If Chapter 13, the \u201clove chapter,\u201d is one of the greatest texts in the New Testament, Chapter 15, the \u201cresurrection chapter,\u201d is one of the most theologically weighty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul first reminds the Corinthians of the \u201cgood news\u201d \u2014 the euangelion<\/em>, the gospel \u2014 he proclaimed to them and that they received. Paul says the gospel he passes on is the same one he received. Notice that \u201cthe gospel,\u201d verses 3-7, is the story of Christ\u2019s death \u201cfor our sins\u201d and of his resurrection, all \u201caccording to the scriptures.\u201d \u201cThe gospel\u201d is not a theory of the atonement \u2014 of how exactly Christ\u2019s death is \u201cfor\u201d our sins. Nor is \u201cthe gospel\u201d a theory of the mechanics of conversion. Of course, \u201cthe gospel\u201d invites contemplation of theories of atonement, and even more, the gospel invites our grateful response of faith. But \u201cthe gospel\u201d itself is simply the story of Christ according to the scriptures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When Paul uses the phrase \u201caccording to the scriptures\u201d here he is not referring to the New Testament, which had not yet been compiled, and certainly not to his own letters, which he probably did not think of as \u201cscripture.\u201d He was referring to the Hebrew Scriptures. For Paul, then, the story of Christ was already contained in the Hebrew Scriptures. But the Hebrew Scriptures, read within their own original frame of reference, do not <\/em>clearly predict the \u201cChrist\u201d Paul describes, at least not when read before<\/em> Christ Jesus\u2019 advent. Jesus himself, and the church that bore witness to Jesus\u2019 life, death, and resurrection, saw the narratives and prophetic and wisdom texts of the Hebrew Scriptures with fresh eyes in light of their experience. Jesus Christ is the interpretive principle. Jesus Christ is<\/em> the gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What Paul received, and what he passes on, is a witness to the event of Jesus Christ. Paul says he \u201cproclaimed\u201d (eu\u0113ngelisam\u0113n<\/em>) the gospel (euangelion<\/em>) and the \u201cword\u201d (log\u014d<\/em>) (15:1), that the story of Christ\u2019s resurrection is \u201cproclaimed\u201d (k\u0113ryssetai<\/em>) and is a form of \u201cproclamation\u201d (k\u0113rygma<\/em>) (15:12, 14), and that Paul and the other Apostles\u2019 \u201ctestify\u201d or bear witness (marture\u00f3<\/em>) (15:15) to the resurrection. This constellation of terms, all collected in one place, demonstrates that the gospel Paul passes along is a well-known, foundational narrative that runs from the first Apostles through Paul to the Corinthians \u2014 and to us (15:11).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the central narrative of Christ\u2019s death and resurrection<\/em>, it seems some in the Corinthian congregation did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. (15:12.) Perhaps some of these Corinthians were Jewish Christians who believed in a general resurrection of the dead at the end of history, as did the Pharisees and other Second Temple Jewish groups, but questioned why the Christ, the Messiah, would rise first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It seems, though, that the people Paul addresses here do not think the dead can rise at all. Perhaps, then, some of these Corinthians were gentile skeptics about the possibility of a bodily resurrection, like those Paul encountered in Athens (see Acts 17:32). The Greek philosopher Plato believed in the immortality of the soul (or at least, of parts of the soul), and thought the soul was subsequently reborn in different bodies. Aristotle believed in the soul but it is not clear that he though the soul was immortal. Greek skeptics did not believe in the immortality of the soul at all. None of the Greek philosophers or their Roman heirs believed in the resurrection of the body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul states that Christ is<\/em> raised from the dead, \u201cthe first fruits (aparch\u00e9<\/em>) of those who have died.\u201d And the resurrection of Christ is central to the gospel, because \u201cdeath\u201d (thanatos<\/em>) is the consequence of sin. (15:21-22). The gospel is good news because it changes the reality of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In verses 21-22, Paul draws a parallel between Christ and Adam. Adam, a human being, introduced sin and death; Christ, a human being, introduced resurrection. Adam was the firstfruits of death; Christ is the firstfruits of resurrection. We should not press this metaphor into a theology of \u201coriginal sin,\u201d which is not really present here or elsewhere in Paul, and we certainly shouldn\u2019t take this is a some kind of modern \u201cscientific\u201d statement about human origins. The point is that humanity, at its root, from its deepest origins as humanity, embraces sin and death. Having been given the gift of our created being, we choose to de-create ourselves. But Christ, the true<\/em> Adam, re-creates us, through the power of his resurrection, which defeats death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Notice that \u201cdeath\u201d here is personified as one of the powers. The resurrection of Christ is an apocalyptic event that inaugurates the end of present age, which culminates when Christ subjugates all of God\u2019s enemies \u2014 and \u201cthe last enemy to be destroyed is death.