Held in the parish church on Sunday Rogate [May 18] 1544. *)
1 Cor. 15, 39-44. All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh 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 a different clarity, the stars 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.
1 St. Paul, as your beloved has heard for eight days today, instructs us with his sermon, which he preaches in this epistle to the Corinthians, about the article of the resurrection in the field and in the garden, so that we may see how it is with the seed, and learn to strengthen our faith in the resurrection of the dead with the work that God, through His omnipotence, performs daily on the creatures. With this he also meets those who sharply ask about this article out of reason: how will it be in the resurrection? with what kind of body will the dead come? How should it happen? he says. Look at the field and the garden, how it happens there, and learn there.
God's omnipotence and power, which he demonstrates in the creatures, which he also brings forth from death and makes alive.
A farmer walks in the field with his cloth around his neck, carrying wheat, rye, barley, etc., and confidently reaches into the seed with his hand, throws it around, and sows the field. Behind him follows a boy, who leads the harrow, and digs the seed, which is sown, so that it is well covered with the earth. To such seed we want to oppose a coarse dolt and incomprehensible fool, who wants to be excellently clever, and may well reform and master God in heaven, as it is said of the carter Hans Pfriemen 1) that he wanted to outsmart and master everything in paradise. The same Hans Pfriem sees the farmer with the cloth and the boy with the harrow, looks at him and says: "Dear man, what are you doing? Are you also clever? You throw the good grain into the ground; don't you have children, servants and cattle at home who can eat it? Why do you spoil the good grain so shamefully and throw it into the ground? And are you not satisfied with this, but another follows you, who tramples and crushes everything with the horses, and furrows everything with the harrow; what is it to you that you kill the fine grain so miserably that it is of no use to anyone?
1) Compare Poach's letter Col. 1275 ff.
*We give this time determination after Luther's words at the beginning of this sermon: "as your love has heard today eight days". The time when the previous sermon was preached is fixed by the inscription in the print, which is confirmed by the Table Talks, Cap. 49, L 1, namely on Sunday Cantate 1544; accordingly, our sermon must have been preached on Sunday Rogate, and the time given in the single print: "Held in tswplo paroolüas, vo niiniou blxuuNi" is erroneous.
1302 Erl. p.) 20b, 87-8p. Interpretations on the 1st epistle to the Corinthians. W. VIII, I44V-I44S. 1303
If the farmer were impatient and short-tempered (as one finds many who are hot-tempered and can't stand anything), he should probably get up and rudely reject my Hans Pfriemen, and say: What do you fool have to do with me, you go your way, leave me alone; he should also take an earthen dumpling, and greet such Master Klügel with it, so that he lies on his back and turns his eyes, like an ox that one now wants to beat. But a sensible farmer does not do this, but says: "Dear, be quiet, you do not understand what I am doing now; but come back after half a year or a quarter of a year, and then I will show you what I have done now. For in that time every grain that I now cast into the ground and sow will bring forth a stalk with a thick, full ear; then I will take back tenfold, yes, twenty, thirtyfold for the seed that is now cast into the ground and tilled. And the sun and the rain will serve me through God's work, so that the grain in the field will sprout, green and grow.
4th Against this Hans Pfriem sitteth down, and saith, Well, this is nothing that thou pretendest; I see neither stalk nor ear, but I see that thou castest the goodly corn into the mire, and plowest it up; how shall anything come of it? Be thou content, saith the farmer, and I will have the corn cast into the ground, and be it plowed up; not that it perish and perish in the ground, but that it grow up, and bring forth fruit. Therefore, when the grain is sown, I also pray to God to give it rain, sun and weather, so that it first becomes soft and decays in the earth, and then, when it has taken root, breaks forth again from the earth, grows and bears fruit.
(5) Such a foolish man, says St. Paul, are you also, when you ask how the dead will rise? For as it is with the seed, so it is with our body, which also is sown in the ground. For although men perish in many ways, some drown in the water and are eaten by fishes, some go to the gallows and are eaten by ravens, some are burned with fire, 2c., St. Paul sums it all up as follows
and all this is called throwing the grain into the ground and plowing it up so that it loses its shape. Can you then," he says, "have such faith in the field that if the grain is sown before winter and plowed up with the harrow, for half a year afterward there will be beautiful, young, delicious grain? You learn this from experience and read it in your book and in your Bible, namely, if God blesses your work and gives sun, rain and weather, that the seed you have sown will be uncorrupted and in its time will come to life again and bear fruit. Why don't you also believe this Bible that God proclaims and promises you in His Word that our body, when it is scraped into the earth and buried, will rise from the earth and come to life again?
