1 Corinthians 15:55

15:51-58 All the saints should not die, but all would be changed. In the gospel, many truths, before hidden in mystery, are made known. Death never shall appear in the regions to which our Lord will bear his risen saints. Therefore let us seek the full assurance of faith and hope, that in the midst of pain, and in the prospect of death, we may think calmly on the horrors of the tomb; assured that our bodies will there sleep, and in the mean time our souls will be present with the Redeemer. Sin gives death all its hurtful power. The sting of death is sin; but Christ, by dying, has taken out this sting; he has made atonement for sin, he has obtained remission of it. The strength of sin is the law. None can answer its demands, endure its curse, or do away his own transgressions. Hence terror and anguish. And hence death is terrible to the unbelieving and the impenitent. Death may seize a believer, but it cannot hold him in its power. How many springs of joy to the saints, and of thanksgiving to God, are opened by the death and resurrection, the sufferings and conquests of the Redeemer! In verse 58, we have an exhortation, that believers should be stedfast, firm in the faith of that gospel which the apostle preached, and they received. Also, to be unmovable in their hope and expectation of this great privilege, of being raised incorruptible and immortal. And to abound in the work of the Lord, always doing the Lord's service, and obeying the Lord's commands.

O death, where, etc. From Hosea 13:14, a free version of the Sept.: "Where is thy penalty, O Death? Where thy sting, O Hades? Heb.: Where are thy plagues, O Death? Where thy pestilence, O Sheol? O grave (ἅδη) Which is the reading of the Septuagint. The correct reading is θάνατε O death. So Rev. Hades does not occur in Paul's writings. In Romans 10:7 he uses abyss. Edwards thinks that this is intentional, and suggests that Paul, writing to Greeks, may have shunned the ill-omened name which people dreaded to utter. So Plato: "People in general use the word (Pluto) as a euphemism for Hades, which their fears lead them to derive erroneously from ἀειδής the invisible" ("Cratylus," 403). Sting (κέντρον) In the Septuagint for the Hebrew pestilence. See on Revelation 9:9. The image is that of a beast with a sting; not death with a goad, driving men.

1 Corinthians 15:55 . O death, where is thy sting? — Which once was full of hellish poison. O grave — Αδης , O hades, the receptacle of separate souls; where is thy victory? — Thou art now robbed of thy spoils; all thy captives are set at liberty. “The word hades literally signifies the invisible world, or the world where departed spirits, both good and bad, remain till the resurrection, Job 11:8 ; Psalm 139:9 ; Isaiah 14:9 ; and especially Psalm 16:10 , Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades. The place where the spirits of the righteous abide, the Jews called paradise; the place where the wicked are shut up they called tartarus, after the Greeks. There many of the fallen angels are said to be imprisoned, 2 Peter 2:4 . “In this noble passage the apostle personifies death and the grave, and introduces the righteous after the resurrection, singing a song of victory over both. In this sublime song, death is represented as a terrible monster, having a deadly sting, wherewith it had destroyed the bodies of the whole human race, and the invisible world as an enemy who had imprisoned their spirits.

But the sting being torn from death, and the gates of the invisible world set open by Christ, the bodies of the righteous shall rise from the grave, no more liable to be destroyed by death, and their spirits, being brought out of paradise, the place of their abode, shall reanimate their bodies; and the first use of their newly-recovered tongue will be to sing this song, in which they exult over death and hades, as enemies utterly destroyed, and praise God, who hath given them the victory over these deadly foes through Jesus Christ. Milton hath made good use of the apostle’s personification of death, book 2. ver. 666.” — Macknight.

55 . O death, where is thy sting? ] This quotation follows neither the Septuagint nor the Hebrew of Hosea 13:14 . The former is ‘Where is thy penalty, O death, where is thy sting, O Hades?’ following, most probably, a different reading from the present Hebrew text, which runs thus: ‘I will be thy plagues, O death, I will be thy pestilence, O grave’ (or ‘Hades,’ for the Hebrew word has both significations). See next note. O grave, where is thy victory? ] In the Greek, O Hades . The Vulgate (which is followed by Tyndale) as well as most of the best MSS. read death here for Hades. So do Irenaeus and Tertullian, writing in the second century. But the ancient Syriac version reads Hades . Bishop Wordsworth suggests that the text was altered from a fear lest the passage should give any countenance” to the idea of a god of the shades below, known to the Greeks by the name of Hades . But in later Greek and in the Septuagint its use to denominate the place of departed spirits was well established.

(55) O death, where is thy sting? —In the prophet Hosea, where these words originally occur, the passage reads thus—“Where is thy victory, O death? Where is thy sting, O hell?”—the word “hell” referring, not to the place of torment, but to the Hades of departed spirits. This difference between St. Paul’s words and those of the prophet has given rise to a variety of readings in the Greek text here. The weight of evidence is in favour of the reading, “Where is thy sting, O death? Where is thy victory, O death?” the word “Hades,” or “grave,” not being introduced at all. The passage is not a quotation, but the adaptation of the form of a familiar Old Testament phrase.

