The Manner of the Resurrection: By What Power the Bodies Rise (1 Corinthians 15:35–38)
1 Cor. 15:33. Do not be deceived: bad company ruins good morals.
“Do not be deceived” μη πλανασθε, do not be misled, do not fall into error, do not be taken in by deception. “Evil company”—association with evil men, whose understanding is corrupted, for they possess a demonic cunning in creeping into the minds of others and corrupting their understanding, and following the understanding, their lives as well. Or company means generally association, intimate relations with people who reason perversely about everything. Above the Apostle cited the words of people given over to despair. Now he speaks as if saying: such people can always be met with in plenty; watch out, beware. The Apostle is speaking of sound and unsound thinking, and evil company corrupts the thinking, so one would expect him to say: evil company corrupts minds, driving truth from them and sowing falsehood; but he says: it ruins good morals, that is, good habits, customs, good conduct, a good life. An established character cannot be disrupted without disrupting the understanding. Evil company indeed directly corrupts minds, but when the mind is corrupted, how will you support character? It will immediately begin to decay. The Apostle, bypassing this intermediate link of the corruption of the mind, directly points to the greater danger of the corruption of character. A good character is both more evident and more precious. If the Apostle had said: evil company will corrupt your thinking, someone might say or think: how will it corrupt? It went in one ear and out the other; though this never actually happens. But when he said that it corrupts character, he caused everyone to stop and think, and from this one word already to prepare themselves with caution against evil company and people. Or by good morals he understands even guileless souls, easily bent by every wind of teaching (Saint Chrysostom, Theodoret and others). “By these words, on the one hand, he rebukes the Corinthians as foolish (easily led astray), but on the other hand, he excuses their former errors as much as possible, removing much of the blame from them and laying it on others, so that in this way too he might turn them to repentance (to the abandonment of error)” (Saint Chrysostom).
1 Cor. 15:34. Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.
“Awake to righteousness” banish false thoughts, restore sound understanding of all things, as you have been taught by me, reason soberly about all things, faithfully, firmly, not wavering, not as drunkards, to whom nothing is clear. “To righteousness” means: as it should be, as divine truth requires, as God has commanded in revelation. “And do not sin”, do not err in your way of thinking. “As to those led astray and intoxicated by unbelief, he said: ‘Awake to righteousness’” (Theodoret). “He speaks as if to drunkards and madmen. For it is characteristic of drunkards and madmen not to see what they saw before and not to believe what they confessed before” (Saint Chrysostom).
“And do not sin” can be understood in relation to “awake to righteousness” as a means to an end. Do not sin so that you may have and always maintain a sound way of thinking about all things, and about the very resurrection of the dead, and the future recompense. Saint Chrysostom says: “He rightly added: ‘and do not sin,’ showing that from this came the seeds of unbelief among you. He expresses in many places that a corrupt life gives birth to evil thoughts, for example he says: ‘The love of money is a root of all evils, and some, craving it, have wandered from the faith’ (1 Tim. 6:10). (So here as well.) Many, being aware of their vices and unwilling to endure punishment, from fear cease to believe even in the resurrection; on the contrary, those who do much good desire to see it every day.”
On the other hand, one can understand “awake to righteousness” in relation to “do not sin” as a means to an end. —So it stands in all the holy fathers. Although for them sobriety means not wandering in thought here and there, standing in mind and attention on one thing alone, yet such a state is possible only insofar as the mind is established in all truths. Then the wandering of thought stops, or empty and vain thinking. But the passing of attention from one holy truth to another is not considered a violation of sobriety; it rather contributes to its fervor. The influence of sobriety on not sinning depends on the fact that a sober mind does not admit not only passionate but also empty thoughts; when there are no thoughts, passions are silent; and when passions are at rest, how can sin arise? For every sin is the actualization of a passion.
“For some have no knowledge of God.” —“No knowledge of God” is ignorance of God, of the properties of God and His works. If they knew this as they should, they would never have fallen into unbelief concerning the resurrection of bodies. For if God revealed this and He is truth, how can one not believe? Who, rightly understanding what God is, would dare to contradict the mind of God with his own mind? When God speaks, the creation must receive His word unconditionally, with warm obedience. On the other hand, whoever knows God cannot entertain even the slightest doubt about the possibility of resurrection, clearly understanding that it costs the Creator nothing to recreate from ready, though dispersed, matter what He created from nothing. “Not to believe in resurrection is characteristic of one who does not have a perfect understanding of the invincible and fully sufficient power of God in all things. For if He created being from non-being, then all the more can He raise up what has been destroyed” (Saint Chrysostom). Theodoret draws the same conclusion from another angle. “Very wisely the Apostle called disbelief in the resurrection a lack of knowledge of God. Whoever ‘confesses to know God’ (Tit. 1:16) believes that He is righteous. It is fitting for a righteous one to render righteous recompense. But we do not see righteous recompense in the present life. Therefore, whoever confesses that he believes in God must expect the resurrection.”
