God of the living; firstfruits of all; daily dying; how the dead rise; all changed
About the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that God said at the bush, I am the God of Abraham and the God of Jacob? He is not God of the dead but of the living“But now Christ has been raised from the dead; he became firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Firstfruits is firstfruits of many. As we saw in the law’s examples: firstfruits of wheat is offered by those who harvested wheat; and say of wine by those who gathered wine; and of oil from those who crushed olive; so if our Lord Jesus Christ is firstfruits of those fallen asleep, there must be many of whom he is firstfruits; and we ask whether he is firstfruits of all or of many? For Christ, it says, is firstfruits of those fallen asleep. If we did not have a wording from the start, we might even say—thinking it somehow ill-omened here to call him firstfruits of all—that he is firstfruits of the righteous fallen asleep only, not of the rest. But now the apostle himself also says, For since through a human came death, through a human also resurrection of the dead; how then does he say of some what he says of all? For as in Adam all die, so in Christ—he did not say “the righteous will be made alive” but all will be made alive.
Then so that you not be disturbed and say, “Was so much toil poured out for me in vain, if Christ raised from the dead is firstfruits of all who have fallen asleep and in Christ all will be made alive?” he says, But each in his own orderSo all died in Adam, and all will be made alive in Christ; yet even though all died in Adam, Abraham was no less righteous, Isaac was a patriarch, Jacob who fathered the twelve patriarchs was Israel; and so one will come also to the other righteous. I dare say that while the apostle said Christ Jesus is firstfruits of those fallen asleep, I would put beside that: this one is firstfruits unto life of those who will live, while Adam has become firstfruits of humans’ death; for in Adam all die, he having taken the firstfruits of death; but the Savior, wanting to take up the firstfruits of life, first took up the death of the dead, that having abolished death he might become firstfruits of those fallen asleep and of the living.
85 on 1 Corinthians 15:31: “I die daily, by your boasting which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Origen:] One must inquire whether he did not transgress the gospel command that says Do not swear at all.
86 on 1 Corinthians 15:32: “If according to man I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what is the profit to me?” [Origen:] There are also intelligible beasts.
87 on 1 Corinthians 15:35–38: how are the dead raised, with what body; fool, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies; you sow bare grain; God gives each seed its own body. [Origen:] Then is the human seed useless to the Craftsman beside all those bodies, so that one hopes for a resurrection of the dead, if one may say so, in olive fashion and vine fashion and wheat fashion, and from the fig’s pip so great a fig rises, and you do not laugh at what you see by experience? And if someone tells you that from this small thing a fruit-bearing fig rises, having learned by experience you do not mock; but because the time has not yet come for what will rise from the human body according to the resurrection from the dead to spring up, you will not wait to see this too? Or do you not know that for all other seeds not every season is fit for seeds to spring? But a wheat grain rises at this time of year; the grape-stone at this hour of year; the olive pit in this month, not at every time. And do you want, for the human body, so that you may believe, the dead to rise yearly like the grape-stone, like the olive, and not see one paradoxical time that you may know the resurrection of the dead? What is the one time? At the consummation of the age, so that after the resurrection from the dead you may no longer be in the present evil age. For Jesus Christ suffered that he might deliver us from the present evil age; and we redeem the time because the days are evil. So God well stewarded this too with the rest.
