EvangelistResurrection hope

1 Corinthians 15 — Christ's resurrection and the resurrection of the dead — Greek text and reception

Saints Translation: 1 Corinthians 1–16 [V2]

Each card preserves the Greek reading and its textual and reception notes. This source provides a Greek study edition; Hebrew counterparts and Hebrew–Greek classifications are not supplied.

1 Corinthians 15 — Christ's resurrection and the resurrection of the dead

The good news received and handed on

Verse 15:1

Greek–English Translation

Now I make known to you, brothers, the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you also received, in which you also stand,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:2

Greek–English Translation

through which you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word in which I proclaimed it to you—unless you believed in vain.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The compressed Greek recalls in what word Paul proclaimed the message and conditions the statement on holding it fast. Being saved and the final unless clause are both retained.

Verse 15:3

Greek–English Translation

For I handed over to you among the foremost things what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Among the foremost things renders en prōtois, conveying priority without choosing an exclusively chronological sense.

Verse 15:4

Greek–English Translation

and that He was buried, and that He has been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Has been raised retains the perfect passive and its continuing result, beside the preceding died and was buried.

Verse 15:5

Greek–English Translation

and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The twelve is the group's stated designation; it is not replaced with an inferred headcount.

Verse 15:6

Greek–English Translation

After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, though some have fallen asleep.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:7

Greek–English Translation

After that He appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:8

Greek–English Translation

Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Ektrōma is an untimely birth, including miscarriage or abortion in ordinary usage; Paul's harsh self-description is retained as a metaphor, not a claim about his actual birth.

Verse 15:9

Greek–English Translation

For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God's Church.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:10

Greek–English Translation

But by God's grace I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not become empty. Instead, I labored more than all of them—yet not I, but God's grace with me.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Paul's labor and its attribution to God's grace are both explicit; neither cancels the other by editorial paraphrase.

Verse 15:11

Greek–English Translation

So whether it was I or they, this is how we proclaim, and this is how you believed.

Textual and Reception Notes

What follows if the dead are not raised

Verse 15:12

Greek–English Translation

Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:13

Greek–English Translation

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, neither has Christ been raised.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:14

Greek–English Translation

And if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation is empty, and your faith is empty too.

Textual and Reception Notes

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 15:14]: The apparatus assigns your faith to Treg, NA28 and RP, and our faith to WH.

NA28: ἄρα [καὶ] τὸ κήρυγμα, "then our proclamation also is empty" (SBLGNT ἄρα τὸ κήρυγμα); the rendering above follows SBLGNT at the first clause; its too belongs to the second clause's καί, which both editions print.

Verse 15:15

Greek–English Translation

We are also found to be false witnesses concerning God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if, after all, the dead are not raised.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Against God preserves kata tou theou in the hypothetical false testimony; the negative conclusion remains conditional, not Paul's asserted belief.

Verse 15:16

Greek–English Translation

For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:17

Greek–English Translation

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:18

Greek–English Translation

Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have also perished.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:19

Greek–English Translation

If in this life alone we have hoped in Christ, we are more pitiable than all human beings.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Alone is taken with this life in the resurrection argument. The Greek's placement can also emphasize merely hoping; the adopted construction is not a denial of present hope.

Christ the firstfruits and the end of death

Verse 15:20

Greek–English Translation

But as it is, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:21

Greek–English Translation

For since death came through a human being, resurrection of the dead also comes through a human being.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:22

Greek–English Translation

For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Both all statements and the different in Adam/in Christ relations are retained. The verse is not expanded into a settled account of the final destiny of every individual.

Verse 15:23

Greek–English Translation

But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then those who belong to Christ at His coming,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:24

Greek–English Translation

then the end, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when He brings to nothing every rule and every authority and power.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: God the Father renders the coordinated God and Father designation. The three defeated powers and the handing over remain distinct.

Verse 15:25

Greek–English Translation

For He must reign until He puts all the enemies under His feet.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The unexpressed subject of puts can be understood as God or as the reigning Christ; the pronoun construction is retained without inserting a new name.

Verse 15:26

Greek–English Translation

The last enemy to be brought to nothing is death,

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:27

Greek–English Translation

for “He subjected all things under His feet.” But when it says that all things have been subjected, it is clear that this excludes the One who subjected all things to Him.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The qualification excludes God, the One subjecting, from the all things subjected to Christ. The repeated subjection language remains visible.

Verse 15:28

Greek–English Translation

And when all things have been subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The Son's subjection and God's all in all are explicit. Later Christological interpretations belong in attributed reception and do not replace this sentence's wording.

NA28: τότε [καὶ] αὐτὸς ὁ υἱός, "then the Son Himself also" (SBLGNT τότε αὐτὸς ὁ υἱός, with Tregelles and the NIV text); the rendering above carries the also of NA28's bracketed καί; SBLGNT would read "then the Son Himself will be subjected"; [τὰ] πάντα is all in all either way.

Baptism, danger, and hope of resurrection

Verse 15:29

Greek–English Translation

Otherwise, what will those who are baptized for the dead do? If the dead are not raised at all, why are they even baptized for them?

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: For the dead preserves hyper tōn nekrōn; the selected second clause says for them. The practice, its participants, and Paul's degree of endorsement are not explained here, so no reconstructed rite or different object is inserted.

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 15:29]: The apparatus gives for them in WH, Treg and NA28, and for the dead in RP.

Verse 15:30

Greek–English Translation

Why are we also in danger every hour?

