Controversy in Corinth

These verses move from the foundational issues to a controversy in the Corinthian church, and the verses articulate a tough-minded logic that proves the error of the position taken by some of the Corinthians. The problem was that some of the Corinthians said there is no resurrection of the dead. The statement as Paul reports it could mean that they said there is no resurrection at all, or they advocated “immortality” (survival of the spirit) rather than “resurrection” (new creation), or they denied a future resurrection and claimed a fully realized this-worldly resurrection (as in 2 Thess. 2:1–2; 2 Tim. 2:17–18). Option one makes the plainest sense of the words, but there is no indication in general that the Corinthians denied life after death. In fact, 15:29 speaks…