PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

29-34: Arguments from Christian experience
35-49: The resurrection body
50-58: Victory over death
These divisions are largely agreed upon, although they may be said to express topical
organisation (Holleman, 6 Garland, 7 Johnson 8 ), conventional rhetorical organisation (Watson, 9
Thiselton, 10 Wegener 11 ), or chiastic organisation (Welch, 12 Hull 13 ).
A difficulty in attempting to posit a conceivable coherent problem behind the issues in this
chapter is the fact that each of the groupings identified by Thiselton above finds apparent
confirmation in different parts of the chapter, although none of the three explanations is
comprehensively satisfying.
First Grouping: Certain People in Corinth Found Themselves Unable to Believe in Any
Kind of Postmortal Existence
This perspective finds some support in those parts of the chapter that counter a mis-estimation
of “vanity”, a distaste for labour, a lack of perseverance and general moral laxity:
15:17: But if Christ has not been raised, your faith is useless, you are still in your sins.
6
Joost Holleman, Resurrection & Parousia: A Traditio-Historical Study of Paul’s Eschatology
in 1 Corinthians 15 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1995).
7
Garland, 1 Corinthians.
8
Andrew Johnson, “Firstfruits and Death’s Defeat: Metaphor in Paul’s Rhetorical Strategy in
1 Cor 15:20-28,” WW 16/4 (1996): 456-464; “Turning the World Upside Down in 1
Corinthians 15: Apocalyptic Epistemology, the Resurrected Body and the New Creation,” EQ
75/4 (2003): 291-309.
9
Duane F. Watson, “Paul’s Rhetorical Strategy in 1 Corinthians 15,” in Rhetoric and the New
Testament: Essays from the 1992 Heidelberg Conference (ed. Stanley E Porter and Thomas H.
Olbricht; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1993), 231-49.
10
Thiselton, First Epistle, 1177-8.
11
Mark I. Wegener, “The Rhetorical Strategy of 1 Corinthians 15,” CTM 31/6 (2004): 438-
455.
12
John W. Welch, “Corinthian Religion and Baptism for the Dead (1 Corinthians 15:29):
Insights from Archaeology and Anthropology,” JBL 114/4 (1995): 661-82.
13
Michael F. Hull, Baptism on Account of the Dead (1 Cor 15:29): An Act of Faith in the
Resurrection (Leiden: Brill, 2006).
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