It is almost universally acknowledged that 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 contains a pre-Pauline

confessional/creedal statement.1 Beyond this affirmation, there is little that may be agreed upon
by all. Jerome Murphy-OConnor notes that the only two points of complete agreement are that
Paul introduces a quotation in v. 3b, andhe is speaking personally from v. 8 on.2 On almost
every other issue, there is serious debate. Some scholars suggest that the creed ends in verse 5,
while others suggest that it extends through verse 7. Famously Joachim Jeremias argued for an
Aramaic original form of the creed, while Hans Conzelmann disputed this claim, favoring a
Jewish-Hellenistic provenance. The original purpose of the creedal statement as well as the
specific details of its content are debated.
A study which would deal with all of these issues exhaustively would require much more space
than the limits of this essay allow. The purpose of this study is to ascertain, as far as is possible,
the content of the pre-Pauline material, as well as its limits. It is necessary to establish the
bounds of the material, if we are to intelligently discuss the content contained therein. The
reverse is also true; ascertaining the content of the preformed material will aid us in determining
its extent. While it would be worthwhile to study the linguistic origins of the material, as well as
its geographical origin and sitz im leben, these pursuits are best left to another study. In order to
achieve the aforementioned goals of our study, we will examine address form critical issues, as
well as lexical, syntactical, and source critical issues where relevant. Proceeding in this manner
will allow us to conclude that the creed which Paul quotes begins in v. 3b and proceeds through
the end of v. 7, with the exception of v. 6b, which will be determined to be a Pauline
1 Against this, David Garland, proposes a minority viewpoint, namely that the material is to be
understood as Pauline, in 1 Corinthians (BECNT, Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2003), 683.
2 Jerome Murphy-OConnor, Tradition and Redaction in 1 Cor 15:3-7, CBQ 43 (1984): 582.
1

interpolation into the text. This in turn, will allow us to establish the content of the creed as a
recitation of the death, burial, and physical resurrection of Christ (as according to the Scriptures),
followed by a traditional list of witnesses to this resurrection.
I.

The Establishment of Traditional Material

Paul begins verse 3 by declaring to the Corinthian believers:

, (For I handed over to you, at the first, that which also I received).
The verbs and designate a passing on of formal tradition. Paul uses
the same exact language when describing the tradition he received from the Lord, regarding the
Last Supper, which he passed on to the congregation at Corinth (1 Cor 11:23). It is clear that v.
3a is the introduction to traditional material, which Paul begins to recite in v. 3b. The
prepositional phrase may be understood either in a temporal sense, or as referring to
things of primary importance. Commentators are somewhat divided on which meaning is
appropriate here.3 Rather than running the risk of affirming one understanding to the exclusion
of the other, we would do well to remember that what was first in importance was probably also
spoken first.4 It is this kerygma of temporal and logical priority that Paul handed over to the
Corinthian congregation and now proceeds to recite again. His language not only signifies the
importance of the material, but its preformed nature. Paul himself is passing on not just ideas,
but the very words he himself received.
3 Arguments for temporal priority are given by Hans Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians: A Commentary on the
First Epistle to the Corinthians (Hermeneia, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975), 251 and arguments for
priority of importance are given by Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT, Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 722, and suggested by Anthony C.Thiselton, The First Epistle to the
Corinthians (NIGTC, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000), 1186.
4 Garland, 683.
2

II.

The Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Christ (vv. 3b-4)

