What Does 1 Corinthians 15:12 Mean in the King James?
Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
If Christ is raised, resurrection is not an impossible category to deny; it is the reality the claim about him already depends on.
THE MEANING
The verse confronts a split in belief: saying Christ is raised while saying the dead are not raised cannot hold together. The proclamation carries resurrection as a reality that includes the dead, not an exception detached from them. The question puts that contradiction before you now.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
“I can affirm that Christ rose while denying that resurrection is real for the dead.”
THE ROOT
ἐγήγερται
egēgertai
GROWS FROM
ἐγείρω
egeirō
To wake or rouse; to raise up.
The verb behind “rose” can describe waking from sleep as well as being raised, linking resurrection with a rising from death’s stillness. Its form presents Christ as having been raised, the claim the denial must account for.
ALSO GROWS
egeire: Rise; wake up (an imperative form).
ἔγειρε
The same verb can call someone from sleep into wakefulness, giving “raised” a waking as well as an uprising sense.
egersis: Raising, rising, resurrection.
ἔγερσις
This related noun names the raising itself, showing that the verb and the resurrection it implies belong to one word-family.
ἀνάστασις
anastasis
GROWS FROM
ἵστημι (histēmi), through ἀνίστημι (anistēmi)
To stand; in this word-family, to stand up or rise.
“Resurrection” carries a concrete image of standing up. The word itself makes the contrast vivid: the dead are not only spoken of as a doctrine, but as those who rise.
ALSO GROWS
anistēmi: Rise, stand up.
ἀνίστημι
This related verb makes the standing-up image in “resurrection” explicit.
exanastasis: Rising up, resurrection.
ἐξανάστασις
This related compound keeps the image of rising and applies it to resurrection as well.
THE PATTERN
Scripture presents resurrection as the raising of the dead, a reality that extends beyond Christ to those who are dead.
And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.THE THREAD
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.The verb translated “rose” in verse 12 is repeated here: Christ has been raised. Calling him the firstfruits links his rising to those who sleep, revealing the wider resurrection already contained in the claim.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us