88 on 1 Corinthians 15:51: “Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
Greek
Περὶ δὲ τῆς ἀναστάσεως τῶν νεκρῶν οὐκ ἀνέγνωτε ὅτι ὁ θεὸ εἶπεν ἐπὶ τῆς βάτου λέγων Ἐγὼ ὁ θεὸ Ἀβραὰμ καὶ ὁ θεὸ Ἰακώβ;θεὸ οὐκ ἔ τι νεκρῶν ἀλλὰ ζώντων. Νυνὶ δὲ Χριστὸς ἐγήγερται ἐκ νεκρῶν, ἀπαρχὴ τῶν κεκοιμημένων. Ἡ ἀπαρχὴ πολλῶν ἐστιν ἀπαρχή. ὡς δὲ ἐπὶ παραδείγματος τῶν ἐν τῷ νόμῳ εἴδομεν· ἀπαρχὴ ἀναφέρεται σίτου ὑπὸ τῶν σῖτον θερισάντων· καὶ φέρε εἰπεῖν οἴνου ὑπὸ τῶν οἶνον τρυγησάντων· καὶ ἐλαίου ἀπὸ τῶν ἐλαίαν ἐκθλασάντων· οὕτως εἴπερ ὁ κύριος ἡμῖν Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς ἀπαρχή ἐστι τῶν κεκοιμημένων, ἀναγκαῖόν ἐστι πολλοὺς εἶναι ὧν ἐστιν οὗτος ἀπαρχή· καὶ ζητοῦμεν πότερον πάντων ἀπαρχή ἐστιν ἢ πολλῶν; Χριστὸς γάρ φησιν ἀπαρχὴ τῶν κεκοιμημένων. εἰ μὲν οὖν μὴ εἴχομεν λέξιν ἀπὸ τῆς ἀρχῆς, κἂν ἐλέγομεν, δύσφημόν τι νομίσαντες εἶναι κατὰ τὸν τόπον τὸ λέγειν αὐτὸν ἀπαρχὴν πάντων εἶναι, ὅτι ἀπαρχή ἐστι τῶν κεκοιμημένων δικαίων μόνων οὐχὶ δὲ τῶν λοιπῶν. νυνὶ δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ ἀπόστολος λέγει Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ δι' ἀνθρώπου ὁ θάνατος, καὶ δι' ἀνθρώπου ἀνάστασις νεκρῶν· πῶς ἐπί τινας αὐτὸς λέγει ὅ τι ἐπὶ πάντας; ὥσπερ γὰρ ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ πάντες ἀποθνήσκουσιν, οὕτως ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ, οὐκ εἴρηκεν Οἱ δίκαιοι ζωοποιηθήσονται <ἀλλὰ πάντες ζωοποιηθήσονται>. Εἶτα ἵνα μὴ ταραχθῇς καὶ εἴπῃς Ἆρα οὖν μάτην ἐμοὶ ὁ κάματος ὁ τοσοῦτος ἀνήντληται, εἴγε Χριστὸς ἀναστὰς ἐκ νεκρῶν πάντων ἐστὶν ἀπαρχὴ τῶν κεκοιμημένων καὶ ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ πάντες ζωοποιηθήσονται, λέγει Ἕκαστος δὲ ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ τάγματι. πάντες μὲν οὖν ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ ἀπέθανον, καὶ πάντες ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ ζωοποιηθήσονται· ἀλλ' εἰ καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἀδὰμ πάντες ἀπέθανον, οὐδὲν ἧττον Ἀβραὰμ δίκαιος ἦν, Ἰσαὰκπατριάρχης ἦν, Ἰακὼβ τοὺς δώδεκα πατριάρχας γεννήσας Ἰσραὴλ ἦν· οὕτω δὲ ἐλεύσει καὶ ἐπὶ τοὺς λοιποὺς δικαίους. κατατολμῶ εἰπεῖν ὅτι ὁ μὲν ἀπόστολος εἶπεν ἀπαρχὴν εἶναι τῶν κεκοιμημένων Χριστὸν Ἰησοῦν, ἐγὼ δὲ παρ' ἐκεῖνον ποιήσαιμ' ἂν Οὗτος μὲν ἀπαρχὴ ἐπὶ ζωὴν τῶν μελλόντων ζῆν, Ἀδὰμ δὲ ἀπαρχὴ τοῦ θανάτου τῶν ἀνθρώπων γεγένηται· ἐν γὰρ τῷ Ἀδὰμ πάντες ἀποθνήσκουσιν, ἐκείνου τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τοῦ θανάτου εἰληφότος· ἀλλ' ὁ μὲν Σωτὴρ θέλων τὴν ἀπαρχὴν τῆς ζωῆς ἀναλαβεῖν, ἀνέλαβεν πρῶτον τὸν θάνατον τῶν ἀποθανόντων, ἵνα καταργήσας τὸν θάνατον γένηται οὗτος ἀπαρχὴ τῶν κεκοιμημένων καὶ ζώντων. 