The apostle, in this chapter, recommends the Gospel, and gives a summary of it, proves the resurrection of Christ, and by various arguments establishes the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and answers objections made unto it.

Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel The apostle here passes on, and proceeds to a new subject, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, which some in this church denied; and which he undertakes to prove, establish, and defend; and in order to lead on to it, observes, that what he…

By which also ye are saved It was the means of their salvation, and had been made the power of God unto salvation to them. Salvation is inseparably connected with true faith in Christ as a Saviour, and with a hearty belief of his resurrection from the dead, which is the earnest and pledge of the…

For I delivered unto you first of all Not only in the first place as to order; but among the chief and principal things, as the words will bear to be rendered, this was insisted on in his ministry; this was one he after relates, even a crucified Christ, or the doctrine of his dying for the sins of…

And that he was buried That is, according to the Scriptures; for as he died and rose again according to the Scriptures, he was buried according to them; which speak of his being in hell, in “sheol”, in the grave, and of his making his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, and which…

And that he was seen of Cephas Or Simon Peter; for Cephas was a name given him by Christ, . This was not another Cephas, one of the seventy disciples, as Clemens suggests [[6]], but the Apostle Peter himself, to whom it is certain the Lord appeared.

After that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once Not at, or near Jerusalem, for the number of the disciples that were together there, made but about an hundred and twenty, but in Galilee, where Christ, in the days of his flesh, had most chiefly conversed, most frequently preached and…

After that he was seen of James Not James the son of Zebedee, and brother of John, though he was seen by him with other disciples, (John 21:1, John 21:2) who was now dead when the apostle wrote this, having been killed by Herod many years ago, and so not quite so proper a witness to be mentioned;…

And last of all he was seen of me also Either when the apostle was caught up into the third heaven; or when he was in a trance in the temple at Jerusalem; or rather at the time of his conversion, when he not only heard the voice of Christ, but saw him in the human nature; for he expressly says,…

For I am the least of the apostles Referring not to the littleness of his stature, but to the figure before used, and as expressing not the opinion of others concerning him, but the true and real sense he had of himself, for which he himself gives the strongest reason that can be given; and by…

But by the grace of God I am what I am As he was what he was by the grace of God in a private capacity, upon a level with other Christians, being a chosen vessel of salvation, not by works, nor on account of faith, or any holiness of his, but by grace; being regenerated, called, sanctified,…

Therefore whether it were I or they By whom Christ was seen first or last, we were all eyewitnesses of him; or whether I am the least, and others the chief of the apostles; or whether I have laboured more abundantly than they all, this matters not: so we preach; we agree in our ministry to preach…

Now if Christ be preached that he arose from the dead As he was by the Apostle Paul, when at Corinth, and by all the rest of the apostles elsewhere. How say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? Who these were is not certain, whether Hymenaeus and Philetus, whose notion this…

But if there be no resurrection of the dead If there is no such thing as a resurrection of any, if the thing is not possible, if it never has been, is, or will be true in fact: then is Christ not risen.

And if Christ be not risen If this is a truth, and must be taken as granted, as it must be, if there is no resurrection at all: then is our preaching vain; false, empty, delusory, unprofitable, and useless; not only that part of it which more especially concerns the resurrection of Christ, but even…

Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God The apostles were chosen to be witnesses of the resurrection of Christ; he appeared to them, and was seen by them for this purpose; and they were sent into all the world, to bear their testimony to this truth, which they accordingly did: now if Christ is…

For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. ] This is a repetition of the argument in made partly to show the importance of it, and partly to observe other absurdities, following upon the conclusion of it.

And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain As before in not only the doctrine of faith, but the grace of faith in Christ; even that faith, which is the faith of God’s elect; the pure gift of his grace, and the operation of his power; which Christ is the object, author, and finisher of; and…

Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ That is, who are dead, and have died in Christ: death is often represented by a sleep, and that more than once in this chapter; and doubtless with a view to the resurrection, which will be an awaking out of it, since it will not be perpetual: some…

If in this life only we have hope in Christ The object of a believer’s hope is not any creature, man, or angel; nor any creature enjoyment, as gold and silver; nor any creature righteousness, moral, legal, and civil; nor any external privilege, or profession of religion; but Christ alone as a…

But now is Christ risen from the dead As was before proved by ocular testimonies, and before preached and asserted; and now reassumed and concluded, from the glaring contradictions, and dreadful absurdities that follow the denial of it: and became the firstfruits of them that slept; who were…

