that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
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Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles, who is not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the assembly of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Whether then it is I or they, so we preach, and so you believed.
Parallel Translations
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that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
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and that he was buried and that he arose agayne the thyrd daye accordinge to the scriptures:
and that he he was sene of Cephas then of the twelve.
Show all 3 translations
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And that he was buried, and that he arose the third day, according to the Scriptures,
And that he was seene of Cephas, then of the twelue.
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Cross-references (42)
- Hosea 6:2 (v4) After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him.
- Matthew 12:40 (v4) For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart…
- Psalms 16:10-11 (v4) For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption. You will show me the path of life. In your…
- Isaiah 53:9-12 (v4) They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.…
- Acts 13:29-37 (v4) When they had fulfilled all things that were written about him, they took him down from the tree, and laid him in a tomb. But God raised…
Show all 42 cross-references
- Acts 26:22-23 (v4) Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the…
- Mark 16:14 (v5) Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart,…
- Luke 24:46 (v4) He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day,
- Jonah 1:17 (v4) Yahweh prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
- Psalms 2:7 (v4) I will tell of the decree: Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.
- 1 Corinthians 15:16-21 (v4) For if the dead aren’t raised, neither has Christ been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your…
- Luke 9:22 (v4) saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third…
- Luke 24:5-7 (v4) Becoming terrified, they bowed their faces down to the earth. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He isn’t here,…
- Luke 24:26 (v4) Didn’t the Christ have to suffer these things and to enter into his glory?”
- Acts 2:23-33 (v4) him, being delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by the hand of lawless men, crucified and…
- Romans 6:4 (v4) We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,…
- Hebrews 13:20 (v4) Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord…
- Mark 16:2-7 (v4) Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. They were saying among themselves, “Who will roll…
- Colossians 2:12 (v4) having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the…
- Matthew 16:21 (v4) From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and…
- Matthew 20:19 (v4) and will hand him over to the Gentiles to mock, to scourge, and to crucify; and the third day he will be raised up.”
- Matthew 27:57-60 (v4) When evening had come, a rich man from Arimathaea, named Joseph, who himself was also Jesus’ disciple came. This man went to Pilate, and…
- Matthew 27:63-64 (v4) saying, “Sir, we remember what that deceiver said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Command therefore that…
- Matthew 28:1-6 (v4) Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb. Behold,…
- Mark 9:31 (v4) For he was teaching his disciples, and said to them, “The Son of Man is being handed over to the hands of men, and they will kill him; and…
- Mark 10:33-34 (v4) “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to…
- Luke 18:32-33 (v4) For he will be delivered up to the Gentiles, will be mocked, treated shamefully, and spit on. They will scourge and kill him. On the third…
- Luke 23:50-53 (v4) Behold, a man named Joseph, who was a member of the council, a good and righteous man (he had not consented to their counsel and deed),…
- John 2:19-22 (v4) Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews therefore said, “It took forty-six years to…
- John 20:19-26 (v5) When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were locked where the disciples were assembled,…
- Acts 1:2-14 (v5) until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To…
- Acts 1:3 (v4) To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about…
- Acts 17:31 (v4) because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given…
- Mark 15:43-46 (v4) Joseph of Arimathaea, a prominent council member who also himself was looking for God’s Kingdom, came. He boldly went in to Pilate, and…
- Luke 24:34-49 (v5) saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!” They related the things that happened along the way, and how he was…
- John 1:42 (v5) He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him, and said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is by…
- John 19:38–20:9 (v4) After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take…
- 1 Corinthians 1:12 (v5) Now I mean this, that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” “I follow Apollos,” “I follow Cephas,” and, “I follow Christ.”
- 1 Peter 1:11 (v4) searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and…
- Acts 10:41 (v5) not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen before by God, to us, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
- 1 Corinthians 3:22 (v5) whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come. All are yours,
- 1 Corinthians 9:5 (v5) Have we no right to take along a wife who is a believer, even as the rest of the apostles, and the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v5 Of those twelve picked and chosen Apostles, which were…
Of those twelve picked and chosen Apostles, which were commonly called twelve, though Judas was put out of the number.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv4–5 4 And that he was buried, and that he…
4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Ver. 4. According to the Scriptures] Which both foreshowed and foreshadowed it in Adam’s waking, Isaac’s reviving, as it were from the dead, Joseph’s abasement and advancement, Samson’s breaking the bars and bearing away the gates of Gaza, David’s being drawn out of the deep, Daniel’s out of the den, Jeremiah’s out of the dungeon, Jonah’s out of the belly of hell, Mat 12:39, &c.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv4–5 Not the death only, but the burial of Christ,…
Not the death only, but the burial of Christ, and his resurrection again from the dead, were (though more darkly) revealed in the Scriptures of the Old Testament. Jonah and Isaac were both of them types of this; David prophesied, that God would not leave his soul in hell, nor suffer his Holy One to see corruption, Psa 16:10; which Peter applieth to Christ, Act 2:31; so Act 13:35. So that the doctrine of the New Testament in these things agreeth with the doctrine of the Old; with this only difference, that the Old Testament contained the New Testament in a mystery, and the New Testament was the Old Testament more fully and plainly revealed.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv4–5 And that he was buried,.... That is, according to…
And that he was buried,.... That is, according to the Scriptures; for as he died and rose again according to the Scriptures, he was buried according to them; which speak of his being in hell, in "sheol", in the grave, and of his making his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, Psa 16:10 and which had their accomplishment through Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, who begged the body of Jesus, wrapped in linen, and laid it in his own new tomb. And besides these Scripture prophecies of his burial, Jonah's being three days and three nights in the whale's belly was a type of it, and according to which our Lord himself foretold it, Mat 12:40. Now since this was prophesied of, and typified, and had its actual accomplishment, it was very proper for the apostle to take notice of it, both to confirm the certainty of Christ's death, and the truth of his resurrection, which his death and burial are mentioned, in order to lead on to, and next follows:
and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures: that he should rise again from the dead was very plainly hinted or expressed in several prophecies which speak of the rising of his dead body, of its not being left in the grave so long as to see corruption; and which therefore could not be in it more than three days; and of his lifting up his head after he had drank of the brook by the way; of his ascension to heaven, and session at the right hand of God, which suppose his resurrection, Isa 26:19. And that he should rise again the third day, is not only suggested in Hos 6:2 but was prefigured by the deliverance of Isaac on the third day after Abraham had given him up for dead, from whence he received him, in a figure of Christ's resurrection; and by Jonah's deliverance out of the whale's belly, after he had been in it three days. The Jews take a particular notice of the third day as remarkable for many things they observe (e), as
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"of the third day Abraham lift up his eyes, Gen 22:4 of the third day of the tribes, Gen 42:18 of the third day of the spies, Jos 2:16 of the third day of the giving of the law, Exo 19:16 of the third day of Jonah, Jon 1:17 of the third day of them that came out of the captivity, Ezr 8:15 of the third day of the resurrection of the dead, as it is written, Hos 6:2 "after two days will he revive us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight".''
