1 Corinthians 15:52Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet" (1 Cor 15:52).

After much said about the resurrection, he now reveals in it, at the fitting time, something very marvelous.

It is not only marvelous, he says, that bodies will first rot and then rise. Nor is it only that those who rise after rotting will be better than the present.

Nor is it only that they will pass into a much better state. Nor is it only that each will receive his own body and not another's.

It is also that so many and such great deeds, surpassing every mind and every understanding, will be accomplished suddenly. That means in an instant of time, or, as he expresses it more clearly, in the twinkling of an eye, as quickly as the eyelids blink.

"Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet."

In the briefest and most imperceptible time, in which one can only close the eyelids, so many and such great deeds will be accomplished.

This is most wondrous. For one must marvel not only that decayed bodies will rise, and that each will receive his own body, but also that all this will be accomplished so swiftly that it cannot be expressed.

Some understood the words "at the last trumpet" as referring to the trumpet written of in the Revelation of John the Evangelist (chapters 8, 9, and 10).

He said that there are seven trumpets. The first of them bring affliction upon men, for not all die together, but in parts.

The sight of our eye does not reach what is nearer more quickly, or what is farther away more slowly. On the contrary, it reaches them with equal speed.

In the same way, when, as the Apostle says, the resurrection of the dead takes place in the twinkling of an eye, it will be just as easy for almighty God and His ineffable will to restore the recently dead as those long since turned to corruption.

To some people all this is incredible because it lies beyond experience. Yet the whole world is full of wonders which do not seem worthy of reflection and inquiry.

You, O Lord, Macrina said, have delivered us from the fear of death. You have made the end of life here the beginning of true life. At the term appointed for us, You put our bodies to rest in sleep, and You awaken them again at the last trumpet. For a time You entrust to the earth "our earth," which You formed with Your hands. Then You take back what You gave, transforming our mortal and deformed nature by incorruption and grace.

Why, then, should I lose heart in hope? Why should I strive after what is temporary? I await the archangelic voice, the last trumpet, the transformation of heaven, the transfiguration of earth, the liberation of the elements, and the renewal of the whole world. Then I shall see Caesarius himself, no longer departing, no longer being carried out, no longer being mourned, and no longer evoking pity, but holy, glorified, and exalted. Such you often appeared to me in dreams, most beloved of brothers and most brother-loving one. Perhaps my desire pictured you thus, or perhaps it was the truth.

Therefore he says: behold a mystery, which has been revealed to His own and not to those outside, that is, to believers who confess the resurrection, and not to philosophers who deny the resurrection of the dead. "We shall all sleep," he says this about those who will await the coming of Christ. "We shall all be changed." Although only the righteous rise in the renewal of glory, the bodies of sinners also are renewed, since they rise not with the same sorrow and joy that were theirs. This is what the words mean: the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

