SEV Biblia, Chapter 15:36
Necio, lo que t siembras no se vivifica, si no muriere antes.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:36
Verse 36. Thou fool] afron. If this be addressed, as it probably is, to the false apostle, there is a peculiar propriety in it; as this man seems to have magnified his own wisdom, and set it up against both God and man; and none but a fool could act so. At the same time, it is folly in any to assert the impossibility of a thing because he cannot comprehend it. That which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die] I have shown the propriety of this simile of the apostle in the note on John xii. 24, to which I must refer the reader. A grain of wheat, &c., is composed of the body or lobes, and the germ. The latter forms an inconsiderable part of the mass of the grain; the body, lobes, or farinaceous part, forms nearly the whole. This body dies-becomes decomposed, and forms a fine earth, from which the germ derives its first nourishment; by the nourishment thus derived the germ is quickened, receives its first vegetable life, and through this means is rendered capable of deriving the rest of its nourishment and support from the grosser earth in which the grain was deposited. Whether the apostle would intimate here that there is a certain germ in the present body, which shall become the seed of the resurrection body, this is not the place to inquire; and on this point I can with pleasure refer to Mr. Drew's work on the "Resurrection of the Human Body;" where this subject, as well as every other subject connected with this momentous question, is considered in a very luminous and cogently argumentative point of view.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 36. Thou fool , etc.] Not transgressing the law of Christ, which makes him that calls his brother a fool in danger of hell fire; for the apostle said not this in anger, and from a malevolent disposition, as that rule supposes, but out of zeal for truth, and to reprove the stupidity and folly of such a bold objector; in opposing the veracity and power of God, in setting up his reason above divine revelation, and in not attending even to natural philosophy itself; in which professing to be wise he might be justly called a fool, and therefore sends him to the husbandman to learn of him how to answer his own queries: that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die ; and which is more especially true of a grain of wheat: our Lord observes the same, (see Gill on John 12:24), and designs by the simile his own death, and resurrection, and the fruit following thereon. This seed being cast into the earth corrupts, rots, and dies, and then is quickened, and rises up in stalk, blade, and ear. Which shows that the dissolution and corruption of the body by death is so far from being an objection to its resurrection, that it is necessary to it, even as the dying and putrifying of the seed, or grain of wheat, is necessary to its quickening and rising up again; and that if God is able to quicken a seed or grain that is rotten and entirely dead, and cause it to rise up in verdure and with much fruit, as he does every year in millions of instances, why should it be thought incredible that God should quicken dead bodies, when the one is as much an instance of his power as the other? The Claromontane exemplar reads, except it die first; and so the Vulgate Latin version.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 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 lik shape, and form, and stature, and members, and qualities? The forme objection is that of those who opposed the doctrine, the latter of curious doubters. To the first the answer is, This was to be brough about by Divine power; that power which all may see does somewhat lik 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 wel as to admire the Creator's wisdom and goodness. There is a grea variety among other bodies, as there is among plants. There is 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 ther will be a variety of glories among them. Burying the dead, is lik 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 spirit made perfect. To God all things are possible. He is the Author an 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 an 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 an spiritual bodies, fitted to the heavenly world and state, where the are ever afterwards to dwell. The human body in its present form, an 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 rea 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 wh refuses to live to God, squanders all he has.
Greek Textus Receptus
αφρον 878 A-VSM συ 4771 P-2NS ο 3739 R-NSN σπειρεις 4687 5719 V-PAI-2S ου 3756 PRT-N ζωοποιειται 2227 5743 V-PPI-3S εαν 1437 COND μη 3361 PRT-N αποθανη 599 5632 V-2AAS-3S
Vincent's NT Word Studies
36. Thou sowest (su opeireiv). Thou is emphatic. Every time thou sowest, thou sowest something which is quickened only through dying. Paul is not partial to metaphors from nature, and his references of this character are mostly to nature in connection with human labor. Dean Howson says: "We find more of this kind of illustration in the one short epistle of St. James than in all the writings of St. Paul" ("Metaphors of St. Paul." Compare Farrar's "Paul," i., 20, 21).Die. Become corrupted. Applied to the seed in order to keep up the analogy with the body.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
15:36 {Thou foolish one} (afrwn). Old word (a privative, fren), lack of sense. It is a severe term and justified by the implication "that the objector plumes himself on his acuteness" (Robertson and Plummer). Proleptic position of su (thou) sharpens the point. Sceptics (agnostics) pose as unusually intellectual (the intelligentsia), but the pose does not make one intelligent. {Except it die} (ean me apoqanei). Condition of third class, possibility assumed. this is the answer to the "how" question. In plant life death precedes life, death of the seed and qen the new plant.
