1 Corinthians 15:36Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He takes the solution from what is evident and happens among them every day. Therefore he calls them senseless, because they do not know such an obvious matter.

What you sow, he says, you who are corruptible: how then do you doubt concerning God?

"It is not made alive" (ou zoopoieitai), he says, "unless it dies." He used words that belong not to seeds, but to bodies. For he did not say, "Otherwise it will not grow unless it is dissolved," but, "It is not made alive unless it dies."

See how he gave the discourse a contrary form. It seemed incomprehensible to them how we will rise after death. But he says, on the contrary, that for this very reason we shall rise: because we die.

For otherwise we could not be made alive, if there were no death.

One should not doubt what is more in accordance with nature than against it. It is according to nature that everything born should rise again. It is against nature that it should perish.

Look at seeds, and see that furrows are like graves. Seeds are buried in them like bodies, and then they bring forth a sprout and shoot. "You do not sow the body that shall be," that is, not the ear of grain, but "a bare grain," whether "of wheat or of some other grain." The Apostle very aptly exchanged one set of names for another. He did not say, "It will not sprout unless it dies," but applied to seeds names taken from us, proving our resurrection by them. Likewise the Lord said: "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). Thus, having shown the manner of the resurrection, the Apostle also shows the quality of the bodies.

"What you sow is not made alive unless it dies." The comparison brought by the Apostle does not, in the strictest sense, explain how bodies will rise.

For the seed that is sown, as is known, does not die, but grows, sending roots into the earth and producing shoots.

Yet it shows as well as possible that to each state a particular body belongs, and that each organic being has been granted the right of endless existence, or of continuing its kind.

The sown grains, rotting in the earth, preserve incorrupt their shoot, the embryo of the future plant, completely similar to the plant that produced it.

Here there is not a simple transmission of life from one plant to another, but the complete preservation of the embryos of its own life and the manifestation of that life in a new form.

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.'

"He addresses them with such severe words because they ask not about something doubtful, but about what is certainly known. We too usually act in this way with those who contradict something certainly known.

Why does he not immediately point to the power of God? Because he is reasoning with unbelievers. When he speaks with believers, he does not resort to syllogisms.

Thus in another place, after saying, 'He will transform the body of our humiliation, so that it may be conformed to the body of His glory,' and revealing there something more than resurrection, he did not bring comparisons.

Instead of every proof, he pointed directly to the power of God, adding the following: 'according to the working by which He is able even to subject all things to Himself' (Phil 3:21).