The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Corinthians — Section 483

Church, otc. One star dift'ereth from another discourses wero current among the apo- star in glory. All the righteous shall shine stles long before the Gospels were written. as " the brightness of the firmament and ... Tertullio.n attributes the insertion of as the ate.re for ever o.nd ever" (Dan. xii. 3), " the Lord " to Marcion. e.nd their future bodies shall differ from Ver. 48.-As is the earthy, etc. Men their present, as one star differs from another. resemble their first parent Adam; Cuns- Ver. 42.-So also is the remrrection of the tians, their spiritual Redeemer, Christ dee.d, In like manner the dead, when raised, (Phil. iii. 20, 21). shall have bodies which differ from their Ver. 49.-We shall also bea.r the ima.ge of body of humiliation (Phil. iii. 21). It ie the hea.venly (for the fact, see Rom. viii. sown in corruption. "Dust thou art, and 29 ; l John iii. 2). For "we shall bear," unto dust shnlt thou return" (Gen. iii. 19). the best manuscripts (N, A, C, D, E, F, G, It is raised in incorruption. The word means etc.) read'' Let us bear.'' Our reading is, strictly, "incorruptibility." The resurrec- however, supported by B, and this is just tion-body will not be subjected to earthly one of the cases in which manuscript evi- conditions (Luke xx. 35, 3ti). dence (or as it is called" diplomatic evi- Ver. 43.-It ie sown in dishonour. "The dence") has a minimum value, and other awful and intolerable indiguity of dust to evidence (para.diplomatic) is decisive. For dust.II In glory. "Though ye have lien (1) the pronunciation of the indicative and e.mong the pots, yet shall ye be as the subjunctive at that time was almost identical, wings of a dorn, that is covered with because in conversation the vowels seem to silver wings, and her feathers like gold" have been much slurred; and (2) there (Ps. lxviii. 13). The expression shows that, was o. universal tendency to substitute throughout, St. Paul is thinking exclu- hortative for direct forms, with o. view to sively of the resurrection of the saints. edifico.tion (as in eh. xiv. 15; Rom. vi. 2, 8; Ver. 44.-A natuxal body. The adjective 2 Cor. v. 11, etc.). Here the exhortation is the word ,j,vxiK6v, which is so difficult to would ruin the texture of the argument. translate; it means a body only animated Vera. 50-58.-Conclusion aml exhorta- by the psyche, or natural life. 'l.'he word is tion. sometimes in our Authorized Version Ver. 50.-Now this I sa.y. This sums up rendered "carnal." A spiritual body. The my meaning. Flesh e.nd blood. Our mortal apparent contradiction in terms is inevit- nature and human organism ; our "earthly able. The thing meant is o. body which is house of this tabernacle" (2 Cor. v. l ; Luke not under the sway of corporeol desires or xx. 35j. Inherit incorruption. A body of intellectual and passionate impulses, but liable to corruption, with all its lonthly is wholly dominated by the t,pirit, and accompaniments, cannot enter into the therefore has no desire or capacity to fulfil "inhe1·itance incorruptible, and undefilc,l, the lusts of tho flesh. There ie. The better e.nd th11t fadeth not away" (1 Pet. i. -!). supported reading (N, A, B, C, D, F, G), is, Ver. 51.-I show you a mystery. I wake if there is a natuml body, etc. The exiot- known to you a truth now m,ide known to ence of the one is no more impossible than me by revelation. We shall not all sleep, the existence of the other. but we sha.ll all be ohanged. There is a Ver. 45.-The first man Ada.m wa.s made great diversity of readings in this verse, a living soul (Gen. ii. 7). The le.et Adam. noticed even by St. Jerome aud St. Augus- A rabbinic exrressiou also for the Messiah. tine. St. Jerome says that all the Lntin A quickening Spirit. "The Son quickeneth monuscripts had "we shall nil 1·ise," nnd whom he will'" (John v. 21; comp. vi. 23). that the·Greek manuscripts wavered between The best comment on the expression will "we sholl nil sleep" 1111d "we slrnll not 1111 be found in Rom. viii. 2, 11. Christ is "a sleep." Some Greek manuscripts had "we quickening," i.e. a life-giving, "Spirit," slrnll nil rise, but we shall not all be here mainly in the sense tbat we shall only changed." This reading cnnnot bo right, be raiRed by " the power of his resurrec- fur it contradicts the next verso. 'fhero is tion" (John v. 24, 25), but also in the little doubt that the readin~ of tho Autho- sense that his Spirit dwelleth in us, and is rized version is right. It accounts for our true Life. all the voriations. They arose from " Ver. 46.-That WBS not first which ie desire to shelter St. Paul from an apparcn t spiritual. The imperfect precedes the mistake, since ho und his re,\ders did till perfect. sleep. But (1) St. Paul may hnve written Ver. 47.-Ea.rthy. Made of "the dust of unclor that conception of tho imminence of the ground" (Gen. ii. 7). Is the Lord from Christ's personal return which he expresses hee.ven. 'fhe words "the Lord" arc o. gloss, in 1 Thess. iv. 15-17, whero he evidently not found in N, B, C, D, B, F, G. 'fhe imagines that the majority of those to whom verse remarkably resembles John iii. 31, and he was writin" would be of those who probably oral rewiniscences of our Lord's would be•• alive; and remain unto the coming  492 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE COltll\THIANS. [en. xv. 1-58.