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Was Most of the First Half of 1 Corinthians Chapter 15 Added by Irenaeus?
I have been tracking and comparing Clement and Alexandria's references to 1 Corinthians against the neo-Marcionite Patristic references and found something very curious. Clement's earliest reference in all his writings is found at the beginning of the Stromata:
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Accordingly to the Corinthians (for this is not the only instance), while discoursing on the resurrection of the dead, he makes use of a tragic Iambic line, when he said, “What advantageth it me if the dead are not raised? Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die. Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good manners.” [Clement Stromata 1.14]
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Let me put this in perspective for those who aren't familiar with the material. Here are the passages cited by Clement:
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1 Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.
9 For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11 Whether, then, it is I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.
12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15 More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16 For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them? 30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour? 31 I face death every day—yes, just as surely as I boast about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. 32 If I fought wild beasts in Ephesus with no more than human hopes, what have I gained? If the dead are not raised,
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”
33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” 34 Come back to a sober and upright life and stop sinning. There are some who know nothing of God—I say this to your shame.
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.
42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory."
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
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I don't know what this means but this is far fewer references than is normal in Clement of Alexandria. It is also curious to me that in Tertullian's Against Marcion Book 5 (a book which typically goes line by line through the Pauline letters) after Tertullian goes chapter by chapter through the whole book the only reference to chapter 15 in chapter 9 is:
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Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection. 1 Corinthians 15:21 Here in the word man, who consists of bodily substance, as we have often shown already, is presented to me the body of Christ.
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Then when chapter ten comes along Tertullian also starts at the very point that our first reference in Clement appears. Yet notice here that we again go line by line through the remaining material as with the rest of the book:
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Let us now return to the resurrection, to the defence of which against heretics of all sorts we have given indeed sufficient attention in another work of ours. But we will not be wanting (in some defence of the doctrine) even here, in consideration of such persons as are ignorant of that little treatise. What, asks he, shall they do who are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not? 1 Corinthians 15:29 Now, never mind that practice, (whatever it may have been.) The Februarian lustrations will perhaps answer him (quite as well), by praying for the dead. Do not then suppose that the apostle here indicates some new god as the author and advocate of this (baptism for the dead. His only aim in alluding to it was) that he might all the more firmly insist upon the resurrection of the body, in proportion as they who were vainly baptized for the dead resorted to the practice from their belief of such a resurrection. We have the apostle in another passage defining but one baptism. Ephesians 4:5 To be baptized for the dead therefore means, in fact, to be baptized for the body; for, as we have shown, it is the body which becomes dead. What, then, shall they do who are baptized for the body, Ephesians 4:5 if the body rises not again? We stand, then, on firm ground (when we say) that the next question which the apostle has discussed equally relates to the body. But some man will say, 'How are the dead raised up? With what body do they come?' 1 Corinthians 15:35 Having established the doctrine of the resurrection which was denied, it was natural to discuss what would be the sort of body (in the resurrection), of which no one had an idea. On this point we have other opponents with whom to engage. For Marcion does not in any wise admit the resurrection of the flesh, and it is only the salvation of the soul which he promises; consequently the question which he raises is not concerning the sort of body, but the very substance thereof. Notwithstanding, he is most plainly refuted even from what the apostle advances respecting the quality of the body, in answer to those who ask, How are the dead raised up? With what body do they come? For as he treated of the sort of body, he of course ipso facto proclaimed in the argument that it was a body which would rise again. Indeed, since he proposes as his examples wheat grain, or some other grain, to which God gives a body, such as it has pleased Him; 1 Corinthians 15:37-38 since also he says, that to every seed is its own body; 1 Corinthians 15:38 that, consequently, there is one kind of flesh of men, while there is another of beasts, and (another) of birds; that there are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial; and that there is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars 1 Corinthians 15:39-41 — does he not therefore intimate that there is to be a resurrection of the flesh or body, which he illustrates by fleshly and corporeal samples? Does he not also guarantee that the resurrection shall be accomplished by that God from whom proceed all the (creatures which have served him for) examples? So also, says he, is the resurrection of the dead. 1 Corinthians 15:42 How? Just as the grain, which is sown a body, springs up a body. This sowing of the body he called the dissolving thereof in the ground, because it is sown in corruption, (but is raised) to honour and power. 1 Corinthians 15:42-43 Now, just as in the case of the grain, so here: to Him will belong the work in the revival of the body, who ordered the process in the dissolution thereof. If, however, you remove the body from the resurrection which you submitted to the dissolution, what becomes of the diversity in the issue? Likewise, although it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15:44 Now, although the natural principle of life and the spirit have each a body proper to itself, so that the natural body may fairly be taken to signify the soul, and the spiritual body the spirit, yet that is no reason for supposing the apostle to say that the soul is to become spirit in the resurrection, but that the body (which, as being born along with the soul, and as retaining its life by means of the soul, admits of being called animal (or natural ) will become spiritual, since it rises through the Spirit to an eternal life. In short, since it is not the soul, but the flesh which is sown in corruption, when it turns to decay in the ground, it follows that (after such dissolution) the soul is no longer the natural body, but the flesh, which was the natural body, (is the subject of the future change), forasmuch as of a natural body it is made a spiritual body, as he says further down, That was not first which is spiritual. 