The preformed material starts in v. 3b. It begins with the declaration

. To this point it has primarily been

assumed, rather than demonstrated that the material is, in fact, pre-Pauline. While it is not the
intention of this study to develop exhaustive arguments to this end, some evidence is in order.
Joachim Jeremias notes that the phrase is non-Pauline.5 The identical
use of the phrase in Gal 1:4 may be attributed to the influence of early Christian linguistic usage,
rather than Pauline origin.6 Similarly, the phrase in vv. 3 and 4, the expression
(also note the placement of the ordinal number after the noun; this does not
occur elsewhere in Paul), and the term occur nowhere else in the Pauline corpus.7
Additionally the word here indicates a quotation to follow, but the question is raised
whether or not the function of is solely to introduce the content of the creed, or if it functions
as part of that confessional statement. If this were the only occurrence of that conjunction in the
creedal statement, we might easily affirm its inclusion in the material. As it stands, while is
often known to follow forms of as the introduction to confessional statements, there is
no known creed in which each member is introduced by .8 Despite this data, it seems best to
understand the initial occurrence of as part of the original creed, with the subsequent
occurrences of as also part of the creed, rather than inserted by Paul for emphasis (contra
5 Joachim Jeremias, The Eucharistic Words of Jesus (Chatham: W. & J. Mackay, 1966), 102.
6 For similar usage, cf. Rom 7:5, Eph 2:1, Col 1:14
7 Jeremias, 102.
8 Murphy-OConnor, 583.
3

Murphy-OConnor).9 The use of very well might be to emphasize each piece of the
creed, but it does not follow that they are Pauline insertions. Rather, the form - -verb,
followed three times by --verb (whose implied subject is ) seems to indicate a
formulaic construction conducive to liturgical or catechetical use. As we will see, this fourfold
link is later repeated in the creed by the connective construction .
All of these considerations lead us to conclude that each occurrence of is part of the original
creed, rather than Pauline insertions into a hypothetical form of the material which does not
contain .
The statement which is introduced by is
. The anarthrous use of the subject is a characteristic of kerygmatic
statements in which Jesus is presented as the perfecter of the work of salvation.10 The term
here seems to function as a name, though, as N.T. Wright points out, because of the
early formulation of this creed, there is no chance that this word could have been a proper name
without connotation.11 While early believers used the term as a personal name, the
term, especially in Jewish circles, would have retained its titular sense. The verb which follows
the subject is the aorist . This verb serves both to establish the reality of
9 Murphy-OConnor argues that Paul separates two quotations from the same work in 1 Cor 8:4 with
and that this parallels his use in 15:3-5. This is not convincing, as Paul is using in 8:4 to link
two apparently discontinuous statements. In 15:3-5, introduces the material and subsequent uses of
mark off apparently contiguous pieces of the kerygmatic creed. The usage is not parallel, as
Murphy-OConnor would have us believe.
10 Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, 254-5. For a succinct summary of the debate over the provenance of the
anarthrous , see William L. Craig, Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of
the Resurrection of Jesus (Lewiston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1989), 9-15.
11 N.T. Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 319. Cf. Fee,
723-4.
4

Christs death and to set up mention of the purpose of that death. The two facts established are
that Christ died, and that he died . The phrase
has already been noted to be non-Pauline. Its function here is to state the purpose for
which Christ died. The preposition indicates that Christ died because of our sins; the idea
of a substitutionary death is evident in this statement, as Christ died for our sins, not his (though
the verse does not flesh out this idea further). In this early statement of faith, a theory of
atonement is not elaborated, but as Gordon Fee notes, the early Christian movement was rooted
in Judaism, which already had inherent in it the idea of vicarious sacrifice in the atonement
itself.12
While no theory of atonement is made in this verse, it does serve to establish two core
elements of the Christian faith, (1) that Christ died, and (2) that he died because of our sins. To
this, a third element is added. The verse finishes with the prepositional phrase .
This phrase, which appears again in v. 4 is one never seen anywhere else in Paul. It is debatable
whether or not the phrase refers simply to Christs death, or whether it encompasses the entire
idea of his death for sin. Additionally, there is debate over whether these words indicate a
specific referent in the Hebrew Scriptures, or if Christs death is understood as the climax of the
entire biblical narrative, encompassing the whole motif of Gods redemptive work, as illustrated
in Scripture. The answers to these two questions are not entirely independent of one another. As
C.K. Barrett notes, there are a number of key points to remember when considering the phrase
. These include (1) the continuity between the crucifixion and Gods
redemptive purposes as revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures, which climaxes in the saving work of
Christ and (2) understanding the meaning of that salvific death by means of interpretation in OT
12 Fee, 724. Cf. Thiselton, 1191-2.
5

