1 Moreouer brethren, I declare vnto you the Gospel, which I preached vnto you, which ye haue also receiued, and wherein ye continue, 2 And whereby ye are saued, if ye keepe in memorie, after what maner I preached it vnto you, except ye haue beleeued in vaine. 3 For first of all, I deliuered vnto you that which I receiued, how that Christ died for our sinnes, according to the Scriptures, 4 And that he was buried, and that he arose the third day, according to the Scriptures, 5 And that he was seene of Cephas, then of the twelue. 6 After that, he was seene of more then fiue hudreth brethren at once: whereof many remaine vnto this present, and some also are asleepe. 7 After that, he was seene of Iames: then of all the Apostles. 8 And last of all he was seene also of me, as of one borne out of due time. 9 For I am the least of the Apostles, which am not meete to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. 10 But by the grace of God, I am that I am: and his grace which is in me, was not in vaine: but I laboured more aboundantly then they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me. 11 Wherefore, whether it were I, or they, so we preach, and so haue ye beleeued. 12 Now if it be preached, that Christ is risen from the dead, how say some among you, that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 For if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: 14 And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vaine, and your faith is also vaine. 15 And we are found also false witnesses of God: for we haue testified of God, that he hath raised vp Christ: whome he hath not raised vp, if so be the dead be not raised. 16 For if the dead be not raised, then is Christ not raised. 17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vaine: ye are yet in your sinnes. 18 And so they which are a sleepe in Christ, are perished. 19 If in this life onely wee haue hope in Christ, we are of all men the most miserable. 20 But nowe is Christ risen from the dead, and was made the first fruites of them that slept. 21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. 22 For as in Adam all die, euen so in Christ shall all be made aliue, 23 But euery man in his owne order: the first fruites is Christ, afterward, they that are of Christ, at his comming shall rise againe. 24 Then shalbe the end, when he hath deliuered vp the kingdome to God, euen the Father, when he hath put downe all rule, and all authoritie and power. 25 For he must reigne till hee hath put all his enemies vnder his feete. 26 The last enemie that shalbe destroyed, is death. 27 For he hath put downe all things vnder his feete. (And when he saith that all things are subdued to him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put downe all things vnder him.) 28 And when all things shalbe subdued vnto him, then shall the Sonne also himselfe be subiect vnto him, that did subdue all things vnder him, that God may be all in all. 29 Els what shall they doe which are baptized for dead? if the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for dead? 30 Why are wee also in ieopardie euery houre? 31 By your reioycing which I haue in Christ Iesus our Lord, I die dayly. 32 If I haue fought with beastes at Ephesus after ye maner of men, what aduantageth it me, if the dead be not raised vp? let vs eate and drinke: for to morowe we shall die. 33 Be not deceiued: euill speakings corrupt good maners. 34 Awake to liue righteously, and sinne not: for some haue not ye knowledge of God, I speake this to your shame. 35 But some man will say, Howe are the dead raised vp? and with what body come they foorth? 36 O foole, that which thou sowest, is not quickened, except it die. 37 And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shalbe, but bare corne as it falleth, of wheat, or of some other. 38 But God giueth it a body at his pleasure, euen to euery seede his owne body, 39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beastes, and another of fishes, and another of birdes. 40 There are also heauenly bodies, and earthly bodies: but the glorie of the heauenly is one, and the glorie of the earthly is another. 41 There is another glorie of the sunne, and another glorie of the moone, and another glorie of the starres: for one starre differeth from another starre in glorie. 42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. The bodie is sowen in corruption, and is raysed in incorruption. 43 It is sowen in dishonour, and is raysed in glory: it is sowen in weakenesse, and is raysed in power. 44 It is sowen a naturall body, and is raysed a spirituall body: there is a naturall body, and there is a spirituall body. 45 As it is also written, The first man Adam was made a liuing soule: and the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. 46 Howbeit that was not first which is spirituall: but that which is naturall, and afterward that which is spirituall. 47 The first man is of the earth, earthly: the second man is the Lord from heauen. 48 As is the earthly, such are they that are earthly: and as is the heauenly, such are they also that are heauenly. 49 And as we haue borne the image of the earthly, so shall we beare the image of the heauenly. 50 This say I, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherite the kingdome of God, neither doeth corruption inherite incorruption. 51 Behold, I shewe you a secret thing, We shall not all sleepe, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinckling of an eye at the last trumpet: for the trumpet shall blow, and the dead shalbe raysed vp incorruptible, and we shalbe changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption: and this mortall must put on immortalitie. 54 So when this corruptible hath put on incorruption, and this mortall hath put on immortalitie, then shalbe brought to passe the saying that is written, Death is swallowed vp into victorie. 55 O death where is thy sting? O graue where is thy victorie? 56 The sting of death is sinne: and ye strength of sinne is the Lawe. 57 But thankes be vnto God, which hath giuen vs victorie through our Lord Iesus Christ. 58 Therefore my beloued brethren, be ye stedfast, vnmoueable, aboundant alwayes in the worke of the Lord, forasmuch as ye knowe that your labour is not in vaine in the Lord.
