Chapter Fifteen

¹ Chapter Fifteen. Now I make known to you, brethren, the Gospel which I preached to you. He launches into the discourse concerning the resurrection, which is the chief point of our faith. For if there is no resurrection, neither has Christ been raised; and if he was not raised, neither was he made flesh; and thus our whole faith is gone. Since, then, this was thus impeded among the Corinthians (for the Greek-minded sages would have accepted anything rather than the resurrection), Paul contends concerning this. And wisely he reminds them of the things already believed by them. For I say nothing strange to you, he says, but the thing already made known to you, though it had escaped you; this I make known—that is, I call to remembrance. And by naming them brethren, at once he soothed them, and at once reminded them whence we have become brethren—both that it is from the incarnate presence of Christ that the faith is in danger of being disbelieved, and that it is from baptism, which is a figure of the burial and the resurrection of the Lord. And by saying “Gospel,” he reminded them of the ten thousand good things which we have enjoyed through the incarnate presence and the resurrection.

² Which also you received. He did not say, Which you heard, but, “Which you received.” For not by word only, but also through works and wonders did they receive it; and at the same time that he might persuade them to hold it fast as a deposit.

³ In which also you stand, through which also you are being saved. Although they were being shaken, nevertheless he says that they stand in this, willingly feigning ignorance, and forestalling them, that not even, if they should greatly wish it, might they be able to deny it. And what is the gain of standing in this? To be saved.

⁴ By what word I preached to you. He means something of this sort: Concerning the being of a resurrection, I make nothing known to you; for neither were you shaken in this. But this perhaps you need to learn—in what manner I preached to you that the resurrection comes to pass; and this too I make known to you, namely, concerning how the resurrection comes to pass.

⁵ If you hold it fast, unless you believed in vain. Since he said, “You stand,” that he might not make them more careless, he says, “If you hold it fast.” And you do assuredly hold it fast, “unless you believed in vain,” instead of, Unless, then, you are named Christians to no purpose. For the whole of Christianity lies in the doctrine of the resurrection.

⁶ For I delivered to you among the first things that which I also received. As being a great thing, the doctrine concerning the resurrection, I delivered it among the first things; for it is, as it were, the foundation of all the faith. And I too received it, from Christ, namely. As, then, I hold it fast, so ought you also to hold it fast; and as having received it among the first things, you are now not justified in doubting, not even on account of the time.

⁷ That Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures. These are manifestly the words of Christ speaking in Paul. For since the Manichaeans were going to say that Paul calls the sins “death,” and the deliverance from these “resurrection,” he was pleased that from these words they be convicted. For Christ died; what death? a bodily one, assuredly; for surely not the death in sins; For he did no sin. But if they should even be shameless, saying that he too died the death in sins; how does he say, “For our sins”? For if he too was a sinner, how did he die for our sins? But by saying also, “According to the Scriptures,” he most clearly puts them to shame. For everywhere the Scriptures testify to Christ this bodily death. They pierced my hands and my feet; and, They shall look on him whom they pierced; and, He was wounded for our sins; and, For the sins of my people he came to death.

⁸ And that he was buried. Therefore he had a body also; for that which is buried is a body. But he did not add, “According to the Scriptures,” either because the tomb was manifest to all, or because the “According to the Scriptures” lies in common.

⁹ And that he has been raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures. And where do the Scriptures say that “On the third day he has been raised”? Through the figure of Jonah; and before this, the figure of Isaac, who in three days was brought back safe and alive to his mother, and was not slaughtered, and through ten thousand other figures; and from the words, on the one hand, of Isaiah, The Lord wills to cleanse him from the stroke, to show him light; and, on the other, of David, You will not abandon my soul to Hades.

¹⁰ And that he appeared to Cephas. Among the first he sets the most worthy of all. And yet the Gospel says that he appeared first to Mary; but among men, he appeared first to Peter, as to the foremost of the disciples. For it was fitting that he who confessed first should also see the resurrection first; and because of his denial too he appears to him first, that he might show him that he was not cast off.

