1 Corinthians 1:3 – Grace to you, and peace
Writing follows a set of conventions. Letters begin in ways that help readers recognize what to expect. “You may already have won!” is one way to begin a letter. So is “My dearest AnnaAnna appears in Luke 2:36-38, as Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem eight days after his birth. More.” In the Greco-Roman world, a letter began by naming the sender(s) and the recipient(s), and then greeting the recipients. Paul’s greeting is the same across all letters that bear his name, except for 1 and 2 TimothyThe companion on Paul's later journeys for whom two pastoral epistles are named. More and Titus, in which the wording changes slightly. As PaulThe Apostle Paul, originally known as Saul of Tarsus, was the author of several New Testament letters and the founder of many Christian communities. More begins his letters, he greets his churches, saying, “GraceGrace is the unmerited gift of God's love and acceptance. In Martin Luther's favorite expression from the Apostle Paul, we are saved by grace through faith, which means that God showers grace upon us even though we do not deserve it. More and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord JesusJesus is the Messiah whose life, death, and resurrection are God's saving act for humanity. More Christ” (see 1 Corinthians 1:3).
“Grace” (charis) is a standard greeting in Greek, while “peace” in the letter’s opening is a standard translation of the Hebrew greeting, shalom. With his composition of the greeting, Paul draws on both parts of his background and honors an element of the diversity among his recipients. The greeting also connects God, whom he calls “our Father” with Jesus Christ, whom he calls “Lord.” Significantly, Paul names God as “our Father” (that is, the common Father of the letter’s senders and recipients), rather than just the Father of Jesus Christ. Paul imagines that God has the same relationship with Paul’s readers and Paul himself as God has with Christ. Jesus says as much in John 20:17. This common familial bond between Jesus and his followers must have been among the earliest traditions in Christianity.
Paul’s greeting, with its combination of “grace and peace,” has come to be widely used by preachers at the beginning of their sermons. Generations of preachers after Paul have borrowed his formula. The words call to mind ancient siblings and greet current ones.
When Paul writes, the church is still at some distance from developing what would become Trinitarian theology. Paul’s letters help to shape that theology in a variety of ways. As for Trinitarian formulas, Paul’s clearest appears at the end of 2 Corinthians, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion of the HolyHoly is a term that originally meant set apart for the worship or service of God. While the term may refer to people, objects, time, or places, holiness in Judaism and Christianity primarily denotes the realm of the divine More Spirit be with all of you” (2 Corinthians 13:13, NRSV). This formula has come to be the opening greeting in the liturgy of the Mass and in Protestant liturgical traditions.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 – The body as a temple
“Body” in 1 Corinthians means several different things. Sometimes Paul uses the word to refer to the physical body of an individual. For example, his words in 1 Corinthians 6:18-20, imploring his readers to shun sexual activity with workers in pagan temples, have the physical human body in mind. For Paul, members of the body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 12) have an individual existence.
The body can also be corporate. The word refers to a collection of human bodies or human beings and means something like, “the community” or “individuals as they work together.” Paul often has this larger, corporate reality in mind when he writes to the Corinthians of “the body” or “your body.”
Bible readers embedded in individualistic cultures have not always recognized the corporate nature of Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. In these verses, Paul’s emphasis is on the good of the collective. In English, we lack an easy way to distinguish “you,” referring to one person, from “you,” referring to multiple people. Yet in Greek, Paul and his readers were able to distinguish the two easily. If we use “you all” for the plural in Greek, in 1 Corinthians 3:16, Paul says, “Do you all not know that you all are God’s templeThe Jerusalem temple, unlike the tabernacle, was a permanent structure, although (like the tabernacle) it was a place of worship and religious activity. On one occasion Jesus felt such activity was unacceptable and, as reported in all four Gospels, drove from the temple those engaged... More and that God’s Spirit dwells in you all?” The church members together are the temple in which God has chosen to dwell. God makes the congregation, and not just its individuals, holy by God’s presence.
