Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians John Calvin
John Calvin the Greeks the force of {ἀπό}, (from,) this signification appeared to me to be more in accordance with the Apostle's design. For he is not speaking here of the reputation of men, (as I have already stated, 934 ) but he declares that God will be exposed to the charge of falsehood, inasmuch as what they publish has come forth from him.
17. Ye are yet in your sins For although Christ by his death atoned for our sins, that they might no more be imputed to us in the judgment of God, and has crucified our old man, that its lusts might no longer reign in us, (Romans 6:6, 12;) and, in fine, has by death destroyed the power of death, and the devil himself, (Hebrews 2:14;) yet there would have been none of all these things, if he had not, by rising again, come off victorious. Hence, if the resurrection is overthrown, the dominion of sin is set up anew.
18. Then they who are fallen asleep. Having it in view to prove, that if the resurrection of Christ is taken away, faith is useless, and Christianity 935 is a mere deception, he had said that the living remain in their sins; but as there is a clearer illustration of this matter to be seen in the dead, he adduces them as an example. "Of* what advantage were it to the dead that they once were Christians? Hence our brethren who are now dead, did to no purpose live in the faith of Christ." But if it is granted that the essence of the soul is immortal, this argument appears, at first sight, conclusive; for it will very readily be replied, that the dead have not perished,* inasmuch as their souls live in a state of separation from their bodies. Hence some fanatics conclude that there is no life in the period intermediate between death and the resurrection; but this frenzy is easily refuted. 936 For although the souls of the dead are now living, and enjoy quiet repose, yet the whole of their felicity and consolation depends exclusively on the resurrection; because it is well with them on this account, and no other, that they wait for that day, on which they shall be called to the possession of the kingdom of God. Hence as to the hope of the dead, all is over, unless that day shall sooner or later arrive.
{λέγειν} --- being employed by classical writers in the sense of concerning. ``And these are things that we may affirm concerning all the Persians.'' --- (Xen. Cyrop., Book 1 page 6, line 33.) ` {̔Ο} {κατα} {τῶν} {τεχνῶν} {καὶ} {ἐποστημε̑ν} {λέγειν} {εἰώθαμεν} {ταυτὸν} {καὶ} {κατα} {τὢς} {ἀρετὢς} {φατέον} {ἐστίν} ``What we are accustomed to say in reference to the arts and sciences, may also be said in reference to virtue.'' --- (Plutarch, chapter 4.) Bloomfield suggests that the Apostle probably employed {κατα} in the ``very rare'' sense of concerning, ``as wishing to include the sense --- to the prejudice of --- which falsification would occasion, inasmuch as it would almost imply a want of power in God to raise the dead, for the Gentile philosophers denied it.'' --- Ed.
934See p. 19. 935"La profession de Chrestiente;" — "The profession of Christianity." 936It is mentioned by Beza in his life of Calvin, that before leaving France in 1534, he "published his admirable treatise, entitled Psychopannychia, against the error of those who, reviving a doctrine which had been held in the earliest ages, taught that the soul, when separated from the body, falls asleep." — Calvin's Tracts, volume 1 page 26. — Ed.