presuppose some sort of exhortation. G. D. Fee (First Corinthians [NICNT], 795) argues for the originality of the subjunctive, stating that “it is nearly impossible to account for anyone’s having changed a clearly understandable future to the hortatory subjunctive so early and so often that it made its way into every textual history as the predominant reading.” The subjunctive makes a great deal of sense in view of the occasion of 1 Corinthians. Paul wrote to combat an over-realized eschatology in which some of the Corinthians evidently believed they were experiencing all the benefits of the resurrection body in the present, and thus that their behavior did not matter. If the subjunctive is the correct reading, it seems Paul makes two points: (1) that the resurrection is a bodily one, as distinct from an out-of-body experience, and (2) that one’s behavior in the interim does make a difference (see 15:32-34, 58).
