1 Corinthians 15:3,4

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 answer the question put in 1 Corinthians 15:2, reinforming the readers: “For I delivered to you amongst the first things, that which I also received”. καὶ emphasises the identity of the παραδοθὲν and παραλημφθέν, involved in the character of a “faithful steward” (1 Corinthians 4:1 f., cf. John 17:8, etc.). How these matters had been received whether by direct revelation (Galatians 1:12) or through other contributory channels (cf. note on 1 Corinthians 11:23 above) is irrelevant. ἐν πρώτοις, in primis, in chief (cf. 1 Timothy 1:15 f.). The things thus delivered are “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He has been raised on the third day according to the Scriptures”. Amongst the three πρῶτα, the first and third are πρώτιστα (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14 f., Romans 4:25, 1 Thessalonians 4:14, etc.); the second is the link between them, signalising at once the completeness of the death and the reality of the resurrection (cf. Romans 6:4; Romans 10:7); ὅτι ἐτάφη καὶ ὅτι ἐγήγερται is a more vivid and circumstantial expression for ὅτι ἐγήγερται ἐκ νεκρῶν (1 Corinthians 15:12, etc.). The two chiefest facts P. and the other Apostolic preachers (1 Corinthians 15:2) were accustomed to verify, both separately and jointly, from the Old Testament, κατὰ τὰς γραφάς (Acts 13:32 ff; Acts 17:3; Acts 26:22 f., Romans 1:2 ff.), after the manner of Jesus (Luke 22:37; Luke 24:25 ff., John 3:14). But it was the facts that opened their eyes to the meaning of the Scriptures concerned (cf. John 2:22; John 20:9). The death and burial are affirmed in the aor [2262] as historical events; the resurrection is put with emphasis into the pf. these, as an abiding power (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:14; 1 Corinthians 15:17; 1 Corinthians 15:20) = ἐγερθεὶς … οὐκέτι ἀποθνήσκει (Romans 6:9; cf. Hebrews 7:25). “For our sins,” see parls. “pro peccatis nostris abolendis” (Bg [2263]). “P. could not have said ὑπὲρ f1τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν if Christ's death were only an example of self-denial, not because ὑπὲρ must be rendered ‘instead of' (in loco), but because the ref [2264] to sin involves with ὑπὲρ the notion of expiation” (Ed [2265]); cf. the excellent note of Mr [2266]; see the exposition of the relation of Christ's death to man's sin in 2 Corinthians 5:18 ff., Romans 3:23 ff; Romans 5:6-11; Galatians 3:10 ff., with notes in this Comm [2267] ad locc.; also 1 Corinthians 15:56 below, and note. The definition on the third day indicates that “in His case restoration to life ensued, instead of the corruption of the corpse that sets in otherwise after this interval” (Hf [2268]). Jesus appears to have seen a Scriptural necessity in the “third day” (Luke 24:46).

[2262] aorist tense.

[2263] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[2264] reference.

[2265] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[2266] Meyer's Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[2267] commentary, commentator.

[2268] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).