The dead will rise in bodies that are not subject to corruption, and the living will receive immortal bodies too. Paul may have wanted to contrast the dead and the living by the terms he chose for each in the first and second parts of this verse respectively. [1] Still the distinction is not strong enough to be significant. Both the dead and the living will receive imperishable (i.e, immortal) bodies. [source][source][source]
Context Summary
1 Corinthians 15:42-58 - Victory Over Sin And Death
Life on the other side will be as real and as earnest as here. We shall not dissolve into thin mist or flit as bodiless ghosts. We shall each be provided with a body like that which our Lord had after, He arose from the dead. It will be a spiritual body, able to go and come at a wish or a thought; a body that will be perfectly adapted to its spiritual world environment. The last Adam, our Lord, will effect this for us. But we must in the meanwhile be content to make the best use of the discipline of mortality, keeping our body pure and sweet as the temple and vehicle of the Holy Spirit until we are born into the next stage of existence. Always the physical before the psychical and the psychical before the spiritual.
What triumph rings through those last four verses! As generations of Christians have stood around the mortal remains of their beloved, they have uttered these words of immortal hope. The trumpet's notes will call those who have died and the saints that are still alive on the earth, into one mighty host of transfigured and redeemed humanity. Oh, happy day! Then we shall be manifested, rewarded, and glorified with Christ. All mysteries solved, all questions answered! Till then let us abound always in the work of the Lord. [source]
Chapter Summary: 1 Corinthians 15
1By Christ's resurrection, 12he proves the necessity of our resurrection, 16against all such as deny the resurrection of the body 21The fruit, 35and the manner thereof; 51and of the resurrection of those who shall be found alive at the last day
Greek Commentary for 1 Corinthians 15:53
Must put on [δει ενδυσασται] Aorist (ingressive) middle infinitive, put on as a garment. [source]
Immortality [ατανασιαν] Old word from ατανατος athanatos undying, and that from α a privative and τνησκω thnēskō to die. In N.T. only here and 1 Timothy 6:16 where God is described as having immortality. [source]
Put on [ἐνδύσασθαι] The metaphor of clothing. Compare 2 Corinthians 5:2-4. Incorruption and immortality are to invest the spiritually-embodied personality like a garment. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for 1 Corinthians 15:53
Galatians 3:27(You) put on Christ [Χριστὸν ἐνεδύσασθε] The phrase only here and Romans 13:14. The figurative use of the verb occurs only once in the Gospels, Luke 24:49, but often in Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:53; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10,Colossians 3:12, etc. Chrysostom (Hom. xiii. on Ephesians) remarks, “We say of friends, one puts on the other, meaning thereby much love and unceasing fellowship.” In lxx quite often in the figurative sense, as Judges 6:34; 1 Chronicles 12:18; 2 Chronicles 6:41; Job 8:22; Job 29:14; Psalm 108:1-13:18. Similarly in class., Plato, Rep. 620, of Thersites putting on the form of a monkey: Xen. Cyr. ii. 1,13, of insinuating one's self into the minds of hearers. So the Lat. induere: Cicero, De Off. iii. 10,43, to assume the part of a judge: Tac. Ann. xvi. 28, to take on the part of a traitor or enemy. To put on Christ implies making his character, feelings and works our own. Thus Chrysostom: “If Christ is Son of God, and thou hast put him on, having the Son in thyself and being made like unto him, thou hast been brought into one family and one nature.” And again: “He who is clothed appears to be that with which he is clothed.” [source]
1 Timothy 6:16Who only hath immortality [ο μονος εχων ατανασιαν] “The one who alone has immortality.” Ατανασια Athanasia (ατανατος athanatos α a privative and τανατος thanatos), old word, in N.T. only here and 1 Corinthians 15:53. Domitian demanded that he be addressed as “Dominus et Deus noster.” Emperor worship may be behind the use of μονος monos (alone) here. [source]
1 Peter 1:18Ye were redeemed [ελυτρωτητε] First aorist passive indicative of λυτροω lutroō old verb from λυτρον lutron (ransom for life as of a slave, Matthew 20:28), to set free by payment of ransom, abundant examples in the papyri, in N.T. only here, Luke 24:21; Titus 2:14. The ransom is the blood of Christ. Peter here amplifies the language in Isaiah 52:3.Not with corruptible things (ου πταρτοις ou phthartois). Instrumental case neuter plural of the late verbal adjective from πτειρω phtheirō to destroy or to corrupt, and so perishable, in N.T. here, 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 1 Corinthians 15:53.; Romans 1:23. Αργυριωι η χρυσιωι Arguriōi ē chrusiōi (silver or gold) are in explanatory apposition with πταρτοις phthartois and so in the same case. Slaves were set free by silver and gold.From your vain manner of life “Out of” This adjective, though predicate in position, is really attributive in idea, like χειροποιητου cheiropoiētou in Ephesians 2:11 (Robertson, Grammar, p. 777), like the French idiom. This double compound verbal adjective (πατερ παρα διδωμι paterparadidōmi), though here alone in N.T., occurs in Diodorus, Dion. Halic, and in several inscriptions (Moulton and Milligan‘s Vocabulary; Deissmann, Bible Studies, pp. 266f.). The Jews made a wrong use of tradition (Matthew 15:2.), but the reference here seems mainly to Gentiles (1 Peter 2:12). [source]
1 Peter 1:18Not with corruptible things [ου πταρτοις] Instrumental case neuter plural of the late verbal adjective from πτειρω phtheirō to destroy or to corrupt, and so perishable, in N.T. here, 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 1 Corinthians 15:53.; Romans 1:23. Αργυριωι η χρυσιωι Arguriōi ē chrusiōi (silver or gold) are in explanatory apposition with πταρτοις phthartois and so in the same case. Slaves were set free by silver and gold. [source]
What do the individual words in 1 Corinthians 15:53 mean?