Our Lord God is a good husbandman, who carries us all in his cloth, that is, in his law; because we are all sinners and transgressors of his commandments, we must also all die, Rom. 5:12, although we do not all die in the same way, but one dies on the bed of a fever, of pestilence 2c, the other dies in the war in the battle, yet death takes us all away, so that it is all said that God takes hold of his cloth, scatters it around him like the sower, and sows us into the earth. Just as you believe in the field that something will come of the grain that is sown into the earth, so you should also believe here in our Lord God that something will come of the deceased body that is plowed into the earth. For our Lord God no more digs our bodies into the ground with the opinion that they will remain in the ground and decay forever than a farmer throws grain into the ground with the opinion that it will perish and perish. Yes, it is much less God's opinion that our body should remain eternally in the earth than the farmer's with the grain. Just as the grain of the opinion is sown and covered up, so that it loses its form, so that it is no longer known, so that neither grain nor the form of a grain is seen there, and instead a beautiful stalk grows up that bears fruit: so also our body of the opinion is buried in the earth, so that it loses its form, so that it is not seen.
1) Erlanger: dem.
I see neither a human body nor a bodily form, and instead a beautiful, clear, lovely and joyful body rises into another being and life.
(7) But we are clever Hans Pfriemen, in good German, coarse, unintelligent fools, who always let ourselves be preached to, and hear daily that God is our husbandman, who not only sows us in the earth, but also speaks that he will give rain and sun, moisture and sap, prosperity and blessing in due time, abundantly and abundantly, so that his grain will grow and flourish; as he also faithfully does. The preaching of the Gospel and the holy sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, are the rain; our Lord God lets it fall on his seed and thereby makes it moist. The Holy Spirit is the sun, through which He makes His grain alive, and finally raises it from the dead. But we go there, we turn a deaf ear to it, we remain coarse and unintelligent, yet we want to be clever, and we are true Hanseatic priests who master God's doors.
(8) Therefore St. Paul here answers them that ask how the dead shall rise, saying, Thou art a fool, and remainest a fool. Your own field, and your faith and science in your field, testify that you are a fool in your skin. You believe that your grain, which you sow in your field, will grow up in its time, gain a stalk, blossom beautifully and bear much fruit; and you cannot believe that God's grain, which he sows in his field, will come forth again on the last day and come to life. You can believe in yourself and your work of the field, but you cannot and will not believe in God and His work of the field. Are you not a gross fool? God's work should be much more certain to you than your work, since God is a different cultivator than you are.
(9) Such a likeness of the field and seed he gives here, as if to say, Thou fool, go to the husbandman, he hath a fine Bible concerning the article of the resurrection of the dead; therein shalt thou study, and learn to understand what thou prayest in infantile faith, saying, I believe a resurrection of the flesh. For the same article is written on
The seed of the field and of the garden is written and painted before thine eyes, and thy field and the ground which thou sowest may teach thee what thou shalt think of the resurrection of the dead. When summer comes, the grain shoots out of the earth, and when it has sun, rain and weather, it greens, grows, shoots, blossoms and stands cheerfully, and no decay or death is to be seen in it, as before in winter, but a cheerful form and life.
(10) This is a strong preaching of the resurrection. For as the grain is sown in the field, and loses its form in the earth, and decays, but springs up again out of the earth, and before our eyes, as it were, rises again from death very merrily and finely: so also we are sown in the earth, and are sheared as the grain. But it is for a winter that we lie in the earth and rot; when our summer comes, at the last day, our grain will spring forth, so that we will see not only a green blade of grass and an erect stalk, but also a strong, thick ear, and will become rich farmers, that is, eternally blessed. The rain, the sun and the wind, that is, the Word, the sacraments and the Holy Spirit, prepare us for this.
