Passage

1 Corinthians 15.42-44

"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, NASB95)

The decisive Pauline text on the nature of the resurrection body. Four "sown... raised" antitheses, climaxing in the soma psychikon / soma pneumatikon contrast. The verse is the canonical answer to "with what body do they come?" (15:35) and the load-bearing text behind every Christian doctrine of embodied resurrection.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (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: 44. 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. 46. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual." (1 Corinthians 15:40-46, ASV)

WEB (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. 44. 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. 46. However that which is spiritual isn’t first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual." (1 Corinthians 15:40-46, WEB)

KJV (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: 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 was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 46. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual." (1 Corinthians 15:40-46, KJV)

YLT (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; 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. so also it hath been written, 'The first man Adam became a living creature,' the last Adam [is] for a life-giving spirit, 46. but that which is spiritual [is] not first, but that which [was] natural, afterwards that which [is] spiritual." (1 Corinthians 15:40-46, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: Paul the Apostle
Audience: the church at Corinth; specifically Corinthians who doubted bodily resurrection (15:12)
Location: composed in Ephesus; addressed to Corinth
Time period: composed c. AD 55-56

Theological reading

The Corinthians' problem was not whether the soul survived death. That Greeks already assumed. Their problem was whether the body would rise. Pauline cosmology answered "yes," and 15:35 records the sneer this provoked: "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" Verses 42-44 are Paul's structural answer.

The four antitheses come in pairs.

Sown perishable / raised imperishable (phthora / aphtharsia). The present body decays; the resurrection body cannot.
Sown in dishonor / raised in glory (atimia / doxa). The present body, especially in its corpse-state, is shameful; the resurrection body bears glory.
Sown in weakness / raised in power (astheneia / dynamis). The present body wears out; the resurrection body is capacitated for the new creation.
Sown a natural body / raised a spiritual body (soma psychikon / soma pneumatikon).

The last one is the load-bearing pair, and it is constantly misread. Pneumatikon does not mean immaterial. Paul does not say "raised a spirit." He says "raised a body," with the qualifier pneumatikon. The Greek pattern -ikos makes adjectives of a thing's animating principle or governing power, not its material composition. So soma psychikon is a body animated by psyche (the natural life-principle, the soul-as-life, Adam in Genesis 2:7); soma pneumatikon is a body animated by pneuma (Spirit). The contrast is not body-versus-spirit. It is body-animated-by-soul versus body-animated-by-Spirit.

This is why Paul moves immediately to Adam and Christ (15:45). "The first man Adam became a psyche zosa" (a living soul; Genesis 2:7); "the last Adam became a life-giving pneuma." The contrast is between two heads of two humanities, two animating principles, two modes of embodied life. The resurrection body is fully material, fully physical, fully somatic, and fully animated by the Holy Spirit.

This reading is decisive against three errors. (1) The materialist objection ("you cannot rise from rot") misses the sown / raised agricultural metaphor: seeds rot to produce the plant, and Paul has already used that figure in 15:36-38. Continuity is real but is not material reassembly of every atom. (2) The platonizing Christian read ("the resurrection body is just a spiritual essence") contradicts the empty tomb, the eat-fish appearance (Luke 24:42-43), and the explicit soma in this verse. (3) Reincarnationist and Gnostic readings ("the body is the prison; we escape") have nothing to do with Paul's eschatology: he wants more embodiment, not less.

Apologetically the passage is also the answer to the standard sneer that the New Testament's resurrection idea is a "spiritual" (meaning vague) one. Paul stipulates the opposite: the body is raised, and it is the same body in continuity (as the plant is in continuity with its seed) but glorified, capacitated, and Spirit- animated. See Resurrection of the Body and Resurrection of Jesus for the connected hubs.

Key words

G4983 - soma, soma, "body"; load-bearing for the passage. Paul keeps the word in both halves of the contrast.
G0386 - anastasis, anastasis, "resurrection," "rising up."
G1453 - egeiro, egeiro, "raised," the verb of every resurrection appearance in the Gospels and of the raised half of each contrast here.
G1391 - doxa, doxa, "glory"; the third antithesis.
G3498 - nekros, nekros, "dead"; the resurrection of the dead (plural, generic, all believers).
G4151 - pneuma, pneuma, "spirit"; the animating principle of the resurrection body. Not the substance of it.
G5590 - psyche, psyche, "soul" / "natural life"; the animating principle of the present body.

Theological themes

Continuity with transformation. The seed-plant analogy carries both. The same body, glorified.
Bodily resurrection, not disembodied immortality. Christianity is not Platonism. The hope is embodied.
Spirit-animated, not immaterial. Pneumatikon names the animating power, not the substance.
Adam / Christ federalism. Two heads, two humanities, two modes of embodied existence.
Eschatology shapes ethics. The body's destiny in glory conditions how we treat it now (cf. 6:13-20).

Cross-references

1 Corinthians 15.45-49, the Adam-Christ federal contrast that immediately follows.
1 Corinthians 15, the chapter hub.
Philippians 3.20-21, "He will transform our lowly body to conform with His glorious body." Direct parallel.
Romans 8.11, the Spirit who raised Jesus will raise our mortal bodies.
1 John 3.2, "we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is."
Genesis 2.7, "man became a living soul" (the psyche zosa Paul cites in 15:45).
Luke 24.39-43, the risen Christ as the prototype: "Touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have." The fish-eating empirically refutes the docetist read.

Quoted in

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.