Bible Strands
1 Corinthians 15:37
And what you sow is not the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or something else.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses the Corinthian church while defending the doctrine of bodily resurrection against their skepticism about the mechanics of the process. He interrupts his systematic argument to deploy an agricultural analogy that clarifies how the dead are raised.
The words — σῶμα (sōma) translates literally to “body,” establishing the precise term of contrast between the buried seed and the future form. σπεῖρεις (speireis) means “you sow,” anchoring the metaphor in the physical act of planting that precedes any emergence.
The thread — This verse functions as the explanatory hinge in Paul’s resurrection argument, bridging the necessity of death in 1 Corinthians 15:36 with God’s sovereign provision in 1 Corinthians 15:38. The seed-to-body progression tracks the broader Pauline distinction between natural and spiritual existence in 1 Corinthians 15:42-44.
Why it lands — It demands the reader accept that resurrection is a divine reconfiguration rather than a biological continuation, requiring trust in God’s capacity to generate new form from decay. The text compels an intellectual shift from expecting identical preservation to expecting purposeful transformation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: