1 Corinthians 15:38

But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:35-50 1. How are the dead raised up? that is, by what means? How can they be raised? 2. As to the bodies which shall rise. Will it be with the like shape, and form, and stature, and members, and qualities? The former objection is that of those who opposed the doctrine, the latter of curious doubters. To the first the answer is, This was to be brought about by Divine power; that power which all may see does somewhat like it, year after year, in the death and revival of the corn. It is foolish to question the Almighty power of God to raise the dead, when we see it every day quickening and reviving things that are dead. To the second inquiry; The grain undergoes a great change; and so will the dead, when they rise and live again. The seed dies, though a part of it springs into new life, though how it is we cannot fully understand. The works of creation and providence daily teach us to be humble, as well as to admire the Creator's wisdom and goodness. There is a great variety among other bodies, as there is among plants. There is a variety of glory among heavenly bodies. The bodies of the dead, when they rise, will be fitted for the heavenly bodies. The bodies of the dead, when they rise, will be fitted for the heavenly state; and there will be a variety of glories among them. Burying the dead, is like committing seed to the earth, that it may spring out of it again. Nothing is more loathsome than a dead body. But believers shall at the resurrection have bodies, made fit to be for ever united with spirits made perfect. To God all things are possible. He is the Author and Source of spiritual life and holiness, unto all his people, by the supply of his Holy Spirit to the soul; and he will also quicken and change the body by his Spirit. The dead in Christ shall not only rise, but shall rise thus gloriously changed. The bodies of the saints, when they rise again, will be changed. They will be then glorious and spiritual bodies, fitted to the heavenly world and state, where they are ever afterwards to dwell. The human body in its present form, and with its wants and weaknesses, cannot enter or enjoy the kingdom of God. Then let us not sow to the flesh, of which we can only reap corruption. And the body follows the state of the soul. He, therefore, who neglects the life of the soul, casts away his present good; he who refuses to live to God, squanders all he has.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But God giveth it a body ... - God gives to the seed sown its own proper body, formation, and growth. The word body here, as applied to grain, seems to mean the whole system, or arrangement of roots, stalks, leaves, flowers, and kernels that start out of the seed that is sown The meaning is, that such a form is produced from the seed sown as God pleases. Paul here traces the result to God, to show that there is no chance, and that it did not depend on the nature of things, but was dependent on the wise arrangement of God. There was nothing in the decaying kernel itself that would produce this result; but God chose that it should be so. There is nothing in the decaying body of the dead which in itself should lead to the resurrection; but God chose it should be so.

As it hath pleased him - As he chose. It is by his arrangement and agency. Though it is by regular laws, yet it is as God pleases. He acts according to his own pleasure, in the formation of each root, and stalk, and kernel of grain. It is, probably, here intimated that God would give to each one of the dead at the resurrection such a body as he should choose, though it will be, doubtless, in accordance with general laws.

And to every seed his own body - That which appropriately belongs to it; which it is suited to produce; which is of the same kind. He does not cause a stalk of rye to grow from a kernel of wheat; nor of maize from barley; nor of hemp from lenthes. He has fixed proper laws, and he takes care that they shall be observed. So it will be in the resurrection. Everyone shall have his own, that is, his proper body - a body which shall belong to him, and be suited to him. The wicked shall not rise with the body of the just, or with a body adapted to heaven; nor shall the saint rise with a body adapted to perdition. There shall be a fitness or appropriateness in the new body to the character of him who is raised. The argument here is designed to meet the inquiry how should the body be raised, and it is that there is nothing more remarkable and impossible in the doctrine of the resurrection, than in the fact constantly before us, that grain that seems to rot sends up a shoot or stalk, and is reproduced in a wonderful and beautiful manner. In a manner similar to this, the body will be raised; and the illustration of Paul meets all the difficulties about the fact of the resurrection. It cannot be shown that one is more difficult than the other; and as the facts of vegetation are constantly passing before our eyes, we ought not to deem it strange if similar facts shall take place hereafter in regard to the resurrection of the dead.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