For since by man came death The first man, by sin, was the cause of death; of its coming into the world, and upon all men, by which corporeal death is here meant; though the first man also by sin brought a moral death, or a death in sin on all his posterity; and rendered them liable to an eternal…

For as in Adam all die The apostle here shows who he meant in the former verse, by the one man the cause of death, and by the other the author of the resurrection of the dead, and that he intended Adam and Christ; all men were in Adam seminally, as the common parent of human nature, in such sense…

But every man in his own order Not of time, as if the saints that lived in the first age of the world should rise first, and then those of the next, and so on to the end of the world; nor of dignity, as that martyrs should rise first in the order of martyrs, and preachers of the word in the order…

Then cometh the end Or “after that the end”, the end of all things; either at the close of the thousand years, when the wicked dead will be raised last, and the final state of all men will openly take place; the end of the righteous will be peace and everlasting joy, and an uninterrupted communion…

For he must reign That is, Christ must reign; he is set as King over God’s holy hill of Zion; he is King of saints; he is made and declared to be both Lord and Christ; he is exalted at the right hand of God as a Prince, where he sits and rules and reigns; and his sitting at God’s right hand is here…

The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. ] Not eternal death; for though that is abolished by Christ with respect to his own people, who shall never be hurt by it, and over whom it shall have no power; yet the wicked will always be subject to it, and under the dominion of it: but a…

For he hath put all things under his feet This is a reason proving that all enemies, and death itself, shall be put under the feet of Christ, and is taken out of which is spoken of one that is styled man, and the son of man; and is to be understood not of Adam in a state of innocence; for the word…

And when all things shall be subdued unto him For all things as yet are not put under him in fact; though in right God the Father has given to him an authoritative power over all things, and a right to dispose of them at his pleasure; but all things are not actually and in their full extent subject…

Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, &c.] The apostle here returns to his subject, and makes use of new arguments to prove the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, and reasons for it from the baptism of some persons; but what is his sense, is not easy to be understood, or…

And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? ] Not only they that have suffered martyrdom for the faith of Christ, and for this article of it, have acted very injudiciously and indiscreetly; but we, also, who are on the spot, whether ministers or private Christians, must be highly blameworthy, who…

I protest by your rejoicing Some copies read, “our rejoicing”; and so the Ethiopic version, which seems most natural and easy; since it follows, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord; who in him could rejoice and glory in afflictions and sufferings, which he endured as a preacher of the Gospel for…

If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus This is one of the particulars of the jeopardy and danger of life he had been in: some understand this in a figurative sense, and think that by “beasts” are meant Satan, the roaring lion, and his principalities and powers; or men of…

Be not deceived By such as deny the doctrine of the resurrection, and by their reasonings about it; or by such libertines who go into the denial of it, and argue from thence in favour of their licentious course of life: evil communications corrupt good manners.

Awake to righteousness, and sin not The apostle represents the Corinthians as inebriated with bad principles and notions, and as fallen asleep, and as greatly remiss, and declined in the exercise of grace and discharge of duty; and therefore calls upon them to awake out of sleep, to watch and be…

But some man will say Or “some one of you”, as the Syriac and Arabic versions read; for there were some among them members of this church, that denied the resurrection of the dead, a weak believer indeed may be designed, one of the babes in Christ in this church, that could not digest such strong…

Thou fool Not transgressing the law of Christ, which makes him that calls his brother a fool in danger of hell fire; for the apostle said not this in anger, and from a malevolent disposition, as that rule supposes, but out of zeal for truth, and to reprove the stupidity and folly of such a bold…

And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be The sower, for instance, does not take a stalk of wheat in its blade, and ear, and full corn in the ear, encompassed with the husk, and sow it in the earth, which is the body or form in which it appears when it rises up again, and…

But God giveth it a body, as it hath pleased him It is not the husbandman, nor the sun, nor the rain, that give the grain of wheat, or any other, its verdure and beauty, the form in which it springs up, its stalk, blade, and ear, but God by his own power, and of his sovereign will and pleasure; and…

All flesh is not the same flesh Or “equal”, as the Syriac version renders it; though all flesh is flesh, as to the nature and substance of it; agrees in its original, being by generation; and is supported by food, and is alike frail and mortal; all flesh is grass, rises out of it, or is maintained…