1 Corinthians 4:14-21 – Church leaders as fathers
Paul describes himself in a variety of ways in his letters. In 1 Thessalonians 2:7, he describes himself as a mother, saying that he was “gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children.” In the Letter to Philemon, he describes himself as Philemon’s business partner (verse 17). He also says that he has become a father to the enslaved person, OnesimusSlave of Philemon for whom Paul appealed in his Letter to Philemon. More (verse 10), for whom he is interceding with the owner, Philemon. In 1 Corinthians 4:14-21, Paul uses the image of a father for himself, and calls the Corinthians “my beloved children.”
Referring to church leaders as “father” has been carried down through the centuries, with mixed effects. We can see both the positive and the negative possibilities for interpretation in Paul’s use of this metaphor in 1 Corinthians.
On the one hand, Paul speaks of his love for the Corinthians, love that is steadfast even as he is frustrated by their quarrels. “Father” could point to his sense of responsibility for their maturing in the faith, as well as his commitment to them that goes beyond any other sense of his calling. “Father,” with its emphasis on relationship, intimacy, and family can point to a devotion that surpasses the job of being an apostleDerived from a Greek word meaning "one who is sent," an apostle is a person who embraces and advocates another person's idea or beliefs. At the beginning of his ministry Jesus called twelve apostles to follow and serve him. Paul became an apostle of Jesus... More or a church leader.
On the other hand, Paul and later church leaders may use the family metaphor to grab and retain power. “Father” implies “child,” so the responsibility and freedom of other adults in the church (now thought of as “children”) can be diminished by its use. The image of a parent often calls to mind one who expected not to be questioned, or who was to be obeyed without complaint. Paul asks in 4:21, “Am I to come to you with a stick, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?” The threat in the first half of that sentence limits the potential for the second half of the sentence to be trusted. This complex combination of love and power continues to be part of church leadership when such leadership is described in terms of fatherhood.
1 Corinthians 5:1-5 – Handing someone over to Satan
In 1 Corinthians 5:1-5, Paul urges the church to do something about a man in the church who is in a sexual relationship with his stepmother. Both Jews and Greeks held taboos on such a relationship, yet it seems the Corinthian Christians are permitting it among themselves. They may believe that activities done by bodies are of no consequence to the spiritual life. They may have thought freedom in Christ put an end to all prohibitions of any sort. Whatever their reasoning, Paul disagrees.
After Paul expresses his shock at the lack of accountability offered by the Corinthians to one another, he sets out a ritual for excluding someone from the fellowship of the church. He almost certainly does not suggest or imply that the man should be killed. Both Greek and English have different words for flesh and body. “Flesh” in Paul’s usage refers to all that is of the old age, that is, the time before God established a new creationCreation, in biblical terms, is the universe as we know or perceive it. Genesis says that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the book of Revelation (which speaks of end times) the author declares that God created all things and... More (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-19) through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. In the ritual, the church together, having invoked the presence of the Holy Spirit and called to mind the authority of the apostle Paul, act in the power of Jesus. The end goal is that the man may be saved in what Paul believes will be the soon-to-come Day of the LordThe Day of the Lord, in prophetic writing, is the day of judgment when God will intervene directly in world affairs. As described in Zephaniah, for instance, God will sweep everything away. In Matthew's gospel God is described as gathering the elect on the day... More.
In the Roman Catholic Church and other churches that practice excommunication, the rite is spoken of as a means to the end of reconciliation. Ideally, the intention of all church discipline—even that of barring someone from the Table of the Lord—is to lead that one back to fellowship by clarifying the distance someone has traveled from it. The rite does not always work this way in practice, of course. Sometimes it functions as a simple shunning, with no future reconciliation invited or sought. The hope, however, is not for exclusion or death, but for reconciliation, life and salvationSalvation can mean saved from something (deliverance) or for something (redemption). Paul preached that salvation comes through the death of Christ on the cross which redeemed sinners from death and for a grace-filled life. More, as 1 Corinthians 5:5 makes clear.
1 Corinthians 7 – Celibacy
There are two passages in the New Testament that have been used to justify celibacy as a preferred option either for Christians in general, or for leaders in the church. In MatthewA tax collector who became one of Jesus' 12 disciples. More 19:10-12, Jesus implies that living life without the risk of divorce (that is, by not marrying) is a teaching to be followed by any who can accept it. In 1 Corinthians 7:6-8 and 7:32-35, Paul offers his opinion that a celibate life is less encumbered and therefore to be preferred for those who would aim at “unhindered devotion to the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:35).