1 Corinthians 15:46 For to this effect he just before remarked of Christ Himself: The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 1 Corinthians 15:45 Our heretic, however, in the excess of his folly, being unwilling that the statement should remain in this shape, altered last Adam into last Lord; because he feared, of course, that if he allowed the Lord to be the last (or second) Adam, we should contend that Christ, being the second Adam, must needs belong to that God who owned also the first Adam. But the falsification is transparent. For why is there a first Adam, unless it be that there is also a second Adam? For things are not classed together unless they be severally alike, and have an identity of either name, or substance, or origin. Now, although among things which are even individually diverse, one must be first and another last, yet they must have one author. If, however, the author be a different one, he himself indeed may be called the last. But the thing which he introduces is the first, and that only can be the last, which is like this first in nature. It is, however, not like the first in nature, when it is not the work of the same author. In like manner (the heretic) will be refuted also with the word man: The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. 1 Corinthians 15:47 Now, since the first was a man, how can there be a second, unless he is a man also? Or, else, if the second is Lord, was the first Lord also? It is, however, quite enough for me, that in his Gospel he admits the Son of man to be both Christ and Man; so that he will not be able to deny Him (in this passage), in the Adam and the man (of the apostle). What follows will also be too much for him. For when the apostle says, As is the earthy, that is, man, such also are they that are earthy— men again, of course; therefore as is the heavenly, meaning the Man, from heaven, such are the men also that are heavenly. For he could not possibly have opposed to earthly men any heavenly beings that were not men also; his object being the more accurately to distinguish their state and expectation by using this name in common for them both. For in respect of their present state and their future expectation he calls men earthly and heavenly, still reserving their parity of name, according as they are reckoned (as to their ultimate condition ) in Adam or in Christ. Therefore, when exhorting them to cherish the hope of heaven, he says: As we have borne the image of the earthy, so let us also bear the image of the heavenly, — language which relates not to any condition of resurrection life, but to the rule of the present time. He says, Let us bear, as a precept; not We shall bear, in the sense of a promise— wishing us to walk even as he himself was walking, and to put off the likeness of the earthly, that is, of the old man, in the works of the flesh. For what are this next words? Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 15:50 He means the works of the flesh and blood, which, in his Epistle to the Galatians, deprive men of the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21 In other passages also he is accustomed to put the natural condition instead of the works that are done therein, as when he says, that they who are in the flesh cannot please God. Romans 8:8 Now, when shall we be able to please God except while we are in this flesh? There is, I imagine, no other time wherein a man can work. If, however, while we are even naturally living in the flesh, we yet eschew the deeds of the flesh, then we shall not be in the flesh; since, although we are not absent from the substance of the flesh, we are notwithstanding strangers to the sin thereof. Now, since in the word flesh we are enjoined to put off, not the substance, but the works of the flesh, therefore in the use of the same word the kingdom of God is denied to the works of the flesh, not to the substance thereof. For not that is condemned in which evil is done, but only the evil which is done in it. To administer poison is a crime, but the cup in which it is given is not guilty. So the body is the vessel of the works of the flesh, while the soul which is within it mixes the poison of a wicked act. How then is it, that the soul, which is the real author of the works of the flesh, shall attain to the kingdom of God, after the deeds done in the body have been atoned for, while the body, which was nothing but (the soul's) ministering agent, must remain in condemnation? Is the cup to be punished, but the poisoner to escape? Not that we indeed claim the kingdom of God for the flesh: all we do is, to assert a resurrection for the substance thereof, as the gate of the kingdom through which it is entered. But the resurrection is one thing, and the kingdom is another. The resurrection is first, and afterwards the kingdom. We say, therefore, that the flesh rises again, but that when changed it obtains the kingdom. For the dead shall be raised incorruptible, even those who had been corruptible when their bodies fell into decay; and we shall be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. 1 Corinthians 15:52 For this corruptible— and as he spoke, the apostle seemingly pointed to his own flesh— must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality, 1 Corinthians 15:53 in order, indeed, that it may be rendered a fit substance for the kingdom of God. For we shall be like the angels. This will be the perfect change of our flesh— only after its resurrection. Now if, on the contrary, there is to be no flesh, how then shall it put on incorruption and immortality? Having then become something else by its change, it will obtain the kingdom of God, no longer the (old) flesh and blood, but the body which God shall have given it. Rightly then does the apostle declare, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; 1 Corinthians 15:50 for this (honour) does he ascribe to the changed condition which ensues on the resurrection. Since, therefore, shall then be accomplished the word which was written by the Creator, O death, where is your victory— or your struggle? O death, where is your sting? 1 Corinthians 15:55 — written, I say, by the Creator, for He wrote them by His prophet — to Him will belong the gift, that is, the kingdom, who proclaimed the word which is to be accomplished in the kingdom. And to none other God does he tell us that thanks are due, for having enabled us to achieve the victory even over death, than to Him from whom he received the very expression of the exulting and triumphant challenge to the mortal foe.
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I have noticed so many parallels in the citation of material from the Apostolikon between the neo-Marcionite texts and Clement that I can't help wonder - was the first half of chapter 15 present in the original edition of 1 Corinthians?
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10-15-2011, 10:07 PM