From which passage, it is clear, that they under stood the prophecy in Hosea of the resurrection of the dead; and it is observable, that among the remarkable third days they take notice of, are the two instances of Isaac's and Jonah's deliverances, which were Scripture types of Christ's resurrection. From which observations they establish this as a maxim (f), that
"God does not leave the righteous in distress more than three days.''
That Christ did rise again from the dead, in pursuance of those prophecies and types, the apostle afterwards proves by an induction of particular instances of persons who were eyewitnesses of it.
(e) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 56. fol. 49. 3. (f) Mattanot Cehunah in ib.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv4–5 According to the scriptures - He proves it first…
According to the scriptures - He proves it first from scripture, then from the testimony of a cloud of witnesses. Psalm xvi, 10.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On v5 Verse 5. That he was seen of Cephas, then…
Verse 5. That he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve] This refers to the journey to Emmaus, Luk 24:13, Luk 24:34; and to what is related Mr 16:14.
Then of the twelve] Instead of δωδεκα, twelve, ενδεκα, eleven, is the reading of D*EFG, Syriac in the margin, some of the Slavonic, Armenian, Vulgate, Itala, and several of the fathers; and this reading is supported by Mr 16:14. Perhaps the term twelve is used here merely to point out the society of the apostles, who, though at this time they were only eleven, were still called the twelve, because this was their original number, and a number which was afterward filled up. See Joh 20:24.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v5 1Co 15:5. And that he was seen of Cephas…
1Co 15:5. And that he was seen of Cephas — As mentioned Luk 24:34, who saw him before any of the other apostles. He appeared, indeed, after his resurrection, first of all to Mary Magdalene: but as no woman was employed to testify his resurrection to the world, St. Paul did not think it necessary, in exhibiting the proofs of Christ’s resurrection, to mention any of his appearances to the women. Then of the twelve — That company of apostles so called, though several of the number were not present when he appeared. Macknight thinks, that in this expression all our Lord’s appearances to his apostles, from the time he arose, to the time he showed himself to the five hundred brethren at once, are comprehended; namely, his appearance to the apostles on the evening of the day on which he arose, and on the eighth day thereafter, and at the sea of Tiberias, as also every other appearance to them which the evangelists may have omitted to relate; for that they omitted some is certain.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv4–5 And that he was buried - That is, evidently…
And that he was buried - That is, evidently according to the Scriptures; see Isa 53:9.
And that he rose again the third day ... - That is, that he should rise from the dead was foretold in the Scriptures. It is not of necessity implied that it was predicted that he should rise “on the third day,” but that he should rise from the dead. See the argument for this stated in the discourse of Peter, in Act 2:24-32. The particular passage which is there urged in proof of his resurrection is derived from Psa 16:1-11.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv4–5 buried . . . rose again--His burial is more…
buried . . . rose again--His burial is more closely connected with His resurrection than His death. At the moment of His death, the power of His inextinguishable life exerted itself (Mat 27:52). The grave was to Him not the destined receptacle of corruption, but an apartment fitted for entering into life (Act 2:26-28) [BENGEL].
rose again--Greek, "hath risen": the state thus begun, and its consequences, still continue.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv4–5 4. Buried—Entombed.