Three observations help to put Paul’s words on the matter of celibacy in context: (1) We know from 1 Corinthians 7:1 that the Corinthians have asked Paul questions about sex and marriage. They bring up the topic and he responds. (2) In this chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul speaks on various questions around sex, marriage, divorce, and celibacy, all in an ad hoc way. For instance, he says about whether virgins should marry or stay unmarried, “I have no command of the Lord,” and then comments on his own “as one who by the Lord’s mercyMercy is a term used to describe leniency or compassion. God's mercy is frequently referred to or invoked in both the Old and New Testaments. More is trustworthy” (1 Corinthians 7:25). In other words, this chapter is not at the heart of Paul’s message to the Corinthians, however much it may be important. (3) Twice Paul talks about the value of being unmarried (1 Corinthians 7:7 and 1 Corinthians 7:35); in both places, he immediately adds that he does not require such a lifestyle of anyone.
The Roman Catholic Church continues to uphold the value of celibacy for its priests and for men and women in religious orders. It justifies this expectation of priests with the observation that Jesus himself was unmarried. It elevates celibacy for priests and those in religious orders with the same argument that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 7:32-35, namely, that the unmarried can serve the church more effectively because they are free of also needing to attend to the requirements of marriage and parenting alongside their church work.
The church also sometimes makes an argument, based in mysticism, that the celibate church leader has a spiritual experience of being “married” to Christ or the church. Paul holds firmly to the reality of mystical union with Christ, but in Paul’s thought, such union is a phenomenon given to the whole church, not to individuals. Paul never claims a mystical advantage based on his own celibacy or that of others.
1 Corinthians 7:17-24 – American slavery
Christians in early American history disagreed on the matter of whether the owning of one human by another could ever be a moral option for society. Those Christians who wished to argue for slavery as a moral option sometimes looked to Paul’s writing in 1 Corinthians 7:17-24 for support. In these verses, Paul calls on everyone to stay the way they are in terms of external identifiers. No one should seek circumcisionCircumcision is an act of cutting off part of a male (or female) sex organ for religious or health reasons. In the Bible circumcision was performed on males to indicate inclusion into the Jewish religious community. Some church calendars commemorate January 1 as the Circumcision... More after answering the Lord’s call, just as no one should seek to “remove the marks of circumcision” (1 Corinthians 7:18). Similarly, no one should seek freedom if they were enslaved at the time they came to faith in Jesus, and no one, after having come to faith, should seek to become the slave of a human master, which one might do in antiquity out of necessity around debt or for the economic advantage of moving to a richer householdA household is a living unit comprised of all the persons who live in one house. A household would embrace all the members of a family, including servants and slaves. In the book of Acts, stories are told of various persons and their households, like... More. “In whatever condition you were called, brothers and sisters, there remain with God” (1 Corinthians 7:24).
Paul’s advice to stay in one’s social setting is based in his belief that Jesus will return soon. There is no need to look for change within a world structure that is passing away. These distinctions– circumcised or not, enslaved or not, married or not–are coming to an end so soon, reasons Paul, that everyone can stay as they are. Staying in one’s current state, then, is practical advice given how temporary Paul believes all these structures of society to be.
Paul’s argument, based on the impermanence of slavery as a structure of society, would eventually be used in North America to reinforce an institution with much more permanent design than the institution of Greco-Roman slavery during his time. In the Greco-Roman world, most slaves were manumitted (that is, freed) by the age of 35, and no one was born into slavery. Children born to slaves were free. In America, slavery was “passed down” as the status of a slave’s child, and no provision was ever required to be made for manumission.
To use Paul’s words to justify perpetual slavery is surely to misconstrue them. The second coming of Christ did not happen the way Paul’s letters lead us to believe he expected it, and his advice to slaves is born of that expectation. We do not know how Paul’s letters to the churches would be different if he had been able to imagine two millennia of church activity during which believers would continue to wait for the return of Christ. We can say, however, that if Paul had known how church history would unfold, he would not have urged anything on anyone by arguing that the time before Christ’s return was short.