With such great seriousness he calls us fools. For just as the wise Hans Pfriem considered the sower a foolish, senseless farmer, because he throws the grain into the ground, and yet he himself is a crude Hans Worst and an incomprehensible, foolish fool: so are they also crude Hans Wörste, who ask: How will the dead rise? With what kind of body will they come? Will they also eat and drink? "Thou fool, that which thou sowest shall not live, except it die first." The grain must first decay and lose its form if it is to come to life and bear fruit. For its decay serves to give it another, more beautiful form. So our body, as it lives now, must also lose its form and put on a new form, if it is to go to heaven and live forever. If the body did not decompose in the earth, it would never become a new, living body; life must come out of death.
Item 12: "That which you sow is not the body that is to become, but a mere grain,
namely wheat, or the other one. But God gives him a body as he wills, and to each of the seed his own body." So he wants to say: The body of man, when he is dead and buried, is not the body that is to become. In the resurrection it will take on a different form, be much more beautiful and glorious than it is now, just as the grain, after it decays, grows again much more beautiful. It retains its essence and nature, but it takes on a different form, is not a dry, wrinkled grain when it grows out of the earth, but a green, fresh, living grain. The same will happen to the human body; when it has rotted in the earth, it will rise again much more beautiful and glorious. It will remain the same body of a man as it was created, but it will be a different form and custom of the body, will not eat, drink, feed, beget children, keep house 2c., but will not need any of the things that belong to this transient life and preservation of the body. The same body and soul that each one had will remain in its nature, with all its limbs, but it will not keep the form it now has, without what belongs to its essence; will also not be the same custom of the body as it is now.
(13) But the difference of male and female will remain, as God created each one, just as the grain retains its kind and nature. From a grain of wheat grows nothing but a stalk of wheat; from a grain of barley nothing but a stalk of barley, and so on, each remains in its nature and essence; the grain brings the same kind, the grain of barley does not go into a stalk of wheat; the grain of wheat does not go into a stalk of oats. As nature is created, and remains according to the word, that each one should bear fruit according to its kind, and have its own seed with itself, each one according to its kind, Gen. 1:12, so also God will give to each one his own body in the resurrection. What is created a man, that shall remain a man, male or female; God will not change His creature and creature. As every man is sown, so shall he rise again of the same kind and nature, but much more beautiful and glorious than he was sown, having sharp eyes that can see through
see a mountain, and have silent ears that can hear from one end of the world to the other.
(14) If God is able, through your hand and work, to make the grain that you sow in the field and hide in the ground so beautiful and glorious that everyone who sees it delights in it, should He not also, without your work and labor, by His work alone, be able to bring forth, clothe, adorn, and give a new form to our human body that He sows in the ground? Why do you want to argue a lot and ask how this is possible? Well, you fool, shouldn't you have learned from the creatures that such a thing is not impossible with God?
(15) Yea, sayest thou, how can the dead bodies go out of the graves, because they are rotten and become earth? How is that possible? How do you always remain a Hans Pfriem; you think it is impossible that all men rot and decay in the earth, but look at your own work and labor in the field. You throw the grain into the muck, bury it so that it rots, and wait until winter is over so that you can see it again, much more beautiful and abundant than you sowed it. So you must also wait here until the winter is over, and our body rises again. When it is resurrected, you will see it come forth again. For this purpose Christ has gone before us with his resurrection, and has broken the way for us, and made the way that we should follow him. Therefore we 1) have no reason to doubt this article.
(16) And not only in the grain, but also in other creatures it can be seen how life comes out of death through God's creation and omnipotence. If you go to the cherry tree and touch its branches around Christmas, you will not find a green leaf, sap or life on the whole tree, but a barren, bare tree with dead wood. But if you come back after Easter, the cherry tree begins to come alive again, the wood is juicy, and the little rice gains eyes and nodules.
1) Erlanger: je.
At Pentecost, little eyes become little bushes, which open up; and out of the little bushes come white flowers. When the little flower opens, you see a stem; out of the stem comes a seed, which is harder than the tree; inside the hard seed grows another seed, not as hard as the first seed, but somewhat softer, so that it 1) serves for eating, just as the marrow grows in the leg. The cherry grows around the hard core, covered with a skin, just as the flesh grows around the leg and is surrounded by the skin; and the cherry grows so merrily round that no wood turner can make it so round.
