Chapter Fifteen
1 Cor. 15:1. I remind you, brethren, of the Gospel which I preached to you.
He passes on to the teaching about the resurrection, which constitutes the foundation of our faith. For if there is no resurrection, then Christ has not risen either; and if He has not risen, then He did not become incarnate either; and thus our entire faith will vanish. Since the Corinthians had such waverings (for the worldly wise are ready to accept everything except the resurrection), Paul contends for the resurrection. Very wisely he reminds them of what they have already accepted on faith. I am telling you nothing strange, he says, but I make known (γνωρίζω) to you, that is, I remind you of what was already communicated to you but has been forgotten. By calling them "brethren," he partly humbled them and partly reminded them of that through which we became brethren, namely, the manifestation of Christ in the flesh, in which they may have ceased to believe, and baptism, which serves as an image of the burial and resurrection of the Lord. By the name "gospel" he also reminded them of those countless blessings which we received through the incarnation and resurrection of the Lord.
1 Cor. 15:1. Which you also received.
He did not say: which you heard; but: which you received; for they received it not by word only, but also by deeds and miracles. He said this also in order to persuade them to hold fast to it as something long since received.
1 Cor. 15:2. In which also you stand firm, by which also you are being saved.
Although they wavered, he nevertheless says that they stood firm in it: he deliberately presents himself as unknowing, and forewarns them so that they cannot deny it, even if they very much wished to. What then is the benefit of standing firm in it? That you are saved.
1 Cor. 15:2. If you hold fast what was delivered to you just as I preached to you.
He speaks as if to say: concerning the fact that there is a resurrection, I am not informing you of anything; for you have not doubted this truth. But perhaps you need to know in what manner the resurrection will occur, which I proclaimed to you. It is about this—that is, about how the resurrection will be—that I am now speaking to you.
1 Cor. 15:2. Unless you believed in vain.
If by the words "you are established" he should make them careless, he says: if you hold fast, if only you have not believed in vain, that is, if you are not called Christians for nothing. For the essence of Christianity consists in the teaching of the resurrection.
1 Cor. 15:3. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received.
Since the teaching about the resurrection is very important, I delivered it to you first of all. For it is, as it were, the foundation of the entire faith. And I myself received it, that is, from Christ. Therefore, as I hold to it, so you also must hold to it. And since you accepted it in the beginning, you are now wrong to have doubted even for a time.
1 Cor. 15:3. That is, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scripture.
These words evidently belong to Christ Himself, who was speaking through Paul. Since the Manicheans would later say that by death Paul means sins, and by resurrection the deliverance from them, it pleased Him to refute them in advance with these words. So, Christ died. By what death? Without doubt, a bodily death, not a sinful one; for He committed no sin. But if they are not ashamed to say that He too died a sinful death, then how is it said that He died for our sins? For if He too was a sinner, how did He die for our sins? He strikes them down very clearly also with this remark: "according to the Scriptures." For the Scriptures everywhere ascribe to Christ this bodily death. Thus it is said: "they pierced my hands and my feet" (Ps. 22:16); again: "they shall look on Him whom they pierced" (Zech. 12:10); again: "He was wounded for our transgressions; for the transgression of my people He was led to death" (Isa. 53:5, 8).
1 Cor. 15:4. And that He was buried.
So, He also had a body. For it is the body that is buried. And he did not add the words "according to the Scriptures" either because the tomb was known to all, or because the phrase "according to the Scriptures" refers to everything in general.
1 Cor. 15:4. And that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Where then do the Scriptures say that He rose on the third day? In the type of Jonah, and before this in Isaac, who in three days was preserved alive for his mother and was not slain, and in very many other types; also in the words of Isaiah: "The Lord wills to cleanse him from his wound, to show him light"; in the words of David: "Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell" (Ps. 16:10).
1 Cor. 15:5. And that He appeared to Cephas.
First he puts forward the most trustworthy witness of all. Although the Gospel says that the Lord appeared first to Mary (Mark 16:9), yet among men He appeared first to Peter, as the chief of the disciples. For it was fitting that he who first confessed Him as the Christ should also be the first to see the Resurrection; and He appears to him before the others also on account of his denial, in order to show him that he was not rejected.
1 Cor. 15:5. Then to the Twelve (τοῖς δώδεκα).
Matthias was numbered among them in place of Judas after the Lord's Ascension. How then does Paul say, "then to the twelve"? We answer: most likely, He appeared to Matthias after the Ascension, just as He also appeared to Paul, who was called after the Ascension. For this reason he did not specify the time, but expressed himself indefinitely. Some, however, say that this is a copyist's error; or: the Lord, knowing and foreseeing in advance that Matthias would be numbered among the eleven, appeared to him as well, so that in this respect too he would not be inferior to the rest of the apostles. John expresses something similar when he says: "Thomas..., one of the twelve" (Jn. 20:24). For anyone would sooner say that He numbered Matthias among the rest of the apostles by foreknowledge than Judas after his betrayal and suicide.
1 Cor. 15:6. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time.
After the proof from the Scriptures, he brings as witnesses the apostles and other faithful people. The word "more" (επάνω) some explain thus: "from above," from heaven; that He appeared to them on high and overhead in order to confirm the truth of the Ascension. Others, however, understood it thus: more than five hundred.