The Resurrection of Christ
1 And now I want to remind you, my friends, of the Good News which I preached to you, which you received, and on which your faith stands firm. 2 That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it—unless it was for nothing that you believed.
3 I passed on to you what I received, which is of the greatest importance: that Christ died for our sins, as written in the Scriptures; 4 that he was buried and that he was raised to life three days later, as written in the Scriptures; 5 that he appeared to Peter and then to all twelve apostles. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred of his followers at once, most of whom are still alive, although some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, and afterward to all the apostles.
8 Last of all he appeared also to me—even though I am like someone whose birth was abnormal. 9 For I am the least of all the apostles—I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted God's church. 10 But by God's grace I am what I am, and the grace that he gave me was not without effect. On the contrary, I have worked harder than any of the other apostles, although it was not really my own doing, but God's grace working with me. 11 So then, whether it came from me or from them, this is what we all preach, and this is what you believe.
Our Resurrection
12 Now, since our message is that Christ has been raised from death, how can some of you say that the dead will not be raised to life? 13 If that is true, it means that Christ was not raised; 14 and if Christ has not been raised from death, then we have nothing to preach and you have nothing to believe. 15 More than that, we are shown to be lying about God, because we said that he raised Christ from death—but if it is true that the dead are not raised to life, then he did not raise Christ. 16 For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is a delusion and you are still lost in your sins. 18 It would also mean that the believers in Christ who have died are lost. 19 If our hope in Christ is good for this life only and no more, then we deserve more pity than anyone else in all the world.
20 But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised. 21 For just as death came by means of a man, in the same way the rising from death comes by means of a man. 22 For just as all people die because of their union with Adam, in the same way all will be raised to life because of their union with Christ. 23 But each one will be raised in proper order: Christ, first of all; then, at the time of his coming, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come; Christ will overcome all spiritual rulers, authorities, and powers, and will hand over the Kingdom to God the Father. 25 For Christ must rule until God defeats all enemies and puts them under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be defeated will be death. 27 For the scripture says, “God put all things under his feet.” It is clear, of course, that the words “all things” do not include God himself, who puts all things under Christ. 28 But when all things have been placed under Christ's rule, then he himself, the Son, will place himself under God, who placed all things under him; and God will rule completely over all.
29 Now, what about those people who are baptized for the dead? What do they hope to accomplish? If it is true, as some claim, that the dead are not raised to life, why are those people being baptized for the dead? 30 And as for us—why would we run the risk of danger every hour? 31 My friends, I face death every day! The pride I have in you, in our life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord, makes me declare this. 32 If I have, as it were, fought “wild beasts” here in Ephesus simply from human motives, what have I gained? But if the dead are not raised to life, then, as the saying goes, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”
33 Do not be fooled. “Bad companions ruin good character.” 34 Come back to your right senses and stop your sinful ways. I declare to your shame that some of you do not know God.
The Resurrection Body
35 Someone will ask, “How can the dead be raised to life? What kind of body will they have?” 36 You fool! When you plant a seed in the ground, it does not sprout to life unless it dies. 37 And what you plant is a bare seed, perhaps a grain of wheat or some other grain, not the full-bodied plant that will later grow up. 38 God provides that seed with the body he wishes; he gives each seed its own proper body.
39 And the flesh of living beings is not all the same kind of flesh; human beings have one kind of flesh, animals another, birds another, and fish another.
40 And there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies; the beauty that belongs to heavenly bodies is different from the beauty that belongs to earthly bodies. 41 The sun has its own beauty, the moon another beauty, and the stars a different beauty; and even among stars there are different kinds of beauty.
42 This is how it will be when the dead are raised to life. When the body is buried, it is mortal; when raised, it will be immortal. 43 When buried, it is ugly and weak; when raised, it will be beautiful and strong. 44 When buried, it is a physical body; when raised, it will be a spiritual body. There is, of course, a physical body, so there has to be a spiritual body. 45 For the scripture says, “The first man, Adam, was created a living being”; but the last Adam is the life-giving Spirit. 46 It is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. 47 The first Adam, made of earth, came from the earth; the second Adam came from heaven. 48 Those who belong to the earth are like the one who was made of earth; those who are of heaven are like the one who came from heaven. 49 Just as we wear the likeness of the man made of earth, so we will wear the likeness of the Man from heaven.
50 What I mean, friends, is that what is made of flesh and blood cannot share in God's Kingdom, and what is mortal cannot possess immortality.
51-52 Listen to this secret truth: we shall not all die, but when the last trumpet sounds, we shall all be changed in an instant, as quickly as the blinking of an eye. For when the trumpet sounds, the dead will be raised, never to die again, and we shall all be changed. 53 For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die. 54 So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: “Death is destroyed; victory is complete!”
55 “Where, Death, is your victory?
Where, Death, is your power to hurt?”
56 Death gets its power to hurt from sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. 57 But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
58 So then, my dear friends, stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord's service is ever useless.