1 Corinthians 8:1-13 — What builds up?
In 1 Corinthians, Paul reflects on the freedom and responsibility of Christians toward each other and toward outsiders who may see their behavior and draw conclusions from it. The presenting problem is whether Christians should eat meat served at someone’s home, or available for purchase in the marketplace, if that meat comes from an animal sacrificeSacrifice is commonly understood as the practice of offering or giving up something as a sign of worship, commitment, or obedience. In the Old Testament grain, wine, or animals are used as sacrifice. In some New Testament writings Jesus' death on the cross as the... More made at the temple of a Greco-Roman god. Does eating meat offered to other gods implicate Christians in the worship of other gods?
Some of the Corinthians are saying, “Other gods do not exist, so how could we be worshiping them? It’s just meat.” Other Corinthians are saying, “OK, but I don’t like the optics. It looks like we are buying into rituals we have rejected in favor of naming Christ as Lord. People will get the wrong idea about us.” Still others are saying, “This meat creeps me out. What if there is some kind of power associated with it that we don’t know about? I mean, sure, idols are nothing, but would you play around with Voodoo dolls? I say we stick to eating vegetables.”
These statements are fanciful, of course, but they help to explain Paul’s reasoning in 1 Corinthians 7-9. An idolIdolatry is the worship of something other than the true God. An idol may be a cult image, an idea, or an object made of wood or stone. Ome of the Ten Commandments specifically prohibits the worship of graven images or idols; this concern is... More is nothing, Paul says, and so a Christian is free to eat meat that has been used in a ritual related to an idol. But for Paul, the question is not, “Am I free to do this?” The question that the Corinthians should be asking themselves is, “Does my doing this build up the body of Christ, or not?”
The conversation about eating meat offered to idols is just one of the issues Paul will resolve by asking what builds up the body. The question will apply to how the church should receive different gifts (chapter 12), how diverse people live and work together in the church (chapter 13), and how prophecyProphecy is the gift, inspired by God, of speaking and interpreting the divine will. Prophets such as Amos, Isaiah, and Ezekiel spoke words of judgment and comfort to the people of Israel on behalf of God. More should be offered in worship (chapter 14). What builds up? This is Paul’s question to the Corinthians in the midst of their divisions.
In modern democracies, individual freedom is the cornerstone of society. Sociologists refer to churches that are not supported by the state as “voluntary organizations.” People are free to be part of them, and free to ignore them. Churches in such societies have been shaped by this value of personal freedom. Meanwhile, Paul values collective experience over personal freedom, and he places the greatest value on the experience of those who have less knowledge, less economic prosperity, or less spiritual orientation. Paul asks those with greater knowledge, more money, or more obvious spiritual gifts, to value others in their churches enough to limit behavior they would otherwise be free to do.
1 Corinthians 9:26-27 – On “punishing the body”
At the end of 1 Corinthians 9, Paul uses athletic images to argue for self-discipline as part of the Christian life. Just as athletes work out and push themselves to their limits, so ought Christians to exercise discipline in their daily life. In general, the chapter is about holding back from exercising all the freedom one might have in Christ when using that freedom could cause others either to stumble or not to understand that the good news of Jesus Christ applies to them. Paul uses himself as someone who exercises this kind of self-restraint.
At the end of the chapter, he says, “so I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified” (1 Corinthians 9:26:27). The athletic metaphors indicate that Paul brings focus, intention, and self-discipline to his discipleship.
Mention of punishing the body, however, has moved from the metaphorical to the literal in some understandings of Christian discipleship. DanA son of Jacob and tribe of Israel. More Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code, includes a character who is a member of the conservative Roman Catholic sect, Opus Dei. As a devotional practice, the character wears an accessory that cuts into his flesh throughout the day, causing wounds and pain.
The practice of corporal punishment, in the form of flogging or beating another, was part of the discipline practiced in some Christian monastic communities. In the Middle Ages, this sort of punishment morphed into self-harm, carried out as an act of piety. Physical pain was an external sign of internal remorse for sin.
The practice of punishing the body to demonstrate remorse or self-discipline is uncommon among Christians today. We do not know whether the apostle Paul himself practiced it. He may be using the language as metaphor only.