\u201d (15:26.) At the end of history, everything, including the Son Paul says, will be subject to God the Father, \u201cso that God may be all in all.\u201d (As we have discussed before, there are Trinitarian themes in Paul\u2019s thought but he did not have a worked-out theology of the Trinity. This statement about Christ being subject to the Father by later standards would be considered subordinationist.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In verses 25 and 27 Paul alludes to some of the \u201cscriptures\u201d he mentioned earlier. In verse 25, the reference is to Psalm 10, which says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lord says to my lord: The reference in Psalm 10 to Melchizedek brings forward an obscure figure from Genesis 14<\/a>, the King of Salem, who blessed Abram (Abraham) after the battle of the Kings and thereby performed a priestly function \u2014 although he was not an heir of Abraham and there was as yet no nation of Israel and no Jewish Priesthood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Melchizedek features in some of the eschatological texts of the Second Temple period. Jesus is compared to Melchizedek in Hebrews 7<\/a>, also using quotations from Psalm 25. It seems, then, that in the Second Temple period, the notion of Melchizedek, or a Melchizedek-like figure, appearing or reappearing as a priestly figure who recalls the nation to purity, was a known motif, and that this motif was connected to Jesus in early Christianity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In verse 27 the reference is to Psalm 8, which says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord, our Lord, Notice that this Psalm echoes Genesis 1 and 2, in which humans are given charge over caring for creation. There is an echo of a connection here between Adam and Melchizedek, both as mystical figures who perform kingly and priestly functions \u2014 one at the beginning of creation and one at the beginning of the Hebrew people. For Paul, then, the resurrection of Christ is the fulfillment of the purposes of humanity and of the mission of Israel, culminating in the restoration of creation itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Starting in verse 35, Paul begins to respond to an objection from the skeptics: if the dead are raised, what kind of body do they possess? No one would want to be raised in a rotten corpse. Even more, although ancient people did not understand chemistry or microbiology the way we do, they knew that over time bodies decompose and are consumed by other creatures. If a person\u2019s body is thrown into a river and consumed by fish, does the person become a fish in the resurrection? (A version of this very question was, in fact, answered in the Medieval period by Thomas Aquinas \u2014 so it remained a live question!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul says the question is foolish because the present body is like a seed that becomes something greater. In verse 44, Paul says \u201cit is sown a physical [natural] (s\u014dma<\/em> psychikon<\/em>) body, it is raised a spiritual (s\u014dma<\/em> pneumatikon<\/em>) body.\u201d This leads some interpreters to suggest that Paul does not<\/em> believe in a material, bodily resurrection, but rather moves the concept of the resurrection entirely to the spiritual realm. But there are several reasons why this is not what Paul is doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, Paul is responding<\/em> to some of the Corinthians who are skeptical of the resurrection of the body because of their Greek dualism. The skeptics might accept the immortality of the soul, but not the resurrection of the body. If Paul\u2019s response is that the resurrection is spiritual and not bodily, he would be agreeing with the skeptics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, the phrase s\u014dma psychikon<\/em> translated from the NRSV above as \u201cphysical body,\u201d does not really contrast a \u201cphysical\u201d body to a \u201cnon-physical\u201d one. Paul quotes Genesis 2:7 in verse 45, because Adam is the example of the \u201cphysical\u201d or \u201cnatural\u201d body. In that text, in the Greek translation (the LXX) quoted by Paul, Adam became a psych\u0113n z\u014dsan<\/em> \u2014 a \u201cliving being.\u201d In the Hebrew the word is nephesh<\/em>, sometimes translated \u201csoul,\u201d but meaning the vital center of life, personhood, passion, desire, and appetite. So Paul is not contrasting the \u201cphysical\u201d with the \u201cspiritual.