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1 Corinthians 15:12
ESV Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
NIV But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
NASB Now if Christ is preached, that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
CSB Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say, "There is no resurrection of the dead"?
NLT But tell me this — since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead?
KJV Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?

What does 1 Corinthians 15:12 mean?

After establishing that the Christians in Corinth did believe that Jesus was physically raised from the dead, Paul now directly addresses his point in this section. Some people in the church were saying that Christians will not be raised from the dead—at least in bodily form—in the end times.

It's not clear exactly what these critics believed happens to Christians after death. Perhaps they believed that all the benefits of faith in Christ were experienced in this life and then the soul simply ceased to exist. Many in the Greco-Roman era believed that death was the end with no afterlife to follow. Others believed the death of the body released a person to a purely spiritual existence, in an afterlife marked by freedom from all the limitations of the physical.

It's unclear if the Corinthians had been influenced by false teaching or were naively blending Christian truth with cultural perspectives. In either case, Paul will correct their thinking in the following verses.

He begins by making what he thinks they should see as an obvious connection: If Christ was raised from the dead, as they had been taught and had believed, then how can anyone suggest that Christ's followers could not also be raised from the dead? Paul will use careful logic to show them the problem with this idea.
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