categories for example, of sacrificeatonementsufferingsthe good times to come.13

These statements help us keep in mind that the early Christians understood Christs death to be
salvific and in line with the redemptive promises of God as revealed in the entirety of the Old
Testament. In other words, Christs death is not understood apart from its redemptive work, and
it is to be seen as the culmination of Gods promises made through the Hebrew Scriptures.
While the entirety of Scripture is in view with the phrase , this does not preclude
an allusion to a specific passage of Scripture, possibly (and probably) the LXX of Isaiah 53.14
So, it would seem that the prepositional phrase is meant to encompass the death
of Christ for sins, and has as its referent the entire redemptive theme of the Hebrew Scriptures,
while probably making a specific allusion to Isaiah 53.
The -verb formula begun in v. 3b is picked up again in v. 4, with the addition of the
connective conjunction . It reads:
. The statement (he was buried) has been understood to reinforce the reality of
both the preceding and following verbs.15 Whether or not it is meant to confirm either of these
truths, it is certainly a statement of fact in and of itself, and serves as an objective event,
chronologically seated between the death and resurrection. However, given the succinctness of
the creedal material, it seems that the burial of Christ must have been of great importance to

13 C.K. Barret, A Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians (London: Black, 1968, 2nd ed. 1971), 338-9.
14 So, Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians 255; Fee, 724; Richard B. Hays, First Corinthians (Interpretation,
Louisville: Knox, 1997), 256; Thieselton, 1190; Ben Witheringon, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A
Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 299.
15 For the argument that reinforces the reality of Christs death, see Conzelmann 1 Corinthians,
255, and Fee, 725. The opposite view is offered by Wright, 321. For the suggestion that it reinforces
both his death and resurrection, See Thiselton, 1192.
6

warrant inclusion. While it may serve to reinforce the reality of Christs death, it seems that its
main purpose was in affirming the resurrection. The discovery of the empty tomb figures
prominently in the resurrection narratives of the Gospels. It was this realization which first
alerted the followers of Christ that something out of the ordinary had occurred. In the succinct
wording of the creed, it is likely that the verb captured the importance that early Christians
placed on the tomb, and its position in the resurrection stories.16
After addressing Jesus burial, v. 4 continues on with a proclamation of the resurrection:
. The perfect passive verb (he
has been raised) indicates a number of things. First, it affirms the resurrection of Christ. We
will address the creeds understanding of the nature of this resurrection in the following section.
Second, it implies the agency of God in raising Christ, through the use of the passive voice. The
passive here is a divine passive. Finally, the perfect tense contrasts the aorist tense of the
previous two verbs. Whereas the aorist tense of and denote a onetime past
action, the perfect tense here indicates the ongoing effects of the action. It is not that Christ was
raised, but Christ has been raised. The ongoing effects of this resurrection are what Paul
unpacks in verses 12-58 of 1 Cor 15. The verb is followed by the prepositional
phrases and . The phrase certainly
modifies the verb . The origin of this phrase is not entirely clear. The most likely
explanation seems to be that this was the day that the tomb was discovered empty and/or the
resurrection appearances were first experienced.17
16 Cf. Wright, 321.
17 Fee, 726; Cf. Thiselton, 1196; Wright, 322. Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians suggests the latter
explanation, but he rejects the tomb narratives as later material.
7

Finally, we must once again address the extent of the qualification .

Again, the question is twofold: what material does the phrase modify? And what Scripture
provides this attestation? The former determination is difficult to make, as neither the
resurrection nor the third day is well attested in the Old Testament. The most probable answer is
to see the phrase as modifying all of .18 It seems
likely that this usage of is parallel to that in v. 3. In other words, the whole
thrust of Scripture bears witness to the promises of God, as fulfilled in the resurrection of Christ
on the third day. Again, this does not preclude an allusion or quotation from a specific Scripture.
In this case, the LXX of Hosea 6:2 is most likely.19 It declares that God will raise Israel up on
the third day ( ). Again, the phrase should not be seen as
limited to Hosea 6:2, but it certainly provides striking parallel language.
III.

