📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 15:32
What does 1 Corinthians 15:32 mean?
"If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”"
— 1 Corinthians 15:32 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Or else what will they do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead aren’t raised at all, why then are they baptized for the dead?
Why do we also stand in jeopardy every hour?
I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.
If I fought with animals at Ephesus for human purposes, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, then “let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.”
Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”
Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
But someone will say, “How are the dead raised?” and, “With what kind of body do they come?”
Explanation
Paul is making a pointed argument here about why the resurrection of the dead matters so much that it shapes how a person actually lives. In plain language, he is saying: if I risked my life fighting wild beasts (or beast-like men) at Ephesus for no reason other than some purely human motive, with no hope of resurrection beyond this life, then what was the point? If there is no resurrection, I might as well have lived by the cynical philosophy "eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die."
The context is Paul's extended defense of the resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. Some believers in the Corinthian church were denying that the dead are raised, likely influenced by Greek philosophical ideas that regarded the body as unimportant or even a prison for the soul, making a bodily resurrection seem unnecessary or embarrassing. Paul writes to correct this, arguing that if there's no resurrection, then Christ himself was not raised, and if Christ was not raised, the entire Christian faith is futile and believers are still in their sins. As part of this argument, Paul appeals to his own experience: he has suffered enormous hardship—here referencing a dangerous, possibly life-threatening ordeal at Ephesus (whether a literal encounter with beasts in the arena or a vivid way of describing violent human opposition, the text doesn't specify further)—precisely because he believes in the resurrection and the future hope it guarantees. The closing line, "let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die," is a quotation drawn from Isaiah
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