TRV
Translation
King James Version
¶ Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Complete Jewish Bible
But if it has been proclaimed that the Messiah has been raised from the dead, how is it that some of you are saying there is no such thing as a resurrection of the dead?
Berean Standard Bible
But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
American Standard Version
Now if Christ is preached that he hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
World English Bible Messianic
Now if Messiah is preached, that he has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Geneva Bible (1599)
Now if it be preached, that Christ is risen from the dead, how say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead?
Young's Literal Translation
And if Christ is preached, that out of the dead he hath risen, how say certain among you, that there is no rising again of dead persons?
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In the KJVVerse 28,731 of 31,102
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Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15 verses 12–19
12 ¶ Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.
15 Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
16 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
Having confirmed the truth of our Saviour's resurrection, the apostle goes on to refute those among the Corinthians who said there would be none: If Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? Co1 15:12. It seems from this passage, and the course of the argument, there were some among the Corinthians who thought the resurrection an impossibility. This was a common sentiment among the heathens. But against this the apostle produces an incontestable fact, namely, the resurrection of Christ; and he goes on to argue against them from the absurdities that must follow from their principle. As,
I. If there be (can be) no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not risen (Co1 15:13); and again, "If the dead rise not, cannot be raised or recovered to life, then is Christ not raised, Co1 15:16. And yet it was foretold in ancient prophecies that he should rise; and it has been proved by multitudes of eye-witnesses that he had risen. And will you say, will any among you dare to say, that is not, cannot be, which God long ago said should be, and which is now undoubted matter of fact?"
II. It would follow hereupon that the preaching and faith of the gospel would be vain: If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith vain, Co1 15:14. This supposition admitted, would destroy the principal evidence of Christianity; and so, 1. Make preaching vain. "We apostles should be found false witnesses of God; we pretend to be God's witnesses for truth, and to work miracles by his power in confirmation of it, and are all the while deceivers, liars for God, if in his name, and by power received from him, we go forth, and publish and assert a thing false in fact, and impossible to be true. And does not this make us the vainest men in the world, and our office and ministry the vainest and most useless thing in the world? What end could we propose to ourselves in undertaking this hard and hazardous service, if we knew our religion stood on no better foundation, nay, if we were not well assured of the contrary? What should we preach for? Would not our labour be wholly in vain? We can have no very favourable expectations in this life; and we could have none beyond it. If Christ be not raised, the gospel is a jest; it is chaff and emptiness." 2. This supposition would make the faith of Christians vain, as well as the labours of ministers: If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; you are yet in your sins (Co1 15:17), yet under the guilt and condemnation of sin, because it is through his death and sacrifice for sin alone that forgiveness is to be had. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, Eph 1:7. No remission of sins is to be had but through the shedding of his blood. And had his blood been shed, and his life taken away, without ever being restored, what evidence could we have had that through him we should have justification and eternal life? Had he remained under the power of death, how could he have delivered us from its power? And how vain a thing is faith in him, upon this supposition! He must rise for our justification who was delivered for our sins, or in vain we look for any such benefit by him. There had been no justification nor salvation if Christ had not risen. And must not faith in Christ be vain, and of no signification, if he be still among the dead?
III. Another absurdity following from this supposition is that those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. if there be no resurrection, they cannot rise, and therefore are lost, even those who have died in the Christian faith, and for it. It is plain from this that those among the Corinthians who denied the resurrection meant thereby a state of future retribution, and not merely the revival of the flesh; they took death to be the destruction and extinction of the man, and not merely of the bodily life; for otherwise the apostle could not infer the utter loss of those who slept in Jesus, from the supposition that they would never rise more or that they had no hopes in Christ after life; for they might have hope of happiness for their minds if these survived their bodies, and this would prevent the limiting of their hopes in Christ to this life only. "Upon supposition there is no resurrection in your sense, no after-state and life, then dead Christians are quite lost. How vain a thing were our faith and religion upon this supposition!" And this,
IV. Would infer that Christ's ministers and servants were of all men most miserable, as having hope in him in this life only (Co1 15:19), which is another absurdity that would follow from asserting no resurrection. Their condition who hope in Christ would be worse than that of other men. Who hope in Christ. Note, All who believe in Christ have hope in him; all who believe in him as a Redeemer hope for redemption and salvation by him; but if there be no resurrection, or state of future recompence (which was intended by those who denied the resurrection at Corinth), their hope in him must be limited to this life: and, if all their hopes in Christ lie within the compass of this life, they are in a much worse condition than the rest of mankind, especially at that time, and under those circumstances, in which the apostles wrote; for then they had no countenance nor protection from the rulers of the world, but were hated and persecuted by all men. Preachers and private Christians therefore had a hard lot if in this life only they had hope in Christ. Better be any thing than a Christian upon these terms; for in this world they are hated, and hunted, and abused, stripped of all worldly comforts and exposed to all manner of sufferings: they fare much harder than other men in this life, and yet have no further nor better hopes. And is it not absurd for one who believes in Christ to admit a principle that involves so absurd an inference? Can that man have faith in Christ who can believe concerning him that he will leave his faithful servants, whether ministers or others, in a worse state than his enemies? Note, It were a gross absurdity in a Christian to admit the supposition of no resurrection or future state. It would leave no hope beyond this world, and would frequently make his condition the worst in the world. Indeed, the Christian is by his religion crucified to this world, and taught to live upon the hope of another. Carnal pleasures are insipid to him in a great degree; and spiritual and heavenly pleasures are those which he affects and pants after. How sad is his case indeed, if he must be dead to worldly pleasures and yet never hope for any better!
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 12–19. Public domain.
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IrenaeusAD 202
Against Heresies Book III
It is plain, then, that Paul knew no other Christ besides Him alone, who both suffered, and was buried, and rose gain, who was also born, and whom he speaks of as man. For after remarking, "But if Christ be preached, that He rose from the dead"
TertullianAD 220
Against Marcion Book I
I am content to illustrate this imperfection by the fact that even those whom he saves are found to possess but an imperfect salvation-that is, they are saved only so far as the soul is concerned, but lost in their body, which, according to him, does not rise again.
TertullianAD 220
The Prescription Against Heretics
Paul, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, sets his mark on certain who denied and doubted the resurrection. This opinion was the especial property of the Sadducees.
TertullianAD 220
On the Resurrection of the Flesh
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, because ye are yet in your sins, and they which have fallen asleep in Christ are perished." Now, what is the point which he evidently labours hard to make us believe throughout this passage? The resurrection of the dead, you say, which was denied: he certainly wished it to be believed on the strength of the example which he adduced-the Lord's resurrection.
TertullianAD 220
Against Marcion Book V
Ours is a better faith, which believes in a future Christ, than the heretic's, which has none at all to believe in. Touching the resurrection of the dead, let us first inquire how some persons then denied it.
Julius AfricanusAD 240
Julius Africanus The Epistle to Aristides
For who does not know that most holy word of the apostle also, who, when he was preaching and proclaiming the resurrection of our Saviour, and confidently affirming the truth, said with great fear, "If any say that Christ is not risen, and we assert and have believed this, and both hope for and preach that very thing, we are false witnesses of God, in alleging that He raised up Christ, whom He raised not up? "
Ambrose of MilanAD 397
On the Death of Satyrus 2.103
How grave an offense it is not to believe in the resurrection of the dead. If we do not rise again, Christ died in vain and did not rise again. For if he did not rise for us, he did not rise at all, because there is no reason why he should rise for himself.
John ChrysostomAD 407
Homily on 1 Corinthians 39
"Now if Christ is preached that He hath been raised from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?"
Seest thou how excellently he reasons, and proves the resurrection from the fact of Christ's being raised, having first established the former in many ways? "For both the prophets spake of it," saith he, "and the Lord Himself showed it by His appearing, and we preach, and ye believed;" weaving thus his fourfold testimony; the witness of the prophets, the witness of the issue of events, the witness of the apostles, the witness of the disciples; or rather a fivefold. For this very cause too itself implies the resurrection; viz. his dying for others' sins. If therefore this hath been proved, it is evident that the other also follows, viz. that the other dead likewise are raised. And this is why, as concerning an admitted fact, he challenges and questions them, saying, "Now if Christ hath been raised, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?"
Hereby also again abating the boldness of the gainsayers: in that he said not, "how say, ye," but, "how say some among you." And neither doth he bring a charge against all nor declare openly the very persons whom he accuses, in order not to make them more reckless: neither on the other hand doth he conceal it wholly, that he may correct them. For this purpose accordingly, separating them from the multitude, he strips himself for the contest with them, by this both weakening and confounding them, and holding the rest in their conflicts with these firmer to the truth, nor suffering them to desert to those that were busy to destroy them: he being in fact prepared to adopt a vehement mode of speech.
Further, lest they should say, "this indeed is clear and evident unto all that Christ is raised, and none doubts it; this doth not however necessarily imply the other also, to wit, the resurrection of mankind:"-for the one was both before proclaimed and came to pass, and was testified of by his appearing; the fact, namely, of Christ's resurrection: but the other is yet in hope, i.e., our own part:-see what he doeth; from the other side again he makes it out: which is a proof of great power. Thus, "why do some say," saith he, "that there is no resurrection of the dead?" Of course then the former also in its turn is subverted by this, the fact, namely, that Christ is raised.