¹¹ Then to the twelve. And yet Matthias was brought in after the ascension of the Lord, in place of Judas; how then does he say, “Then to the twelve”? We say, then, that he saw him in the company of Matthias, and that after the ascension also he appeared; since to Paul too, called after the ascension, he appeared; wherefore he did not say the time, but reckoned the company. But some say that it is a scribal error; or that the Lord, knowing through a certain foreknowing perception that he would be numbered with the eleven, appeared to him too, that not even in this might he be less than the rest of the apostles. Something of this sort John too intimates, saying: But Thomas was not one of the twelve. For one would rather say that he ranked Matthias, according to the foreknowledge, with the rest of the apostles, than Judas, who had ended in betrayal and the noose.

¹² Then he appeared to above five hundred brethren at once. After the demonstration from the Scriptures, he brings forward witnesses also—both the apostles and other trustworthy men. The “Above,” some took as, From above, out of the heavens, they say; for above and over their heads he appeared to them, that he might confirm the ascension also. But some understood the “Above five hundred” as, to more than five hundred.

¹³ Of whom the greater part remain until now; but some have also fallen asleep. I have, he says, living witnesses. And by the word “have fallen asleep,” he laid down beforehand a beginning of the resurrection; for he who falls asleep also rises.

¹⁴ Then he appeared to James. To the brother of the Lord, he means, who was appointed by him first bishop of Jerusalem.

¹⁵ Then to all the apostles. For there were other apostles also, such as the seventy.

¹⁶ And last of all, as to the untimely birth, to me also. A word of humility; and wisely he uses humility, that when he says next, “I labored more than all,” he might not be disbelieved as a boaster. An “untimely birth” is properly the unformed embryo which the womb casts out. From the fact, then, that he says himself to be unworthy to be an apostle, and an outcast, he so named himself, as unformed in respect of the apostolic dignity. But some understood the “untimely birth” as the later offspring, because he too was the last of the apostles. Yet Paul is not lessened, because he saw the Lord last. For neither was James less than the other five hundred, because he saw the Lord last of them.

¹⁷ For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. He declares concerning himself; and he did not say, I am the least of the twelve only, but also of all the rest. And observe that through these things he makes mention of the sins from which he was freed through baptism, that he might show what God bestowed on him. But for what reason, while bringing himself forward as a witness of the resurrection of Christ, as having appeared to him too, does he recount his own faults? That he might be the more trustworthy. For he who with truth sets down his own disgraces would not vainly bestow a false favor on another.

¹⁸ But by the grace of God I am what I am. The faults he reckons to himself; but the right achievements he attributes to the grace of God.

¹⁹ And his grace which was toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all. And this too he has said with reserve; for he did not say, I did things worthy of the grace, but, The grace of God, he says, was not found vain in me. How? Because I labored more than all the apostles. And he did not say that I was endangered, but with restraint, under the name of labor, cutting short his own praise. And for the sake of appearing trustworthy, he says these things about himself. For the teacher must be trustworthy.

²⁰ Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. And the very laboring is of the grace of God, not my own achievement.

²¹ Whether, then, I or they, so we preach, and so you believed. Whether I labored more, or they, concerning the preaching at least we are all of one voice, he says. And he did not say, If you believe not me, be persuaded by them; for he would have cheapened himself; but he says both that he himself is sufficient by himself, and that they are sufficient by themselves. And by saying, “We preach,” he shows the truth of the things said. For we speak not in a corner, but openly; “And so you believed.” But he did not say, You now believe, because they were being shaken. And along with the others he calls also their own faith a witness of the truth. For you would not, he says, simply have believed lying words, unless you had been persuaded that the things preached were true.

²² But if Christ is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? Most excellently he reasons. For having first demonstrated that Christ has been raised, and that he is so preached by himself and by the apostles, from his rising he establishes the common resurrection also, as the rest of the body follows the head. But he does not make the accusation against all, that he might not make them more shameless; but, “Some,” he says, “say.”

²³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised. That they might not say, Christ indeed has been raised, but yet there will be no general resurrection; he establishes this, and says: “If there is no resurrection, neither has Christ been raised”; for each is establishing of the other. For on what account did he rise, if he was not going to be the firstfruits of us?

²⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, and your faith is also vain. For if, having died, he had not power to rise, neither has sin been taken away, nor has death been destroyed; and consequently, we preached vain things, and you too believed vain things.

²⁵ And we are found also false witnesses of God, because we testified concerning God that he raised Christ; whom he did not raise, if indeed the dead are not raised. Unholy, he says, are we found, because we slandered God, that he raised him. And this comes about, if indeed the dead are not raised. So that, since the consequence is absurd, neither is that to be believed—namely, that the dead are not raised.