4. Buried—Entombed.
According to the Scriptures—Christ’s resurrection was not an isolated event, like a resuscitation from catalepsy or drowning of some apparent corpse. See note on Act_17:31; Act_2:24. It is the crowning fact of a great organic system of facts, binding each other into one common solidity.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv4–5 4. was buried, and that he rose again] Literally,…
4. was buried, and that he rose again] Literally, was buried and hath risen again, the aorist referring to the single act, the perfect to Christ’s continued life after his Resurrection.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv4–5 (4) And that he rose again.—Better, and that He…
(4) And that he rose again.—Better, and that He has been raised again. The burial of our Lord is dwelt upon and emphasised as the proof of the reality of His death. Similarly in the case of Lazarus, his entombment is brought out strongly as showing that it was from no trance, but from death that he arose. (See John 11)
According to the scriptures.—The reiteration with each statement that it was “according to the scriptures,” i.e., according to the Old Testament scriptures, the Gospel narratives not yet being in existence—shows how strongly the Apostle dwelt on the unity of the facts of Christ’s life and the predictive utterances of the prophets. The death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord were all parts of that providential plan which the deep spiritual insight of God’s servants of old illumined by the Holy Spirit had enabled them to foresee. The resurrection was no subsequent invention to try and explain away or mitigate the terrible shock which Christ’s death had given to his followers. (See Psa_2:7; Psa_16:10; Isa_53:9-10; Isa_55:3; Hos_6:2.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv4–5 And that he rose; rather, that he had been…
And that he rose; rather, that he had been raised. The burial was a single act; the Resurrection is permanent and eternal in its issues. According to the Scriptures (Psa_16:10; Isa_53:10; Hos_6:2; Jon_2:10; comp. Mat_12:40 Mat_16:4; Act_2:31 Act_13:34.
Vers. 4, 5. Veritable death and veritable resurrection.
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Men in all ages have recognized that the truth of Christianity depends upon the historical verity of our Lord"s resurrection from the dead. Consequently, attacks of various kinds have been made upon the fact. It has always been felt that this was the key of the Christian position. We may summarize the attacks thus:
1. Men denied the reality of our Lord"s death.
2. Then they argued that the only resurrection possible to man is a spiritual regeneration and conversion.
3. By and by men said that the resurrection was no fact, only a myth that grew up, fashioned by the wishes of a credulous band of disciples.
1. And then the scientific people thought to bury the old truth forever out of reach, by declaring that the resurrection of bodily forms which have once decayed is simply impossible; all decaying matter goes to the formation of fresh life, and the bodies of dead men really become, over and over again, constituents of the bodies of living men. But the question which concerns us first of all is not How can these things be? butIs there sufficient evidence and proof? The matter may be beyond present explication, but it is not therefore untrue, nor can we be justified in refusing to accept an adequately sustained historical fact, because the fact is surrounded with scientific and moral difficulties. True science bids us accept without questioning every well-ascertained fact. Now, the verses before us declare two facts:
1. Christ really died;
2. Christ really rose from the dead. We affirm that we have
I ADEQUATE PROOF OF THE REAL DEATH. Illustrate:
1. The nature of the death, from ruptured heart.
2. The testing spear thrust.
3. The distinct attestation of the Roman centurion, and subsidiary testimony of the Roman soldiers, who did not break our Lord"s legs.
4. The actual burial in the tomb.
II ADEQUATE PROOF OF THE REAL RESURRECTION.
1. Scripture antecedent cases show the possibility of resurrection from the dead. Our Lord"s resurrection does not stand alone.
2. The various appearances of our Lord.
3. His special manifestation to St. Paul. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v5 And that He was seen of Cephas, then of…
1Co_15:5-8
And that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve.
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The infallible proofs of our Lords resurrection
I. The witnesses were--
1. Numerous.
2. Competent in respect of their acquaintance with Christ, their intelligence, their opportunities of seeing Him.
3. Honest.
II. Their evidence.
1. Was immediately given.
2. Where the facts occurred.
3. Harmonious.
4. Constantly repeated.
5. Openly given while hundreds of them were alive.
6. Steadily maintained even unto death. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
The evidence for the resurrection
As the resurrection of Christ is an historical fact, it is to be proved by historical evidence. The apostle therefore appeals to the testimony of competent witnesses. Confidence in such testimony is not founded on experience, but on the constitution of our nature. We are so constituted that we cannot refuse assent to the testimony of good men to a fact fairly within their knowledge. To render such testimony irresistible it is necessary--
1. That the fact to be proved should be of a nature to admit of being certainly known.
2. That adequate opportunity be afforded to the witnesses to ascertain its nature, and to be satisfied of its verity.
3. That the witnesses be of sound mind and discretion.
4. That they be men of integrity. If these conditions be fulfilled, human testimony establishes the truth of a fact beyond reasonable doubt. If, however, in addition to these grounds of confidence, the witnesses give their testimony at the expense of great personal sacrifice, or confirm it with their blood; if, moreover, the occurrence of the fact in question had been predicted centuries before it came to pass; if it had produced effects not otherwise to be accounted for, effects extending to all ages and nations; if the system of doctrine with which that fact is connected so as to be implied in it, commends itself as true to the reason and conscience of men; and if God confirms not only the testimony of the original witnesses to the fact, but also the truth of the doctrines of which that fact is the necessary basis, by the demonstration of His Spirit, then it is insanity and wickedness to doubt it. All these considerations concur in proof of the resurrection of Christ, and render it the best authenticated event in the history of the world. (C. Hodge, D.D.)
The appearances of Christ after His resurrection
I. To whom permitted.
1. To individuals.
2. To the twelve.
3. To a large body of disciples.
4. To the faith of every true believer.
II. With what design.
1. To confirm the truth.
2. Establish the faith of the disciples.
3. Subdue opposition as in the case of Paul.
4. Comfort and assure His people. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
After that He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain,… but some are fallen asleep.--
More than five hundred witnesses
I. The fact.
1. Not elsewhere recorded.
2. Must have been well known.
3. Was widely published when it could easily have been disproved.
4. Was never disputed.
II. Its importance.
1. The witnesses of the resurrection were sufficiently numerous and diverse in point of intelligence, etc., to supply the severest test of its reality.