The Witnesses (vv. 5-7)

After v. 4, the creed shifts into a list of witnesses to the resurrection. Verse 5 declares:

. The first major point to be addressed regards the passive

verb . Considerable debate surrounds the meaning of this verb and its implications for the
nature of the resurrection. In purely linguistic terms, is the third person aorist passive
indicative of (I see). While the term is passive, Joseph Fitzmyer points out that
this passive use of the verb is a Hebraism preserved in the LXX, which means appear. When
used this way, the passive verb takes on the intransitive meaning of appeared. Philo explains

18 Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, 256; Fee, 727.

19 Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, 256.
8

this usage in De Abrahamo 17.80.20 While we may establish the interchangeability of was
seen and appeared as translations of the verb in question, the exact nature of these
appearances has not yet been established. If we look at the use of in the LXX, we see a
varied range of the word. Of its 85 occurrences, a little over half refer to the appearance of
YHWH, the glory of YHWH, or the angel of YHWH appearing to people. Of the 39 other
occurrences of the word in the LXX, these include people appearing before YHWH (by
presenting themselves in the Temple), objects being seen by people, or the appearance of people
in a non-visionary sense.21 As varied as the usage of the word is, we must judge the nature of the
appearances on other than linguistic grounds. Having affirmed the death and burial of Christ in
vv. 3-4, the creed affirms his having been raised in v. 4b. The importance of the burial statement
in v. 4 now becomes relevant. If, as I have argued, the burial statement is meant to preserve a
succinct account of the tomb material which later appears in the Gospel narratives, then the
empty tomb must follow from the resurrection. These considerations, along with the Jewish
(whether Aramaic or Greek speaking) provenance of the creed, allow us to conclude that the
confessional statement preserved in 1 Cor 15 has in mind a bodily resurrection. This, in turn,
leads to the conclusion that Christs appearances after his resurrection were bodily, physical
appearances.
His first appearance, according to v. 5, was to Cephas. While the name Cephas is Pauls
usual designation for the disciple Simon Peter (both in Galatians and 1 Corinthians), this is no
reason to assume, as some scholars do, that Paul has inserted his own appellation into the creedal

20 Fitzmyer, 549.
21 Wright, 323. Cf. Fee, 728; Fitzmyer, 549; Thiselton, 1198.
9

material.22 Rather, it seems likely that a creed which must have originated within a few short
years of the resurrection would preserve the Aramaic name of the disciple. The appearance to
Cephas is not actually recorded in the Gospel accounts, but it is alluded to in Lk 24:34. After
stating that the risen Christ appeared to Cephas (), v. 5 next notes that he appeared then
to the Twelve ( ). There are several comments to be made concerning this
phrase. First, we note that the term is a non-Pauline term. He refers to the apostles, but
never does Paul refer collectively to the Twelve. In light of this, we may assume that Paul is
continuing to recite preformed material here, rather than adding to the list of witnesses to the
resurrection.23 Next, as a brief comment on the term Twelve, it seems that the term is a collective
title for the disciples chosen by Jesus, rather than a term designating how many of them
experienced appearances of the risen Christ. As both Matthew and Acts record, Judas killed
himself before the resurrection, so it would have been impossible for Christ to appear to him as
he did to the other disciples. This is not to conclude that the narratives of Judas suicide are
historically inaccurate, or that the creators of the creed were not aware of it; rather the collective
term is employed, as the later term, (Eleven), had not come into use.
Having concluded that all of v. 5 belongs to pre-Pauline material, we must now ascertain
whether or not any parts of vv. 6-7 ought to be included as well. It is often suggested that the
creed ended at v. 5 with Pauline additions beginning in verse 6.24 In order to determine the
validity of including any part of these verses as an original part of the creed, we will examine vv.
22 So Fee, 729.
23 Contra Fitzmyer, 549-50.
24 So Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians, 257; Fee, 729; Fitzmyer, 549-50 (though he suggests an ending after
5a); Murphy-OConnor, 585-6.
10

