Every flesh [is] not the same flesh, but one [is] of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another [flesh] of birds, and another of fishes.
Some Corinthians doubted the resurrection and asked how the dead are raised, and with what body they come. Paul answers by pointing at the world they could already see, starting with the variety of flesh God has made.
Paul's readers assumed that if the dead rise, they must rise in a body like the one they have now. Creation itself says otherwise.
The apostle shows how empty it is to assume that the risen body must be in a condition like its present state. He proves it from the variety of flesh in the animal world we see now. There is no monotony in God's creation. The flesh is plainly different in men, in cattle, in birds, in fishes. How unreasonable then, if that is the ground taken, to assume the body must be at all like what it is now! Resurrection is a condition so distinct from this one. It makes far more sense to expect the most striking difference.
The word "flesh" has several meanings in the New Testament. Mixing them up causes trouble. Here it has the plainest one — physical tissue.
We meet with flesh in its ordinary sense, as the flesh of men and of animals (1 Cor. 15:39). We read of "flesh and blood," describing man in his present state of bodily existence... Then the human race is called "all flesh"... Besides all this we meet with the term flesh in a moral sense, describing the evil nature within us (Gal. 5:17)... Failing to pay attention to the different uses of this term flesh may lead to great confusion.
The real issue behind the question was never biology. It was whether God can do it, and whether He may choose the form.
Paul answers them in a way that convicts them of not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God. The Lord answered the Sadducees in the same way. It is altogether a question of the power of God. Is God able to reorganise the body? Even if it has dissolved and actually returned to dust, can He re-form it? And if He is able to reorganise the body, can He not, in reorganising it, make it such a body as pleases Him?
But freedom in the form does not mean a different creature. The seed shows why.
When the seed rises after death, He gives it a body as it pleases Him. But notice, "to each of the seeds its own body" (v. 38) — not a body of an entirely different kind. Identity is kept. "GOD" is the answer that is enough for a simple and sincere soul, though it may not satisfy a "fool."
The verse says something about origins as well as endings. The four kinds Paul lists are not stages on one ladder.
Paul supports Genesis 1 here. There is no transition from the lower order to the higher. That is no more possible than a move from non-living matter to living matter.
These fixed kinds also settle a modern question about where man came from.
In the same way, men, beasts, birds and fishes are wholly distinct in their type of flesh. This shows that God can give whatever flesh He pleases. The verse also refutes any theory of animals developing into humans.
Paul is driving toward one answer: a body that is the same body, yet belongs to another order.
Corruption, dishonour, weakness and soulishness mark the body that is sown in the grave. Let us be allowed to coin that word "soulish," for that is the more literal sense of "natural" — something fitted for the animal soul rather than the spirit. It is raised in incorruption, glory, power, and as a spiritual body rather than a soulish one. The words repeated four times show that the identity stays the same: "It is sown… it is raised." Still, the condition it is found in is of an entirely different order. This answers the question, "With what body do they come?"
- Variety. God already makes flesh of four kinds. A risen body unlike this one is just what His creation leads you to expect.
- Vocabulary. Here "flesh" means physical tissue, the stuff of men and animals. Elsewhere the word means the evil nature within us.
- Power. The question is not about biology but about God. Can He re-form a body that has returned to dust? And may He shape it as He pleases?
- Identity. A new form does not mean a new person. Each seed gets its own body, and the risen body is the body that was sown.
- Order. Sown soulish, raised spiritual: the same body in a wholly new condition. That is the answer to "with what body do they come?"
And [there are] heavenly bodies, and earthly bodies but different is the glory of the heavenly, different that of the earthly
This verse sits inside Paul's answer to a doubter's question about the resurrection body. He points to the world God has already made — first to flesh, then to the sky, where two classes of bodies each carry their own glory.
One assumption sits under the objection: a raised body must be much like the body we have now. The variety of flesh in creation breaks it.
The apostle shows how empty it is to assume that the body in resurrection must be like the present one. Even flesh in the animal world as it now stands is so varied. There is no monotony in God's creation. The flesh is plainly different in men, cattle, birds, and fishes. How unreasonable, then, to assume on that ground that the body must be like what it is now, when resurrection is so different a condition!
The heavenly bodies here are the ones anyone can see with their own eyes.
If anyone denies that heaven is any place for bodies, he only has to look up. He will see the huge number of heavenly bodies — sun, moon, stars, planets — that shine there. Earthly bodies are those connected with earth, and of course there is a difference. And among the heavenly bodies, the sun, the moon and the stars each has a glory that no other shares.
Some have read "heavenly bodies" as angels, others as the saints in heaven. Kelly rejects both.
There is no need to suppose angels are meant... and to bring in saints here, as Chrysostom and his followers do, is to confuse the things being compared... Those who make the glory only heavenly or only earthly are quite wrong. Both will be found in the kingdom of God.
Scripture uses "glory" for what marks a person or a thing out as distinct.
Glory is often used to express the proper distinction of a person, or of a company: as the glory of the Father, Rom. 6:4; of the Word, John 1:14; of the children of God, Rom. 8:21; and even of inanimate bodies, heavenly and earthly, 1 Cor. 15:40-41. Each has its own glory, and that glory cannot pass to another. If it were transferred or shared, it would lose the very thing that makes it distinct.
