1 Corinthians 15: Paul

Who was Paul?

1st century apostle who preached Christianity mostly to Gentiles (non-Jewish people)

What does Paul tell us in Philippians 1:21-24?

Because of the resurrection ‘dying is gain’ and he longs ‘to be with Christ’ and some argue that this suggests that at death we are immediately, in some sense, with Christ

What does Paul accept as an objective fact in his treatise on the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15?

Jesus’ resurrection

What is described in Acts 9:1-20? Where does Paul recount his transformation?

The risen Jesus appearing to Paul as he journeyed from Jerusalem to Damascus to persecute Christians, and how Paul then came to be a Christian himself. This experience is recounted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:5-9

What does Paul write about in regards to Jesus appearing to him? (1 Corinthians 15:5-9)

The risen Jesus had appeared ‘to more than five hundred brethren at one time… Last of all… he appeared also to me… the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God’

What does Paul argue in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19?

Christian believers are resurrected as well - the proof of their resurrection lies in Jesus’ own resurrection and that if there was no resurrection, then Jesus did not resurrecte and if he wasn't resurrected then not only is the Christian faith futile because those who have died ‘have perished’, but unthruful as well because it was founded on a lie

What does Paul refer to in Genesis 3? How does he use this for his argument of the resurrection existing?

The Fall of Adam. By his disobedience to God, Adam had brought death into the world. By his total obedience to God, Jesus had brought resurrection. There is a specific order:

• Christ, ‘the first fruits’, has already been resurrected

• ‘Those who belong to Christ’, Christian believers, will be resurrected ‘at his coming’ at the end of time to judge the world, when ‘the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable’ (15:22)

what does Paul talk about in 15:35-50? What analogy does Paul use to explain the body when resurrected?

With what kind of body are the dead raised? The analogy Paul uses is the seed planting. The body that is ‘planted’ in the earth is perishable, weak, physical. Tje body that is raised is imperishable, strong, spiritual. The resurrected body excels over the earthly body as a fully grown plants excels the seed. ‘The man of heaven’ excels over ‘the man of dust’

What does Paul believe in conclusion about the newly resurrected body?

As for Jesus in his teaching on the resurrection in Luke 20:36, the resurrected body is a new and different body compared to the earthly body

How are resurrection and resuscitation different? What stories can be used to explain this difference?

When Jesus raised to life Jairus’ daughter and the widows son Lazarus at Nain, he resuscitated them. They returned from the dead exactly as they were when they were alive. His own resurrection was different - his resurrected body was not the same as his earthly body. He appeared ‘in another form’ (Mark 16:12)

Give some instances from biblical scriptures where there is evidence that points to the fact that Jesus’ resurrected body was different compared to his earthly body.

• Mary Magdalene failed to recognise Jesus (John 20:14)

• Appearing ‘in another form’ (Mark 16:12)

• The disciples failed to recognise him on the Emmaus Road (Luke 24:16)

• Jesus walking through locked doors (John 20:19)

• Jesus vanishing from sight (Luke 24:31)

What is the body of Christ described as?

A new mode of existence, and the resurrected body of Christians will be in the image of this (1 Corinthians 15:49)

What does Paul not give any indication on?

How this change on the body will be effected. Neither does he say if it happens at the death of each individual or to all collectively at some future time

What is there no specification of?

Whether the change happens to all or only to believers

What is Paul saying instead?

he is simply telling the Corinthians, many of whom undoubtedly believed in the Greek idea that only the soul was immortal, that there will be a resurrection not only of the soul but of the body as well, but that the resurrected body will not operate according to the laws of the flesh but according to the laws of the Spirit

what is a quote from 1 Corinthians 15:38-40 about the body?

‘But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives it’s own body. Not all flesh is the same: people have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another’