Such ignorance, he says, “some have,” and thus he softens the rebuke, but then he adds: “I speak this to your shame,” suggesting that, although “some” are guilty of this, yet this guilt is of such a kind that it brings shame on all of you. How do you allow someone to be among you like this? —If they are not like this through stubbornness, then how have you not corrected them until now; and if through stubbornness, then how have you tolerated them among you until now? It is necessary either to correct them or to purge the community of them. Saint Chrysostom finds that these words are added to soften the rebuke. “‘I speak this to your shame,’ that is, to correct, to enlighten, so that you, being ashamed, might become better. For he feared that, striking more than was proper, he would not alienate them from himself.”
2. Concerning the manner of the Resurrection (1 Cor. 15:35–53)
First the Apostle sets forth the theme for all the subsequent discussion, in the form of an objection: how will the dead be raised, and in what form? (1 Cor. 15:35).
Then he answers the first question: a) how will the dead be raised, that is, by what power? (1Cor 15:36–38). Then the second: b) in what form will they be raised? (1Cor 15:39–50). Finally, he prophetically describes c) how the resurrection itself will take place (1 Cor. 15:51–53).
1 Cor. 15:35. But someone will ask, How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?
These are the usual questions regarding the resurrection of bodies, whether a believer seeks instruction or an unbeliever thinks to confound a believer, assuming there is nothing to answer to such questions. The Apostle presumes an objection from the latter. “Here he refutes the objections raised by the pagans (accepted and disturbing those in the faith of the resurrection of bodies among the believing Corinthians). He did not say: ‘but perhaps you will say’ (though he meant them directly), but rather indefinitely points to some objector, so that by a direct, harsh indication he would not strike the guilty too hard. He presents two doubts: concerning the manner of the resurrection and concerning the quality of bodies, for those who objected doubted both and said: how will what has been destroyed be raised, and in what form will it appear? What does ‘with what kind of body’ mean? That is, in this very corrupted, destroyed body, or in some other?” (Saint Chrysostom).
d) By what power will the dead be raised? (1 Cor. 15:36–38)
The question of how the dead will be raised, that is, by what power, the Apostle answers by comparing resurrection with the regeneration that comes from seeds of plants, concluding from this: the dead will be raised by the power of God.
1 Cor. 15:36. Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.
“It is with such stern words that he addresses them because they ask not about something doubtful, but about what is known with certainty. Thus we too usually do with those who contradict something known with certainty. But why does he not immediately point to the power of God? Because he reasons with the unbelieving. When he speaks with believers, he does not resort to arguments. So elsewhere, having said: ‘He will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body,’ and having revealed here something greater than resurrection, he did not offer comparisons, but instead of any proof pointed directly to the power of God, adding: ‘according to the working by which He is able to subdue all things to Himself’ (Phil. 3:21). Here he uses arguments as well. Having proven truth by the words of Scripture, he now forcefully directs his speech against those who disbelieve Scripture and says: ‘Foolish one, what you sow’; that is, you yourself have within yourself proof of resurrection in what you do daily, and do you still doubt? I call you foolish because you do not know what is done daily by yourself, and whereas you yourself are the cause of the resurrection of seeds, you doubt it with regard to God. Very expressively he says: ‘what you sow,’ that is, you who are mortal and subject to decay. And see how his very expressions correspond to the present matter: ‘is not made alive,’ he says, ‘unless it dies.’ Instead of using expressions pertaining to seeds, such as: sprouts, grows, decays, disintegrates, he brings forth expressions corresponding to our flesh: ‘is not made alive, unless it dies,’ which is characteristic not of seeds, but of bodies. And he did not say: it will be made alive after it dies; but—what expresses more—it is made alive because it dies. Do you see how he reverses the objection? From what others drew a conclusion against resurrection, he turns it into proof of resurrection. They said that the body will not be raised because it died. But what does he say to the contrary? If it had not died, it would not be raised; therefore it will be raised because it dies. In like manner Christ Himself clearly shows the same thing when He says: ‘Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit’ (Jn. 12:24). Borrowing the comparison from here, Paul did not say: ‘will not live,’ but ‘is not made alive’ (ου ζωοποιειται, not quickened); he points again to the power of God and suggests that not earthly nature, but God Himself accomplishes all things” (Saint Chrysostom).