(17) How does it happen that through the little rice on the cherry tree, which is dry and dead around Christmas, like broom rice, a nodule grows, and out of the nodule comes a white flower, out of the flower comes a stem, and through the stem grows a seed; this again brings a seed inside, and a cherry outside? The stem is first of all a small point in the flower, so that one could hardly pierce it with the point of a needle; nevertheless, a stone grows through it, which has its marrow, flesh, blood and skin. Is this not a wonderful creature of God? No creature can make such a creature; no man, no king, no matter how powerful he may be; no doctor, no matter how learned, wise and prudent he may be, can create such a little cherry. And if we did not see it before our eyes every year, we would not believe that such beautiful, lovely fruit could grow so wonderfully from a scrawny little rice.
Where does the cherry tree come from? Does it not come from a dry, dead pit? When the birds eat the cherries from the tree, and the pits remain on the stem, they become withered and dry, fall down under the tree, or are scattered in the garden in some other way; people walk over them with their feet and pay no attention. Over a year a little tree shoots out of the kernel; it grows larger from year to year, so that over ten or twenty years it is a large tree, and for one kernel, from which it has grown, it bears many thousands of cherries. Do you say around Easter: Ho, how
1) "he" put by us instead of "she" in the original, where also "the core" is found.
should the little eye become a cherry, and the pit a tree? You fool, have you never seen it before? Let Margaret's Day 2) come, and I will show you the cherries that have grown from the little eye. And see about a year, two, five, ten after that, whether a large tree will not stand where a small stone now lies.
Therefore, dear Hans Pfriem, open your eyes, look at the cherry tree, it will preach to you about the resurrection of the dead, and teach you how life comes from death. If the cherry tree could speak, it would say to you, "Dear, look at me in winter, how barren, how bare, how barren, how dead I am; you will find neither leaves nor fruit, neither sap nor life on me: But come again after Easter, and I have sap and life; I am white with blossoms, green with leaves; come again about Margaret, and I have ripe cherries, and all the world is gracious to me; he that looketh upon me is astonished at me, and saith, Behold, how full hangeth the cherry tree; how marvelous a creature of God is this?
(20) Yes, you say, the cherry tree is all a common thing, and happens annually; therefore I cannot consider it a miracle, for I see it before my eyes; but that the dead should rise, that I do not see. Thank you, Hans Pfriem, for putting God's miraculous work out of your sight and speaking so rudely and incomprehensibly of His creature. Is it not sin and shame that you pass by God's creatures and works as if you were a block and stone that has no understanding? You have eyes, ears, reason and senses, yet you are not as wise and understanding as a cherry tree. You speak with your mouth: I believe in God the Father, the Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, but you do not believe from your heart, and you do not respect His creature and His work. Although it is a common thing with the cherry tree, and happens annually, it is not without God's power, creation and omnipotence that cherries grow from a barren, dead shoot, and cherry trees from small, dead seeds. God has in the An-
2) "Margaret's Day" is July 13.
3) Erlanger: wunder.
1310 Erl. (2.> 2°d, 96-98. interpretations on the 1st epistle to the Corinthians. W. vm, usi-iisi. 1311
The Creator spoke in the beginning of the creature [Gen. 1:12]: "Let the earth bring forth grass and herbs to sow, and fruitful trees, that every one may bear fruit after his kind, and have his own seed with him in the earth. The same word spoken by the Creator brings forth the cherries from the barren rice, and the cherry tree from the little seed. And so surely does God's creation and work proceed that none steps out of its kind, but each bears fruit according to its kind. The cherry tree does not go out of its kind, unless it is transplanted and grafted into another kind; otherwise everything goes so surely that it is not lacking.
So God preaches to us daily about the resurrection of the dead, and has presented to us so many examples and experiences of this article, how many creatures there are, if we pay attention to them. What happens in our homes? Where do chickens, ducks, geese come from? Do they not come from dead things? A matrona takes eggs, she puts them under a hen, duck, goose 2c. Comes Hans Pfriem, and says: What do you intend, you foolish woman, that you put the hen, goose 2c. over the eggs? They will trample and break your eggs; rather eat the eggs with your children, that is much better for you than for them to be trampled and broken. No, says the matrona, let me alone, I will not eat them; you are a fool, and do not know what I am doing; for two weeks, for a moon, for six weeks, I will show you the shells of the eggs, and in exchange there shall sit in the nest young chickens, ducks, young geese; there shall then One egg, of the eggs which I now lay under the hen, lay me a whole shock of eggs.