Augustine of HippoAD 430
When the apostle says to the Corinthians, “How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?” he shows plainly that not all of them were claiming this but that some were, and that it is clear they were not outside but among them… If we had not read in the same letter that “the testimony of Christ is confirmed in you so that nothing is wanting to you in any grace,” we might otherwise have concluded that all the Corinthians were carnalminded and sensual, not discerning the Spirit of God, “quarrelsome, envious, walking according to man.” Letter , To Vincent.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
In 1 Corinthians 15:12, the Apostle Paul directly challenges a dangerous theological error prevalent among some believers in Corinth: the denial of a future resurrection of the dead. Having just meticulously laid out the historical evidence for Christ's resurrection, Paul confronts the profound inconsistency of affirming Christ's bodily rising while simultaneously rejecting the possibility or reality of a general resurrection for all believers, thereby undermining the very foundation of Christian hope and the gospel message.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Paul masterfully employs Rhetorical Question in this verse to highlight the logical inconsistency of the Corinthian skeptics. By posing the question, "how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?", he doesn't seek information but rather forces his audience to confront the absurdity of their position. The question functions as a powerful A Fortiori Argument, implying: if the greater (Christ's resurrection) is true, how can the lesser (a general resurrection) be denied? This device effectively corners his opponents, making their denial appear irrational in light of their accepted belief in Christ's rising. Furthermore, there is an element of Juxtaposition, placing the affirmed truth of Christ's resurrection directly against the denied truth of a general resurrection, thereby emphasizing the stark contradiction.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
1 Corinthians 15:12 is a theological linchpin, asserting that the resurrection of Christ is not an isolated event but the foundational guarantee for the future resurrection of all believers. To deny the general resurrection is to undermine the very power of God demonstrated in Christ and to strip the Christian faith of its ultimate hope beyond death. Paul argues that if Christ did not rise, then the entire Christian message is futile, faith is empty, and believers are still in their sins, with those who have died in Christ having perished (1 Corinthians 15:13-19). The resurrection is thus inextricably linked to justification, sanctification, and eternal life, demonstrating God's ultimate victory over sin and death and providing the eschatological hope that defines Christian existence.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
1 Corinthians 15:12 compels us to examine the coherence of our own faith and the depth of our hope. In a world often characterized by a denial of the supernatural, or a spiritualization of biblical truths, this verse calls us back to the concrete, historical reality of Christ's bodily resurrection and its profound implications for our own future. The hope of resurrection is not merely a comforting thought for the afterlife; it transforms our present reality, providing courage in suffering, perseverance in ministry, and a clear motivation for holy living. If our bodies are destined for resurrection and glorification, then they are not to be despised or used for sin, but to be instruments of righteousness. This truth offers profound comfort in grief, knowing that death is not the end for those in Christ, but a transition to a glorious future where bodies will be reunited with souls, perfected and immortal. It fuels our evangelism, as we proclaim a Savior who has conquered death, offering true and lasting hope to a dying world.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why was the resurrection of the dead a controversial idea in Corinth?
Answer: The concept of a bodily resurrection was highly controversial in Corinth primarily due to the prevailing Greek philosophical currents of the time. Many Greek philosophies, such as Platonism and Stoicism, held a dualistic view of humanity, where the soul was considered immortal and good, while the physical body was often seen as a temporary, corruptible prison. For these thinkers, the idea of the soul being reunited with a physical body after death was not only undesirable but also illogical and absurd. They preferred the idea of the soul escaping the body to achieve a purely spiritual existence. This cultural and philosophical disdain for the material body directly clashed with the Christian doctrine of a physical resurrection, which posits that God will raise believers' bodies, transforming them into glorious, imperishable forms (as described later in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44).
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
1 Corinthians 15:12 powerfully articulates the Christ-centered nature of the resurrection hope. Christ's resurrection is not merely an isolated miracle but the prototype and guarantee of the future resurrection of all who are "in Christ." He is the "firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20), meaning His resurrection inaugurates and ensures the resurrection of all believers. Just as sin and death entered the world through one man, Adam, so too life and resurrection are brought through one man, Christ (1 Corinthians 15:21-22). His victory over death on the cross and in the empty tomb means that death has lost its sting for those who believe (1 Corinthians 15:55-57). The resurrected Christ is the living proof that God's power extends beyond the grave, promising a future where our perishable bodies will be raised imperishable, our mortal bodies immortal, fashioned like His glorious body (Philippians 3:21). Thus, Christ is not just the subject of the resurrection, but its very source and assurance.