It behoovesfortheperishablethisto put onimperishableandmortalimmortality
Greek Commentary for 1 Corinthians 15:53
Aorist (ingressive) middle infinitive, put on as a garment. [source]
Old word from ατανατος athanatos undying, and that from α a privative and τνησκω thnēskō to die. In N.T. only here and 1 Timothy 6:16 where God is described as having immortality. [source]
As if pointing to his own body. Compare these hands, Acts 20:34; this tabernacle, 2 Corinthians 5:1. [source]
The metaphor of clothing. Compare 2 Corinthians 5:2-4. Incorruption and immortality are to invest the spiritually-embodied personality like a garment. [source]
Reverse Greek Commentary Search for 1 Corinthians 15:53
The phrase only here and Romans 13:14. The figurative use of the verb occurs only once in the Gospels, Luke 24:49, but often in Paul, 1 Corinthians 15:53; Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10, Colossians 3:12, etc. Chrysostom (Hom. xiii. on Ephesians) remarks, “We say of friends, one puts on the other, meaning thereby much love and unceasing fellowship.” In lxx quite often in the figurative sense, as Judges 6:34; 1 Chronicles 12:18; 2 Chronicles 6:41; Job 8:22; Job 29:14; Psalm 108:1-13:18. Similarly in class., Plato, Rep. 620, of Thersites putting on the form of a monkey: Xen. Cyr. ii. 1,13, of insinuating one's self into the minds of hearers. So the Lat. induere: Cicero, De Off. iii. 10,43, to assume the part of a judge: Tac. Ann. xvi. 28, to take on the part of a traitor or enemy. To put on Christ implies making his character, feelings and works our own. Thus Chrysostom: “If Christ is Son of God, and thou hast put him on, having the Son in thyself and being made like unto him, thou hast been brought into one family and one nature.” And again: “He who is clothed appears to be that with which he is clothed.” [source]
“The one who alone has immortality.” Ατανασια Athanasia (ατανατος athanatos α a privative and τανατος thanatos), old word, in N.T. only here and 1 Corinthians 15:53. Domitian demanded that he be addressed as “Dominus et Deus noster.” Emperor worship may be behind the use of μονος monos (alone) here. [source]
First aorist passive indicative of λυτροω lutroō old verb from λυτρον lutron (ransom for life as of a slave, Matthew 20:28), to set free by payment of ransom, abundant examples in the papyri, in N.T. only here, Luke 24:21; Titus 2:14. The ransom is the blood of Christ. Peter here amplifies the language in Isaiah 52:3.Not with corruptible things (ου πταρτοις ou phthartois). Instrumental case neuter plural of the late verbal adjective from πτειρω phtheirō to destroy or to corrupt, and so perishable, in N.T. here, 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 1 Corinthians 15:53.; Romans 1:23. Αργυριωι η χρυσιωι Arguriōi ē chrusiōi (silver or gold) are in explanatory apposition with πταρτοις phthartois and so in the same case. Slaves were set free by silver and gold.From your vain manner of life “Out of” This adjective, though predicate in position, is really attributive in idea, like χειροποιητου cheiropoiētou in Ephesians 2:11 (Robertson, Grammar, p. 777), like the French idiom. This double compound verbal adjective (πατερ παρα διδωμι paterparadidōmi), though here alone in N.T., occurs in Diodorus, Dion. Halic, and in several inscriptions (Moulton and Milligan‘s Vocabulary; Deissmann, Bible Studies, pp. 266f.). The Jews made a wrong use of tradition (Matthew 15:2.), but the reference here seems mainly to Gentiles (1 Peter 2:12). [source]
Instrumental case neuter plural of the late verbal adjective from πτειρω phtheirō to destroy or to corrupt, and so perishable, in N.T. here, 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 1 Corinthians 15:53.; Romans 1:23. Αργυριωι η χρυσιωι Arguriōi ē chrusiōi (silver or gold) are in explanatory apposition with πταρτοις phthartois and so in the same case. Slaves were set free by silver and gold. [source]