22 We see this in the experience that it happens: In Lent there are eggs, around Easter there are young geese, the same lay eggs again over a year. What does this do? The Word does it, that God blessed the living creatures in the water, likewise the living creatures on earth, and the birds under the sky, and said [Gen. 1, 28]: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters and the earth." The same word does it that God said to the hen, goose 2c. sit on the eggs, and hatch young chickens, geese 2c. And
over a year the same chickens, geese 2c. lay eggs again.
(23) So our house, yard, field, garden, and everything, is full of the Bible, since God not only preaches through His miraculous works, but also knocks at our eyes, stirs our senses, and shines into our hearts at once, if we will have it, so that we may pay attention and perceive how this article of the resurrection of the dead is formed and painted in the creatures. The egg must become so that it is neither fit to boil nor to fry, neither to eat nor to drink. It loses its shape, so that neither yolk nor white can be distinguished in it, and everything that is in it becomes white as yolk, as if it were rotten; nevertheless, out of the same egg, which has lost its shape and is no longer suitable for anything, a young, living chicken crawls. Is the not dead resurrected? Yes, it is more than dead raised. For before it was not so much as a dead chicken, but a mere egg; and such an egg, which no longer had the form of an egg; but now it is not an egg again, but a living chicken. Aren't these miraculous works of God? And yet all the world goes by and does not pay any attention to them.
(24) For Christ to feed five thousand men with five barley loaves and two fish [John 6:11] is a great miracle, and one can only marvel at it. But what is it compared to the miracle that God feeds every year with new grain, which he lets grow from the earth, not a few hundred thousand, but many thousand times a thousand, that is, people without number [Ps. 104, 24. ff.]. Therefore also St. Augustine says: Quotidiana miracula Dei non facilitate, sed assiduitate viluerunt, God's miraculous works, which happen daily, are held in low esteem, not because they are so easy, but because they happen so constantly and without interruption. That God rules the world and sustains the creatures is a miracle that people are accustomed to, and because it happens daily, it seems to be little, and no one considers it worthy to notice it and consider it a miracle of God, even though it is a greater miracle than that Christ fed five thousand men with five loaves [John 6:11] and made wine out of water [John 2:9].
(25) I have often heard my dear father say that he had heard it from his parents, my forefathers, that there were many more people on earth who ate than the sheaves of all the fields in the whole world that were gathered annually. Now no strong, healthy man can sustain himself on one sheaf for the year, but a man must have three or four bushels a year at the least. Now make the calculation, and you will find that more bread is eaten annually than grain from all the fields is cut and gathered annually. Where does so much bread come from? Must you not confess here yourself and say: It is God's miraculous work, who blesses and increases the grain in the field, in the barn, the flour in the box, the bread on the table; but there are few who pay attention to it and realize that it is God's miraculous work.
Tell me, is it not a great miracle of God's omnipotence: a woman conceives, bears, gives birth to a son, who has body and soul, grows, becomes strong and tall, stands, walks, lives and weaves. If you ask where such a son comes from, reason, medicine, experience, and also God's word say: This son's first beginning is a drop of blood. How is it possible that from a small drop of blood such a living, rational man, so great in person and length, so sharp in intellect, so rich in senses, should come into being? St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. John Hus, I Doctor Martinus, from what did they all come? Is not their first beginning a drop of blood? But we are Hans Pfriemen, who neither understand nor want to notice anything.
A housemother should be almost surprised to death about it, if she wanted to consider it right: Today she has an almond eggs, the same she puts under a hen, goose 2c. Over four or six weeks she has a basket full of young chickens and geese, which eat, drink, grow and become big. Where do they come from? The eggs open in their own time, then the little chickens and geese sit, peek out with their beaks, until they finally crawl out. The mother, the old hen,
1) "large" is missing in Walch.
the goose, does nothing to this, except that it sits over the eggs and warms them. But it is God's omnipotence that makes the eggs become young chickens and geese.
(28) So it is with the fish in the water, and with every plant that grows out of the earth. From what do fish grow? Their first beginning is the spawn that swims in the water; from this, by God's word and omnipotence, carp, perch, pike and all kinds of fish swarm in the water. An oak, beech or spruce tree grows out of the earth several fathoms thick and many cubits high; what is its first beginning? Earth and water; the root draws its sap and moisture from the earth; it drives it over itself with all its might, so that the tree grows large, thick and long 2c.
