ris3n's Apologetics Codex
1 Corinthians 15.42-43
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Passage

1 Corinthians 15.42-43

Book: 1 Corinthians · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

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ASV

40. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth 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:

  1. it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45. So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:40-45, ASV)
WEB

40. There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial. 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. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable. 43. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.

  1. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body. 45. So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:40-45, WEB)
KJV

40. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 41. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth 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 dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

  1. 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 was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (1 Corinthians 15:40-45, KJV)
YLT

40. and [there are] heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies; but one [is] the glory of the heavenly, and another that of the earthly; 41. one glory of sun, and another glory of moon, and another glory of stars, for star from star doth differ in glory.

42. So also [is] the rising again of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; 43. it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;

  1. it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body; there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body; 45. so also it hath been written, 'The first man Adam became a living creature,' the last Adam [is] for a life-giving spirit, (1 Corinthians 15:40-45, YLT)

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Setting

  • Speaker: Paul the apostle, writing with Sosthenes (1:1)
  • Audience: the church at Corinth, some of whom were saying "there is no resurrection of the dead" (15:12)
  • Location: written from Ephesus, where Paul planned to stay "until Pentecost" (16:8)
  • Time period: c. AD 53-55, during Paul's long stay at Ephesus on his third missionary journey (Acts 19:10)

Theological reading

"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power." Paul is answering the question he put in the objector's mouth at 15:35: "How are the dead raised? and with what manner of body do they come?"

The seed. The answer begins with farming (15:36-38). A seed must die before it is made alive, and what is sown is not "the body that shall be" but "a bare grain," to which God gives "a body of its own." The same verb, "sown" (Strong's G4687), carries the picture into these verses. Most interpreters take the sowing as burial; some take it as the whole of present bodily life. Either way the image holds two things together: what is raised is continuous with what was sown, and it is not the same in kind.

Four contrasts. Each line pairs a present condition with a future one, and the subject of both halves is the same "it."

  • Corruption (G5356) and incorruption (G861): the body now decays; the raised body does not. Paul returns to the pair at the chapter's climax: "this corruptible must put on incorruption" (15:53).
  • Dishonor (G819) and glory (G1391): burial is humiliation, and the raised body shares a glory Paul elsewhere ties to Christ's own body, which will "fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory" (Philippians 3:21).
  • Weakness (G769) and power (G1411): what is laid in the ground cannot help itself; it is raised by God.

The fourth pair follows in the next verse: "it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body" (15:44).

A body, not an escape from one. The passage does not describe a soul leaving the body behind. What is sown is what is raised. Whatever the reasons of the Corinthians who denied the resurrection, which are debated, Paul's answer is a body, transformed rather than discarded. This is where Christian hope parts company with views in which the person is absorbed, recycled through further lives, or freed from matter altogether; see World Religions Compared by Their Ultimate Ending and Resurrection of the Body.

Grounded in one body already raised. The contrasts rest on an event, not a hope alone: "now hath Christ been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of them that are asleep" (15:20). The harvest is promised because the firstfruits are in.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

  • ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
  • WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
  • KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
  • YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.