\u201d In both cases \u2014 the present s\u014dma psychikon<\/em> and the future s\u014dma pneumatikon<\/em> \u2014 Paul is referring to a kind of s\u014dma, a body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Third, Paul\u2019s metaphor of the seed that produces wheat assumes a continuity between the present state and the future state. A wheat germ is not precisely the same thing as a mature wheat stalk, but there is a numerical continuity between the germ and the stalk: this <\/em>germ, planted in the soil, produced this <\/em>stalk. Of course, this is only a metaphor, so we shouldn\u2019t press it too far, and Paul didn\u2019t know anything about how a wheat germ becomes a wheat stalk at the molecular or genetic level. But the metaphor does tie into Paul\u2019s overall discussion of how our present bodies relate to our bodies in the resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the same time, Paul does<\/em> say that our bodies in the resurrection will differ significantly from our present bodies. In Paul\u2019s mind, the resurrection is not a zombie-fest of reanimated corpses. He does not attempt to explain how our resurrection bodies will differ, nor does he offer any details about their material constitution. It is something that will happen by God\u2019s power \u201cin a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.\u201d (15:52.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The result, Paul says, is that Death no longer holds final power over us. In verses 54 and 55, Paul quotes a line from Isaiah 25 and another from Hosea 13. Isaiah 25:6-8 reads as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare And Hosea 13:14<\/a> says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; By quoting these texts Paul again connects Christ\u2019s resurrection to the eschatological hope of the prophetic literature in the Hebrew scriptures \u2014 a hope for a restored nation and a renewed creation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What precisely is the scope<\/em> of Paul\u2019s eschatological vision of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15? The mainstream of Christian eschatology envisions a dual outcome: some, maybe only a few, go to Heaven, and some, maybe many, go to Hell. There are important scriptural reasons for this view, including a number of sayings of Jesus in the Gospels and the vision of judgment at the conclusion of the book of Revelation. But there have always been voices in the Christian tradition who imagined an outcome in which every person is eventually saved, a view called apokatastasis<\/em>. Some, such as the great Third Century theologian Origen of Alexandria, were later censured by the institutional Church at least in part for these views, while others, such as the Church Father Gregory of Nyssa, were always held in high esteem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, both in academic theology (evidenced, for example, in the work of Eastern Orthodox theologian David Bentley Hart (That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation<\/a> (Yale Univ. Press 2019)) and in popular writing (evidenced by Rob Bell\u2019s Love Wins<\/a> (HarperOne 2012)), there is a renewed interest, and often fierce argument, over the possibility of apokatastasis<\/em>. Two verses in 1 Corinthians 15 are important to that debate. These are verse 22: \u201cfor as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ\u201d; and verse 28, which states that, in the end, God will be \u201call in all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe Resurrection<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet.\u201d
The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,
\u201cRule in the midst of your enemies!\u201d
Your troops will be willing
on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy splendor,
your young men will come to you
like dew from the morning\u2019s womb.
The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
\u201cYou are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek.\u201d
The Lord is at your right hand;
he will crush kings on the day of his wrath.
He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead
and crushing the rulers of the whole earth.
He will drink from a brook along the way,
and so he will lift his head high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
in the heavens.
Through the praise of children and infants
you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
human beings that you care for them?
You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
and the fish in the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine\u2014
the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain he will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people\u2019s disgrace
from all the earth.<\/p>Is. 25:6-8<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
Where, O grave, is your destruction?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nExcursus on Universalism<\/h4>\n\n\n\n