Scripture & Context · Christian History
The Message They Received: An Early Christian Confession of the Resurrection
Paul passed on the good news he had received: Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised, and appeared. A first-century letter takes us close to the Church's first proclamation.
In this note
Paul could have answered the Corinthians’ argument about resurrection with a new argument of his own. First, he reminded them of something older.
He had delivered to them what he had received: Christ died for our sins, was buried, was raised on the third day, and appeared to his followers. This was the gospel he had preached and the message on which they had taken their stand. 1
The words are familiar enough to slip past us. Pause over the act of receiving. Before Paul wrote this letter, before the New Testament circulated as a collected book, the good news was already being handed from one believer to another.
The Church began with news of the risen Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15, we can hear that proclamation close to its beginnings.
The trouble in Corinth
First Corinthians is generally dated to AD 53–55 and is widely accepted as an authentic letter of Paul. Corinth was a busy Roman city in southern Greece, and the young church there had plenty of difficulties. Paul addresses divisions, misconduct, questions about worship, and the responsibilities of life together. 3
In chapter 15, the difficulty is startling: some among them are saying there is no resurrection of the dead. Paul follows the consequences. If the dead cannot be raised, Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, Christian preaching is empty, faith is futile, and believers remain in their sins. 1
He is asking them to see what they would lose. Their hope, including hope for those who have died, rests on an event: Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
So Paul takes them back to the gospel they had already heard.
Received, then handed on
The Greek verbs in verse 3 repay a moment’s attention. Paredōka means “I delivered” or “I passed on.” Parelabon means “I received.” Paul places himself within a chain of transmission. The message entrusted to him is the message he has entrusted to Corinth.
The compact wording of verses 3–5, with its repeated clauses, has long been recognized as inherited tradition. Scholars differ over the exact boundaries of the earlier formula, especially when the appearances in verses 6–7 are included. Its precise first wording and date cannot be recovered. The passage itself is clear that Paul is handing on what he received. 14
For a Christian reader, this is a glimpse of apostolic faith being taught. The Resurrection was already at the center. Paul did not offer it as a late improvement to a simpler message about Jesus.
The good news had a shape that could be remembered and passed on. Its short statements carried an immense hope.
He died for our sins
Paul begins with Christ’s death and immediately tells us its saving purpose. Jesus died for our sins, in accordance with the Scriptures.
The cross is where the gravity of sin and the mercy of God meet. Paul’s summary puts salvation in the first line. Christ gave himself for us.
“The Scriptures” here are Israel’s sacred writings. Christians have read passages such as Isaiah 53 in the light of Jesus’ suffering, though Paul does not identify a particular passage in this sentence. He gives the Corinthians the larger conviction: the death of Christ belongs within God’s promised work of salvation. 1
Then comes the burial. Four words in many English renderings, yet the statement gives the proclamation its weight. The one who rose had truly died. The gospel passes through the grave.
He was raised
On the third day, Christ was raised, again in accordance with the Scriptures.
The Greek egēgertai, often translated “has been raised,” expresses a completed action with an abiding result. Paul writes about a risen Lord who lives. The Resurrection changes what follows because Christ has overcome death.
Later in the chapter, Paul calls him the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. The first portion of a harvest announces the harvest to come. Christ’s Resurrection is the beginning of the future he promises to those who belong to him. 1
This is why Easter reaches beyond a single morning in the past. Our hope for the dead, our courage in suffering, and our expectation of life with God are bound to the risen Savior. Paul will eventually describe death itself as the enemy to be destroyed.
He gives grieving Christians more than a reason to remember. He gives them a reason to hope.
He appeared
Paul names Cephas, or Peter, and then the Twelve. He continues with more than five hundred believers at once, James, all the apostles, and finally himself. He even notes that most of the five hundred were still living when he wrote. The letter does not supply a place or detailed narrative for that gathering; it preserves Paul’s testimony to it. 1
The names connect the proclamation with people. “The Twelve” is the familiar name for the apostolic group, rather than a head count we should force onto the scene. James is generally understood as the Lord’s brother, whom Paul identifies elsewhere.
In Galatians, Paul recalls going to Jerusalem and meeting Cephas and James. He also describes his former zeal in persecuting the Church. These are people and events in his own account of his life, close to the beginnings of the movement he now serves. 2
His place at the end of the list is humbling. He had opposed the Church, yet the risen Christ appeared to him too. Paul’s response is gratitude for grace. The persecutor has become a preacher of the very gospel he tried to destroy.
Ink on papyrus
The original letter sent to Corinth has not survived. One of its early physical witnesses has: Papyrus 46, usually called P46, a Greek collection of Pauline letters copied around AD 200. It is a codex, a book made from gathered leaves rather than a scroll. 5
Parts are held at the Chester Beatty in Dublin and parts at the University of Michigan. Digital photographs bring the surviving manuscript within reach of readers far from either collection. 6
Among its pages is the text of 1 Corinthians 15. The papyrus is damaged in places, and missing letters have to be distinguished from the ink still visible. That is part of the patient work of reading an ancient manuscript.
The dates matter here. Paul wrote in the first century; this copy was made later. P46 is an early witness to the transmission of his letter, rather than the original sheet or the moment when the confession began.
Even so, there is something arresting about seeing the words on papyrus. A Christian scribe copied the message so that it could continue to be read. The message had already crossed generations, and it would cross many more.
Hope that changes the day’s work
Paul’s chapter ends in a place we might not expect after its great declarations about resurrection. He calls the Corinthians to steadfastness and to the work of the Lord, because their labor in him is not in vain. 1
The future Christ promises gives meaning to faithfulness now. Love, service, worship, and perseverance are lived before a Lord who has risen and will raise his people.
That conviction is the source of The Third Day. Its manuscript-inspired artwork directs attention to the passage Paul preserved. The paper texture is our contemporary design; the gospel on which the design rests is the Church’s received message.
Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was raised. He appeared.
Paul handed it on because it was good news. It still is.
Sources and further reading
- 1 Corinthians 15, World English Bible. Read verses 1–11 for the received message and the whole chapter for Paul’s argument and concluding exhortation.
- Galatians 1:13–19, World English Bible. Paul’s former persecution of the Church and his visit to Cephas and James.
- 1 Corinthians, Oxford Bibliographies in Biblical Studies. Introduction to the letter’s date and concerns.
- James Ware, “The Resurrection of Jesus in the Pre-Pauline Formula of 1 Cor 15.3–5”, New Testament Studies 60 (2014), 475–498. The public abstract and bibliographic record were checked; the full article requires access.
- Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts, P46 catalog and images. Dates the manuscript to the late second or early third century, around AD 200.
- CSNTM, “P46 Is Now Complete”, 6 January 2015. Digitization of the Dublin and Michigan portions.