complete verse (1 Corinthians 15:44)

Following are a number of back-translations of 1 Corinthians 15:44:

  • Uma: “What is buried are our bodies that are fit to live in this world. But when we are caused to live again, our bodies are changed to become bodies that are fit to live in heaven because of the power of the Holy Spirit. Our bodies at this time are bodies that are fit to dwell on the earth. Our bodies in the future day are bodies that are fit to dwell in heaven.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “A person’s body that gets buried is fit only for one’s life here in this world. But when God makes him alive again, his new body will be fit/worth for one’s life in heaven. If there is a kind of body that is fit only to dwell in the world, there will be also a body fit to dwell in heaven.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “When these bodies are buried they are of the world; but when they are raised again, they will be new bodies, fitting to live in Heaven because they will have been made immortal. If there is a body which is of the earth, there must also be a body which is fitting to live in Heaven.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “We have a body now that is appropriate for life on the earth, and so also the one-who-lives again has a body which is appropriate for life in heaven.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “As for this body which dies, it is a fitted-for-earth body. But when it will be made to live again, it will then be a fitted-for-heaven body. For if there is a fitted-for-earth body, there is also a fitted-for-heaven body.” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “Our bodies here on earth will be buried. But when we are resurrected then we will not be able to die. Because there is the body of a person which will die, yet there is the body of the person which will not die.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Spirit (of God) (Japanese honorifics)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between.

One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017. When the referent is God, the “divine” honorific prefix mi- (御 or み) can be used, as in mi-tama (御霊) or “Spirit (of God)” in the referenced verses.

(Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

See also Holy Spirit

Translation commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:44

In this verse Paul begins to define the new body.

It is sown and it is raised: see the comments on verse 43.

Physical … spiritual: see comments on “spiritual … natural” in 2.13.

Spiritual body is a literal translation of the Greek. It does not mean a ghostly entity; on the contrary, Paul means that the source of life in the new body is the Holy Spirit. Bible en français courant translates “a body animated by the Spirit”; or one may say “a body to which the Holy Spirit gives life.”

The last sentence of this verse can be understood as an aside or as a footnote to verse 44a. Verse 45 follows on smoothly from verse 44a. This can be shown in translation by the use of parentheses around the last sentence in verse 44.

If there is a physical body: this is not really a conditional clause but rather a statement of fact. Therefore Good News Bible‘s translation “There is, of course, a spiritual body” is a clearer rendering. One may also express this clause as “Just as there is a physical body, so also there is a spiritual body” or “Since there is a physical body, there is also….”

Quoted with permission from Ellingworth, Paul and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, 2nd edition. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1985/1994. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .