1 Corinthians 15:36 - Printer Friendly

ESV: You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

NIV: How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

NASB: You fool! That which you sow does not come to life unless it dies;

CSB: You fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.

NLT: What a foolish question! When you put a seed into the ground, it doesn’t grow into a plant unless it dies first.

KJV: Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

NKJV: Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.

Paul is responding harshly to questions posed in the prior verse. This suggests that he's encountered these before, and knows they are not asked in sincerity. These are challenges he anticipates from those among the Corinthians who disbelieved in resurrection from the dead for believers in Jesus. These questions, like ones Jesus' critics posed (Mark 12:18–24) are meant to ridicule a belief, not inquire about it. These objectors simply could not imagine what the experience of a resurrected body might be like.

Paul calls the imaginary objector "foolish." This uses the same term Christ applied to a short-sighted man in a parable (Luke 12:20). The critic imagined here is rejecting belief in the resurrection because of a simple lack of understanding about how God might accomplish such a thing. Paul will more directly answer these questions later, but for now he starts with an analogy from nature: what is sown—or planted, like a seed in a field—does not come to life unless the seed dies first. Paul will go on to show that the resurrected body is similar in the sense that the pre-death body is merely the seed to the much better body God has planned for us.

First Corinthians 15:35–49 describes how the resurrected bodies of believers will be different from our current bodies. Resurrected bodies will not be reanimated corpses or some lesser version of our pre-death frame. The opposite is true. Our current, corrupt bodies are like seeds that are sown to bring to life the plant. These forms are temporary, dishonorable, and weak. Our transformed bodies will be eternal, glorified, and powerful, made from the materials of heaven, not earth, and built for an eternity with God.

Paul provides thorough teaching about the resurrection of Christians from the dead. This is a direct counter to some group of Corinthians who did not believe in such a resurrection. He shows that natural death is not the end of life for Christians; it is the last step before receiving a glorified, resurrected body like that of the risen Christ. That ''spiritual'' body will be as different from our current bodies as a star is from a fish. In that moment, for all who have believed in Christ, living and dead, death will be defeated for good.

In chapters 12, 13, and 14, Scripture focused on the concept of spiritual gifts and how best to use them. This follows several other ideas where Paul corrected errors in the Corinthians' thinking. Chapter 15 contains extensive teaching on one last issue about which some Corinthians were confused or misled. Apparently, they harbored some doubts about the physical resurrection of Christians from the dead. After clearing up these confusions, Paul will address various other items, of a less doctrinal nature, and close out his letter.

First Corinthians is one of the more practical books of the New Testament. Paul writes to a church immersed in a city associated with trade, but also with corruption and immorality. These believers are struggling to properly apply spiritual gifts and to resist the ungodly practices of the surrounding culture. Paul's letter gives instructions for real-life concerns such as marriage and spirituality. He also deals with the importance of unity and gives one of the Bible's more well-known descriptions of love in chapter 13.