1 Corinthians 15:6

1 Corinthians 15
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1 Corinthians 7:33-8:4 in Papyrus 15, written in the 3rd century
Book	First Epistle to the Corinthians
Bible part	New Testament
Order in the Bible part	7
Category	Pauline epistles

1 Corinthians 15 is the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians by Paul the Apostle. The first eleven verses contain the earliest account of the resurrection appearances of Jesus in the New Testament. The rest of the chapter stresses the primacy of the resurrection for Christianity. Readings from the text are given at Easter Sunday services and funerals – where mourners are assured of the "sure and certain expectation of the resurrection to a better life".

The New King James Version organises this chapter as follows:

The chapter begins with the statement of the Good News, received by Paul from the ascended Jesus Christ. Paul reveals the significance of the death, burial, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and that if we believe this message that we are saved. The account of the Resurrection appearances of Jesus in verses 3-7 appears to be an early pre-Pauline creedal statement.

The antiquity of the creed has been located by most biblical scholars to no more than five years after Jesus' death, probably originating from the Jerusalem apostolic community. Based on linguistic analysis, the version received by Paul seems to have included verses 3b-6a and 7. The creed has been deemed to be historically reliable and is claimed to preserve a unique and verifiable testimony of the time.

In dissent from the majority view, Robert M. Price and Hermann Detering, writing in the Journal of Higher Criticism (edited by Price) argued that 1 Corinthians 15:3-7 was not an early Christian creed written within five years of Jesus' death. Price and Detering denied that Paul wrote the verses and believed they were an interpolation possibly dating to as far back as the beginning of the 2nd century. Price said that "The pair of words in verse 3a, "received / delivered" (paralambanein / paradidonai) is, as has often been pointed out, technical language for the handing on of rabbinical tradition". According to Price this (supposedly interpolated) text contradicts Paul's tale of conversion described in Galatians 1:13-24 which explicitly denies that Paul had been taught the gospel of Christ by any man, but rather by Jesus himself. However, many commentators have the view that Paul "received" this from Jesus. They point to 1 Cor. 11:23 as evidence of this idea. "For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread..." (1 Corinthians 11:23, (KJV) ) The Greek words for "received / delivered" are the same here as in 1 Corinthians 15:3.