1 Corinthians 15:16

For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) For if the dead rise not.—Better, if the dead be not raised. The Apostle has in the previous verse completed the argument as to the historical fact of Christ’s resurrection, which proves that the denial of the doctrine of the resurrection cannot be maintained unless it can be shown that the Apostles are wilfully bearing false testimony, and that their preaching, and the faith of those who accepted it, is vain. He now turns to a different line of argument—a reductio ad absurdum. He maintains the doctrine of the resurrection by showing the incredible absurdities to which a belief in the contrary must lead. If you do not believe in a resurrection, you must believe—(1) That Christ is not raised, and that your faith, therefore, being false, has no result—that you are still slaves of sin. This you know by personal experience to be false. As well might a living man try to believe that he is a corpse. (2) That all who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished; that is, that the noblest and most unselfish perish like brutes. (3) That God gives men a good hope in Christ, and that it, not being fulfilled here, is never to be fulfilled. In other words, if there be no resurrection, the only alternative is atheism, for otherwise you have to believe that, though there is a God who is wise and just, yet that the purest and greatest life ever lived is no better in the end than the life of a dog; that those who have lived the most unselfish lives have perished like beasts; and that God aroused a hunger and thirst of the purest kind in some souls, only that the hunger should never be satisfied, and the thirst never be quenched.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:12-19 Having shown that Christ was risen, the apostle answers those who said there would be no resurrection. There had been no justification, or salvation, if Christ had not risen. And must not faith in Christ be vain, and of no use, if he is still among the dead? The proof of the resurrection of the body is the resurrection of our Lord. Even those who died in the faith, had perished in their sins, if Christ had not risen. All who believe in Christ, have hope in him, as a Redeemer; hope for redemption and salvation by him; but if there is no resurrection, or future recompence, their hope in him can only be as to this life. And they must be in a worse condition than the rest of mankind, especially at the time, and under the circumstances, in which the apostles wrote; for then Christians were hated and persecuted by all men. But it is not so; they, of all men, enjoy solid comforts amidst all their difficulties and trials, even in the times of the sharpest persecution.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For if the dead rise not ... - This is a repetition of what is said in 1 Corinthians 15:13. It is repeated here, evidently, because of its importance. It was a great and momentous truth which would "bear" repetition, that if there was no resurrection, as some held, then it would follow that the Lord Jesus was not raised up.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. The repetition implies the unanswerable force of the argument.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

See Poole on "1 Corinthians 15:51"

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. This is a repetition of the argument in 1 Corinthians 15:13 made partly to show the importance of it, and partly to observe other absurdities, following upon the conclusion of it.

Geneva Study Bible

{6} For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:

(6) He repeats the same argument taken from an absurdity, purposing to show how faith is in vain if the resurrection of Christ is taken away.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Corinthians 15:16. Proof of the ὃν οὐκ ἤγειρεν, εἴπερ κ.τ.λ. by solemn repetition of 1 Corinthians 15:13 entirely as to purport, and almost entirely as to the words also.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Corinthians 15:16 restates the position of the τινές (1 Corinthians 15:13; see note), in order to press it to another, even more intolerable conclusion: (1) 1 Corinthians 15:14-15 proved the witness untrue, if the fact is unreal; (2) 1 Corinthians 15:17-18 conclude the effects unreal, if the fact is unreal.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - This verse is a repetition of Ver. 13, to emphasize the argument that the Christian faith in the Resurrection rests not on philosophic theory, but on an historic fact. 1 Corinthians 15:16