1 Corinthians 15

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The resurrection of the Messiah

¹ Moreover, brothers, I make known to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, ² by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. ³ For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that the Messiah died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, ⁵ and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. ⁶ After that He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. ⁷ After that He appeared to James, then to all the apostles. ⁸ Then last of all He appeared to me also, as to one born out of due time. ⁹ For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of Elohim. ¹⁰ But by the grace of Elohim I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of Elohim which was with me. ¹¹ Therefore, whether it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

If there is no resurrection

¹² Now if the Messiah is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? ¹³ But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then the Messiah has not been raised. ¹⁴ And if the Messiah has not been raised, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty. ¹⁵ Yes, and we are found false witnesses of Elohim, because we have testified of Elohim that He raised up the Messiah, whom He did not raise up, if in fact the dead are not raised. ¹⁶ For if the dead are not raised, then the Messiah has not been raised. ¹⁷ And if the Messiah has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ Then also those who have fallen asleep in the Messiah have perished. ¹⁹ If in this life only we have hope in the Messiah, we are of all men the most pitiable.

The Messiah, the firstfruits

²⁰ But now the Messiah has been raised from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also came through a man. ²² For as in Adam all die, even so in the Messiah all will be made alive. ²³ But each one in his own order: the Messiah the firstfruits, afterward those who are the Messiah's at His coming. ²⁴ Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to Elohim the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. ²⁵ For He must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet. ²⁶ The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. ²⁷ For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says, "All things have been put in subjection," it is clear that He who put all things in subjection to Him is excepted. ²⁸ Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things in subjection to Him, that Elohim may be all in all. ²⁹ Otherwise, what will they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead are not raised at all? Why then are they baptized for the dead? ³⁰ And why do we stand in danger every hour? ³¹ I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in the Messiah Yeshua our Lord, I die daily. ³² If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me, if the dead are not raised? "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!" ³³ Do not be deceived: evil company corrupts good habits. ³⁴ Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of Elohim. I speak this to your shame.

The resurrection body

³⁵ But someone will say, "How are the dead raised? And with what body do they come?" ³⁶ Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. ³⁷ And what you sow, you do not sow the body that shall be, but bare grain, perhaps wheat or some other grain. ³⁸ But Elohim gives it a body as He pleased, and to each seed its own body. ³⁹ All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds. ⁴⁰ There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; but the glory of the heavenly is one, and the glory of the earthly is another. ⁴¹ There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differs from another star in glory. ⁴² So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. ⁴³ It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ And so it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶ However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man is of the earth, made of dust; the second man is the Lord from heaven. ⁴⁸ As is the man of dust, so also are those who are made of dust; and as is the heavenly One, so also are those who are heavenly. ⁴⁹ And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear the image of the heavenly One. ⁵⁰ Now this I say, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of Elohim; nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

We shall all be changed

⁵¹ See, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, ⁵² in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. ⁵³ For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: "Death is swallowed up in victory." ⁵⁵ "O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?" ⁵⁶ The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the Torah. ⁵⁷ But thanks be to Elohim, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. ⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Notes

• 15:4 Verses 3-5 have the form of a summary handed on and learned by heart ("I delivered… what I also received"; see 11:23), which many date to the first years after the resurrection. Paul does not name the Scriptures he means; readers have long pointed to Isaiah 53 ("He was wounded for our transgressions," 53:5), to Psalm 16:10, and for "the third day" to Hosea 6:2 and to Jonah 1:17, the sign Yeshua Himself gave (Matthew 12:40). "Was raised" (egēgertai) is a Greek perfect: He was raised and remains risen.
• 15:7 Paul's list agrees with the Gospels: Cephas is Peter, and Luke tells that the Lord "has appeared to Simon" (Luke 24:34); "the twelve" is the name of the group even after Judas was gone (Luke 24:36; John 20:19-26). The Gospels do not tell of the appearances to more than five hundred or to James. James is Iakōbos, the name Jacob; this is most likely the Lord's brother (Galatians 1:19), who later led the assembly in Jerusalem (Acts 15:13). Paul names his own meeting with the risen Lord on the road to Damascus last (verse 8; Acts 9:3-6).
• 15:20 "Firstfruits" (aparchē) is the word the Greek Scriptures use for the first sheaf of the harvest, waved before Yahweh "on the day after the Shabbat" during the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Leviticus 23:10-11). Yeshua rose on the first day of the week, the day of that waving by the reckoning that counts from the weekly Shabbat (Jewish groups of the time counted in different ways). The first sheaf was the pledge of the whole harvest: so the Messiah's resurrection is the pledge of the resurrection of "those who are the Messiah's at His coming" (verse 23).
• 15:45 Paul quotes Genesis 2:7, "and the man became a living being," adding "first" and "Adam" to set the first man beside "the last Adam," the Messiah. "Living being" is the Hebrew nefesh chayah, in Greek psychē zōsa, from which Paul draws "natural" (psychikos) in verse 44. In the same way in verse 27 he applies to the Messiah Psalm 8:6, said of man, "You have put all things under his feet." In verse 47 the TRB follows the Majority Text, "the Lord from heaven," and in verse 49 "let us also bear"; many modern Bibles read "from heaven" and "we shall also bear."
• 15:52 The trumpet in the Hebrew Scriptures is often the shofar, which gathers Elohim's people, "a great shofar will be blown" (Isaiah 27:13), and announces His coming (Zechariah 9:14); Yeshua and Paul speak of it at the coming of the Lord (Matthew 24:31; 1 Thessalonians 4:16). Many also connect Paul's "last trumpet" with the feast that is "a memorial with the blowing of trumpets" (Leviticus 23:24); what "last" refers to has been read in more than one way. In verse 51 the TRB follows the Majority Text, as most Bibles do, "we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed"; a few manuscripts word it differently.
• 15:55 Paul joins two prophets. Isaiah 25:8 says in Hebrew, "He will swallow up death forever"; Paul's "in victory" follows a Greek rendering of lanetsach, "forever," a word that can also carry the sense of victory. Hosea 13:14 says, "O death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your destruction?"; Paul follows the Greek, with "sting" and "victory," and Hades, the Greek word for Sheol. Verse 56 explains the sting: sin, which takes opportunity even through the commandment, though "the commandment is holy and righteous and good" (Romans 7:8-12).

1 Corinthians 14 · 1 Corinthians 16

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