Title: Resurrection of the Dead and Today's Life
Resurrection of the Dead and Life Today
The Bible contains many kinds of stories. The stories of the patriarchs centered on Abraham or the war stories centered on Moses and Joshua are interesting to read without much thought. The stories of judges like Samson and Deborah are also interesting. What about the David and Solomon story? Many of the stories that took place during Jesus' public life are also interesting. But the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah in the Old Testament and the letters of Paul in the New Testament are less interesting.
Among Paul's letters, 1 Corinthians 15 we read today is very difficult for us to follow because it is very difficult. In particular, verses 12-19 are a little boring because they analyze the problems of those who deny the resurrection rather than simply describing and emphasizing the faith in the resurrection. Most people pass by saying that when they meet these words, it is good. However, even when eating rice, do not be picky and chew all food evenly and thoroughly, as it is good for health. Even if it sounds boring, you should chew it thoroughly. What was the problem with the Corinthian church 2,000 years ago in connection with the resurrection problem?
about the resurrection of the dead
But take a good look. Those whom Paul was concerned about were not arguing that there was no resurrection of Christ, but that there was no “resurrection of the dead.” If they had argued that there was no resurrection of Christ, they would not have become Christians at all. You might think that saying that there is no resurrection of Christ and that there is no resurrection of the dead are, after all, the same thing, but it is not. To think a little more deeply about these issues, we need to refer to some of the Hebrews and Greeks' thoughts about death at that time.
The Hebrews did not have a very strong conception of life after death. When people die, they all go to Gehenna, or Sheol, which refers to the underworld. For them, death is a curse. I don't know if it's because of that idea, but the lifespan of the people in Genesis is beyond our imagination. Although the Jewish apocalyptic literature has some hints of the resurrection, it is different from what the early Christian community says. The death of the Greeks is an event that completely separates the spirit and the body. By death, the finite body disappears and the eternal spirit enters the world of the Idea. Also, there was no resurrection of the dead.
The people Paul is pointing to now are mainly Gnostic believers who have been influenced by Greek philosophy. They believed that the dead could not be resurrected because the spirit and body were separated, and that when Jesus returns, the living will enter the kingdom of God in that state. It seems that I am addressing issues that are too theologically sensitive today. It was because I was explaining what was wrong with the Corinthian church. I have to say one more thing. These men whom Paul rebuked clearly believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. You don't necessarily assume they are unbelievers. They, too, tried to believe in Jesus Christ in the best way possible. However, they could not accept the resurrection of the dead because their worldview was obsessed with the spiritual and physical dualism of Greek philosophy and the immortality of the soul. In that state, I was living a life of faith, believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Still, I thought it wasn't a big deal.
Christ's Resurrection
But Paul did not. Paul is a very extreme person in some ways. He did not compromise with the apostles or the brothers of Jesus, who were already central to Jerusalem. The Jerusalem community thought that they could live as Christians while holding on to the Jewish law, but Paul strongly insisted that it be abandoned. He did not shy away from the theological struggle with the mother church in Jerusalem. Through Paul, Christianity was established as a new evangelical community distinct from Judaism.
This extremeness of Paul is reflected in today's topic as well. Look. As mentioned earlier, many of the leaders of the Corinthian church believed in the resurrection of Christ, but did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Paul thought that was a serious problem. Look carefully at what he is saying. These are verses 13 and 14. “If the dead had not been resurrected, then Christ could not have been raised. Verses 15-18 that follow are a repetition of verses 13 and 14. The reason why I keep repeating similar words while considering the lack of tension in the writing is because I thought this issue was very important in the Christian faith. It means that the issue of the resurrection of the dead does not end with just that, but it is also connected with the issue of the resurrection of Christ, and in the end it is connected with the whole of kerygma, the proclamation of Christianity. If there is no resurrection of the dead, it means that everything in Christianity will be destroyed.
You may see Paul's logic a bit exaggerated. It seems to me that now Paul is taking a great theological adventure. He did not provide a place for him to retreat, and he ended up battling the battalion. Think about it. The issue of the resurrection of the dead is not empirically revealed. There is no one in this world who died and came back to life. Neither biology nor physics can prove it. Moreover, the Greek philosophy of Paul's day was rather inclined toward the immortality of the soul. Neither does Judaism fully support the idea of a resurrection of the dead. In such a situation, wouldn't it be wise to put aside the issue of the resurrection of the dead and summarize it by simply believing in the resurrection of Christ? However, Paul extended the problem of the resurrection of the dead to the problem of the resurrection of Christ. Without the universal resurrection of the dead, there is no resurrection of Christ.
Now Paul's logic has reached a dead end. If Paul had only insisted on the resurrection of Jesus Christ here, the matter might not be so serious. It is enough to declare that the risen Lord appeared to the Apostles, to the five hundred church members, to James, and to himself, as 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 testifies. But now that we have linked the very subtle matter of the resurrection of the dead to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we have to prove it somehow. Otherwise, the entire Christian faith he describes may be ruined. Did Paul prove the resurrection of the dead in 1 Corinthians 15?
resurrection of the body
In 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, Paul clearly apologizes for the resurrection. Among them, I will read only verses 42-44 concerning the resurrection of the dead. “So is the resurrection of the dead. They are buried with a rotten body, but are resurrected with an incorruptible body. It is buried in the lowly, but is raised in the glorious. The weak are buried, but the strong are resurrected. They are buried with a physical body, but are resurrected with a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body.” He divided the body into two parts. A physical body and a spiritual body. It is said that “soma phyjicon,” or physical body, decays, but “soma pneumaticon”, or spiritual body, comes back to life.
You might think that Paul's division of the soma (body) into two is the same as the spiritual and physical dualism of Gnosticism, but it is not at all. Gnosticism says that death separates the body from the soul, but Paul asserts that a human being in the form of a physical body dies and then comes back to life in the form of a spirit. The key point Paul is talking about here is transfiguration. Humans live and die as a physical body, and then change into a spiritual body (soma pneumaticon). Presupposing this, look at verses 51-53. “I will now tell you a profound truth. We will not all die, we will all change. In the blink of an eye when the last trumpet is sounded, the dead will come to life in immortality, and we will all be transformed. For this perishable body must put on immortality, and this mortal body must put on immortality.” That's right. Just as a seed rots in the ground and changes into leaves and flowers, and as a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, we change into a completely different body. Christ was the first fruit of the resurrection that transforms into this true life. Now we live waiting for such a changed body.
We need to know why Paul raised the question of the resurrection of the dead. As I said before, the problem was the Gnostic Christians who fell into the spiritual and physical dualism. To those who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, the human body is meaningless today. They have fallen into extreme abstinence or moral indulgence. Some people in the Corinthian church mistreated their bodies. Because I thought it would rot. Paul rebukes them. This body is separated into a body and a spirit, and it does not decay, but becomes spiritual again.