²⁶ For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile. Again he contends by the same argument. For on this account he rose, that he might bring about a general resurrection. But if there is no resurrection, then neither did he himself rise. And this being granted, your faith is futile; which is absurd.

²⁷ You are still in your sins. For if he was not raised, neither did he die; and if he did not die, neither did he loose sin; for his death is the loosing of sin. For behold, he says, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And he called him “Lamb” assuredly because of the slaughter. But if sin has not been loosed, you are assuredly in it even now; how then did you believe that you were freed from it?

²⁸ Then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. That is, those who died for Christ and bore witness have perished, if there is no resurrection; and simply all those who have fallen asleep in the faith according to Christ, and in the strait and afflicted manner of life, have perished, deprived of the delights of the world, and not even going to enjoy any good thing thereafter, if indeed there will be no resurrection.

²⁹ If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all men most to be pitied. If, he says, our portion is as far as the life here, and we who have hoped in Christ are circumscribed by this alone, and there is no other life there; we are more wretched than all, as never having enjoyed the present things, as has been said above also, and not having the things to come, because neither shall we rise. But perhaps someone will say that the soul alone will enjoy them. And what of that? For not it alone labored, but the body also. Where, then, is the justice, that the body, which underwent the greater toil, passing into non-being, and not having enjoyed any good thing, the soul alone should be crowned?

³⁰ But now Christ has been raised from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. Having shown how many absurdities are born from the resurrection not being believed, he takes up the argument again, and says something of this sort, that These things indeed come about, if indeed there is no common resurrection, as though Christ too had not been raised. “But now Christ has been raised”; therefore there will be a common resurrection also, and these absurdities will not come about. And continually he adds the “From the dead,” stitching up the mouths of the Manichaeans. If he is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, these too must assuredly rise. For the firstfruits have those who follow also; as when, of many, one first begins what the rest also are going to do in succession.

³¹ For since by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. He adds the cause through which he confirms the things said. For it was fitting, he says, that the very nature which had been defeated should conquer, and that the one who had been cast down should himself prevail. For in Adam—that is, through the fall of Adam—all fell under death. So, then, in Christ all shall rise; that is, through Christ’s being found sinless and not liable to death, and having indeed to die, but to rise, inasmuch as it was not possible that the Author of life should be held fast by corruption. And all these things too are against the Manichaeans.

³² But each in his own order. That you may not, on hearing that “all shall be made alive,” suppose that the sinners too are saved, he added this. As far as concerns the rising, “all shall be made alive”; but “each” shall be “in his own order,” and among those of whom he is worthy.

³³ Christ the firstfruits, then those who are Christ’s at his coming; then the end. Christ became the firstfruits and the beginning of the resurrection; after him, then, his own—that is, the faithful and those who have been well-pleasing in him—shall rise first, at his coming from the heavens. For this is the meaning of “At his coming”; for the righteous must have a certain privilege in the very rising. For since they are going to be caught up into the air to meet the Lord, they are raised beforehand; whereas the sinners remain below for the Judge, as condemned. Then the end of all things, and of the resurrection itself, inasmuch as all are raised in common; for not as now, Christ alone having risen, the human affairs have remained in their place, so will it be then also; but all things shall receive their end.

³⁴ When he shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father. Scripture knows two kingdoms: the one according to appropriation, the other according to creation. For he reigns over all—both Greeks, and Jews, and the demons themselves, even against their will—according to the principle of creation; but he reigns over the faithful and the saints, who submit willingly, according to the principle of appropriation. Concerning this kingdom he speaks. Ask of me, and I will give you the nations; and, All authority has been given to me; this too he delivers up to the Father—that is, he sets it right, he perfects it; just as a king has entrusted to his son a war against rebellious nations, that he might administer it for him; when, then, the son has completed the war, having subdued the nations, he is then said to deliver up the war to the father—that is, to show forth the work entrusted to him accomplished. Paul says, then, that when the Son shall have subjected all things, then will be the end. For then will Christ reign over us perfectly, men being no longer divided between God and the ruler of the world; for, as it were, having taken out the kingdom plundered by a tyrant, he presents it free to the Father.

³⁵ When he shall have done away with all rule, and all authority and power. That is, when he shall have conquered and stopped the wicked powers. For now they work in many places, but then they shall cease.