38. as it hath pleased him—at creation, when He gave to each of the (kinds of) seeds (so the Greek is for "to every seed") a body of its own (Ge 1:11, "after its kind," suited to its species). So God can and will give to the blessed at the resurrection their own appropriate body, such as it pleases Him, and such as is suitable to their glorified state: a body peculiar to the individual, substantially the same as the body sown.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

But God giveth to every grain, or kind of seed, such a kind of body as it pleaseth him, and a several body, according to the nature of the grain; yet none will deny, but it is the seed sown which cometh up, though with a different body, in respect of some qualities.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But God giveth it a body, as it hath pleased him,.... It is not the husbandman, nor the sun, nor the rain, that give the grain of wheat, or any other, its verdure and beauty, the form in which it springs up, its stalk, blade, and ear, but God by his own power, and of his sovereign will and pleasure; and he does not create this new form, but gives it; and does not barely give it, but gives the body to it: to the selfsame grain, and not another: so the resurrection of the dead is God's work; it is an instance of his power, and of his sovereign will; and is to his people a branch of that eternal life, which is his pure gift through Jesus Christ; all that glory in which the body will arise springs from his free grace, and is bestowed upon the selfsame body, which was carried about here, and laid in the grave: and to every

seed its own body; which is suitable and natural to it, according to its kind; see Genesis 1:11 as cummin to cummin, anise to anise, wheat to wheat, barley to barley, and not on the contrary; showing, that it is the same body that is raised that dies, though it is in a more glorious, and with more excellent qualities; which is manifest from express passages of Scripture; see Job 19:26 from the signification of the word resurrection, which is a raising up of that which is fallen and if the same body that falls by death is not raised, but another is given, it will not be a resurrection, but a creation: and also from the figurative phrases by which it is expressed, as here by the quickening of seed cast into the earth, and elsewhere by awaking out of sleep; now as it is the same seed that is sown that springs up again, and the same body that sleeps that awaked out of it, so it is the same body that is interred in the earth, and falls asleep by death, that will be quickened and awaked at the resurrection: and it is clear from the places from whence the dead will be raised, the repositories of them, as death and hell, or the grave, and the sea; for none but the same bodies that are laid in the grave, or cast into the sea, can be said to come forth out of them, or be delivered up; by them: and from the subject of the resurrection, the bodies of men, their vile and mortal bodies, which can be no other than their present ones; and from the end of the resurrection, which is that some may come to life, and others to damnation; and from the justice of God, which requires that the same bodies Christ has purchased, find who have served and suffered for him, should be glorified; and the same that have done evil against him, and abused themselves and his people, be punished: this might be argued from the translations of Enoch and Elijah in their bodies to heaven, in which they were on earth; and from the resurrection of the bodies of the saints at Christ's resurrection, and the change that will be on the bodies of living saints at the coming of Christ; for it is not reasonable to suppose, that some of the saints shall have their own bodies, and others none at all, or not the same they lived in here: this may be further confirmed, from the resurrection of Christ's body, which was the same he had before; it was not changed into a spirit, but consisted of flesh and bones, as it had done; and had on it the very print of the nails, and spear in his hands, feet, and side; and to this the bodies of the saints are to be fashioned: add to all this, if it is not a resurrection of the same body, but new ones are created, to which the soul will be united, it will not be a resurrection, but a transmigration of souls into other bodies; but as every seed has its own body, so will every soul have its own body, though greatly different as to its qualities, and much improved for the better, as in seed sown: and this is the sense of the ancient Jews (q),

"says R. Chijah, , "that that selfsame body that was shall rise", is clear from what is written, thy dead men shall live, Isaiah 26:19 and it is not written, shall be created; from whence it is evident that they shall not be created, but shall be quickened:''

and again (r),

"in the time to come, the holy blessed God will quicken the dead, and raise them "out of their own dust", that they may not be a building of dust, as they were at first, when they were created out of dust itself, a thing which is not stable, according to Genesis 2:7 and at that time they shall be raised out of the dust, out of that building, and shall stand in a stable building, that they may have stability, or duration.''