Many read the sun, moon and stars as degrees of glory among the saved. Darby reads the comparison another way.
Different also were the glories of heavenly and earthly bodies: star differed from star in glory. I do not think this passage refers to degrees of glory in heaven. It shows instead that God distributes glory as He pleases. Heavenly glory and earthly glory are, however, plainly put in contrast, for there will be an earthly glory.
The line between heavenly and earthly is not just a picture borrowed from the sky. A day is coming when both glories will stand together.
Heaven and earth will no longer stand divided and opposed through sin. It will no longer be only grace in Christ shining out from heaven so that people may believe... Instead, heaven and earth will together form one harmonious stage, each with the glory that suits it.
There is a right way and a wrong way to ask about all this.
He makes us realise how many different spheres God works in, and how completely He is Master of the creature everywhere... It is good to ask about all this with reverence, and to see what God allows us to see of His ways and workings. But how foolish to dictate to Him how He shall work! How foolish to question His power to do what is beyond us even to understand!
- Look up. The objector asks what kind of body the dead could have; the answer is a sky already full of bodies God made and lit.
- Look around. Men, beasts, birds and fish show there is no monotony in God's creation. So the risen body need not look like the present one.
- Look closer. Each body carries its own glory. That glory cannot pass to another without losing what makes it distinct.
- Look higher. Darby takes the sun, moon and stars not as degrees of glory in heaven, but as proof that God gives glory as He pleases.
- Look ahead. Both glories are real and both are coming. God's kingdom will hold heaven and earth together, each keeping its own glory.
one [the] sun's glory, and another [the] moon's glory, and another [the] stars' glory; for star differs from star in glory.
The Corinthians had asked how God raises the dead, and with what body they come. Paul answers by pointing at the sky: sun, moon and stars all shine, yet no two shine alike.
Paul does not explain how resurrection works. He points instead at a creation already full of God's variety.
The apostle shows how empty it is to assume that the body in resurrection will be in a condition like its present one. He argues from the variety of flesh even in the animal world as it is now. There is no monotony in God's creation.
The heavens carry the argument further. If God works this freely in what we can see, it is strange to lay down rules for what we cannot.
He makes us realize how many different spheres God works in, and how fully He is Master of the creature everywhere. The glory of the heavenly bodies is a very different thing from the glory of the earthly ones, and yet each has a distinct glory of its own... It is good to look into all this with reverence, and to see what God allows us to see of His ways and workings. But how foolish to tell Him how He should work, or to question His power to do what is beyond us even to understand!
In this verse "glory" names the distinct character that belongs to each thing God has made.
Glory is often used to express the proper distinction of a person, or of a group... and even of lifeless bodies in heaven and on earth, 1 Cor. 15:40-41. Each has its own glory, and that glory clearly cannot be passed on. If it could be handed over or shared, it would lose the very force that makes it distinct.
Read together, the comparisons answer the objector on four fronts at once.
The four points shown by these pictures from nature are: 1, the same person; 2, a changed form; 3, difference from one another; and 4, perfection of kind, or glory. Taken together, they are the apostle's general reply to the questions put in the objector's mouth in verse 35.
Commentators differ here. Several hold that the verse is not ranking the redeemed at all. It shows God's freedom.
The glories of heavenly and earthly bodies also differed: star differed from star in glory. I do not think this passage refers to degrees of glory in heaven. It refers to God giving out glory as He pleases.
A second writer agrees, and adds that the glory belongs to both spheres.
The aim is not to prove different degrees of glory in heaven, as many writers old and new have thought. It is to contrast the risen state with the natural one... Those are quite wrong who make the glory only heavenly or only earthly. Both will be found in the kingdom of God.
Others read the differing stars as a picture of the places saints will hold in the coming kingdom.
The stars are distant lights. They shine in other spheres, and have little to do with this system, except that we can see them twinkle. "Star differs from star in glory." So it will be in the coming kingdom of the Son. He will shine out in living and everlasting brightness... while each saint will shine in the sphere a righteous Judge allots to him, as a reward for service during the dark night of His absence. This thought should stir us to a keener and stronger pursuit of likeness to our absent Lord.
One writer warns against a common misuse of the verse.
A mistake is often made about the application here. He is not speaking of the difference in degrees of glory among those who are to be raised from the dead. He is speaking of the difference between the body sown and the body raised, as is plain from what follows. It is quite true that there will be different degrees of glory, but that is not his topic here.
Wherever differences exist, they never mean that anyone is short of joy.
The vessels that hold the blessing may not all be the same size. But the little cup will be as full as the big one, and filled with the same joy and blessing.
- Question — The objector asks what body the dead will have. Paul answers with creation, where flesh differs from flesh and light from light.
- Variety — The differing glories show God at work in many spheres, Master of the creature everywhere. It is foolish to tell Him how He should work.
- Distinction — "Glory" here is the distinction proper to each thing. It cannot be passed on; if it could, it would lose the force that makes it distinct.
- Dispute — Commentators differ. Some read the stars as proof that God gives glory as He pleases, contrasting the risen state with the natural. Others read them as the spheres allotted to saints in the coming kingdom.
- Fullness — Whatever the differences, the small cup is as full as the large one, filled with the same joy. So the picture calls for pursuit of Christ, not comparison with each other.