³⁶ For he must reign, until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that is done away is death. Since he said that he is going to do away with the apostate powers, and to set up trophies, and it was likely that someone would doubt and say, Perhaps he will grow weak until he does all these things; he says that He will not grow weak, but “he must reign”—that is, must bear himself as a king and as one mighty—until he subjects the enemies, and last of all, death. For he who has subjected the devil, plainly will subject also his work, death. And how would it appear that death has been subjected, unless it vomit forth the bodies which it held? For then is it properly defeated, when the spoils too are plundered. Do not, then, he says, on hearing that he will do away with all rule and authority, fear that he will grow weak. For he will do all things, and will carry through and wage the war, until he subjects all. You see that the “Until” is not for the doing away of the “After these things,” but for the cause stated? For his kingdom, he says, prevails, and does not grow weak, until he sets all things right. But after he has set them right, much more does it prevail; For of his kingdom there shall be no end. But Gregory the Theologian says that “to reign” is here said to mean, to work the subjection, and to set us under his own kingdom; whence also, after we have been subjected to him, such a kingdom ceases—that is, the zeal and working toward our being reigned over by him. For just as the builder builds until he sets the roof in place, but after this rests from this work of building; so also the Son reigns—that is, works his reign over us—until we are brought under his reign.

³⁷ For he has put all things under his feet. But when he says that all things have been put under, it is clear that he is excepted who put all things under him. Since he had said concerning the Son that he will do away with the enemies, and work a trophy, he feared lest the Son be thought to be some other unbegotten principle. He refers all things, then, to the Father, saying that he subjected the enemies to the Son. And since he was writing to Greeks, who hold that Zeus rose up against his father Cronus, and stripped him of the kingdom, he feared lest they suspect something of this sort concerning the Son, as though he had risen up against the Father; and he says that All things have been subjected to the Son, except the Father; for it was rather he who subjected all the other things also to the Son.

³⁸ But when all things have been subjected to him, then shall the Son himself also be subjected to him who subjected all things to him. That no one may say, that Even if the Father is not subjected to the Son, nothing hinders the Son from being mightier than he; this suspicion he removes out of abundance of caution, and says that the Son too shall be subjected to the Father, showing the great concord of the Son with the Father. So that you may know that the Father is the cause and fountain of this power to the Son, and that the Son is not some other power without beginning, apart from the Father. But if he used a more lowly expression than was needful, do not wonder; for it is Paul’s custom, when he is about to pluck up something by the roots, to use much abundance of emphasis; for instance, being about to show that the believing wife is not harmed by living with the unbelieving husband, he said that The unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife; not saying this, that the husband, being an unbeliever, becomes holy, but by the hyperbole of the expression showing that the believing wife is in no way harmed. So here also, by the name of subjection, he plucks up by the roots the wicked suspicion which someone might have suspected, that the Son is perhaps mightier than the Father, as being able to set right so many things. But Gregory the Theologian says that the Son, appropriating all our things to himself, deems our subjection also his own. Now, then, we are in faction against God: the unbelievers, denying him; the faithful, many being enslaved to the passions, in this respect are insubordinate. But when the one sort shall have come to know him whom they now deny, and the other sort shall be transformed from the passions in this life, then assuredly it comes about that the Son is subjected; for, putting on the person of humanity, he makes our things his own.

³⁹ That God may be all in all. That is, that all things may be dependent on the Father, that no one may suspect two principles without beginning and severed from each other. For when the enemies are under the feet of the Son, and the Son is not in faction against the Father, but, as befits a Son, is subjected to God the Father; then assuredly God and Father will be all things in all. But some say that the doing away of wickedness is signified through these things, as all things being subjected; for when sin is no more, it is evident that God will be all things in all, when we are no longer many in the motions and the passions, bearing nothing at all of God, or little, in ourselves, but being wholly God-formed, wholly able to contain God and him alone. For God will be all things to us—both food, and drink, and clothing, and thought, and motion.

⁴⁰ Else what shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead are not raised at all? why are they then baptized for the dead? The Marcionite heretics, whenever someone among them dies unbaptized, hiding a living person under the bed of the deceased, approach the bed and ask the dead man whether he wishes to be baptized; and the one hidden underneath answers that he wishes; and so they baptize him in place of the departed. Then, being accused for this, they make their defense, that the Apostle said this, and these madmen bring forward this saying. But it is not so; rather, how? All who are about to be baptized recite the symbol of the faith, in which is set down, among the rest, this also which is confessed: I believe in the resurrection of the dead. He says, then, that Those who have believed that there will be a resurrection of dead bodies, and have been baptized upon such articles of faith, what will they do, having been deceived? and why at all are men baptized for resurrection—that is, in expectation of resurrection—if the dead are not raised?

