1 Cor. 15, 35-50.
But will anyone say, "How will the dead rise? and with what kind of body will they come? You fool, what you sow will not come to life unless it dies. And that which thou sowest is not the body that shall come to be, but a mere grain, that is, wheat, or the other one. But God gives it a body as he wills, and to each of the seeds his own body. Not everything is
*) Called Cantate. D. Red.
Flesh is not one flesh, but another flesh is of men, another of cattle, another of fish, another of birds. And there are heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies. But another glory have the heavenly, and another the earthly. The sun has a different clarity; the moon has a different clarity; the stars have a different clarity; for one star surpasses the other in clarity. So also the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible, and will rise incorruptible. It is sown in dishonor, and will rise in glory. It is sown in weakness, and shall rise in power. It is sown a natural body, and will rise a spiritual body. If one has a natural body, he also has a spiritual body. As it is written, "The first man Adam was made in the natural life, and the last Adam in the spiritual life. But the spiritual body is not the first, but the natural, then the spiritual. The first man is of the earth, and earthly; the other man is the Lord from heaven. As the earthly is, so are the earthly; and as the heavenly is, so are the heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthly, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly. But of this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither shall that which is corruptible inherit that which is incorruptible.
This epistle follows directly on from the one we have set out from this chapter on the resurrection of the dead on the previous Sunday, and in it St. Paul deals with the question: How will things be in the resurrection of the dead, and what kind of bodies will we have? This epistle is also sufficiently explained in the sermons on this whole chapter, which may be read there by those who wish; for it would be too long to put it all here. But because from time immemorial
On this Sunday, the Epistle of Jacob Cap. 1 was read, which is also a good teaching and admonition, so we want to let it run along for those who still want to keep it, and say something about it, so that it will not be considered as if we wanted to reject it; although the epistle was not written by an apostle, nor is it entirely in accordance with the right apostolic manner and style, and the pure doctrine.