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1 Corinthians 15:38

ESV But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.
NIV But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.
NASB But God gives it a body just as He wished, and to each of the seeds a body of its own.
CSB But God gives it a body as he wants, and to each of the seeds its own body.
NLT Then God gives it the new body he wants it to have. A different plant grows from each kind of seed.
KJV But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.
NKJV But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body.

What does 1 Corinthians 15:38 mean?

This passage continues to show how the resurrection of a Christian's body after death is like the sowing of a seed that grows into a plant. The seed must die for the plant to live. The seed, our pre-death frame, is not the ultimate end God had in mind for us. The resurrected body that comes after physical death is the one God means for us to occupy forever.

Paul concludes the metaphor by stating that God gives life to the plant based on the seed that is planted. Wheat kernels grow wheat plants; corn kernels grow corn plants. In the same way, God somehow determines the "kind" of our resurrected body by the "kind" of seed, pre-death body, that comes from it. In other words, Paul will show, the resurrected body will fit or match the body that died in some way.

This explanation is being given to counter the bewilderment of critics. Some dismissed physical resurrection, unable to imagine how a rotted corpse or burnt ashes could live again.
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