1 Corinthians 15:12

“Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?”

Why, then, it has been asked by Rückert and Scherer, would the resurrection of Christ be denied by denying the resurrection of the dead? If Christ is of a different nature from us, as Paul holds, it does not at all follow from the fact that He rose, that we ourselves should rise. And M. Scherer adds: “It is easier to doubt apostolic infallibility than the laws of logic.” Grotius, Meyer, and Kling have sought to answer by these very laws of logic, and explained the reasoning thus: If there be no resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of Christ cannot be a fact; the genus not existing, the species cannot. But if such were the apostle's thought, he would certainly, in 1 Corinthians 15:13, have put the οὐκ ἔστιν before the subject; for this verb would contain all the force of the argument. Besides, it is not of the resurrection of the dead as an abstract idea that Paul would speak; he designates by this name a definite historical event, the resurrection of the dead expected at the end of the earthly economy. Finally, the argument would not be decisive, for one might always lay down an exception in favour of Christ, not only because of His superior nature, but especially, as would apply much better here, because of His perfect holiness, which did not allow of His remaining under the power of death. Paul is not reasoning as an abstract logician, but as an apostle. The basis of his argument is a fact which pertains to the essence of the Christian salvation: our new life, flowing from union with Christ, is nothing else than participation in His life. Salvation therefore cannot be realized in us otherwise than it is realized in Him. If to the heavenly life upon which He has entered there belongs the possession of a risen and glorified body, it must be so with us. Our glory being His glory, which He communicates to us, it must be homogeneous with His. The apostle's question, 1 Corinthians 15:12, is therefore perfectly justified: How say some among you. ?

The expression κηρύσσεται ὅτι signifies: “He is preached as risen; ” still the τίνι λόγῳ of 1 Corinthians 15:2.