Devine Scripture

1 Corinthians 15:38

What does 1 Corinthians 15:38 mean?

A plain-English look at 1 Corinthians 15:38 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.

What 1 Corinthians 15:38 means

God gives each seed its own body as He pleases. The form that emerges is not the seed’s decision but God’s gift. This shifts attention from human speculation to divine sovereignty and creativity. Resurrection is God’s work: He crafts the future body according to His wise purpose. Just as He orders distinct natures in creation, He will bestow a body fit for the age to come. Believers can trust that the same God who designed the marvels of nature will raise them with bodies wonderfully suited to share Christ’s glory and inherit His kingdom. Our hope rests in His power, not in our analysis.

Parallel translations

WEB

World English Bible · 2000

but God giveth it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.

KJV

King James Version · 1611

But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

ASV

American Standard Version · 1901

but God giveth it a body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a body of its own.

BBE

Bible in Basic English · 1949

But God gives it a body, as it is pleasing to him, and to every seed its special body.

YLT

Young's Literal Translation · 1862

and God doth give to it a body according as He willed, and to each of the seeds its proper body.

DRA

Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752

But God giveth it a body as he will: and to every seed its proper body.

DBY

Darby Bible · 1890

andGod gives to it a body as he has pleased, and to each of the seeds its own body.

Context

Completing the seed analogy (vv. 36–38), Paul highlights God’s role in giving bodies. He will now expand to a taxonomy of differing bodies and glories in creation (vv. 39–41) to show that variety and gradation are part of God’s design. This sets up the application to resurrection in vv. 42–44, where he names the contrasts between the present and future body. The context keeps the focus on God’s ability to give what He promises.

v.37and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other kind;

v.38This passage

v.39All flesh is not the same flesh: but there is one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes.

Cross references

Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  • Isaiah 61:11

    For as the earth bringeth forth its bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord Jehovah will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

  • Genesis 1:11

    And God said, Let the earth put forth grass, herbs yielding seed, and fruit-trees bearing fruit after their kind, wherein is the seed thereof, upon the earth: and it was so.

  • Mark 4:26

    And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed upon the earth;

  • 1 Corinthians 3:7

    So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

  • Psalms 104:14

    He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, And herb for the service of man; That he may bring forth food out of the earth,

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