⁴¹ [Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?] If you do not believe, for the demonstration of the resurrection, the confession through words which those being baptized make, believe also the voice given through deeds. We, all the apostles, are ever in dangers; and if there were no resurrection, for what reason were we endangered? that we might enjoy what? For if someone should choose to be endangered through vainglory, he would do this once or twice; but the doing it every hour, as we do, is the greatest demonstration of being fully assured concerning the resurrection.[1]

⁴² I die daily, by your boasting, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord. Having said, “We are endangered,” he showed the dangers; or rather, something greater—daily deaths. How did he die daily? By his readiness, and by being prepared for this, and by suffering such things as brought death. By your boasting—that is, By your progress, in which I boast. For the progress of the disciples is a boast to the teacher. Then, attributing this to Christ, he says: Which I have in Christ Jesus; for it is his work, not mine. And most wisely he reminds them, that Just as I boast when you are progressing, so I shall be put to shame, if to the end you are so wretched as to disbelieve the resurrection.

⁴³ If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what is my profit? As if to say, What of my having fought with beasts among men? for what is it, if God snatched me from the dangers? what, then, is my profit, if there is no resurrection? And he calls “fighting with beasts” the battle against the Jews and Demetrius the silversmith. For in what did these differ from beasts?

⁴⁴ If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we die. If the dead are not raised, and there will be no enjoyment there, let us then enjoy the good things in this life, eating and drinking; for these we shall gain. And this saying he brought forward from Isaiah, making comedy of the folly of those who deny the resurrection.

⁴⁵ Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good characters. He turns the discourse to exhortation; and quietly he accuses them as senseless and light; for this he indicates through the “Be not deceived.” And he calls “good characters” the easily-deceived; he indicates, however, that others also drag them down into such things.

⁴⁶ Awake to soberness righteously, and sin not; for some have ignorance of God. As over those who are drunk [is] the Awake to soberness; and the Righteously, as it were, profitably. For it is possible also to be sober unrighteously—for instance, to evil. And sin not, he says; for from this also you disbelieve the resurrection. For those conscious of evils in themselves are not persuaded that there is a resurrection, where there are many punishments. And they have ignorance of God, those who disbelieve the resurrection. For they know not the power of God. And he did not say, You have, but, They have, making the charge lighter.

⁴⁷ I speak to your shame. Since he had laid hold of them sufficiently, he comforts them, saying that These things I said to you, not as an enemy reproaching, but in order to shame you, so as to lead you back to correction, ashamed, and minded as is fitting.

⁴⁸ But someone will say: How are the dead raised? with what body do they come? He did not say, You say, that thus the discourse might become inoffensive, as being examined in [the persons of] others who disbelieve. And two things are doubted: both the manner of the resurrection—how the body once dissolved is raised; and with what body it rises, this one or some other. And through the example of the grain he resolves the two.

⁴⁹ Fool, that which you sow is not made alive, unless it die. From something manifest, and done by them every day, he makes the resolution; wherefore he calls them fools, as ignorant of things so clear. You, he says, that which you sow—you, the corruptible, how do you doubt concerning God? And he said, It is not made alive, unless it die, using expressions proper not to seeds, but to bodies. For he did not say that it does not sprout at all, unless it be dissolved, but, It is not made alive, unless it die. And see how he turned the argument into the contrary; for to them it seemed a dreadful thing, how after death we are raised; but he says the contrary, that on this account we are raised, because we die, as it not being possible to be made alive otherwise, unless there were death.

⁵⁰ And that which you sow, you sow not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may be of wheat, or of some of the rest. Having said that two things are doubted—both how the dead are raised, and with what body—how they are raised he resolved, namely, that it is through dying, just like a grain; and now, interpreting also with what body they are raised, he resolves the other difficulty too, and says that the same body is raised, that is, of the same substance, but more splendid and more comely. But the heretics say that it is not the same that is raised. For this, they say, the Apostle indicates by saying, Not that which shall be. But the Apostle does not say this; rather, what? You do not sow such as it will be—splendid, namely, and comely—but a bare grain; yet the ear grows up more seemly. Neither is it altogether the same, because the ear was not sown with the stalk, namely, and the awns, but a bare grain; nor altogether other, because the ear is not from another grain, but from that bare one.