29) In 3) the same creatures one sees, who only wants to notice it, vain examples of the article of the resurrection of the dead. For everything comes forth from dead things: the fish that swarm in the water, the trees that stand and grow green in the forest, the men and animals that weave on the earth. For the spawn from which the fish grow, the sap which the root draws from the earth, the eggs from which the chickens and geese crawl out, the drop of blood from which the human being initially grows, what is it but all dead things? Nevertheless, living creatures come out of it. What makes this? God's omnipotence and word, which the eternal, omnipotent Creator spoke in Genesis 1:20: "Let the waters be filled with living creatures that weave, and with birds that fowl on the earth under the firmament of heaven." Item, v. 24: "Let the earth bring forth living creatures, every one after his kind, cattle, vermin, and beasts of the earth, every one after his kind." Item, of man, v. 28: "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth." Such is the word and omnipotence of God.
(30) Since we have so many examples in all creatures, which all testify that God created all things from nothing, that is, brought them forth from death, and still does today.
2) Barme - Barbe. 3) Walch: AuS.
If we believe that the Lord will one day bring forth creatures from death, we should strengthen our faith from this article that the dead will rise again, so that we have no doubt about it, but certainly believe that our body, when it is buried in the earth, will come forth again in its time and come to life.
What were heaven and earth, animals, men, angels and all creatures six thousand years ago? Nothing. But God brought them forth and created them by his word and omnipotence. He had no seed from which to make them; He created the seed from nothing, and from it He made the heavens and the earth, and all that is in them. It was a raw seed which God first created from nothing; as Moses says [Gen. 1:2, 1: "The earth was desolate and empty." From the same seed God brings forth heaven and earth. Then he speaks to the heavens, v. 3: "Thou heaven, give lights, sun, moon, stars, that they may shine upon the earth. And to the earth he says, v. 11: "O earth, let grass and herbage spring up, and fruitful trees, that every one may bear fruit after his kind." Item, v. 24: "You earth, bring forth living creatures, each according to its kind, cattle, worms, and animals on earth, each according to its kind." And to the waters he says, v. 20: "Let the waters be filled with living creatures that weave, and with fowl that feed in the earth under the heaven." Then he speaks to the fish, v. 22: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters of the sea, and let the birds multiply on the earth." And to the people he says, v. 28: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
(32) Since God, through his word and omnipotence, created heaven and earth and all creatures from nothing, that is, brought them forth from death, and still brings them forth daily from death, should he not be able to raise the dead according to his art, that is, through his powerful word and divine omnipotence? I mean, he is an almighty husbandman; what he builds, sows, plants, that is not lost. He leaves us his art and omnipotence, so that he can raise the dead.
The Lord will and can resurrect all the animals of the earth, the fruits of the field and all creatures.
(33) Therefore, when we fall sick, become diseased, die, are buried in the earth, and are buried, let us not be rude and foolish, nor wise Hansen Pfriemen, and say, How will the dead rise? How is it possible that the dead body, which rots and decays in the earth, will become something? but say: Dear Hans Pfriem, go into the garden and ask the cherry tree how it is possible that from a dry, dead branch an eye grows, and from the same eye cherries grow? Go into the house and ask the matrona how it is possible that from the dead eggs, which she lays under the hen, live little chickens grow? For since God does this with the cherries, little chickens, 2c., should you not give God the honor that, even if He causes winter to come upon you, and you die and are buried in the earth, He will nevertheless bring you forth again from the earth in the summer and raise you from the dead?
34 The body that is buried in the ground is not the body that is to be; it is of the same nature and kind, but much more beautiful and glorious. For a dead, corruptible body is sown, and a living, incorruptible body is raised. It is sown in shame and dishonor, and will rise in honor and glory. A weak, invalid body is sown, and a strong, vigorous body will rise. A natural body is sown, and a spiritual body will rise. An earthly body is sown, and a heavenly body will rise. Just as the grain that is sown in the earth is to be counted an earthly body compared to the grain that grows out of the earth with the stalk and with the full ear, for it is more beautiful, more lovely and more glorious: so also we will be much more beautiful in the resurrection, when we shall take off this corruptible, mortal body and put on an incorruptible, immortal body. Then we will no longer eat, drink, work, sweat, suffer hunger, thirst, hardship, but will live in God eternally, and our body will blossom, much more beautiful than roses, will no longer stink,
2c., but to be eternally healthy and fresh, and without all sin and evil desire.