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:31

Greek–English Translation

I die daily—I affirm it by my boasting in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Nē introduces the oath-like affirmation. Your boasting is taken as Paul's boasting concerning the recipients, in light of which I have; the relationship is compressed in Greek.

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 15:31]: The apparatus assigns the wording without brothers to RP; WH, Treg and NA28 include it.

NA28: καύχησιν, [ἀδελφοί,] ἣν ἔχω, adding "brothers" (SBLGNT omits with RP); the rendering above follows SBLGNT; NA28 would read "my boasting in you, brothers, which I have".

Verse 15:32

Greek–English Translation

If in a merely human way I fought with beasts in Ephesus, what benefit is there for me? If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Fought with beasts is retained without deciding whether Paul describes literal animals or violent opponents figuratively. In a human way can concern ordinary human motives or perspective; no historical arena episode is supplied.

Verse 15:33

Greek–English Translation

Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good habits.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The maxim is translated as it appears here; no named author is added without independent verification.

Verse 15:34

Greek–English Translation

Sober up rightly and do not sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I speak to your shame.

Textual and Reception Notes

The seed and the diversity of bodies

Verse 15:35

Greek–English Translation

But someone will say, “How are the dead raised? With what sort of body do they come?”

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:36

Greek–English Translation

Foolish one! What you sow is not made alive unless it dies.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:37

Greek–English Translation

And what you sow is not the body that will come to be, but a bare grain, perhaps of wheat or of one of the other kinds.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:38

Greek–English Translation

But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds its own body.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:39

Greek–English Translation

Not all flesh is the same flesh: human flesh is one kind, the flesh of animals another, the flesh of birds another, and that of fish another.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:40

Greek–English Translation

There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one kind and that of the earthly another.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:41

Greek–English Translation

The sun has one glory, the moon another glory, and the stars another glory; for star differs from star in glory.

Textual and Reception Notes

The natural body and the spiritual body

Verse 15:42

Greek–English Translation

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Corruption/incorruption preserves decay's contrast with its absence. The body remains the subject supplied by the surrounding argument.

Saints [CHR-1COR-41 §5]: Chrysostom takes sowing as bodily burial and distinguishes being raised by God from being produced by the earth.

Verse 15:43

Greek–English Translation

It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:44

Greek–English Translation

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Psychikon and pneumatikon describe two kinds of body; spiritual is not replaced with bodiless. The selected second sentence begins if, not an unqualified there is.

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 15:44]: The apparatus records if in WH, Treg and NA28, absent in RP.

Saints [CHR-1COR-41 §5]: Chrysostom understands spiritual embodiment through the Spirit’s abiding presence and bodily transformation, not the elimination of the body.

Verse 15:45

Greek–English Translation

So also it is written, “The first human being, Adam, became a living soul”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Living soul retains psychē zōsa; life-giving spirit refers to the last Adam. The phrase is not silently equated with a separate named identification of the Holy Spirit.

Saints [CHR-1COR-41 §6]: Chrysostom observes that the Adam clause is written in Genesis, while the last-Adam clause expresses the fulfillment accomplished in Christ.

Verse 15:46

Greek–English Translation

But the spiritual is not first; the natural is first, then the spiritual.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:47

Greek–English Translation

The first human being is from the earth, made of dust; the second human being is from heaven.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected second clause has human being without an added the Lord. Made of dust preserves choikos, not merely mortal.

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 15:47]: The apparatus records the Lord as an RP addition before from heaven.

Verse 15:48

Greek–English Translation

As is the one made of dust, so also are those made of dust; and as is the heavenly One, so also are the heavenly ones.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:49

Greek–English Translation

And just as we bore the image of the one made of dust, we will also bear the image of the heavenly One.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: We will bear is the selected future phoresomen; the exhortation let us bear is not substituted.

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 15:49]: The apparatus assigns the future we will bear to NA28, against let us bear in WH, Treg and RP.

The final transformation and victory

Verse 15:50

Greek–English Translation

Now I say this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit God's kingdom, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: Flesh and blood stands within the argument for bodily transformation. It is not paraphrased as a denial of resurrection embodiment.

Verse 15:51

Greek–English Translation

Look, I tell you a mystery: we will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed,

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected sentence denies that all will sleep and affirms that all will change; the negatives and both occurrences of all remain explicit.

Verse 15:52

Greek–English Translation

in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:53

Greek–English Translation

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

Textual and Reception Notes

Saints [IREN-5.2 3]: Irenaeus presents the transformation of mortal, corruptible flesh as God’s gift, illustrated by grain’s renewal and Eucharistic nourishment.

Verse 15:54

Greek–English Translation

But when this corruptible puts on incorruption and this mortal puts on immortality, then the written saying will come to pass: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

Textual and Reception Notes

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 15:54]: The apparatus includes the corruptible / incorruption clause under Treg, NA28 and RP, against its omission in WH.

Verse 15:55

Greek–English Translation

“Where, death, is your victory? Where, death, is your sting?”

Textual and Reception Notes

Text: The selected text names death twice and places victory before sting; Hades is not inserted into the second address.

Variant [SBL-1COR-APP 15:55]: The apparatus gives death twice, with victory before sting, in WH, Treg and NA28. RP has death / sting followed by Hades / victory.

Verse 15:56

Greek–English Translation

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:57

Greek–English Translation

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Textual and Reception Notes

Verse 15:58

Greek–English Translation

Therefore, my beloved brothers, become steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord's work, knowing that your labor is not empty in the Lord.

Textual and Reception Notes