1 Corinthians 15:55 . Ποῦ σου , θάνατε , τὸ κέντρον ; ποῦ σου , ᾅδη , τὸ νῖκος ;) Hosea 13:14 , LXX.— ποῦ ἡ δίκη ( νίκη ) σου , θάνατε ; ποῦ τὸ κέντρον σου , ᾅδη ; Heb. אהי דבריך מות אהי קטבך שאול , i.e., where are thy plagues, O death? where, O grave, is thy destruction?—See by all means, Olearii diss. inaug. on Redemption from hell. In this hymn of victory, where signifies that death and hell were formerly very formidable: now circumstances are changed. Θάνατος , death, and ᾅδης , hell [the unseen world beneath], are frequently used promiscuously; but yet they differ, for the one can never be substituted for the other: Hell is in fact opposed to heaven; death, to life, and death precedes; hell is more profound; death receives the bodies without the souls, hell receives the souls, even without the bodies, not only of the wicked, but also of the godly, and that, before the death of Christ, Genesis 37:35 ; Luke 16:23 . Therefore they are mentioned in connection with each other; and it is said in gradation, death and hell: comp. Revelation 20:13-14 ; Revelation 6:8 ; Revelation 1:17 : and in these passages it is evident, that the word grave cannot be substituted for hell. Furthermore, because the discussion here turns upon the resurrection of the body, therefore hell is only once named, death often, even in the following verse.— τὸ κέντρον , the sting) having a [plague-causing or] pestilential [Heb. “Where are thy plagues?”] poison.

Paul transposes the victory and the sting; which is more agreeable not only to the gradation of the Hebrew synomyms, but also makes a more convenient transition to the following verse, where sting and strength are kindred terms. A stimulus or goad is a larger κέντρον ; comp. Acts 26:14 ; a sting or prick [aculeus] is a less κέντρον ; sometimes they may be used promiscuously, when we overlook the quantity [i.e., a quantity of less aculei is tantamount to a stimulus or stimuli]; we may even kick against the pricks in thorns.— ᾅδη , O hell, [grave, Engl. V.]) It does not here denote the place of eternal punishment, but the receptacle of souls, which are again to be united with their bodies at the resurrection. There is nothing here said now any longer of the devil; comp. Hebrews 2:14 : because the victory is snatched out of his hands, earlier than out of those of death, 1 Corinthians 15:26 .— νῖκος ) LXX. δίκη or νίκη : Paul sweetly repeats νῖκος ; comp. the preceding verse. The rarity of the word is well suited to a song of victory.

55. Quoted from Ho 13:14, substantially; but freely used by the warrant of the Spirit by which Paul wrote. The Hebrew may be translated, "O death, where are thy plagues? Where, O Hades, is thy destruction?" The Septuagint, "Where is thy victory (literally, in a lawsuit), O death? Where is thy sting, O Hades? … Sting" answers to the Hebrew "plagues," namely, a poisoned sting causing plagues. Appropriate, as to the old serpent (Ge 3:14, 15; Nu 21:6). "Victory" answers to the Hebrew "destruction." Compare Isa 25:7, "destroy … veil … over all nations," namely, victoriously destroy it; and to "in victory" (1Co 15:54), which he triumphantly repeats. The "where" implies their past victorious destroying power and sting, now gone for ever; obtained through Satan's triumph over man in Eden, which enlisted God's law on the side of Satan and death against man (Ro 5:12, 17, 21). The souls in Hades being freed by the resurrection, death's sting and victory are gone. For "O grave," the oldest manuscripts and versions read, "O death," the second time.

Verse 55. - O death, where is thy sting? A triumphantly fervid exclamation of the apostle, loosely cited from Hosea 13:14 . The apostles and evangelists, not holding the slavish and superstitious fetish worship of the dead letter, often regard it as sufficient to give the general sense of the passages to which they refer. O grave, where is thy victory? In the best attested reading (A, B, C, D, E, F, G), "death" is repeated, and in the best manuscripts this clause precedes the last. But if the reading, "O Hades," were correct, our translators, since they held it here impossible in accordance with their views to render it by "hell," ought to have taken warning, and seen the pernicious inapplicability of that rendering in other places where they have used it to express this same Greek word. Here "Hades" has probably been introduced into the Greek text from the LXX., which uses it for the Sheol of the original. 1 Corinthians 15:55

The apostle, in the contemplation of this blessed day, triumpheth over death, in a metaphorical phrase: Where is thy sting? What hurt canst thou now do unto believers, more than a wasp, or hornet, or bee, that hath lost its sting? O grave, or O hell, (the same word signifieth both), where now is thy victory? The conqueror of all flesh is now conquered, the spoiler of all men is spoiled; it had got a victory, but now, O death, where is thy victory?