1 Corinthians 10:13 – “God won’t give you more than you can handle.”
“No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). This verse has found its way into popular culture as, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” People allude to the verse when life’s problems, such as illness, relationship struggles, money worries, etc., feel overwhelming. The Scripture passage offers comfort, signifying something like, “I will not be broken by these hard times.”
This interpretation of the verse can be refined and expanded by attention to the verse in context. First, the verse is half of an “on the one hand…, on the other hand” argument from Paul. At several places in 1 Corinthians, Paul differentiates between “strong” and “weak” (See 1 Corinthians 1:27, 4:10, and the discussion of eating idol meat in 1 Corinthians 8:7 and following.) In these contexts, “strong” is not necessarily a good thing. It can lead to smugness and a false sense of security. In 1 Corinthians 10:12, Paul speaks to those who identify as strong in spiritual gifts and in their sense of freedom in Christ. He says to them, “So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fallThe Fall refers specifically to the disobedience of Adam and Eve when they listened to Satan rather than adhering to God's command not to eat the fruit from the tree. When people act contrary to God's will, they are said to fall from from grace... More.” Then Paul speaks to those who are either called weak, or who think of themselves as weak in their sense of their freedom in Christ. To these he addresses 1 Corinthians 10:13, “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength…”
Secondly, in the ancient world, spirituality—like every other element of life—was practiced alongside others. The notion that one can be Christian alone is foreign to Paul’s letters and to the New Testament as a whole. Except when Paul offers individual greetings, he is always addressing the community. The “you” in 1 Corinthians 10:13 is plural, as if Paul had written, “God will not let you all be tested beyond you all’s strength.” All of life, including both the testing and the “way out” that God provides, are elements of life together. Endurance during life’s struggles is a team sport, not an individual event. If our interpretation of 1 Corinthians 10:13 leads us either to believe we should be able to solve our problems alone, or to believe that we are absolved from caring about others, we have misread the passage.
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 – Word of Institution for the Lord’s Supper
Three places in the New Testament (Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, LukeThe "beloved physician" and companion of Paul. More 22:15-20), readers see Jesus instituting–or beginning–what will become a sacrament in the church. He shares bread and wine; he relates these elements of food to his body and blood, and he speaks of them being “given for you.” In one more place (1 Corinthians 11:23-26), New Testament readers hear again the words and actions of Jesus “on the night in which he was handed over.” Paul repeats very similar words to those in the gospels, and he identifies his words as material that he first received and then handed on to the Corinthians when he was with them in person.
In the context of 1 Corinthians, the words help Paul to argue that the whole group of those who gather around the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper should already know that this practice incorporates them into one body, the body of Christ. They are being joined mystically to Christ and to one another in this ritual. Therefore, they should receive one another well, which the Corinthians are not doing. Paul reminds the Corinthians of the words of Jesus so that he can urge them to recognize their unity and act that unity out in their celebration of Communion.
The words of institution, as they are called in Christian tradition, are in 1 Corinthians 11:23b-25. A presiding minister says them in Christian churches as part of Holy Communion, which is also called the Eucharist, the Mass, or the Lord’s Supper, depending on the denomination celebrating the rite, or sacrament. The words Paul cites for the Corinthians continue to be part of the ritual today.
1 Corinthians 11:27-34 – Preparing for Holy Communion
In 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, Paul responds to the news that the practice of what would come to be called Holy Communion has gone awry in Corinth. The congregation gathers for a common meal, part of which is sharing bread and wine as Jesus shared these with his friends on the night he was handed over to judgment and execution. The Corinthians are eating together, yet the spirit of the common meal is flawed: some are getting drunk and others are going hungry. In 1 Corinthians 11:29, Paul says that those participating must “discern the body.” Not to do so is to “eat and drink judgment on oneself.”
For some parts of the church, reference to discerning the body has meant accepting the doctrine of the real presence of Christ in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. This doctrine maintains that the body of Christ replaces the bread (in Roman Catholic understanding) or that the body of Christ is in, with, and under the bread (in Lutheran understanding).
