Chapter 15: Kerygma (First Epistle from Paul to Corinthian Christians)

translation is NRSV Updated edition (2021)

I Cor. 15: 1 - 11, 20 - 26, 50 - 55

Now I (Apostle Paul) want you brothers

and sisters to understand the good news 

(e-u-a-n-g-e-l-i-o-n gospel) 

that I proclaimed to you, which you in

turn received, in which you also stand,

through which you are also being saved,

if you hold firmly to the message that

I proclaimed to you -- unless you have

come to believe in vain.

For I handed on to you as of first 

importance what I in turn had received:

that Christ died for our sins in accordance

with the scriptures and that he was buried

and that he was raised on the third day

in accordance with the scriptures and that

he first appeared to Cephas (Peter) then to

the Twelve.  Then he appeared to more

than 500 brothers and sisters at one time,

most of whom are still, though some have died.

Then he appeared to James, then to all of

the Apostles.  Last of all, as to one untimely

born, he appeared also to me.  For I am the

least of the apostles, unfit to be called an

apostle, because I persecuted the church of

God.  But by the grace of God I am what

I am and his grace toward me has not been

in vain.  On the contrary, I worked harder

than any of them, though it was not I but

the grace of God that is with me.  Whether

then it was I or they, so we proclaim and so

you believed. . . But in fact Christ has been

raised from the dead, the first fruits of them

that have died.  For since death came

through a human, the resurrection of the dead

has also come through a human, for as all die 

in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.

Then comes the end, when he hands over the

kingdom to God the Father, after he has

destroyed every ruler (archon) and authority

and power.  For he must reign until he has

put all his enemies under his feet.  The last

enemy to be destroyed is death. . .

What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this:

flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of

God, nor does the perishable inherit the 

imperishable.  Look, I will tell you a mystery!

We will not all die, but we will all be changed,

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the

last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and

the dead will be raised imperishable and we will

be changed.  For this perishable body must put

on imperishability and this mortal body must 

put on imperishability and this mortal body must

put on immortality.  When this perishable body

puts on imperishability and this mortal body

puts on immortality, then the saying that is

written will be fulfilled:

     Death has been swallowed up in victory!

         Where, O death, is your victory?

            Where, O death, is your sting?

[Hosea 13:14]