So on those words, "I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal", Deuteronomy 32:39 they observe (s), that

"as wounding and healing are "in one", (and the same body,) so death and life are "in one and" the same.''

(q) Zohar in Exod. fol. 12. 3.((r) Midrash Hannealam in Zohar in Gen. fol. 81. 1.((s) T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 91. 2.

Geneva Study Bible

{22} But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

(22) We see a diversity both in one and the self same thing which has now one form and then another, and yet keeps its own type: as it is evident in a grain which is sown bare, but springs up far after another sort: and also in different types of one self same sort, as among beasts: and also among things of different sorts, as the heavenly bodies and the earthly bodies; which also differ very much one from another. Therefore there is no reason why we should reject either the resurrection of the bodies, or the changing of them into a better state, as a thing impossible, or strange.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Corinthians 15:38. Ὁ δὲ θεός] setting over against the σὺ ὃ σπείρεις, 1 Corinthians 15:36, what is done on God’s part with the seed which on man’s part is sowe.

ἠθέλ.] has willed. It denotes the (already at the creation) completed act of the divine volition as embodied in the laws of natur.

καί] and indeed, as 1 Corinthians 3:5.

The diversity of the (peculiar, ἴδιον) organisms, which God bestows upon—i.e. causes to spring forth out of—the different seeds sown, while preserving the identity of the kinds, exposes all the more the folly of the question: ποίῳ δὲ σώματι ἔρχονται, in so far as it was meant to support the denial of the resurrection. As if God, who gives such varied plant-bodies to the sown grains, each according to its kind, could not also give new resurrection-bodies to the buried dead! How foolish to think that the same body which is buried (as e.g. the Pharisees conceived of the matter) must come forth again, if there is a resurrection! Every stalk of wheat, etc., refutes thee!

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

38. but God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him] Literally, as He willed. Cf. ch. 1 Corinthians 12:11 (where however the word is not the same in the Greek). “Life even in its lowest form has the power of assimilating to itself atoms.” Robertson. And these are arranged and developed according to the law that God has impressed on each seed.

and to every seed his own body] “That body with which it is raised may be called its own body, and yet it is a new body. It is raised anew with stem and leaves and fruit, and yet all the while we know that it is no new corn: it is the old life in the seed reappearing, developed in a higher form.” Robertson.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Corinthians 15:38. Ὁ δὲ Θεὸς, but God) Not thou, O man; not the grain itself.—αὐτῷ, to it) to the grain.—ἠθέλησε, He hath willed) The preterite in respect of creation, Genesis 1:11 : or at least because willing is before giving,—ἑκάστῳ, to every one) not only to the seed of fruits, but also to that of animals. A gradation to the following verse.—ἴδιον, its own) suitable to the species, peculiar to the individual, produced from the substance of the seed. This peculiarity is further explained in the following verse.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 38. - But God giveth it a body. The material body of each living organism results from those laws of assimilation which God has made a part of His secret of life. They are not the life, only the instrument and expression and manifestation of the life. The "life" is the individual identity. The life of Hamlet is not in its essence the physical life of "the machine which is to him Hamlet," but the spiritual life which is linked on earth to that perpetual flux of material particles which we call the body, but is independent of those particles. As it hath pleased him; literally, as he willed. And in the word "as" lies the scope for all theories about the part played by what are called "natural laws." Their action is a part of God's will. To every seed his own body. Each of the seeds sown is provided with a body of its own, which is not identical with the seed, but results from the germ of life in the seed. 1 Corinthians 15:38

Vincent's Word Studies

As it hath pleased (καθὼς ἠθέλησεν)

Lit., even as He willed; at the creation, when He fixed the different types of grain, so that each should permanently assume a form according to its distinctive type - a body of its own: that wheat should always be wheat, barley barley, etc. Compare Genesis 1:11, Genesis 1:12.