1 Corinthians 15:3-4 is a passage in the New Testament of the Bible, written by the Apostle Paul as part of his first letter to the Corinthians. These verses are significant because they present a concise summary of the gospel message and early Christian beliefs about Jesus' death and resurrection (Bauckham2017-ml, Habermas2003-ol).
The dating of the creed is determined through factors such as the dating of the 1 Corinthians itself, which scholars date to around 53-54 AD (Collins1999-ua, Thiselton2000-dp, Keener2005-el , Hays2011-ra) Paul's personal chronology, and early Christian oral tradition. Paul's conversion occurred a few years after Jesus' crucifixion, around 32-36 AD. After his conversion, Paul visited Jerusalem (Galatians 1:17-18) and met Peter and James (Galatians 1:18-19), possibly receiving the creed around 35-40 AD (Bird2007-bh).
The creedal statement in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 likely predates Paul's letter, as it was part of the early Christian oral tradition. The creed likely emerged within the first few years after Jesus' death and resurrection (circa 30 AD). Scholars thus deduce that the 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 creed dates back to the early 30s AD, making it one of the earliest known Christian statements of faith, reflecting the core beliefs of Jesus' first followers and its significance in understanding the earliest Christians' beliefs and practices.(Dunn2003-uo, Hurtado2003-vf).
3. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4. that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
To understand whether Paul meant that Jesus physically rose from the dead, we can examine the words he used in the original Greek text (Benner2019-kc, noauthor_undated-wi, Douglas1993-wt):
- "Christ died" (Greek: Χριστός ἀπέθανε, Christos apethanen): The verb "apethanen" means "to die" and carries a strong physical connotation. This suggests that Paul was speaking of a physical death.
- "He was buried" (Greek: ἐταφῆ, etaphē): The verb "etaphē" means "to be buried" and refers to the physical act of placing a body in a tomb or grave. This implies that Paul understood Jesus' body to have been physically placed in a tomb (Habermas2004-dg).
- "He was raised" (Greek: ἐγέρθη, egerthe): The verb "egerthe" means "to raise" or "to be raised." It is in the perfect tense, which indicates a completed action with ongoing effects. This suggests that Paul understood Jesus' resurrection as an event that had already taken place and continued to have significance (Craig1989-gr).
While the specific word choice in the passage does not explicitly state that Jesus' resurrection was physical, the overall context and Paul's references to Jesus' death and burial imply that he understood the resurrection as a physical event (Ludemann1994-ak). Additionally, in other parts of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul talks about the resurrection of the dead and the transformation of the physical body, further supporting the idea that he believed in a bodily resurrection for Jesus (Wright2003-bg). Paul argues that if there is no physical resurrection of Jesus, then there is no hope for the resurrection of believers, and their faith is in vain. This indicates that Paul believed in a physical resurrection, as it was the basis for his argument for the resurrection of believers.