2. To afford ample means of investigation.
3. To satisfy the most persistent unbelief.
III. Its lessons.
1. Christ is the living Redeemer.
2. Reveals Himself to many or few.
3. Manifests Himself to His own as He does not unto the world.
4. Shall finally be revealed when every eye shall see Him. (J. Lyth, D.D.)
Appearances of the risen Redeemer
We have here--
I. A mighty proof of the resurrection of Christ. Two or three witnesses, intellectually and morally competent, would be regarded in a court of justice as sufficient to establish any fact, but here are five hundred. To suppose that they were all deceived would be to suppose one of the most stupendous miracles ever wrought. Mark, Paul states this fact when the greater part were still alive. Would any man, under such circumstances, dare to have made the assertion had it not been an indisputable fact?
II. An interesting view of the departure of good men from the world. Some are fallen asleep. Sleep does not include extinction; must exclude suffering. Sleep is--
1. A welcome rest. Sleep is refreshing. The work of a Christian here is hard work, the work of cultivation, building, battling, voyaging. Sleep reinvigorates the system, gives new tone to the frame, new vigour to the limb. The holy dead renew their strength in eternity.
2. An anticipation of waking. Men yield themselves to repose with the hope of morning; a morning in which they will go forth to the joys and duties of life with a new zest and energy. Who dreads sleep? No good man need dread death.
III. A suggestive event in the experience of the apostle (verse 8). When did Paul see Christ? When Christ was in heaven (Act_9:5). Then, though in heaven--
1. He is cognisant of the movements of individual men. He knew all about Saul of Tarsus.
2. He can reveal Himself to men on earth.
3. His love for sinners is unabated. He spoke to Saul the persecutor, the chief of sinners. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
The character and death of the saints
I. The character of those of whom it may be said when they die,they are fallen asleep. Brethren, and not on account of a natural relationship, but of a spiritual union. They were brethren, because they had been united to the Elder Brother, the First-born among many brethren; and their union to Him was the foundation of their union to each other. As brethren, there was a sameness in their principles--in their hopes--in their consolations--in their rejoicing when they beheld a risen Saviour.
II. The state of such persons after death. Sleep denotes--
1. Their rest. The time of sleep is the time of rest so sweet to the labouring man. The believers life here is compared to a day; his departure home to a night. Hence the exhortation, Work while it is called day, for the night cometh when no man can work. Every description of Christian character conveys the idea of labour. He has to run, to fight, to wrestle, etc.; and death is as the commencing of repose when the labour of the day is done.
2. Their safety. We could not go to rest at night if we knew that a robber would invade our dwelling-place, or a fire consume it, or a wind prostrate it, or a murderer attempt our lives. It is when we have barred our houses against intruders, and committed ourselves to the protection of our Creator, that we close our eyes in hope that we shall both lay ourselves down and sleep in peace and safety. The figure illustrates the perfect safety of those who have entered into peace. It is then that the believer enters into regions which will never be ruffled, and into glories which will never be obscured, and upon joys which will never be interrupted. For no enemy can harass there, no care oppress, no affliction try. And it is a precious remembrance, that the body is safe too. The body of the saint in the tomb is a precious deposit. Christ will rescue it from the darkness and the disgrace of the tomb, and will invest it with honour and immortality.
3. Their resurrection. When we sleep at night, it is with a hope of waking again in the morning.
Conclusion: Let this subject--
1. Comfort us concerning our departed friends.
2. Comfort us under our present trials.
3. Excite inquiries whether, if we die at this moment, it would be a sleep in Christ Jesus. (W. Hodson.)
What the sight of the risen Christ makes life and death
Consider--
I. What life may become to those who see the risen Christ. The word remain not only tells us that the survivors were living, but the kind of life they lived. It is the same expression as If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Now, that saying went abroad amongst the brethren, and it may have been floating in Pauls memory, and have determined his selection of this expression. So, then, the sight of a risen Christ--
1. Will make life calm and tranquil. Fancy one of these after that vision going home. How small and unworthy to disturb the heart in which the memory of that vision was burning would seem the things that otherwise would have been important and distracting! Our faith in the risen Christ ought to do the same thing for us. If we build our nests amidst the tossing branches of the worlds trees, they will sway with every wind, and perhaps be blown away from their hold altogether. But we may build our nests in the clefts of the rock, like the doves, and be quiet, as they are. They who see Christ need not be troubled. The ship that is empty is tossed upon the ocean, that which is well laden is steady. The heart that has Christ for a passenger need not fear being rocked by any storm. Make Him your scale of importance, and nothing will be too small to demand and be worthy of the best efforts of your work, but nothing will be too great to sweep you away from the serenity of your faith.
2. Will lead to patient persistence in duty. The risen Christ is--
(1) The Pattern for the men who will not be turned aside from the path of duty by any obstacles, dangers, or threats.
(2) The example of glory following upon faithfulness.
(3) The helper of them that put their trust in Him. By patient continuance in well-doing let us commit the keeping of our souls to Him and abide in the calling wherewith we are called.
3. Leads to a life of calm expectancy. That vision sent these five hundred men home to make all the rest of their lives one patient expectation of the return of the Lord. These primitive Christians expected that Jesus Christ would come speedily. That expectation was disappointed in so far as the date was concerned, but after nineteen centuries it still remains true that all vigorous and vital Christian life must have in it the onward look. He has come, He will come; He has gone, He will come back. And for us life ought to be a confident expectance that when Be shall be manifested we also shall be manifested with Him in glory.