1 Cor. 15:37–38. And what you sow is not the body that will be, but a bore seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other kind; but God gives it a body as He has determined, and to each kind of seed its own body.
To the question of how the dead will be raised, the Apostle in the preceding verse answered: in the same way that from a seed cast into the earth and dead there is born and grows a living body of some kind. As from a dead seed, and under the condition of this death, a new body is born, so from the dead human body in its time a new living body will be born. But this comparison only clarifies the course of things, while how and by what power this is accomplished is not evident. This now the holy Paul indicates, saying: you sow a bore grain of wheat or some other kind, and when it dies in the earth, God then in His time gives it a body, each seed its own, so will the resurrection of the dead be accomplished: from each dead body by the power of God a new body will arise. By this the question of how is completely resolved. There might arise a doubt: but in the regeneration of plants from seed nature acts; how in the regeneration of the body will it act, when up to now it has shown no trace of such action? To this one must say that the word “nature” is an empty word. The will of God has established laws, the will of God wishes them to act; and they act and produce what God wishes them to produce. What is usually attributed to nature belongs to God. If now God acts in the regeneration of plants, on what basis can one doubt that He cannot act in the same way in the regeneration of dead human bodies? That He has not heretofore shown trials of this, no one can say; and that He does not show it for all bodies, it is because not all bodies have yet been sown and the spring in which they ought to be born again and rise to new life has not yet come. Saint Chrysostom responds to this objection, that nature acts in plants, as follows: “What nature, tell me? Here too God accomplishes all things, not nature, not earth, not rain. Therefore the Apostle, mentioning neither earth, nor rain, nor air, nor sun, nor the hands of the farmer, says: ‘God gives it a body.’ Do not then inquire or demand to know how and in what manner, when you hear that this is the work of the power and will of God.”
Saint Chrysostom further remarks that some heretics, not well understanding the meaning of the Apostle’s words: “what you sow is not the body that will be,” came to the conclusion that one body dies and another body will be raised, and began to teach thus. To them he says: what kind of resurrection would this be? This would be a new creation, not a resurrection, whereas the bodies will be raised. Here are his words: “But what kind of resurrection is this? Resurrection relates to what has died. And where is that wonderful and glorious victory over death, if one dies and another rises? Then it will not be seen that it returns what it held in its captivity. No; not another being is sown, but another grows, yet the same grows in a better form. Otherwise Christ too, being the firstfruits of those being raised, was not raised in the same body, but according to you He left one body (in the tomb), though it was without any sin, and took another (upon rising). Where did He get the other? That one from the Virgin, but this one where from? Do you see to what absurdities such an opinion leads? Also why did He show the wounds of the nails? Was it not to prove that this very body was nailed to the cross and this very body rose? And what does the type of Jonah mean? Without doubt, it was not one Jonah that was swallowed and another cast up on the land. And again, why does Christ say: ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’ (Jn. 2:19)? He certainly raised the very temple that was destroyed, which is why the Evangelist adds: ‘He was speaking of the temple of His body’ (1 Cor. 15:21). So then, what do the words mean: ‘what you sow is not the body that will be’? Not the whole ear and not new wheat. You sow a bore grain; from it after regeneration arises a new ear with new wheat. The question is, how does this ear relate to the grain sown? It is the same with it and not the same: the same because it has one nature with the grain; not the same because it is better: the substance remained the same, but greater beauty appeared, and it arose in a new form. So too the future body will be the same, but will appear in a more perfect form. The same is evident from the fact that ‘God gives each seed its own body.’ Where then is the different (other) body? He gives ‘its own.’ Therefore when the Apostle says: ‘what you sow is not the body that will be,’ he affirms not that instead of one another being will rise; the same will rise, but in a better, more glorious form.‘Theodoret conducts the same thought here:’Just as from wheat wheat is born, from lentils lentils, and from each kind the same kind, so too our bodies will rise the same ones, but with greater power, incorruption and immortality.”