PAUL AND THE RHETORIC OF REVERSAL: KERYGMATIC ...

It is not obvious, then, that the resurrection-deniers in Corinth were committed to the idea of
personal dissolution at death.
Second Grouping: Certain People in Corinth Believed That the Resurrection had
Already Occurred
This conception of the Corinthian situation finds support in a number of themes of the chapter.
Firstly, there are those parts of the passage that evidence Corinthian doubts about, or taunting
of, mortality. It appears that some in Corinth needed to be convinced that there remained a
need to wait upon divine grace for the overcoming of mortality:
15:26: The last enemy to be destroyed is death
15:36: Fool! Do you not know that that which you sow will not come to life unless it
dies?
15:53-4: For it is necessary for this perishability to be clothed with imperishability,
and this mortality to be clothed with immortality. And when this perishability is
clothed with imperishability and this mortality is clothed with immortality, then that
which is written will occur.
Saw notes that the theme of death is of great importance in this chapter, and has been touched
upon previously in the letter, perhaps suggesting that there was a problem related to present
mortality in Corinth. 19 H.W. Hollander and J. Holleman propose:
19 “However, we find that death is mentioned in 7:39 and 11:30 (see also 15:6, 18, 29). In this
regard we may infer that the issue mentioned in 1 Cor 15:12 reflects dissension in response to
death among Corinthians”. Saw, Paul’s Rhetoric, 182-3. That dissension itself is the issue,
however, is not at all apparent in the text, as I have noted in chapter 2.
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