II. What death becomes to those who have seen Christ risen from the dead. The Christian reason for calling death a sleep embraces a great deal more than the heathen reason for doing so, inasmuch as to most others who have used the word, death has been a sleep that knew no waking, whereas the Christian reason for employing the symbol is that it makes our waking sure. The New Testament scarcely ever employs the words dying and death for the act or for the state it keeps those grim words for the reality, the separation of the soul from God. But the reason why Christianity uses metaphors for death, is the opposite of the reason why the world uses them. The world is so afraid of dying that it durst not name the grim, ugly thing. The Christian faith is so little afraid of death, that it, does not think such a trivial matter worth calling by the name, but only names it falling asleep. Even when the circumstances of that dropping off to slumber are painful and violent, the Bible still employs the term. Is it not striking that the first martyr dying a bloody death should have been said to fall asleep? If that be true of such a death, no physical pains of any kind make the sweet word inappropriate for any. We have here not only the designation of the act of dying, but that of the condition of the dead. They are fallen asleep, and they continue asleep. There lies in the figure the idea of--
1. Repose. They rest from their labours. In that sleep there are folded round the sleepers the arms of the Christ on whose bosom they rest, as an infant does on its first and happiest home, its mothers breast.
2. Continuous and conscious existence. It has been argued from this metaphor that the space between death and the resurrection is a period of unconsciousness, but the analogies seem to me to be in the opposite direction. A sleeping man does not cease to know himself to be, or to be himself. That consciousness of personal identity survives dreams sufficiently show us. And therefore they that sleep know themselves to be, and know where they rest.
3. Waking. Sleep is a parenthesis. If the night comes, the morning comes. They shall be satisfied when they awake with His likeness. Conclusion: Now, then, the risen Christ is the only ground of such hope, and faith in Him is the only state of mind which is entitled to cherish it. Nothing proves immortality except that open grave. Every other foundation is too weak to bear the weight of such a superstructure. The old Greek architects were often careless of the solidity of the soil on which they built their temple, and so many of them have fallen in ruins. The temple of immortality can be built only upon the rock of that proclamation, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Fallen asleep
Yes, the companions of Jesus died one by one. Consider the great value of such men and of all good men to the Church, and the loss caused by their removal. Yet no word of lamentation is used. It is not said that they have perished, or passed into the land of shades, but that they are fallen asleep. The spirit is with Jesus in glory: the body rests till His appearing. Fallen asleep suggests a very different idea from that which distressed the minds of the heathen when they thought of death.
I. The figure here used.
1. An act of the most natural kind: fallen asleep.
(1) It is the fit ending of a weary day.
(2) It is not painful, but the end of pain.
(3) It is so desirable that, if denied, we should pray for it.
(4) It is most sweet when the place of our sleep is Jesus.
2. A state of which rest is the main ingredient.
3. A position of safety from a thousand dangers, such as beset the pilgrim, the worker, the warrior.
4. A condition by no means destructive.
(1) Neither destroys existence, nor even injures it.
(2) Should not be viewed as an evil.
5. A posture full of hope.
(1) We shall awake from this sleep.
(2) We shall awake without difficulty.
(3) We shall arise greatly refreshed.
II. The thoughts aroused by that figure.
1. How did we treat those that are now asleep?
(1) Did we value their living presence, work, and testimony?
(2) Ought we not to be more kind to those who are yet alive?
2. How can we make up for the loss caused by their sleep?
(1) Should we not fill their vacant places?
(2) Should we not profit by their examples?
3. How fit that we should also be prepared to, fall asleep!
(1) Is our house in order?
(2) Is our heart in order?
(3) Is our Christian work in order?
4. How much better that the faithful should fall asleep than that the wicked should die in their sins!
5. How patiently should we bear up under the labours and sufferings of the day, since there remaineth a rest for the people of God!
III. The hopes confirmed by that figure.
1. The sleepers are yet ours, even as those in the house who are asleep are numbered with the rest of the inhabitants.
(1) They have the same life in them which dwells in us.
(2) They are part of the same family. We are seven.
(3) They make up one church. One church above, beneath.
2. The sleepers will yet awake.
(1) Their Fathers voice will arouse thrum.
(2) They shall be awake indeed: full of health and energy.
(3) They shall have new clothes to dress in.
(4) They shall not again fall asleep.
3. The sleepers and ourselves will enjoy sweet fellowship.
(1) Sleep does not destroy the love of brothers and sisters now.
(2) We shall arise as one unbroken family, saved in the Lord.
Conclusion:
1. Let us not hopelessly sorrow over those asleep.
2. Let us not ourselves sleep till bed-time comes.
3. Let us not fear to sleep in such good company.
Death as sleep
Gods finger touched him, and he slept. (Tennyson.)
Sleep the time of growth
Physiologists hold that it is during sleep chiefly that we grow; what may we not hope of such a sleep in such a bosom? (S. T. Coleridge.)
After that He was seen of James.--
Seen of James
Words soon read and soon forgotten, but conveying to the thoughtful reader a world of instruction. All Scripture … is profitable, etc. These incidental allusions are meant to challenge inquiry.
I. Who was James? The Lords brother (Gal_1:19). Whether the son of Mary, or the son of Joseph by a former wife, or our Lords first cousin, it is impossible to say with certainty. All we can say is that the relationship was very close. The incident is illustrative of Christs mindfulness of His brethren according to the flesh. The touching incident on the Cross is paralleled here. In His humiliation He did not forget His mother. In His glory He did not forget His brethren. Nor does He now (Heb_4:13-15).