⁵¹ But God gives it a body, as he willed. If, then, God gives a body, why do you still busy yourself overmuch with what body we are raised, and disbelieve the resurrection, hearing of God’s power and will? For God raises the body that was dissolved, only more seemly and more spiritual. For this too may be found in the case of the seeds, that what springs up comes up more seemly than what was cast in.

⁵² And to each of the seeds its own body. This irrefutably stops the mouths of the heretics who say that the same body is not raised in the resurrection, but another. For behold, you hear that its own body is given to each.

⁵³ Not all flesh is the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another flesh of birds, another of fish. That you may not, on hearing about the wheat, suppose that, as in its case all the ears come up of equal honor, so also in the resurrection all will be of equal honor; he wishes to show that there is a difference among those who rise (which he touched on earlier also, saying, Each in his own order), and he says that “Not all flesh is the same flesh”; that is, Not all rise in the same honor, but they have a difference—first, the righteous as compared with the sinners, such as the heavenly bodies have toward the earthly; then, even among the righteous themselves, a great difference of degrees, as he will say further on; and among the sinners themselves also. For just as, he says, there is a difference between the flesh of men, and that of beasts, and of the rest of living things; so also among the sinners there will be a difference in the punishments. All, then, that has been said by him here is said concerning the difference of sinners. For concerning the righteous he speaks further on, when he enumerates heavenly bodies.

⁵⁴ There are also heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly is one, and that of the earthly another. Here, as I said above, he indicates the difference of the righteous as compared with the sinners; calling the former heavenly bodies, but the latter, the sinners, earthly; and the glory of the righteous is one, and that of the sinners another—no longer “glory” (for we must not supply this), but their condition of life.

⁵⁵ There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory. As a little before he spoke of the differences of the bodies of sinners, beginning from men, and next making mention of birds, and beasts, and fish—because the sinners too, having become men in the beginning, then were carried down to the likeness of the irrational—so too he shows the great difference of the righteous. For all indeed are in glory; but the light of the sun is one, and that of the moon another, and so on down to whatever there is. For stars too differ from stars in glory, that is, in light; for the glory of the stars is their light. But some understood “heavenly bodies” as the angels—not aptly, I think; and this is clear from his adducing the sun, and the moon, and the stars. So that the discourse is concerning these.

⁵⁶ So also is the resurrection of the dead. So—how? In great difference, as the examples written above also showed.

⁵⁷ It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. Above, speaking about seeds, he used expressions proper to bodies; as when he said, “It is not made alive, unless it die”; now, speaking about bodies, he uses expressions proper to seeds; “For it is sown,” he says, “in corruption.” And he calls “sowing” now, not the sowing in the womb, but the laying away of the dead bodies in the earth, as if he said: The dead body is laid away in the earth in corruption, that is, so as to rot. And well did he say, “It is raised,” and not, “It rises up,” that you might not suppose the work to be the earth’s.

⁵⁸ It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. For what is more dishonorable than a corpse? but in the glory of incorruption it is raised, even if not all enjoy the same honor.

⁵⁹ It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. For not yet are there five days, and the flesh has not strength to hold out against corruption; but it is raised in the power of incorruption, being henceforth proof against all corruption, even if the incorruption is for the sinners rather to greater punishment.

⁶⁰ It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. A “natural body” is that governed by the natural powers, and in which the soul has the authority and the leadership; but a “spiritual” body, that which is enriched with the working of the Holy Spirit, and governed in all things by him. For even if now the Spirit works in us, yet not so, nor always; for it flies away from those who sin. And, the Spirit being present, the soul governs the body; but then the Spirit abides perpetually in the bodies of the righteous. Or by “spiritual” he simply means the incorruptible, as being finer and lighter, such as even to be borne upon the air; only not as Origen says, airy and ethereal—that is, from the substance of the air and the ether. But if you disbelieve the incorruption, look at the heavenly bodies, which for so long are unaging and unwearied; for he who made these such, will also make incorruptible our corruptible things.

⁶¹ There is a natural body, which we now have in the present life.

⁶² And there is a spiritual body, which we are going to have in the age to come, being the same indeed, but refined—that is, incorruptible.