6a, 6b, and 7 individually, before examining the section on a broader level. Verse 6a states
(then he was seen by [or appeared to]
over 500 brothers at once). Nowhere else in the New Testament do we have this attestation of
an appearance by Jesus to more than 500 people at once. As for the question of whether or not
this verse is Pauline, vocabulary considerations guide us in this determination. This verse
preserves two non-Pauline usages. The first is the term , which occurs nowhere else in the
Pauline corpus. The second is , which has its only other occurrence in Paul in Rom 6:10,
where it has the meaning of once for all rather than at once.25 This data alone is not strong
enough to substantiate the claim that v. 6a ought to be included as part of the pre-Pauline creedal
material, but it may serve as part of a cumulative case argument.
Verse 6b is almost universally acknowledged to be a Pauline insertion into the traditional
material, with good reason. It reads: , .
We may render the translation as follows: from whom the most remain until now, but some have
fallen asleep. Pauls intent here is to establish that of the previously mentioned 500 plus
witnesses to the resurrection, most of them remain alive to this point, though some have died (the
aorist passive of [I sleep] serves here has a euphemism for death). Why is this
significant for establishing the extent of the creed? The answer is that Pauls statement that most
of them remain until now ( ) is an admission that he is offering his own qualification of
the previous statement. It is a clear indicator that we ought not include v. 6b as part of the
original creedal material. Beyond this, what most commentators ignore is that it is also an
admission that Paul is commenting now on material that was formulated at an earlier time.

25 Kirk R. MacGregor, 1 Corinthians 15:3b-6a,7 and the Bodily Resurrection of Jesus, JETS 49
(6/2006): 228.
11

Hence constitutes Paul's own admission that verse 6a is non-Pauline.26 While this is
not entirely certain (after all, Paul might be qualifying his own statement, or qualifying other
non-creedal information he had provided in v. 6a), it definitely adds to the growing data that
suggest 6a ought to be included as original, while 6b ought to be understood as Pauline comment
on that material. It seems that Paul inserts v. 6b as an apologetic tool. Many of the more than
500 who all experienced an appearance of the risen Christ at once are still alive and may be
appealed to as witnesses of that event.27
After a Pauline insertion in v. 6b, we now come to v. 7, the last verse suggested to
preserve elements of the pre-Pauline creed. It states:
. The terms and appear here, as well as previously in vv. 5-6a. This is usually
seen as an argument against the inclusion of the surrounding material as creedal. This will be
addressed in the following section. For now, it is important to note that these connectives serve
as chronological markers.28 The appearance of Christ was first experienced by Cephas, then the
Twelve, then more than 500 brethren, then James, and then all the apostles. Rather than simply
connecting the pieces of the list of resurrection witnesses, and help to establish the
order in which these appearances occurred. The appearance to James must refer to James, the
brother of Christ. It does not refer to James the son of Zebedee, or James the son of Alpheus, as
they would be included in the Twelve. There is no evidence for this appearance anywhere else in
the New Testament, though it is attested in the late, non-canonical text The Gospel of the

26 Ibid.
27 Wright, 325; Fee, 730-1.
28 Witherington, 300.
12

Hebrews.29 The phrase is of particular interest to both of our stated

objectives (determining the content of the creed and determining its extent). The earlier use of
and subsequent use of here indicates that the term referred to a
circle which extended beyond the Twelve. It would not make sense for Paul to affirm the
appearance to the Twelve, but refer to them as apostles this time. Additionally, and of more
interest, is the indication that v. 7 is part of the pre-Pauline material. By his own admission, the
phrase does not include Paul, as he appends his own experience of the
risen Christ in v. 8. This is rather shocking, as Paul spends much of the epistle defending his
apostolicity. In 1 Cor 9:1 he asks: Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? If
verse 7 were a Pauline addition, then he would not have chosen to state that Jesus appeared to all
the apostles and then go on to mark out his separate experience. The existence of
and Pauls separate account of Christs appearance to him can best be
explained by including v. 7 in the pre-Pauline material.30
IV.

