The Resurrection Body

When someone asks how the dead are raised and with what body they come, Paul answers first by comparing burial to seed sown in the ground: what is sown dies, and God gives it a body as he wills. He then points to the many kinds of flesh and the differing splendors of earthly and heavenly bodies to show that variety in embodiment already belongs to God's world.

B³⁵ut someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” ³⁶You fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. ³⁷And what you sow is not the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else. ³⁸But God gives it a body as He has designed, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body. ³⁹Not all flesh is the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another, and fish another. ⁴⁰There are also heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the splendor of the heavenly bodies is of one degree, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is of another. ⁴¹The sun has one degree of splendor, the moon another, and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.

So it is with the resurrection, Paul says: the body is sown perishable, dishonored, weak, and natural, but raised imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual. He explains this through Adam and Christ, the earthly man and the heavenly man, and says that just as believers have borne the likeness of the earthly, they will bear the likeness of the heavenly.

⁴²So will it be with the resurrection of the dead: What is sown is perishable; it is raised imperishable. ⁴³It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. ⁴⁴It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam a life-giving spirit. ⁴⁶The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. ⁴⁸As was the earthly man, so also are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. ⁴⁹And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so also shall we bear the likeness of the heavenly man.