⁶³ So also it is written: The first man Adam became a living soul; the last Adam a life-giving Spirit. And indeed the one is written, but the other was not afterward written; rather, from the sequence of the matters he says that the outcome was written, just as the prophet too said that Jerusalem would be called a city of righteousness, and it was not expressly so called; and the Gospel that the Lord [would be called] Emmanuel, and he was not himself so called, but the events let go this utterance. The first Adam, then, was a natural man, that is, he had a body governed by natural powers; “but the last Adam,” the Lord, “a life-giving Spirit.” He did not say, A living spirit, but, “Life-giving,” saying the greater thing. For the Lord had the Holy Spirit essentially conjoined to him, through whom he both made alive his own flesh, and through it bestowed on us incorruption. So that of this corruptible life we have the pledges in the first Adam; but of the life to come, in Christ.

⁶⁴ But not first the spiritual, but the natural, then the spiritual. That no one may say, Why do we now have the natural and worse body, but the spiritual is to come? he says that the beginnings of each were thus ordained also. And Adam was first, but Christ later. So that our things ever advance toward the better; and believe that the things now in you, corruptible and worse, shall be transformed into the incorruptible and better.

⁶⁵ The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man, the Lord, is from heaven. That they might not be careless of the best life, he is henceforth going to exhort concerning a God-pleasing manner of life, and he says that “Adam was from the earth”; for this very reason he was so named too; for “Adam” signifies earthy and of dust. “But the second man, the Lord,” was “from heaven.” And the one he names from the worse, the second from the better; not that the man—that is, the human nature assumed—was from heaven, as the foolish Apollinarius raved; but because, there being one person of the one Christ, the man too is said to be from heaven on account of the union, and God to be crucified, for the same cause.

⁶⁶ As is the earthy, such also are the earthy. That is, so they will perish and come to their end; or, that those nailed to the earth will die the death of sin.

⁶⁷ And as is the heavenly, such also are the heavenly. That is, so they will remain immortal and shining. For even if the second Adam died, yet it was that he might destroy death; or, that so they too will be glorified who have lived in God-like fashion, as minding the things of heaven.

⁶⁸ And as we have borne the image of the earthy, here he more nakedly reveals the hortatory form of the discourse. By “image of the earthy” he means the base deeds; by “image of the heavenly,” the good. As, then, we have lived through in wickedness as sons of the earthy, and minding the things of the earth; so let us also live henceforth in virtue, as keeping the image and the imitation of the heavenly. And an image of the earthy is also the, You are earth, and to earth you shall return; but an image of the heavenly is the resurrection from the dead and incorruption. So that, if these be among the things said concerning resurrection, we must not understand them as concerning the manner of life; and the We shall bear the image of the heavenly we must understand or write not as said by way of counsel, but as indicative of a coming fact—that is, that we are going to bear it.

⁶⁹ But this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Since he said, “Image of the earthy,” as if interpreting it, he says that flesh and blood are the image of the earthy; that is, the fleshly deeds, and those proper to the grossness of the body, which “cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”

⁷⁰ Neither does corruption inherit incorruption. That is, wickedness, which corrupts the nobility of the soul, cannot inherit that glory and the incorruptible good things. But you may take all these things not as said about the manner of life, but as about resurrection; for instance, the Flesh and blood; as meaning that A body such as this, composed of flesh and blood, will not in the age to come enjoy the kingdom. For there is no eating and drinking there, by which a body of this kind is assuredly nourished. Neither corruption—that is, the corruptible body—shall inherit the incorruptible things; so that of necessity our body shall be spiritual and incorruptible. Know, however, that Chrysostom received these things as said by the Apostle by way of exhortation, concerning the best life.

⁷¹ Behold, I tell you a mystery. Again he comes back to the discourse concerning the resurrection, and says that he is going to tell them something secret and unspeakable. And through this he shows also the great honor toward them, as telling them the secret things.

⁷² We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. Not all, he says, will die, but all assuredly shall be changed, even those who do not die—that is, they shall pass into incorruption. Do not, then, because you die, fear that you will not rise. For behold, I tell you that some will not die, and yet this does not suffice them for that kingdom, unless they be changed, and so come into immortality from this mortality of the bodies they bear. As, then, the not dying does not profit those, so neither will the dying harm us. For to them too the change is a death; for in them corruption dies, being changed into incorruption.