85 xv 31 [Ἀποθνήσκω, νὴ τὴν ὑμετέραν καύχησιν ἣν ἔχω ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν, καθ' ἡμέραν.] [Ὠριγένους] Ζητητέον εἰ οὐ παρέβη τὸ εὐαγγελικὸν πρόσταγμα τὸ λέγον Μὴ ὀμό ῃ ὅλω . 86 xv 32 [εἰ κατὰ ἄνθρωπον ἐθηριομάχησα ἐν Ἐφέσῳ, τί μοι τὸ ὄφελος;] [Ὠριγένους] Ἔστι καὶ θηρία νοητά. 87 xv 35–38 [Ἀλλ' ἐρεῖ τις Πῶς ἐγείρονται οἱ νεκροί, ποίῳ δὲ σώματι ἔρχονται; ἄφρον, σὺ ὃ σπείρεις οὐ ζωοποιεῖται ἐὰν μὴ ἀποθάνῃ· καὶ ὃ σπείρεις, οὐ τὸ σῶμα τὸ γενησόμενον σπείρεις ἀλλὰ γυμνὸν κόκκον εἰ τύχοι σίτου ἤ τινος τῶν λοιπῶν· ὁ δὲ θεὸς αὐτῷ δίδωσι σῶμα καθὼς ἠθέλησεν, καὶ ἑκάστῳ τῶν σπερμάτων τὸ ἴδιον σῶμα.] [Ὠριγένους] Ἆρ' οὖν τὸ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου σπέρμα παρὰ πάντα ἐκεῖνα τὰ σώματα τῷ δημιουργῷ ἄχρηστόν ἐστιν, ὡς ἐλπίζειν μὲν ἀνάστασιν εἶναι νεκρῶν, εἰ δεῖ οὕτως εἰπεῖν, ἐλαϊκῶς καὶ ἀμπελικῶς καὶ σιτικῶς, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς κιγχραμίδος τῆς συκῆς ἀνίσταται τηλικαύτη συκῆ, καὶ οὐ γελᾷς τοῦτο ὃ ἐπὶ τῇ πείρᾳ βλέπεις; καὶ εἴτις σοι λέγει ὅτι ἀπὸ τούτου τοῦ βραχέος ἐγείρεται συκῆ καρποφοροῦσα, τῇ πείρᾳ μαθὼν οὐ καταγελᾷς· ἐπεὶ δὲ οὐδέπω ἦλθεν ὁ καιρὸς τοῦ ἀνατεῖλαι ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀνθρωπείου σώματος κατὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν τὸ ἀναστησόμενον, οὐ θέλεις περιμένειν, ἵνα καὶ τοῦτο ἴδῃς; ἢ οὐκ οἶδας ὅτι καὶ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων πάντων σπερμάτων οὐ πᾶς καιρὸς ἐπιτήδειός ἐστι πρὸς τὸ ἀνατεῖλαι τὰ σπέρματα; ἀλλ' ἐγείρεται κόκκος σίτου τῷδε τῷ καιρῷ τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ· ἐγείρεται τὸ γίγαρτον τῇδε τῇ ὥρᾳ τοῦ ἐνιαυτοῦ· ὁ πυρὴν τῆς ἐλαίας κατὰ τόνδε τὸν μῆνα, οὐ κατὰ πάντα χρόνον. θέλεις δὲ ἐπὶ τοῦ σώματος τοῦ ἀνθρώπου, ἵνα πιστεύσῃς, κατ' ἐνιαυτὸν ὡς τὸ γίγαρτον, ὡς τὴν ἐλαίαν, ἀνίστασθαι τοὺς νεκροὺς καὶ οὐχὶ ἕνα καιρὸν παράδοξον ὄψει ἵνα εἰδῇς τὴν ἀνάστασιν τῶν νεκρῶν; τίς ὁ εἷς καιρός; ἐπὶ συντελείᾳ τοῦ αἰῶνος. ἵνα μετὰ τὴν ἀνάστασιν τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν μηκέτι ᾖς ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τῷ ἐνεστῶτι πονηρῷ. Ἰησοῦς γὰρ Χριστὸς πέπονθεν ὅπω ἐξέληται ἡμᾶ ἐκ τοῦ αἰῶνο τοῦ ἐνε τῶτο πονηροῦ· καὶ ἐξαγοραζόμενοι τὸν καιρὸν ὅτι αἱ ἡμέραι πονηραί εἰ ιν. καλῶς οὖν ὁ θεὸς καὶ τοῦτο μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων ᾠκονόμησεν. 88 xv 51 [Ἰδοὺ μυστήριον ὑμῖν λέγω· πάντες μὲν οὐ κοιμησόμεθα πάντες δὲ ἀλλαγησόμεθα.]
About this text
Origen of Alexandria, Fragmenta ex commentariis in epistulam i ad Corinthios (Greek).
Original English Translation of Origen’s Fragmenta ex commentariis in epistulam i ad Corinthios — new OET from PG 14 Greek.
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG 14 (Khazarzar) (Greek)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.