1 Corinthians 15:37-38

1 Corinthians 15:37-38 make answer to the second branch of the question of 1 Corinthians 15:35, by the aid of the same profound analogy. καὶ ὃ σπείρεις, οὐ τὸ σῶμα τὸ γενησόμενον σπείρεις, “And what thou sowest not the body that will come to be dost thou sow”. It is the object of the sower to realise a new ποιότης in his seed. If any one interrupted him with the question, “What sort of a body can the grain take that you drop in the earth to rot?” the sower would dismiss him as a fool; he has seen in this case “the body that is to be”. Now the actuality of the lower resurrection vindicates the conceivability of the higher. τὸ γενησόμενον states not merely a future certainty (that shall be; quod futurum sit, Vg [2486]), but a normal process (oriturum, Bz [2487] : quod nascetur, Cv [2488], Bg [2489]). ἀλλὰ γυμνὸν κόκκον, “but a naked grain” unclothed with any body, wanting the appearance and furnishing of life (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:3, ἐνδυσάμενοι, οὐ γυμνοί). For εἰ τύχοι (“if it should chance, of wheat”), see note on 1 Corinthians 14:10 : the kind of grain is indiff. “or of any of the rest (of the seeds)”. The grain of wheat gives to the eye no more promise of the body to spring from it than a grain of sand. ὁ δὲ Θεὸς stands in opposition to σὺ ὃ σπείρεις God the lifegiver responding to the sower's trustful act [2490] “But God gives it a body, according as He willed” (ἠθέλησεν) not “as He wills” (according to His choice or liking), but in accordance with His past decree in creation, by which the propagation of life on the earth was determined from the beginning (Genesis 1:2 f.; for the vb [2491], cf. note on 1 Corinthians 12:18). To allege an impossibility in the case is to impugn the power and resources of the Creator (cf. Acts 26:8), manifested in this very way every spring-time. The Divine will is the efficient nexus between seed and plant (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:6). “And (He gives) to each of the seeds a body of its own (ἴδιον)”. This added clause meets the finer point of the second question of 1 Corinthians 15:35; God will find a fit body for man's redeemed nature, as He does for each of the numberless seeds vivified in the soil. “How unintelligent to think, as the Pharisees did, that the same body that was buried must be restored, if there is to be a resurrection! Every wheat-stalk contradicts thee!” (Mr [2492])

[2486] Latin Vulgate Translation.

[2487] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[2488] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[2489] Bengel's Gnomon Novi Testamenti.

[2490] active voice.

[2491] verb

[2492] Meyer's Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).