⁷³ In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. In an instant and indivisible time, and as much as the closing of an eyelid, such great things shall come to pass; and it is full of wonder. For not only that things rotted shall rise, nor that each shall receive his own body, must one wonder at; but that it shall be so swiftly as cannot even be told. But some understood the “At the last trumpet” thus, as from the Apocalypse of John the Evangelist. For there being seven trumpets, he says, the first ones bring about the consummation of men (for not all are consummated together, but in part); and this by a dispensation of God, he says, that those who are left, seeing the first ones perishing, may themselves repent; but the last trumpet brings about the rising and the change of those already risen, “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.”

⁷⁴ For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. That no one may disbelieve how such great things come to pass in the twinkling of an eye, he shows the trustworthiness of the saying from the power of God who does these things, and says that “The trumpet shall sound, and they shall come to be”; like the, He spoke, and they came to be. For the trumpet signifies nothing else than the command and the nod of God, which reaches through all things.

⁷⁵ And we shall be changed. He does not say this concerning himself, but concerning those who are found living at that time.

⁷⁶ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. That no one, on hearing that “Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God,” and again, that “The dead shall rise incorruptible,” might suppose that the bodies do not rise, because they are now composed of flesh and blood, he adds, that the bodies do rise, but not as being flesh and blood, but transformed into incorruption. And note these expressions against those who say that not the same bodies are raised, but others. For “This corruptible,” he says, “and this mortal,” not another, but this, demonstratively. So that the body itself remains the same (for it is itself that which is clothed); but the mortality and the corruptibility vanish, incorruption and immortality encompassing it. And mortality and corruption differ in this, that mortality is said only of things ensouled, but corruption of things soulless too. There are, then, in us certain things resembling soulless things—for instance, hairs, nails; and these too shall put on incorruption.

⁷⁷ When, then, this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the word that is written: Death was swallowed up in victory. When these things come to pass, then is fulfilled the Scripture of Hosea. For since he said paradoxical things, he confirms them by a scriptural testimony. And the “In victory”—that is, to an end; so that, being utterly conquered, it is put away, and has not even visibly any strength henceforth.

⁷⁸ O death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? As if seeing the things already come to pass, he is filled with divine ardor, and shouts the victory-song, and raises the war-cry, as if treading upon death lying prostrate, and trampling him down. And you may find a certain difference between Hades and death, in that Hades holds the souls, but death the bodies; for the souls are immortal.

⁷⁹ But the sting of death is sin. For through it death had strength, using this as a kind of weapon and sting. For just as the scorpion is itself some small creature, but has its strength in its sting; so also death had strength through sin, being otherwise without effect. And the case of the Lord shows it too; for in him also, finding no sin, it remained without effect.

⁸⁰ And the power of sin is the law. How? Because, the law not being, sinning in ignorance, we were not so condemned; but the law, having made it manifest, condemned us the more, as sinning in knowledge; and it made it strong—not by reason of its own nature, but by reason of our carelessness, who did not use well the medicine given; as has been said also in the [Epistle] to the Romans more broadly and at greater length. Do not, then, O man, doubt concerning the resurrection, seeing that sin too, which was the weapon of death, has been done away; and the law, which by its effect was the power of sin, has been abolished. For it is manifest that death, being disarmed, has no longer any strength.

⁸¹ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The contest is the Lord Jesus’, but to us the victory is given; not in recompense, nor according to debt, but according to the grace and loving-kindness of God and Father, who made us to conquer through the contest of his Son.

⁸² Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Since you have come to know, he says, that there will be a resurrection, and a recompense of good and bad, be steadfast. For they were being shaken in the discourses concerning the resurrection. And since they were careless also of a good life, as though there were no resurrection thence, he says: “Abounding in the work of the Lord always”; not only working it, but doing it out of abundance. And the “work of the Lord”—that is, what the Lord loves, and what he requires of us—is virtue.

⁸³ Knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. That is, hoping that there will be a resurrection, and that whatever you labor, you shall not lose. For formerly you were careless of virtue, as not believing there to be a resurrection, and on this account not willing to labor in vain; but now you know that, if you labor anything, it will not be in vain. And the “In the Lord” means either that Your labor which is in the Lord—that is, which has also the help from above, as being done upon God-pleasing works; or that With the Lord the labor shall not be made vain, but you shall receive from him the recompenses.