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1 Corinthians 15:1-3
New Catholic Bible
1 Corinthians 15:1-3
New Catholic Bible
The Resurrection[a]
The Resurrection of Christ
Chapter 15
The Risen Christ, Foundation of Our Faith.[b] 1 And now, brethren, I want to remind you of the gospel I proclaimed to you, which you received and in which you stand firm. 2 Through it you are also being saved, provided that you are holding fast to what I proclaimed to you. If not, then you have believed in vain.
3 [c]For I handed on to you as of primary importance what I received: that Christ died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures,
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 1 Corinthians 15:1 According to Greek thought, the soul is imprisoned in the body; it alone is destined for immortality, and death comes to set it free. As heirs of this mentality, the Corinthians are unable to understand why there should be a resurrection of the body. Does Christianity perhaps desire that the soul again become a prisoner? Paul corrects this notion, which is not in accord with the Christian faith.
The biblical tradition holds that the human being is one, created by God in body and soul. Death does not constitute the deliverance of the soul, but the unraveling of this unity. It is a violent state produced by sin. In atoning for sin, Christ has conquered death. It is the whole person that is saved and the whole person that is involved in the resurrection. But Paul takes account of the objection that the Greeks can bring up: the resurrection is not a simple return to the earthly condition; the risen body does not limit the aspirations of the spirit. It will be “spiritual,” a new creation in the risen Christ. - 1 Corinthians 15:1 Paul takes as his starting point a fact: the resurrection of Christ. This is the primordial certainty of the Christian faith. He recalls this teaching of the Church and confirms it by listing the witnesses who had seen the risen Christ. In this passage, we find the main elements of the Christian creed and, at the same time, the earliest written witness to the handing on of the original teaching of the Church and to the appearances of Jesus Christ.
- 1 Corinthians 15:3 Paul offers two lines of testimony for Christ’s Passion and Resurrection: (1) the testimony of the Old Testament (e.g., Ps 16:8-11; Isa 53:5f, 11) and (2) the testimony of eyewitnesses (Acts 1:21f). He lists only six appearances of the risen Christ; the Gospels and Acts offer ten (see note on Mt 28:10).