35 Thus this article of the resurrection of the dead is powerfully demonstrated by the grain in the field, by the cherry tree and other trees in the garden, by the fish in the water, by the birds and animals on earth, and finally by our own bodies and lives. Who does not want to believe it, let him always go, and remain a coarse fool and Hans Pfriem. Some dispute and ask: where our Lord God will take so much fire on the last day, that he will judge the world by fire. Item, when God otherwise causes lightning and thunder to happen, they dispute about it, and pretend that there is a fire in the air that is greater than the world, and that is where lightning and thunder come from. Aren't they gross fools and unintelligent fools, even though they pretend to be very wise? These are the same fools of whom St. Paul says here, who ask [v. 35]: "How will the dead rise? And with what kind of body will they come?"
Pliny is also such a wise fool. When he hears preaching of the resurrection of the dead, he is offended and angry at it, and says: "If our dead body, which is burned to powder or rots in the earth, is to rise again from the dust and earth, where will he take hearing, face, reason and understanding? Or, if he has hearing, sight, reason 2c., for what will he need them? But if he has none, what kind of being and life will it be? Where will they all have room, lodging and dwelling, if they are to rise from the dead? And finally he concludes that it is all childish folly and a vain, lazy poem of wretched, mortal men, who would like to live forever and never stop, which is impossible, since there is no difference between the breath of a man and that of an unreasonable animal.
(37) Of Pliny this is no wonder, for he is a pagan and has neither the Word of God nor the Scriptures. For a pagan who does not have God's word and the Scriptures cannot speak and hold otherwise. But of the chief priests and Sadducees of the Jewish people, of Annas and Caiphas, it was a miracle, for they had the Word of God and the Scriptures.
the holy scriptures, and were the highest rulers and heads of the people of God; nevertheless they were true Hans priests, and stank in such suckling faith that they thought nothing at all of the resurrection of death; just as today cardinals, bishops, and the pope with all his court servants are stuck in such suckling faith. The chief priests and Sadducees should have believed Moses and the prophets, because they read them in their schools on every Sabbath day; but they did not understand Moses or the prophets, as Christ had charged them, Matt. 22:29, and taught and preached against this article publicly, drowning in avarice and the pleasures of this life, just as the pope, the cardinals, and the bishops look at money and property, dominion and power, and say: Let us take money and power, be great lords, rule, and live in pleasure; when we are dead, nothing will come of it. These are true epicures and swine, who have neither fear of death nor hope of eternal life. Why should we fear, they say, or what should we hope for, because there is no life after this life?
Come on, let's go, it's going the way it should go. Praise and thanks be to God that we have lived through the time. For since our highest heads of the Christian faith, as the Pope calls himself with his own, have followed in the footsteps of the high priests and Sadducees, and believe neither resurrection, nor angels, nor spirit, nor God, that is, nothing at all, Acts 23:8. 23, 8, then, if God wills, the last day will not be far away. For just as Christ came in his first future, in the time of the Jewish Sadducees, so he will come in his other future, in the time of the Christian, I would almost have said un-Christian Sadducees. They believe as much as a cow and a pig believe, and yet they want to be heads of the church and masters of the faith, and they condemn our gospel and put us under ban. Let them make; darkness has surrounded them; yet light shines in the dark place, blessed is he who pays attention to it, the day will soon dawn and the morning star will rise [2 Petr. 1, 19.]. The holy scripture shines forth; I hope we will also see the dear Lord come in the
1318 Eri. (2.) s "d, i "t. sis f. Interpretations on the 1st epistle to the Corinthians. W. vm, E-"". 1319
Clouds of heaven, that He may let His voice be heard: "Arise, arise, you who are under the earth, come forth [Dan. 12:2], arise from the dead [Eph. 5:14]. Our dear God grant that I may live to see it, amen. (1) (39) For our dear Lord Jesus Christ must do it with his kingdom; otherwise it is lost. He is the one who was before heaven and earth, and made them, and
1) This sentence is missing in Walch.
will also change and negate it in turn. He will make the old essence of this life obsolete, and make everything better; as David says in the 102nd Psalm, v. 26. 27.: Your years last for ever and ever; you founded the earth before, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will pass away, but you remain. They will all become obsolete, like a garment. They will be changed, like a garment, when you change them. Therefore shall we pray that his kingdom and the last day come. Amen.