The difficulty or problem of the resurrection of the body St. Paul seeks to elucidate by means of the analogy or metajdior of the sowing of seed. It was an analogy already used by Jesus Himself (Jn 12-'), though, as writers of the ' religious-historical ' school especially maintain, the use of this analogy or metaphor from the world of vegetation may have been suggested to St. Paul by the prevalence of such nature-myth ideas in popular religious thought, in which case the analogy would appeal with peculiar force to his readers (see J. Weiss, on 1 Co 15"' ; cf. Kennedy, St. Paul's Conceptions of the Last Things, p. 241). St. Paul's argument on
EESUKRECTION OF CHKIST
the basis of tins analogy is directed to remove the objection to the resurrection of tlie body derived from Its alleged incredibility, and must not be pressed beyond its [)ur]>ose.
His ar-un.ent is as follows : ■ What you bow (crt i <nr,.'o„0 is not ma,k- alive (4u,o,7o..iTa,) uTiless it dies" (v.5«i. Tte s/edVlo
CZVf': "tk™"'' '■■''' """•; """"^ '" '■■'"' ''''^■'^l"!' int^ a ul .";
ISmk I, ^^ "■'"'"'""• «\'""'='">» is tl>e condition of a lushed talitj. It IS not nupossible therefore, nor even iniorohjlile t at our present body may throtiRh death develop into a neS and more perfectly equipped body. The fact that we <i, ^o^ beforehand conceive the nature of this bo,lv is no valid^S InluJ^:! PO^'^l^.lity. The same life princinle can clo he itself
.altered bodily semblance. Who couli^ foretell without previous observation what would spring, e.q., from a irraiii of wheat? The grain of wheat itself gives to ihe eve ,o tfken or
ou?ot';^r"^n^' '"" ^'if'" »'.i'h ea--'""'! S'^'" ".it is to develop out of It by Gods worliing in the economy of nature. 'What .vou sow IS not the body that is to be, it is a mere naked unde-
nut ?'oH^,™v 'i""'™" ""'""'' "! "*'=^»' «■»•• °' «■"-« other seed, liut t.od (o Sf Ktos in contrast to <ri, & oir.ipns in v. 36) „ives it a body according as He willed • (..Bi., i,«a„J,), not • as He wills ■-
the aor. ,eM,<r, denotes the first act of God's wiJI determinins the constitution of nature' (T, C. Edwards, 1 Cmnthiam-? rf^l'/'rf • P- *^,-'v'"- K™"^dy, St. Pauls CmcepUm^of the Last 7 hnigs. p. 243). • And to each kind of seed (he gives) a body peculiar to itself (K.o.),' the body best fitted to^live effective e.xpression to the life which possesses it. So the fire sumption |s that Ood will find a fit body for man's redeemed nature as He does for each of the seeds vivifled in the soil fv fflfT /°"i ™"" ""' s"PPO"=.' St- Paul argues-ooming now (vJSf.) to closer quarters with the assumpuon on whifh th" objection to the resurrection was based, viz. that it is the same identioal body that is laid in the grave that is afsed up romir! t)^^« ^^?^"°' "7'^°'t that there is no other kmd of ^i™ tha^
i^M ■« "!^ ?' Z""^ "■'"'^'' JO" "°w possess. Even as reiiards earthly fleshly bodies there are great varieties in tre Dhinl economy of nature, bodies of men, of beasts, of birds of fishes
ear hu't'^n" '"? '" ''' °^'" '='^»"="'- ^nd there a e not Only ear hly bodies (,r,„^„„ .•„•>.«) but heavenly bodies (^^°„a .;ro„pa^.a), bodies for heavenly beings just as there are for earthLv, and great varieties here also, each fitted to thefr several distinctive ends or constitution.' • So,' he savs, summing Sp his
QuiXnin °:;f";h P"'"'- ' "".I' ?■" ■■«^™"«=ction of toTde^a3^he quickening of the present body through death into another body unimaginably different from it if in the inexhaustible variety of God's resources-for the secret of all is the power of &od-as possible and likely as the springing up of the TeedYn a wholly different fuUer and larger forn, of^Iif"^ God, we may a. fi.^Sf'VK '" 'l^lPthe redeemed life with a body or organism Ut'o'r ^o.SSftirstf'SrYh''"'^ '"'"^ "'' - '•'-^ 'presenfbZy
th?;^i'r^h^3?- - i^lzX'^'l^^::^'^
sowing ,s ,n corruption (e. *9„p,-), \he risin"^ in incor^uptto (.r a*e»p<n„), sown inglorious (i^ ir.p.-,) it rises in glory (..■ iofn), sown in weakness (iy i^e,ve.a) !t rises in power «^ ii'.-aK.O, sown a natural body (<,i^ta J,vw«d^) it rises a snirit, a^
c:ut^r"eTs™T thr"?, ^'■■"K"''^' '-' -■'"-' 'he roo cause or reason of the other contrasts s given. 'Corruotinn '
•natu°rari;odt°''>""''""".'^' ."'•'' "^"^ oharacterist cs'^of°"k
natural body; 'incorruption,' 'gory,' and 'power' are the
characteristics of a 'spiritual' bod^v. 'The VJ^ the nZm7\
roooTn^tmel^'"'-'' '"' "'"'°^'=^ '" '^"^ 'ndividVal^'has by Ood^ appointment an organism corresponding to itself the ^r fvx^Ko,-, the body whose substance is .rapf, with a 'which thaT .n the actual condition of human nature, hnplfes T whose eidll
necessarily ,J,eopd, decay The ^.eO^a, on the other hand
the Divme gift, the power which enter^ human nature in response to faith, and changes it so that henceforward ?t Z governed by a Divine principle, will be equipped with an
body which has no jteshli, element inherent hT it which therefore enters upon a*9ap^.„, incorruption, immortolity as Its necessary sphere of e.xistence ' (Kennedy, p 05.^)^'
Now there is here a difference of interpretation -fhe first im pulse IS to refer the 'sowing' here spoken of to the burial and tlt"Jl?:' '" h' ^'""""'^ """ "^^^'h, Ld the • rising' to the com ing forth from the grave after death. (So Benirel e o Of ^. ' Th' ^'^ ^T;! ^Jhum amcenissimum pio sepultur'a 'f But mani' schoarshold that this is unwarrantably tr/imit the A, osOe's