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denied. It must be supposed that guards, who had been particularly
cautioned by their officers, sat down to sleep; and that, nevertheless,
they deserved credit when they said the body of Jesus Christ was
stolen. It must be supposed that men, who had been imposed on in the
most odious and cruel manner in the world, hazarded their dearest
enjoyments for the glory of an impostor. It must be supposed that
ignorant and illiterate men, who had neither reputation, fortune, nor
eloquence, possessed the art of fascinating the eyes of all the church.
It must be supposed, either that five hundred persons were all deprived
of their senses at a time, or that they were all deceived in the
plainest matters of fact; or that this multitude of false witnesses had
found out the secret of never contradicting themselves or one another,
and of being uniform always in their testimony. It must be supposed
that the most expert courts of judicature could not find out a shadow
of contradiction in a palpable imposture. It must be supposed that the
apostles, sensible men in other cases, chose precisely those places and
those times which were most unfavourable to their views. It must be
supposed that millions madly suffered imprisonments, tortures, and
crucifixion, to spread an illusion. It must be supposed that ten
thousand miracles were wrought in favour of falsehood, or all these
facts must be denied. And then it must be supposed that the apostles
were idiots, that the enemies of Christendom were idiots, and that all
the primitive Christians were idiots'.
Before passing on to the next great division of 1 Corinthians 15, we
give the structure of verses 1 to 11.
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
The evidence and the evangel
A
15:1,2.
The gospel 'I preached'
'Ye received'.
B
15:3-.
The gospel no human invention
'I delivered unto you that which I received'.
C
15:3-4.
Evidence of Scripture.
a
Christ died.
b
He was buried.
c
He rose again.
C
15:5-8.
Evidence of eye-witnesses.
a
Seen of Cephas.
b
Then of the twelve.
c
Seen of 500 brethren.
a
Seen of James.
b
Then of all the apostles.
c
Seen of me also.
B
15:9,10.
Paul's apostleship no self appointment
'Yet not I,
but the grace of God'.
A
15:11.
I or they
'So we preach'
'So ye believed'.
The remainder of 1 Corinthians 15 is taken up with two related aspects
of the resurrection (1) The matter of fact (2) The manner, with what body?
1 Corinthians 15:12-58
A
15:12.
How?
The fact of resurrection.
B
15:13-33.
Adam and Christ. Death destroyed.
'When?'