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The Apostle is sensitive to the attitude some took to his claim to be an Apostle, and
first acknowledges with commendable humility his unworthiness to be given such an
office. Earlier in this epistle he had said:
"Am I not an apostle? am I not free? have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord?"
(I Cor. 9: 1),
and then turns to these very Corinthians and says:
"If I be not an Apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you: for the seal of mine
apostleship are ye in the Lord" (I Cor. 9: 2).
And again in the second epistle he wrote:
"For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. But though I be
rude in speech, yet not in knowledge . . . . ." (II Cor. 11: 5, 6).
Paul had already quoted:
"For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful: but his bodily presence is weak,
and his speech contemptible" (II Cor. 10: 10).
So, we may appreciate the attempt of Moffatt to give the Apostle's meaning in
I Cor. 15: 8:
"And finally He was seen by myself, by this so-called `abortion' of an apostle."
At any rate, the Apostle sums up:
"Whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed" (I Cor. 15: 11).
No.7.
The Witness of the Epistles.
pp. 141 - 148
As we further consider I Cor. 15:, we give the outline of verses 12-58:
A | 12. The FACT of resurrection. "How?"
B | 13-33. ADAM and CHRIST. Death destroyed. "When"
C | 34. AWAKE.
A | 35. The MANNER of resurrection. "How?" "With what?"
B | 36-57. FIRST and LAST ADAM. Death swallowed up. "When?"
C | 58. BE STEDFAST.
Members B | 13-33 and B | 36-57 contain the great argument of the Apostle,
and in both sections the name "Adam" is significant.