The Inclusion of vv. 6a, 7 on Formal Considerations

To this point, we have considered the inclusion of vv. 6a, 6b, and 7 individually. Having

found good reasons to reject 6b as part of the creedal material while the evidence for 6a and 7
indicates that they might be part of the creed, let us examine whether or not connections to vv. 35 and formulaic structures which would indicate the presence of creedal material exist in these
verses. As mentioned above, the shift from the use of to and to mark
transitions is often seen as evidence that the creedal material ends after v. 5. This suggestion

29 Wright, 325.
30 McGreggor, 228.
13

ignores a number of points. First, each occurrence of in the creedal material introduces a new
motif. It first introduced the death of Christ, then his burial, then his resurrection, and finally his
appearances. The rest of the creedal material (assuming the inclusion of vv. 6a, 7) is concerned
with this final motif. We ought not to expect the inclusion of another , because the motif does
not change from here on out.31 Additionally, the shift away from the use of to the use of
does not occur between vv. 5 and 6 but in the middle of verse 5. We have already established
that is a non-Pauline term. It would make little sense for the traditional list of
resurrection witnesses to begin and end with Cephas, so we ought to regard all of verse 5 as
included in the creedal material. If we assume this, then the shift which is supposed to indicate
the end of creedal material actually occurs within the middle of it. If we include vv. 6a and 7 as
part of the original creed, then a striking pattern emerges, illustrated below:





,


As previously noted, the use of and occurs after the final use of . As the
first use of in v. 5 is logically dependent on the motif introduced in that verse (namely the
resurrection appearances), so are all the other occurrences of and logically dependent

31 David M. Moffitt, Affirming the "Creed": The Extent of Paul's Citation of an Early Christian
Formula in 1 Cor 15,3b-7, ZNW 99 (2008): 53.
14

on it.32 Also of particular note is the fact that each of the outer conjunctions ( in both cases)
elides its verb, while each of the two inner conjunctions ( in both cases) is followed by the
verb .33 A clear chiastic structure exists, which is logically dependent upon v.5.
The previous data indicate that one must account for what appears to be highly formulaic
wording in what most scholars consider to be Pauline additions to the creedal material. There are
a number of ways one may go about this. One might argue that Paul merely drew on the
vocabulary and structure present in v. 5 to add to the traditional list of witnesses. However, this
does not account for the high level of structure in the latter verses (a structure which is somewhat
intruded upon by Pauls insertion in v. 6b), nor does it account for the all the apostles language
as distinct from Pauls own account of Christs appearance to him. A second option is to assume
that Paul is merging a preformed, longer list of witnesses with the creedal material in vv. 3b-5.
This would account for both the high level of structure and the phrase . It
would not, however, explain why the and connectives of vv. 6-7 fit so well with the
in verse 5. A third option would be the one proposed in this essay, that vv. 6a and 7 are part
of the original, pre-Pauline creedal material, while v. 6b is a Pauline insertion.
V.

Conclusions
Having spent a considerable amount of time tracing both the extent and the content of the

pre-Pauline confessional material present in 1 Cor 15, we are now in a position to make some
summarizing remarks. Vocabulary concerns, syntactical considerations, and form critical matters
all lead to the same conclusion: the creed embedded in 1 Cor 15 extends from v. 3b to the end of
32 Ibid., 54.
33 Ibid., 55.
15

v. 7, with v. 6b removed as a Pauline comment on v. 6a. While this assertion contradicts the
findings of many scholars, it seems to best account for the data.
Having established the limits of the creed, we may affirm that its content is twofold: (1)
it serves as a proclamation of the atoning death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Christ and (2)
provides a list of traditional witnesses to the resurrection. This kerygmatic material serves as an
early testament to the core of the Christian faith. Formulated, most likely within 2-3 years of
Jesus resurrection, it preserves a historical account of the events surrounding the death and
resurrection of Jesus, not far removed from the time of the actual events. This material serves as
a proclamation of the essentials of the faith and a testament to the early formulation of that faith
by eyewitnesses to the events in question.

16

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17