Recent scholarship on this biblical text has concluded that Paul’s reference to discerning the body is more likely to refer to discerning the body of Christ himself in the body of those present at the meal. In 1 Corinthians 12:27, Paul declares, “You (all) are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.” To discern the body likely means to recognize everyone at the meal as part of the same body of Christ. If the Corinthians do this, they will wait for one another rather than some eating and drinking too much and others receiving nothing.
Paul’s warning that failure to be rightly prepared could lead to judgment, as well as piety about being ready to receive holy things, has led to various practices meant to prepare one for the Sacrament of the Altar. Preparation may include fasting, confession of sins and the seeking of amendment of life, reconciling with anyone from whom one is estranged (cf. Matthew 5:23-24), and the like.
In his Small Catechism, Martin Luther took a somewhat relaxed approach to the question of how one might prepare to receive the Sacrament. To the question, “Who, then, receives this sacrament worthily?” the catechism answers, “Fasting and bodily preparation are in fact a fine external discipline, but a person who has faith in these words, ‘given for you,’ and ‘shed for you for the forgiveness of sin,’ is really worthy and well prepared” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship [Minneapolis: Fortress, 2006], p. 1166.
1 Corinthians 13 – Love and Weddings
1 Corinthians is a letter from Paul and Sosthenes to the church at Corinth, a church which Paul founded and from which he has moved on. Much of the letter is Paul weighing in on topics that have caused conflicts among the Corinthians or conflicts between the Corinthians and Paul.
The “love chapter,” 1 Corinthians 13, then, is part of a letter mostly about how to live in Christian community together. In its first context, this chapter described not romantic love, but something harder: the love that a few dozen church members were to offer one other. Addressed to people who are dividing their community into factions based on who has a greater portion of spiritual gifts, 1 Corinthians 13 assigns all such gifts to irrelevance when anyone attempts to practice them without love.
Today, the chapter is best known as a scripture passage popular at weddings. There is nothing wrong with an old text finding a new context, of course. Such change must happen if the Bible is to be a living Word for new generations. Still, the chapter’s use at weddings can inoculate hearers against noticing its depths. It is not merely poetry for a day when everything is beautiful. The love described in 1 Corinthians 13 is a way of being in the world that is characterized by humility, perseverance, kindness, and rejoicing in the truth.
1 Corinthians 15 – Handel’s Messiah
MessiahThe Messiah was the one who, it was believed, would come to free the people of Israel from bondage and exile. In Jewish thought the Messiah is the anticipated one who will come, as prophesied by Isaiah. In Christian thought Jesus of Nazareth is identified... More is a three-part oratorio composed by George Frideric Handel in 1741. All of the words of Messiah are passages from the Old and New Testaments. They were chosen and organized by a contemporary of Handel, Charles Jennens. Part One uses material from the Old Testament prophets to predict the Messiah’s coming. Part Two presents Jesus’ suffering and death, with texts mostly from IsaiahIsaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied in Jerusalem, is included among the prophets of the eighth century BCE (along with Amos, Hosea, and Micah)--preachers who boldly proclaimed God's word of judgment against the economic, social, and religious disorders of their time. More and the Psalms. Part Three tells the story of the resurrection with scripture texts that are almost entirely from 1 Corinthians 15.
Jennens used 1 Corinthians 15:20 to proclaim the resurrection of Jesus, “For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep” (KJV). The remaining verses of 1 Corinthians 15 in Messiah all appear later in the chapter and highlight the general resurrection of the dead. The oratorio, then, looks back to Christ’s resurrection and forward to a future when “the dead shall be raised incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 15:52-53).
Paul’s chapter on the resurrection does much the same. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul begins with something that he and the Corinthians agree about: Christ has been raised from the dead. He argues from Christ’s resurrection to something more controversial in Corinth, namely a general resurrection of the dead. Somehow, “we shall all be changed,” Paul writes (1 Corinthians 15:51). Messiah sets this conviction to music and because of that, much of 1 Corinthians 15 is well known to people who may not recognize the words they know as part of the New Testament.
The biblical texts used in Messiah are listed here: https://haventoday.org/blog/handels-messiah-lyrics-verse-references/. A 2017 performance of Part Three of Messiah is available for viewing here: https://youtu.be/zGlAN_FE69o?si=2fk3pkhbeKJOzTB_.
