1 Corinthians 15:35-36 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” 36 You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.
Paul has been fairly convincing so far in his arguments in this chapter. He has used many forms of proofs and supports for he key point that the dead will be raised. Now he takes up a different part of his overall argument. He takes up a form of diatribe with a fictitious “someone” who raises a question. By doing this, he preempts anyone in Corinth who may be thinking this. There is always someone in every crowd who wants to know how things will happen. So this “someone” asks the question, how will this resurrection actually take place? After all, the human body returns to dust. It is one thing to raise a dead person who has not been dead very long, before the decomposition starts taking place. But people have been dead a long time and there is nothing left of their bodies. And how about those who are eaten by animals or who drown in the sea? The scientific logic soon breaks down with these questions. In modern terms, we might ask about the atoms of people who lived long ago. Everything is recycled in this world. How can the human body be resurrected when it does not exist anymore?
Paul answers these questions in a surprising way by calling those who ask such questions “foolish.” The implication is that they are thinking too literally and earthly. Of course, the body will be different. The one who created us from dust can recreate us from dust. Paul uses an analogy of a seed. What happens to a seed is an illustration of what happens to a person. A seed is dead and dried up. If a seed does not reach this point, it will not grow. For example, if a seed is harvested too early and is still green and soft, it will not grow. The plant or flower has to reach the end of its life or season to produce the seed. Likewise, the human body must die before it can be raised. Resurrection does not happen to something already alive (except in a spiritual sense). We all must die to experience resurrection. New life comes from what has died.
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