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The Mode of the Resurrection

35 The Resurrected Body. Someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? What sort of body will they have when they come back?” 36 This is foolish. What you sow must die before it is given new life, 37 and what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare grain of wheat or of something else. 38 God gives to it a body that he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own particular body.

39 Not all flesh is alike. There is one kind for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. 40 There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. The splendor of heavenly bodies is of one kind, and that of earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has a splendor of its own, the moon another splendor, and the stars still another. Indeed, the stars differ among themselves in splendor.

42 So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. 43 What is sown in dishonor is raised as glorious. What is sown in weakness is raised in power. 44 What is sown is a physical body; what is raised is a spiritual body.

The Natural and the Spiritual Body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 As it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being; the last Adam has become a lifegiving spirit. 46 But the spiritual body did not come first. Rather the natural body came first, and then the spiritual.

47 The first man was formed from the dust of the earth; the second man is from heaven. 48 The man formed from dust is the pattern for earthly people; the heavenly man is the pattern for those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man formed from dust, so shall we also bear the likeness of the heavenly one.

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