There are also celestial bodies Or bodies in the heavens, as the sun, moon, and stars: and bodies terrestrial; or bodies on earth, animate and inanimate, men, beasts, trees, minerals But the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another: though both sorts are bodies,…

There is one glory of the sun Which is the greater light, the fountain of light, and whose glory exceeds that of the other heavenly bodies: and another glory of the moon; which is the lesser light, and receives its light from the sun, and consequently its glory is inferior: and another glory of the…

So also is the resurrection of the dead This will be the case and condition of risen bodies, they will be as different from what they now are, though they will be the same in substance, as a stalk of wheat in its blade and ear, and full corn in the ear, is from the naked grain, when cast into the…

It is sown in dishonour Its original is dishonourable, it comes, as the Jews often say [[21]], (מטפה סרוהה) , “from a filthy drop”; its generated brought forth in a manner we are ashamed of; it is conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity; it is unclean, and born of the flesh: and when born, is in…

It is sown a natural body Or an animal one, being generated as animals are, and supported with food as they be, and die at last as they do: see . It is raised a spiritual body; not as to substance, but as to its quality; it will not be changed into a spirit; our Lord’s risen body, to which ours…

And so it is written In the first man Adam was made a living soul: in the Hebrew text it is, man, or Adam, became, or was made a living soul; that is, as the apostle says, “the first man Adam”: he calls him, as the Jews [[0]] frequently do, (אדם הראשון) , “the first man”; he was the first man that…

Howbeit, that was not first which is spiritual As the apostle before proves the distinction of a natural and spiritual body, and gives instances of both in the two principal men in the world, the first and the last; and points out the difference between them, the one being animated, and having life…

The first man is of the earth, earthy He was formed out of the earth, and the word there used signifies red earth. Josephus [[2]] observes, that the first man was called Adam, which in the Hebrew tongue signifies red, because he was made out of red earth; for such, adds he, is the true and virgin…

As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy As was Adam’s body, so are the bodies of those that descend from him; they are houses of clay, earthly houses of this tabernacle, which rise out of the earth, are maintained by the things of it, and return to it again: and as is the heavenly,…

And as we have borne the image of the earthy Which regards not so much the sinful image of the first man upon the soul, or the depravity of the powers and faculties of it, as his image of frailty and mortality on the body, having like him a body subject to infirmities and death: we shall also bear…

Now this I say, brethren Upon the whole, I assert this, and observe it to you, out of a truly Christian respect for you, as brethren in the Lord, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God: this shows the necessity there is of a difference between the body that now is, and that which…

Behold, I show you a mystery Or a secret, which could never have been discovered by reason, or the light of nature, and what is of pure revelation; and which perhaps the apostle became acquainted with, when he was caught up into the third heaven; and is what is never made mention of by any prophet,…

In a moment Or point of time, which is very short indeed; what a moment is, according to the Jewish doctors, (See Gill on Matt. 4:8). In the twinkling of an eye; these two the Jews not only put together as here, but make one to be as the other; so they say [[9]], (כהרף עין) (הרגע) , “a moment is as…

For this corruptible must put on incorruption The apostle returns to what he had before asserted, concerning the necessity of an alteration in the qualities of bodies, in order to the enjoyment of the heavenly state; showing, that the selfsame body the saints now have, for he seems to point with…

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, &c.] As at the coming of Christ, both the bodies of living saints, and of dead ones being raised, will: and this mortal shall have put on immortality; which will be the case, in the resurrection morn: then shall be brought to pass that saying…

O death, where is thy sting? &c.] These words, with the following clause, are taken out of and that they belong to the times of the Messiah, the ancient Jews acknowledge; and the Chaldee paraphrase interprets them of the Logos, or Word of God, rendering them thus, “my Word shall be among them to…

The sting of death is sin Death has a sting, and which was originally in it, and that is sin; sin is the cause of death, it is what has given rise and being to it; it entered into the world by it, and is supported in its empire through it; it gives it its resistless power, which reaches to all…

But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory Over sin the sting of death, over the law the strength of sin, and over death and the grave; and which will be the ground and foundation of the above triumphant song in the resurrection morn, as it is now at this present time of praise and…

Therefore my beloved brethren This is the conclusion of the whole, and contains the use the apostle makes of the above doctrine, addressing the saints at Corinth in the most tender and affectionate manner; owning the spiritual relation they stood in to him, and expressing the great love he had for…