II. When did Christ appear to James? Placed where this brief account of the incident is, we should infer that it occurred during the forty days, and Act_1:14 confirms this. The appearance was therefore--
1. Early.
2. Tangible.
III. Why did Christ appear to James? To convict and remove his unbelief. Christ appeared to three types of unbelievers.
1. To Thomas the pious sceptic.
2. To Paul the inveterate disbeliever.
3. To James the scoffing unbeliever (Joh_7:3-5)--the hardest of all, as experience shows, to convince.
In each case, however, unbelief gave way to faith. Faith is the faculty which grasps the meaning of the vision of Christ; but the appearance of Christ is necessary to quicken the faith which apprehends it. Christ now appears to unbelievers in His Word, providence, etc. Lord, open their eyes!
IV. What effect did the appearance of Christ have on James? This we can estimate by what James afterwards became.
1. President of the Church at Jerusalem.
2. The chairman of the Apostolic Synod.
3. The writer of the most practical Epistle of the New Testament.
The vision of Christ is the inspiration of all Christian usefulness. The original disciples (Joh_1:1-51) and Paul saw Christ for themselves, hence were able to describe Him to others and to lead others to Him.
V. What is the evidential value of this appearance? James was called the Just, by Jews as well as Christians. No man was less likely to deceive or be deceived. (J. W. Burn.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv4–5 4. That he was buried and rose again the…
4. That he was buried and rose again the third day, according to the scriptures. Paul himself quotes Ps. 16:10 as predicting the resurrection. See Acts 13:35.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v4 Matthew - 1 Corinthians
Matthew - 1 Corinthians
THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION
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ON THE MOUNTAIN
Mat 28:16 - Mat 28:17. - 1Co 15:4.
To infer an historian’s ignorance from his silence is a short and easy, but a rash, method. Matthew has nothing to say of our Lord’s appearances in Jerusalem, except in regard to that of the women in the early morning of Easter Day. But it does not follow that he was ignorant of these appearances. Imperfect knowledge may be the explanation; but the scope and design of his Gospel is much more likely to be so. It is emphatically the Gospel of the King of Israel, and it moves, with the exception of the story of the Passion, wholly within the limits of the Galilean ministry. What more probable than that the same motive which induced Jesus to select the mountain which He had appointed as the scene of this meeting should have induced the Evangelist to pass by all the other manifestations in order to fix upon this one? It was fitting that in Galilee, where He had walked in lowly gentleness, ‘kindly with His kind,’ He should assume His sovereign authority. It was fitting that in ‘Galilee of the Gentiles,’ that outlying and despised province, half heathen in the eyes of the narrow-minded Pharisaic Jerusalem, He should proclaim the widening of His kingdom from Israel to all nations.
If we had Matthew’s words only, we should suppose that none but the eleven were present on this occasion. But it is obviously the same incident to which Paul refers when he speaks of the appearance to ‘five hundred brethren at once.’ These were the Galilean disciples who had been faithful in the days of His lowliness, and were thus now assembled to hear His proclamation of exaltation. Apparently the meeting had been arranged beforehand. They came without Him to ‘the mountain where Jesus had appointed.’ Probably it was the same spot on which the so-called Sermon on the Mount, the first proclamation of the King, had been delivered, and it was naturally chosen to be the scene of a yet more exalted proclamation. A thousand tender memories and associations clustered round the spot. So we have to think of the five hundred gathered in eager expectancy; and we notice how unlike the manner of His coming is to that of the former manifestations. Then, suddenly, He became visibly present where a moment before He had been unseen. But now He gradually approaches, for the doubting and the worshipping took place ‘when they saw Him,’ and before ‘He came to them.’ I suppose we may conceive of Him as coming down the hill and drawing near to them, and then, when He stands above them, and yet close to them-else the five hundred could not have seen Him ‘at once’-doubts vanish; and they listen with silent awe and love. The words are majestic; all is regal. There is no veiled personality now, as there had been to Mary, and to the two on the road to Emmaus. There is no greeting now, as there had been in the upper chamber; no affording of a demonstration of the reality of His appearance, as there had been to Thomas and to the others. He stands amongst them as the King, and the music of His words, deep as the roll of thunder, and sweet as harpers harping with their harps, makes all comment or paraphrase sound thin and poor. But yet so many great and precious lessons are hived in the words that we must reverently ponder them. The material is so abundant that I can but touch it in the slightest possible fashion. This great utterance of our Lord’s falls into three parts: a great claim, a great commission, a great promise.
I. There is a Great Claim.
‘All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.’ No words can more absolutely express unconditional, unlimited authority and sovereignty. Mark the variety of the gift-’all power’; every kind of force, every kind of dominion is in His hands. Mark the sphere of sovereignty-’in heaven and in earth.’ Now, brethren, if we know anything about Jesus Christ, we know that He made this claim. There is no reason, except the unwillingness of some people to admit that claim, for casting any sort of doubt upon these words, or making any distinction in authority between them and the rest of the words of graciousness which the whole world has taken to its heart. But if He said this, what becomes of His right to the veneration of mankind, as the Perfect Example of the self-sacrificing, self-oblivious religious life? It is a mystery that I cannot solve, how any man can keep his reverence for Jesus, and refuse to believe that beneath these tremendous words there lies a solemn and solid reality.
