NOTES for Co1 15:1-11

Speaking of his gospel, Paul mentions a certain "writing" that speaks of Christ's death and His resurrection. Judging by this mention, at the time when he wrote his letter to the Corinthian church, certain specifically Christian texts already existed in the Christian community. Perhaps this is not a reference to the Gospels known to us, but to some records that formed their basis. And to what was central in them: the testimonies about the Messiah's death and His resurrection. And yet no texts could replace living testimony.

Especially the testimony of a person who had not been with Jesus during His earthly life, as the other apostles had, and in general had not been planning to become His disciple or follower. A person who, on the contrary, had been an enemy of Christians and had persecuted them as much as he could. The testimony of precisely such a person best demonstrates what the Kingdom brought into the world by the Savior is, and how it affects a person.

Paul, who at that time was not yet Paul or an apostle, but Saul, a disciple of Gamaliel, was never approached by anyone trying to convince him of the truth of Christianity. He had never heard anything at all about what today we would call Christian teaching. For him Christianity was not a teaching, but a meeting. A meeting with a power far greater than his own, in which he recognized the power of God. And behind that power, to the great astonishment of the future apostle, stood the One whose followers he had intended to persecute as enemies of God.

That is how Paul became acquainted with the King of the Kingdom whose breath and power he felt there on the Damascus road. And he became an apostle not in order to preach a new teaching, but in order to tell everyone ready to hear about his meeting with the Risen One and about the Kingdom that He had revealed to him. About the meeting that became the center and meaning of his life and his testimony.

Today the Apostle Paul gives us an example of how to regard our own actions. Paul assesses his service to the Kingdom with complete objectivity. Yes, he understands that after everything he did against the Church, the Lord had every right to reject him. Yet He accepted him and gave him the opportunity to serve Him. For Paul, ministry is an immense privilege, a grace, a gift. But Paul does not feign modesty and say, “Yes, I am absolutely nobody and nothing...” By the grace of God he is what he is, and he does not try to diminish his own achievements—but he remembers that the credit truly belongs to God. False modesty would be ingratitude, and for Paul it is important to say how much has been accomplished, because that means acknowledging God’s works and glorifying Him.

In today’s reading, the Apostle Paul says that he is reminding the believers of the Good News they received. It would seem that if everything is as Paul writes, if they accepted the Gospel and stand firm in it, why remind them? In other words, why read the Bible if we have already read it and know how the book ends? The point, however, is that the Gospel is not merely information. It is the Good News, news that is good and new every day. It is very important for us to be told this news daily, because through His Word God addresses us and speaks with us.

Paul's words about the Savior's death and resurrection, with the addition "according to the Scriptures," are very curious. What "scriptures" are in view? The corresponding Hebrew word designates the third part of the Jewish canon of Holy Scripture, which took shape much later.

In Paul's time the Holy Scripture of Judaism included the Torah, the Former Prophets, our historical books except Chronicles, and the Latter Prophets, our prophetic books except Daniel, which in the Jewish canon does not belong among the prophetic books.

In New Testament books the Jewish canon of Holy Scripture is usually called "the Law and the Prophets," meaning precisely the Torah, that is, the Pentateuch, and the prophetic books, the Former and Latter Prophets. The third part of the Jewish canon, called by the word "Writings," took shape much later, in the third to fourth centuries AD. This third part included our wisdom books, as well as Chronicles, the Book of Psalms, and the Book of Daniel.

These books appeared much earlier, even before Christ's coming, but in those days the Synagogue regarded them as authoritative books useful for reading, though not included in the canon of Holy Scripture. The composition of the "Writings" therefore was not exactly defined; it varied by region and by local traditions, often including books not only in Hebrew but also in Greek.

It is not impossible that the first generation of Christians also had their own version of "Writings." These were not yet, of course, the Gospels we know, but their core may already have been written down in those days.

Indeed, the foundation of all four Gospels is the account of the Savior's resurrection, which is not surprising: the Resurrection is the brightest and unique testimony to Jesus' messiahship and to the truth of His words about the Kingdom that He brought into the world. The preaching of Paul, like that of all the other apostles, was built on the testimonies to the Resurrection.

Meanwhile, the account of the Resurrection is, in form, a collection of testimonies, and such testimonies need the most exact recording possible. It is no surprise that testimonies of people connected with the Resurrection began to be recorded and systematized very early, already during the lifetime of the first Christian generation.

It is possible that these written accounts were well known to the first Christians, and Paul could refer to them, being sure that his hearers knew what he meant. Thus personal testimony was supplemented by written sources: written sources testified to the reliability of the Resurrection as a real historical event, while personal experience, testified to by such witnesses as Paul himself, for example, proved that the Resurrection is not only history but also the reality of the life of every Christian, regardless of where and when he lives.

Apostle Paul evaluates his service and himself very soberly; he understands very well that his gift of apostolate is a gift of the grace of God, God's will. From the jealous persecutor of Christians, he becomes one of the most diligent apostles of Christ after Jesus appeared to him on the road leading to Damascus.

God shows the initiative, he calls man and grants him grace for the service. But several things depend on man: there can be no results; the grace can turn out vain, if we do not put all our efforts on the work of God.

Even if all efforts are applied, it is important to understand, as the apostle sees it so clear, that I do not work by my own strengths, but by "the grace of God which is with me".