📖WEB · 1 Corinthians 15:42
What does 1 Corinthians 15:42 mean?
"So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable."
— 1 Corinthians 15:42 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
There are also celestial bodies, and terrestrial bodies; but the glory of the celestial differs from that of the terrestrial.
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.
So also is the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown perishable; it is raised imperishable.
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. There is a natural body and there is also a spiritual body.
So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
Explanation
1 Corinthians 15:42 says that the resurrection of the dead follows a pattern: the body that dies is perishable, subject to decay and death, but the body that is raised will be imperishable, no longer subject to death, weakness, or decline. Paul uses the word "sown" deliberately, comparing the human body to a seed placed in the ground. Just as a seed is buried and then produces new life in a different but continuous form, so the human body, buried in death, will be raised in a transformed, glorified state.
This verse comes from Paul's letter to the church in Corinth, a congregation he had founded but which was struggling with various theological and moral confusions, one of which was doubt or misunderstanding about the resurrection of the dead. Some in Corinth apparently denied a future bodily resurrection altogether, perhaps influenced by Greek philosophical ideas that viewed the body as a lesser or even negative aspect of existence, with the soul being the only part worth preserving. In chapter 15, Paul addresses this head-on, insisting that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is central to the Christian faith and that believers, too, will be bodily raised. Verses 35–49 form an extended argument using the image of seeds and plants to explain how the resurrected body can be continuous with the earthly body yet radically transformed.
Theologically, this verse teaches that the Christian hope is not the abandonment of the body but its transformation. Paul is not describing a shift from bodily existence to a purely spiritual, disembodied one; rather, he affirms a future physical
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