Notice, too, that there is implied a definite point of time at which this all-embracing authority was given. You will find in the Revised Version a small alteration in the reading, which makes a great difference in the sense. It reads, ‘All power has been given’; and that points, as I say, to a definite period. When was it given? Let another portion of Scripture answer the question-’Declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead.’ Then to the Man Jesus was given authority over heaven and earth. All the early Christian documents concur in this view of the connection between the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His investiture with this sovereign power. Hearken to Paul, ‘Became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross; wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name.’ Hearken to Peter, ‘Who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory.’ Hearken to the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, ‘We see Jesus crowned with glory and honour for the suffering of death.’ Hearken to John, ‘To Him that is the Faithful Witness, and the First-born from the dead, and the Prince of the kings of the earth.’ Look with his eyes to the vision of the ‘Lamb as it had been slain,’ enthroned in the midst of the throne, and say whether this unanimous consent of the earliest Christian teachers is explicable on any reasonable grounds, unless there had been underlying it just the words of our text, and the Master Himself had taught them that all power was given to Him in heaven and in earth. As it seems to me impossible to account for the existence of the Church if we deny the Resurrection, so it seems to me impossible to account for the faith of the earliest stratum of the Christian Church without the acceptance of some such declaration as this, as having come from the Lord Himself. And so the hands that were pierced with the nails wield the sceptre of the Universe, and on the brows that were wounded and bleeding with the crown of thorns are wreathed the many crowns of universal Kinghood.
But we have further to notice that in this investiture, with ‘all power in heaven and on earth,’ we have not merely the attestation of the perfection of His obedience, the completeness of His work, and the power of His sacrifice, but that we have also the elevation of Manhood to enthronement with Divinity. For the new thing that came to Jesus after His resurrection was that His humanity was taken into, and became participant of, ‘the glory which I had with Thee, before the world was.’ Then our nature, when perfect and sinless, is so cognate and kindred with the Divine that humanity is capable of being invested with, and bearing, that ‘exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ In that elevation of the Man Christ Jesus, we may read a prophecy, that shall not be unfulfilled, of the destiny of all those who conform to Him through faith, love, and obedience, finally to sit down with Him on His throne, even as He is set down with the Father on His throne.
Ah! brethren, Christianity has dark and low views of human nature, and men say they are too low and too dark. It is ‘Nature’s sternest painter,’ and, therefore, ‘its best.’ But if on its palette the blacks are blacker than anywhere else, its range of colour is greater, and its white is more lustrous. No system thinks so condemnatorily of human nature as it is; none thinks so glowingly of human nature as it may become. There are bass notes far down beyond the limits of the scale to which ears dulled by the world and sin and sorrow are sensitive; and there are clear, high tones, thrilling and shrilling far above the range of perception of such ears. The man that is in the lowest depths may rise with Jesus to the highest, but it must be by the same road by which the Master went. ‘If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him,’ and only ‘if.’ There is no other path to the Throne but the Cross. Via crucis, via lucis-the way of the Cross is the way of light. It is to those who have accepted their Gethsemanes and their Calvarys that He appoints a kingdom, as His Father has appointed unto Him.
So much, then, for the first point here in these words; turn now to the second.
II. The Great Commission.
One might have expected that the immediate inference to be drawn from ‘All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth’ would have been some word of encouragement and strengthening to those who were so soon to be left, and who were beginning to be conscious of their feebleness. But there is nothing more striking in the whole of the incidents of those forty days than the prominence which is given in them to the work of the Church when the Master had left it, and to the imperative obligations devolving upon it. And so here, not encouragement, but obligation is the inference that is drawn from that tremendous claim. ‘Because I have all power, therefore you are charged with the duty of winning the world for its King.’ The all-ruling Christ calls for the universal proclamation of His sovereignty by His disciples. These five hundred little understood the sweep of the commandment, and, as history shows, terribly failed to apprehend the emancipating power of it. But He says to us, as to them, ‘I am not content with the authority given to Me by God, unless I have the authority that each man for himself can give Me, by willing surrender of his heart and will to Me.’ Jesus Christ craves no empty rule, no mere elevation by virtue of Divine supremacy, over men. He regards that elevation as incomplete without the voluntary surrender of men to become His subjects and champions. Without its own consent He does not count that His universal power is established in a human heart. Though that dominion be all-embracing like the ocean, and stretching into all corners of the universe, and dominating over all ages, yet in that ocean there may stand up black and dry rocks, barren as they are dry, and blasted as they are black, because, with the awful power of a human will, men have said, ‘We will not have this Man to reign over us.’ It is willing subjects whom Christ seeks, in order to make the Divine grant of authority a reality.
In that work He needs His servants. The gift of God notwithstanding, the power of His Cross notwithstanding, the perfection and completeness of His great reconciling and redeeming work notwithstanding, all these are vain unless we, His servants, will take them in our hands as our weapons, and go forth on the warfare to which He has summoned us. This is the command laid upon us all, ‘Make disciples of all nations.’ Only so will the reality correspond to the initial and all-embracing grant.
It would take us too far to deal at all adequately, or in anything but the most superficial fashion, with the remaining parts of this great commission. ‘Make disciples of all nations’-that is the first thing. Then comes the second step: ‘Baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.’ Who are to be baptized? Now, notice, if I may venture upon being slightly technical for a moment, that the word ‘nations’ in the preceding clause is a neuter one, and that the word for ‘them’ in this clause is a masculine, which seems to me fairly to imply that the command ‘baptizing them’ does not refer to ‘all nations,’ but to the disciples latent among them, and to be drawn from them. Surely, surely the great claim of absolute and unbounded power has for its consequence something better than the lame and impotent conclusion of appointing an indiscriminate rite, as the means of making disciples! Surely that is not in accordance with the spirituality of the Christian faith!
