1 Corinthians 15:35Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He did not say, "You say this," so that his speech would be more acceptable when he examined the words as though they belonged to other unbelievers. Two matters were in doubt. One concerned the manner of the resurrection: how will a body rise once it has been destroyed? The other concerned the body in which they will rise: in the present body, or in some other one? By the example of the grain he resolves both perplexities.

For they said: How do the dead rise, or how can they rise? And in what body will they come, since their body already lies in the earth, has decayed, and has been destroyed?

Then the Apostle sets forth the question posed by unbelievers and says: "But someone will say, How are the dead raised? And with what body do they come?" The question is twofold: it concerns both the manner of the resurrection and the future quality of the body. Then the Apostle explains both through what is most familiar to people, and he calls foolish the one who is unable to understand this.

The manner of the resurrection and the diversity of glory of the bodies that will rise (1 Cor 15:35-46).

1 Cor 15:35-43. To those who object against the possibility of the resurrection of bodies, the holy Apostle Paul points to the wondrous process of the sprouting and rising of seeds cast into the earth.

He explains the diversity of the glory of bodies after the resurrection by other comparisons.

Here earthly bodies and the bodies of different beings differ among themselves in their comparative dignity: humans, cattle, fish, and birds.

Likewise, the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars, are superior to earthly bodies. Further, the heavenly bodies themselves differ endlessly among themselves in radiance and brilliance.

Having removed every doubt concerning the indisputable truth of the resurrection, the Apostle Paul now reveals how and in what form the bodies of the dead will rise.

He says that the resurrection of the bodies of the dead will be accomplished by the power of God, like the way a new thing is born from seed sown in the earth.

Yet it is not a naked grain, but a living body clothed in what corresponds to its kind and species.

St. John Chrysostom, seeing in the Apostle's comparison a clear rebuke of the unbelievers, says, "See how his very expressions correspond to the present subject. He says, 'It is not made alive unless it dies.'

These are the usual questions concerning the resurrection of bodies, whether a believer seeks instruction or an unbeliever thinks to perplex a believer, supposing that there is nothing to answer to such questions.

The Apostle assumes a question from the latter.

"Here he refutes objections put forward by the pagans," and also adopted by Corinthian believers who had wavered in faith in the resurrection of bodies.

"He did not say, 'But perhaps you will say,' although he had them directly in mind. Rather, he points indefinitely to some objector, so that he would not strike the guilty too sharply by a direct, severe indication.