What is the source of Paul's teachings on a bodily resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15?

Question

Is there any reason to believe from the Apostle Paul's expression of his view on bodily resurrection in 1st Corinthians 15 that his view is a carryover of his pharisaic beliefs? Or does it more directly traceable to something Jesus taught?

Answer 1

That the apostle Paul's was a pharisee who believed in the resurrection even before his conversion in the Damascus road is well documented. Acts 23:6-8

Jesus teaching about the resurrection is also well documented:

• Luke 14:14 - Since they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.
• Luke 20:35 - But those who are considered worthy to share in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. In fact, they can no longer die, because they are like the angels. And since they are sons of the resurrection, they are sons of God.
• John 5:28, 29 - Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.
• John 11:24, 25 - Martha replied, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.

Paul's teaching on this subject closely reflects Jesus' teaching because Paul confessed:

Acts 24:15 - I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. - compare John 5:28, 29.

Similarly, the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead is found in a number of places in the OT such as:

• Job 26:25-27 - But I know that my Redeemer lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth. Even after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I will see Him for myself; my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger. How my heart yearns within me!
• Isa 26:19 - Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For your dew is like the dew of the morning, and the earth will bring forth her dead.
• Dan 12:2 - And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt.
• Dan 12:13 - But as for you, go on your way until the end. You will rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.

The Resurrection is implied in a few other places as well:

• 1 Sam 2:6 - The LORD brings death and gives life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
• Job 14:14 - When a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my hard service I will wait, until my renewal comes. [Compare Matt 19:28 where the renewal is at the final judgement.]
• Ps 17:15 - As for me, I will be vindicated and will see your face; when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness.
• Ps 49:15 - But God will redeem my life from Sheol, for He will surely take me to Himself.
• Hos 13:14 - I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? [Paul quotes this passage in 1 Cor 15:55.]

Thus, it appears that Paul drew his teaching from both that of Jesus and the Old Testament.

Answer 2

Is there any reason to believe from the Apostle Paul's expression of his view on bodily resurrection in 1st Corinthians 15 that his view is a carryover of his pharisaic beliefs?

Acts 23:8 For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.

Acts 23:6 But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.

We know that Paul was a Pharisee and that as such he held to a resurrection view. We do not have the specific information as to if the Pharisees held to a spiritual or physical (or both) resurrection view. We do know that the view they held was not complete;

Mark 12:23-24 In the resurrection therefore, when they shall rise, whose wife shall she be of them? for the seven had her to wife. And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?

We have an example of someone who had Biblical knowledge that was incomplete and was instructed;

Acts 18:25-26 This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.

We know that Paul received instruction directly from God;

Galatians 1:16-18 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

We also know that the Apostles wrote and spoke via the Holy Spirit;

2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Matthew 10:19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.

We do not have information detailing the specifics of the Pharisees resurrection beliefs and therefore are unable to surmise how accurate or detailed they might have been. We do know that what Paul wrote the Corinthians was true because it was inspired by God.

Answer 3

In 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Paul proclaims the gospel of the resurrection that he has taught the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 15:1-4: Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:

To Greeks, the notion of a resurrected body was distasteful, so we learn in 1 Corinthians 15:12 that the Corinthians said that resurrection was impossible:

1 Corinthians 15:12: Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

Paul asks how some Corinthians can say there is no resurrection of the dead if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, because if there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised, in which case their faith is for nothing (15:12-14).

Burton L. Mack says, in Who Wrote the New Testament, pages 132-133, that Paul assured the Corinthians that the resurrection should be understood as a bodily transformation to a spiritual body. He argues this forcefully, saying:

• There are many kinds of bodies among animals and human beings, and the bodies of plants are different from the ‘bodies’ of the seeds from which they come (1 Corinthians 15:36-38)
• There are earthly bodies and heavenly bodies (with reference to sun, moon, and stars - 15:40-41).
• The first man, Adam, had a “physical body”; the “man from heaven” (Christ) had a “spiritual body” (15:45-47).

In summary:

1 Corinthians 15:44: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

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Paul tells the Corinthians that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures;

1 Corinthians 15:4-8: And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.

John Shelby Spong points out, in Why Christianity Must Change or Die, page 235, that Paul seemed to believe that the appearance to him of the risen Jesus (which clearly was not physical) was like the appearance to the other apostles. Here it appears he did not know that the risen Jesus had actually appeared in the flesh.

Paul likens the spiritual resurrection of Jesus to the general resurrection:

1 Corinthians 15:20-23: But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.

Mark D. Given says in 'Paul and Writing', published in As It Is Written: Studying Paul's Use of Scripture (edited by Porter and Stanley), page 244, Paul insists that a resurrection body is constructed entirely of pneuma [spirit]. He says that, in spite of this, traditionalist interpreters attempt to reconcile chapter 15 with the quite different conception in the gospels and later orthodox Christian doctrine.

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Paul expressed a different view to the Romans, who were not averse to the notion of a bodily resurrection, but in 1 Corinthians he writes of a spiritual resurrection.

Answer 4

It would help if the question gave specific verses corresponding to what is claimed in the question.

In fact, I don't see anything in 1 Corinthians 15 to indicate that Paul was talking about a physical resurrection.

A buried body is like a planted seed; what arises is not the original:

35. But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
36. Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die

When a saved Christian is resurrected, it is not of physical flesh, but of spirit:

39. All flesh is not the same flesh …
40. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption
41. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

It is only after spiritual resurrection that we can become part of God's Kingdom:

49. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God …
51. … the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
52. … this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality l was talking about a physical resurrection.

A buried body is like a planted seed; what arises is not the original:

35. But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?
36. Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die

When a saved Christian is resurrected, it is not of physical flesh, but of spirit:

39. All flesh is not the same flesh …
40. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption
41. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

It is only after spiritual resurrection that we can become part of God's Kingdom:

49. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
50. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God …
51. … the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.
52. … this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality

There doesn't seem to be anything in this chapter to support the view assumed in the question.