At the very moment of the departure of our holy brother Sisinnius, who brought me your letters, I am compelled to dictate something. I cannot leave the questions of your wisdom unanswered. I only ask that you not count this word as flattery, still less as a debt of courtesy, for I speak to you as to myself. He brought me many questions from holy brothers and sisters of your province. I had intended to prepare a very full answer to them by the day of Theophany. I worked on them in fragments during the nights, and had already composed answers to most of the questions. Having satisfied the others, I was saving my strength for your question, as the most difficult. Then Sisinnius unexpectedly came to me and said that he was leaving at once. When I asked him to postpone his departure, he set before me the famine in Libya, the needs of the Egyptian monasteries, the low waters of the Nile, and the helpless condition of many. To detain him here any longer would almost have been a sin before God. Therefore I send you only what I had prepared as the lining for your tunic: the warp, the woof, and the loom. I send it unfinished, so that by your wisdom what is lacking in me may be woven together. You are prudent and learned. You have passed, as Appius says, from canine grandiloquence to the beauty of Christ’s speech. I do not need to labor much for you. It is like the story told in fables about a philosopher who taught a simple man. “Hardly had I spoken half,” he said, “when he already understood the rest.” So also I, because time is lacking, have set before you only the opinions of each writer who left an interpretation of Holy Scripture. I have translated most of these opinions word for word. Thus I may be free from objections, and you may have the authority of the ancient writers themselves. When you read and approve one opinion or another, you will do so not by my wish, but by your own will. You ask in what sense the words are spoken, and how they should be read in the First Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 51. Is it, “We shall all die, but we shall not all be changed,” or, according to other copies, “We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed”? Both readings are found in the Greek codices. Theodore of Heraclea, the city formerly called Perinthus, spoke thus in his brief commentaries on the Apostle Paul: “Although we shall not all die, yet we shall all be changed.” For Enoch and Elijah conquered the laws of death. They were caught up from earthly society into the heavenly kingdom as they were, in their bodies (Gen 5:24; 4 Kgs 2:11). Therefore those saints whom the day of destruction and judgment finds in their bodies will be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ. Together with the other saints, who have risen from the dead, they will not taste death. They will always be with the Lord, having trampled down the heavy law of death. Therefore the Apostle says, “We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.” Both those raised from the dead and those living who are caught up in the clouds will pass into incorruption. From mortality they will be changed into immortality. They will be changed not over some span of time, nor even in a brief interval, but in an atom, a point of time, in the moment in which the eyelid can blink, at the last trumpet. The resurrection of the dead will take place so quickly that the living, whom the last time finds in their bodies, will not precede the dead rising from the tombs. Plainly confirming this, the Apostle Paul says, “Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor 15:52-53). Thus it may live forever in either case, whether in torments or in the kingdom of heaven. Diodore, bishop of Tarsus, passed over this section. In the explanation that followed, he made a brief remark on the words, “And the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” He says, “If the dead will rise incorruptible, then beyond doubt they too will be changed for the better. Why, then, was it necessary to say, ‘and we shall be changed’? Did he not wish by this to indicate that incorruption is common to all, but change belongs only to the righteous? For they inherit not only incorruption and immortality, but also glory.” Apollinarius, though in other words, said the same as Theodore. Some will not die, but from the present life will be caught up into the life to come. After their bodies are changed and glorified, they will be with Christ forever. We believe that this is now being fulfilled in Enoch and Elijah. Didymus, passing to Origen’s opinion not with his feet but with his words, takes the opposite path. On the words, “I tell you a mystery: we shall all die, but we shall not all be changed,” he reasoned thus. “If the resurrection needed no interpretation, and had no obscurity for the understanding, Paul would never have added, after all that he had said about the resurrection, ‘I tell you a mystery.’ Though we shall all sleep, that is, die, not all of us, but only the saints, shall be changed. I know that in some codices it is written, ‘We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed.’ Yet one must notice whether the preceding phrase, ‘we shall all be changed,’ can agree with what follows: ‘the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.’ For if all are changed. And this is common to all, it would be superfluous to say, ‘and we shall be changed.’ Therefore the text should be read, ‘We shall all die, but we shall not all be changed.’ For if in Adam all die, and death is nothing other than sleep, then all of us shall sleep, or all of us shall die. According to the character of the Scriptures, he sleeps who dies in hope of the future resurrection. Everyone who sleeps certainly awakens, unless sudden death strikes him and death is joined to sleep. If, then, all sleep according to the law of nature, only the saints will be changed for the better in both body and soul. Thus incorruption will belong to all who rise, but glory and change only to the saints.” The same Didymus explained the following Greek words, έν ἀτόμψ, έν ριπή, or έν ρόπή όϕθαλμού, for both readings are found. Our translators rendered them as in momento et in ictu, or in motu oculi. He explained them thus. “At the common resurrection of all, they will be caught up to meet Christ, namely those whom death will release, as the preceding words indicate. When he says that the resurrection of all will occur in the briefest time, in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, every fiction of a first and second resurrection is excluded. It excludes the idea that some rise first and others last. An atom is a particle of time that cannot be divided or broken up. For this reason Epicurus constructs the world from his atoms and derives everything from them. The blink or instant, which in Greek is read ρόπή, passes so swiftly that it almost escapes the awareness of the observer. In most codices, however, ρίπή is read instead of ρόπή, that is, instead of blink or instant. We must understand this as follows. As light down, straw, or a thin dry leaf is easily lifted by wind and storm, so in the twinkling of an eye, by God’s command, the bodies of all the dead will be raised, being made ready for the coming of the Judge. The Apostle then adds, ‘at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.’ This has a twofold sense. Either the sound of trumpet or voice signifies solemnity, as it is said, ‘Lift up your voice like a trumpet’ (Isa 58:1). Or it signifies the open resurrection of all, according to the words of the Gospel: ‘When you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you’ (Mt 6:2). That is, do works of mercy secretly and hiddenly, lest you appear to vaunt yourself through another’s misfortune. But I ask why the Apostle wrote that the dead will rise at the last trumpet. If the last is mentioned, then others must certainly precede it. In the Apocalypse of John, seven angels with trumpets are shown. It is also shown what takes place at the trumpet sound of each, from the first to the sixth (Rev 8-9). At the loud trumpet sound of the last, the dead rise and receive incorruptible bodies, which had formerly been corruptible. Therefore the Apostle describes what follows the last trumpet in this way: ‘The trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed.’ When he says ‘we,’ he shows that he and those with him will be other than the dead. In explaining this place, some say that the dead who will rise incorruptible are the bodies of the dead. By those who are said to be changed, one must understand the souls, since they are changed for greater glory. They will attain to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph 4:13). Others affirm that sinners must be understood by the dead. They rise incorruptible so that they may endure eternal torments. Those who are changed are the saints, who pass from strength to strength and from glory to glory. Therefore to the incorruption of the dead he adds, ‘This corruptible must put on incorruption.’ To the words, ‘we shall be changed,’ he joins, ‘and this mortal must put on immortality.’ For immortality and incorruption are not the same thing, just as the mortal and the corruptible are not the same. Everything mortal is also corruptible, but not everything corruptible is already mortal. Bodies in which there is no soul are corruptible, yet they are not mortal. They never had life, which properly belongs to ensouled beings. Therefore the Apostle so clearly set corruption opposite incorruption, and mortality opposite immortality, which will follow at the resurrection.” Acacius, after Eusebius Pamphili, bishop of Caesarea, formerly called the Tower of Strato, treated this same question at great length in the fourth book of συμμίχτων ζητημάτων. Accepting both readings, which seem opposed to each other, he says the following after an introduction that I omit. “Let us first speak about what is found in most codices: ‘I tell you a mystery: although we shall all die, we shall not all be changed.’ Since the Apostle was about to speak in detail about the resurrection, he called it a mystery, wishing to stir the attention of his hearers. Since falling asleep, or sleep, means death itself, which is the common lot of all, the Apostle very rightly said that we shall all sleep, that is, die. So also he had said above, ‘As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.’ Therefore, since all must die, listen to the mysteries that I proclaim to you. Although we shall all die, that is, sleep, we shall not all be changed. The trumpet will sound, undoubtedly by the seventh angel, and the dead will rise incorruptible. But if the dead will be incorruptible, how will they not be changed, since incorruption itself is already a change? The change by which Paul and the saints will be changed must here be understood as glorification. Incorruption will be the lot of all, because through it sinners too will be still more wretched. They will be tormented forever and will not be destroyed by a mortal and corruptible body. In the same epistle, when the Apostle speaks of mysteries, we read that those who rise will differ not by the nature of their bodies, but by the difference of glory. Some will rise to eternal torment, others to eternal glory. For there is one flesh of birds, another of fish, and another of beasts. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. ‘So also,’ he says, ‘is the resurrection of the dead’ (1 Cor 15:39-40, 42). The Church especially agrees with this opinion: all of us die according to the common law of death, but we shall not all be changed into glory. This accords with Daniel: ‘Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and others to everlasting reproach and shame’ (Dan 12:2).

"Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye."

That is, swiftly, without any delay.

"At the last trumpet."

It is called the last because the final war is against the demons, and principalities, and powers, and against the devil himself (cf. Eph 6:12).

When the thousand years in which the Savior will reign have ended, and the antichrist has been destroyed, Satan will be released from his prison.

He will go out to deceive the nations at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog (Rev 20:7). These are demons, for mortal men cannot fight against eternal beings.

He will gather them for war against the camp of the saints (ibid.; cf. Mt 24:31).

"Quickly (έυ άτόμω), in the twinkling of an eye." The Apostle showed the instantaneousness of the resurrection. By indivisible, άτόμου, he means the finest body visible in a sunbeam, which because of its extreme smallness admits no division. By "the twinkling of an eye" he means the movement of the pupil. By this he showed God's power, for not even the smallest part of time will pass in inactivity between God's command and the resurrection of the dead. "At the last trumpet." This will happen, says the Apostle, when the last trumpet sounds. "For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed." The Apostle did not say "we" about himself, but about those people who will still remain alive at that time.

The Apostle's word "quickly" (1 Cor 15:52) means the same as if someone said: in the very smallest and indivisible span of time.

Having said this and pointed to the body, he confounded the heretics who say that there is no resurrection of the flesh, but only of the soul. For they dishonor the divine economy, supposing that Christ did not truly assume flesh, but only in appearance, which is absurd. For if He did not have flesh, what died, was buried, and rose again (1 Cor 15:3-4)? If this was only in appearance, then we too die only in appearance.

"At the last trumpet." Here the trumpet is taken in a symbolic sense (Rev chs. 8-11). As in the Old Testament a trumpet announced the beginning of feasts and solemnities and summoned the people to war, so at the Last Judgment the trumpet, the word of God, will summon all.

"... We shall all be changed suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will rise incorrupt, and we shall be changed."

Thus, after much said about the resurrection, he now reveals in it something very marvelous.

It is not only marvelous that bodies will first rot and then rise. Nor is it only that those who rise after rotting will be better than the present.

Nor is it only that the living will pass into a better state. Nor is it only that each will receive his own body and not another's.

Foretelling our future transfiguration, the Apostle says that it will touch all, the living and the dead. It will be accomplished quickly, in an instant, as soon as the voice of the divine herald resounds.

The manner of this change is a great mystery. Yet we see many likenesses of it in the growth of plants, in the transformations of insects, such as caterpillars, and in the springtime renewal of nature.

The prophet Ezekiel was shown a special and striking vision of the resurrection of bodies (ch. 37:1-12). Many saints also were counted worthy to present the likeness of the future resurrection of the dead through contemplations.

"Suddenly," εν ατομω, in so brief a moment of time that it cannot even be divided. Between God's command concerning the resurrection and the resurrection itself, not even an instant of time will pass (Theodoret).

They will follow at the same time. As soon as the sound of the trumpet, announcing God's command, resounds, in that same instant the dead will rise and the living will be changed.

That is, they will receive an incorrupt body, in which the dead also will rise.

"Here the Apostle applies the word 'we' not to himself, but to those who will then be found alive. Thus, after much said about the resurrection, he now reveals in it something very marvelous.