SEV Biblia, Chapter 15:55
¿Dnde est, oh muerte, tu aguijn? ¿Dnde, oh sepulcro, tu victoria?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Corinthians 15:55
Verse 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?] pou sou, qanate, to kentron? pou sou, adh, to nikov? These words are generally supposed to be taken from Hosea xiii. 14, where the Hebrew text stands thus: lwa bfq yha twm yrbd yha ehi debareyca maueth; ehikatabca sheol: which we translate, O death! I will be thy plagues; O grave! I will be thy destruction; and which the Septuagint translate very nearly as the apostle, pou h dikh sou, qante; pou to kentron son, adh; O death, where is thy revenge, or judicial process? O grave, where is thy sting? And it may be remarked that almost all the MSS., versions, and many of the fathers, interchange the two members of this sentence as they appear in the Septuagint, attributing victory to death; and the sting, to hades or the grave; only the Septuagint, probably by mistake or corruption of copyists, have dikh, dike, revenge or a judicial process, for nikov, nikos, victory: a mistake which the similarity of the words, both in letters and sound, might readily produce. We may observe, also, that the yha ehi (I will be) of the Hebrew text the Septuagint, and the apostle following them, have translated pou, where, as if the word had been written hya where, the two last letters interchanged; but yha ehi, is rendered where in other places; and our translators, in the 10th verse of this same chapter (Hos. xiii. 10) render lm yha ehi malca, "I will be thy king," but have this note in the margin, "Rather, where is thy king? King Hoshea being then in prison." The apostle, therefore, and the Septuagint, are sufficiently vindicated by the use of the word elsewhere: and the best Jewish commentators allow this use of the word. The Targum, Syriac, Arabic, Vulgate, and some MSS. of Kennicott and Deuteronomy Rossi, confirm this reading. Having vindicated the translation, it is necessary to inquire into the meaning of the apostle's expressions. Both Death and Hades are here personified: Death is represented as having a sting, dagger, or goad, by which, like the driver of oxen, he is continually irritating and urging on; (these irritations are the diseases by which men are urged on till they fall into Hades, the empire of Death;) to Hades, victory is attributed, having overcome and conquered all human life, and subdued all to its own empire.
By the transposition of these two members of the sentence, the victory is given to Death, who has extinguished all human life; and the sting is given to Hades, as in his empire the evil of death is fully displayed by the extinction of all animal life, and the destruction of all human bodies. We have often seen a personification of death in ancient paintings-a skeleton crowned, with a dart in his hand; probably taken from the apostle's description. The Jews represent the angel of death as having a sword, from which deadly drops of gall fall into the mouths of all men.
Hades, which we here translate grave, is generally understood to be the place of separate spirits. See the note on Matt. xi. 23.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 51-58 - All the saints should not die, but all would be changed. In the gospel many truths, before hidden in mystery, are made known. Death neve shall appear in the regions to which our Lord will bear his rise saints. Therefore let us seek the full assurance of faith and hope that in the midst of pain, and in the prospect of death, we may thin calmly on the horrors of the tomb; assured that our bodies will ther sleep, and in the mean time our souls will be present with the Redeemer. Sin gives death all its hurtful power. The sting of death in sin; but Christ, by dying, has taken out this sting; he has mad atonement for sin, he has obtained remission of it. The strength of sin is the law. None can answer its demands, endure its curse, or do awa his own transgressions. Hence terror and anguish. And hence death is terrible to the unbelieving and the impenitent. Death may seize believer, but it cannot hold him in its power. How many springs of jo to the saints, and of thanksgiving to God, are opened by the death an resurrection, the sufferings and conquests of the Redeemer! In vers #(58), we have an exhortation, that believers should be stedfast, fir in the faith of that gospel which the apostle preached, and the received. Also, to be unmovable in their hope and expectation of thi great privilege, of being raised incorruptible and immortal. And to abound in the work of the Lord, always doing the Lord's service, an obeying the Lord's commands. May Christ give us faith, and increase ou faith, that we may not only be safe, but joyful and triumphant __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
που 4226 PRT-I σου 4675 P-2GS θανατε 2288 N-VSM το 3588 T-NSN κεντρον 2759 N-NSN που 4226 PRT-I σου 4675 P-2GS αδη 86 N-VSM το 3588 T-NSN νικος 3534 N-NSN
Vincent's NT Word Studies
55. O death, where, etc. From Hos. xiii. 14, a free version of the Sept.: "Where is thy penalty, O Death? Where thy sting, O Hades? Heb.: Where are thy plagues, O Death? Where thy pestilence, O Sheol?O grave (adh). Which is the reading of the Septuagint. The correct reading is qanate O death. So Rev. Hades does not occur in Paul's writings. In Rom. x. 7 he uses abyss. Edwards thinks that this is intentional, and suggests that Paul, writing to Greeks, may have shunned the ill-omened name which people dreaded to utter. So Plato: "People in general use the word (Pluto) as a euphemism for Hades, which their fears lead them to derive erroneously from ajeidhv the invisible" ("Cratylus," 403).
Sting (kentron). In the Septuagint for the Hebrew pestilence. See on Apoc. ix. 9. The image is that of a beast with a sting; not death with a goad, driving men.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
15:55 {Victory} (nikos). Late form of nike. {O death} (qanate). Second instance. Here Paul changes Hades of the LXX for Hebrew Sheol (#Hos 13:14) to death. Paul never uses Hades. {Thy sting} (sou to kentron). Old word from kentrew, to prick, as in #Ac 26:14. In #Re 9:10 of the sting of locusts, scorpions. The serpent death has lost his poison fangs.