‘Baptizing them into the Name’-the name is one, that of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Does that mean the name of God, and of a man, and of an influence, all jumbled up together in blasphemous and irrational union? Surely, if Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have one name, the name of Divinity, then it is but a step to say that three Persons are one God! But there is a great deal more here than a baptismal formula, for to be baptized into the Name is but the symbol of being plunged into communion with this one threefold God of our salvation. The ideal state of the Christian disciple is that he shall be as a vase dropped into the Atlantic, encompassed about with God, and filled with Him. We all ‘live, and move, and have our being’ in Him, but some of us have so wrapped ourselves, if I may venture to use such a figure, in waterproof covering, that, though we are floating in an ocean of Divinity, not a drop finds its way in. Cast the covering aside, and you will be saturated with God, and only in the measure in which you live and move and have your being in the Name are you disciples.
There is another step still. Making disciples and bringing into communion with the Godhead is not all that is to flow from, and correspond to, and realise in the individual, the absolute authority of Jesus Christ-’Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.’ We hear a great deal in these days about the worthlessness of mere dogmatic Christianity. Jesus Christ anticipated all that talk, and guarded it from exaggeration. For what He tells us here that we are to train ourselves and others in, is not creed but conduct; not things to be believed or credenda but things to be done or agenda-’teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.’ A creed that is not wrought out in actions is empty; conduct that is not informed, penetrated, regulated by creed, is unworthy of a man, not to say of a Christian. What we are to know we are to know in order that we may do, and so inherit the benediction, which is never bestowed upon them that know, but upon them that, knowing these things, are blessed in, as well as for, the doing of them.
That training is to be continuous, educating to new views of duty; new applications of old truths, new sensitiveness of conscience, unveiling to us, ever as we climb, new heights to which we aspire. The Christian Church has not yet learnt-thank God it is learning, though by slow degrees-all the moral and practical implications and applications of ‘the truth as it is in Jesus.’ And so these are the three things by which the Church recognises and corresponds to the universal dominion of Christ, the making disciples universally; the bringing them into the communion of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and the training of them to conduct ever approximating more and more to the Divine ideal of humanity in the glorified Christ.
And now I must gather just into a sentence or two what is to be said about the last point. There is-
III. The Great Promise.
‘I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,’ or, as it might be read, ‘with you all the days, even to the accomplishment of the age.’ Note that emphatic ‘I am,’ which does not only denote certainty, but is the speech of Him who is lifted above the lower regions where Time rolls and the succession of events occurs. That ‘I am’ covers all the varieties of was, is, will be. Notice the long vista of variously tinted days which opens here. Howsoever many they be, howsoever different their complexion, days of summer and days of winter, days of sunshine and days of storm, days of buoyant youth and days of stagnant, stereotyped old age, days of apparent failure and days of apparent prosperity, He is with us in them all. They change, He is ‘the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.’ Notice the illimitable extent of the promise-’even unto the end.’ We are always tempted to think that long ago the earth was more full of God than it is to-day, and that away forward in the future it will again be fuller, but that this moment is comparatively empty. The heavens touch the earth on the horizon in front and behind, and they are highest and remotest above us just where we stand. But no past day had more of Christ in it than to-day has, and that He has gone away is the condition of His coming. ‘He therefore departed for a season, that we might receive Him for ever.’
But mark that the promise comes after a command, and is contingent, for all its blessedness and power, upon our obedience to the prescribed duty. That duty is primarily to make disciples of all nations, and the discharge of it is so closely connected with the realisation of the promise that a non-missionary Church never has much of Christ’s presence. But obedience to all the King’s commands is required if we stand before Him, and are to enjoy His smile. If you wish to keep Christ very near you, and to feel Him with you, the way to do so is no mere cultivation of religious emotion, or saturating your mind with religious books and thoughts, though these have their place; but on the dusty road of life doing His will and keeping His commandments. ‘If a man love Me he will keep My words, and My Father will love Him. We will come to Him, and make our abode with Him.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv4–5 and that he was buried [and this also was…
and that he was buried [and this also was according to the Scriptures-- Isa_53:9 ]; and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures [ Psa_16:10 ; Isa_53:10 ; Hos_6:2 ; Jon_2:10 . Here the apostle reminds the Corinthians that the message which he delivered to them was one which he had received by divine revelation; that it consisted of three pre-eminent facts, namely, the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord; that of these facts the two which were hard to believe, i. e., the first and the last, were made more easy of belief by having been predicted in the Scriptures, the latter with minuteness, even as to the day. The apostle does not waste time proving the death; it was witnessed by thousands, it had never been denied by friend or enemy, and it was not now called in question by the Corinthians. The third item was the one called in question, and, having first proved it by a witness before the fact (the Scriptures), the apostle proceeds to refresh their minds as to how fully it had been proved by witnesses after the fact (viz.: the apostles and others), thus making them again aware that the resurrection was a literal, historical, objective fact. A fact so important and so difficult of belief demanded a host of witnesses, but Paul had them to produce; this thing was not done in a corner-- Act_26:26 ];
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v5 (See Scofield "Mar 16:14").
then
(See Scofield "Mar 16:14").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v5 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
If you need for verse 5 to be a complete sentence, end 1 Corinthians 15:4 with a comma so that verse 5 completes the sentence begun in 1 Corinthians 15:3.
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appeared to
"showed himself to"
five hundred
500 (See: Numbers)
some have fallen asleep
"Sleep" here is a common euphemism for death. AT: "some have died" (See: Euphemism)
translationWords
Peter
the twelve
life
asleep
James (brother of Jesus)
apostle
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv4–5 15:4 just as the Scriptures said: See Ps 16:10;…
15:4 just as the Scriptures said: See Ps 16:10; Hos 6:2; Jon 1:17; Matt 12:40; Acts 2:24-32.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.