The New Testament · The Letters of St. Paul · Book 53 of 73
Prophecy in 1 Corinthians
Paul wrote to a gifted, quarrelsome church that prized prophecy and tongues. He answers with the Cross, with love that outlasts every prophecy, and with the fullest teaching in the New Testament on the resurrection of the dead.
In progress: 7 passages so far
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The book at a glance
Paul founded the church in Corinth, a busy port city, and wrote this letter from Ephesus around the mid-50s. He answers reports and questions one by one: divisions and factions, a case of incest, lawsuits, marriage and celibacy, food offered to idols, the Lord's Supper, spiritual gifts, and doubts about the resurrection. Chapter 13, the hymn to love, sits at the center of his answer.
The letter looks forward constantly. Paul reads the types of the exodus as written “for us,” speaks of “the Day” that will reveal every work, and in chapter 15 gives a prophecy of the end: Christ the firstfruits, the last enemy destroyed, and God “all in all.” Most of its passages fall under future, and each points back to the Eucharist and the life of the Church now.
Key to the labels
How a passage stands
Fulfilled Accomplished in history, above all in Christ.
Unfolding Being worked out now in the life of the Church.
Future Clearly still to come at Christ's return.
Mystery Its meaning or moment is not yet settled.
What kind of passage it is
Prophecy God's word through a prophet, or Christ, about what will come.
Promise A pledge God makes, kept over generations.
Type A person or event that foreshadows Christ or the Church.
Image A picture Scripture returns to and completes at the end.
Apocalypse A vision unveiling history from heaven's side, in symbols.
More on the labels
| Passage | Subject | Standing |
|---|
| 2:9 | What eye has not seen | Future |
| 3:10–15 | The Day will disclose it, with fire | Future |
| 10:1–11 | The exodus as examples for us | Fulfilled Unfolding |
| 11:23–26; 16:22 | Proclaiming the Lord's death until he comes | Unfolding |
| 13:8–12 | Prophecies will end; then face to face | Future |
| 15:20–28 | Christ the firstfruits; God all in all | Fulfilled Future |
| 15:51–57 | We shall all be changed | Future |
The passages
“What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him…”
- Reading
- Paul echoes Isaiah 64:3 (the NABRE cross-reference). He is speaking of God's hidden wisdom, revealed now through the Spirit, but the verse reaches to its end: the Catechism uses it of heaven, a communion with God beyond all understanding and description (CCC 1027).
- Why future
- The Spirit gives a foretaste now (2:10); the fullness is “prepared” and still to come.
“…the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire…”
- Reading
- The Church is God's building, and its only foundation is Jesus Christ (3:11). Each one builds on it with gold or straw, and “the Day,” the Day of the Lord, will test the work. If it burns, the builder “will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire” (3:15). The Catechism cites this passage on Christ's judgment (CCC 679).
- Church teaching
- The Church formulated its teaching on the final purification of the elect, called purgatory, especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. In presenting it, the Catechism notes that the Church's tradition, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire, and it cites 3:15 among those texts (CCC 1031). The Church is careful to distinguish this purification from the punishment of the damned.
- Note
- Interpreters differ on how directly Paul had purgatory in view. Many Protestant readers take the passage to concern the judging of ministers' work, the building Paul and Apollos and others set on the one foundation, rather than a purification after death. The Church does not rest the doctrine on this verse alone. The point for every reader is the same: build with what lasts.
“These things happened to them as an example, and they have been written down as a warning to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come.”
- Reading
- Paul reads the exodus as a type: the cloud and the sea as a baptism, the manna and the water from the rock as spiritual food and drink, “and the rock was the Christ” (10:4). The Catechism takes these verses as a model of typology, the reading of the Old Testament in the light of Christ (CCC 117, 128–129).
- Why two labels
- The types are fulfilled in Christ, in Baptism and the Eucharist. But Paul draws a warning for the Church now: Israel received these gifts and still fell. “The end of the ages” has already come upon us (the Council's words on “the final age of the world,” quoted in CCC 670, refer to this verse), so the warning holds for every generation.
“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.”
- Reading
- Paul hands on what he received: the words of Jesus at the Last Supper. Every Mass looks two ways, back to the Cross and forward to the return. The Catechism calls the Eucharist an anticipation of the heavenly glory, celebrated while the Church awaits the Lord's coming (CCC 1402–1404).
- Why unfolding
- “Until he comes” sets the limit of the age of the Church: the Eucharist is celebrated in every generation between Easter and the return.
- See also
- The letter ends with the Aramaic prayer Marana tha (16:22), which the NABRE note says was probably used in the early liturgy; read as a prayer, it means “O Lord, come!” The Catechism links it to the Church's prayer at the Eucharist (CCC 1403); compare Revelation 22:20.
“At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face.”
- Reading
- “Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing” (13:8). For a site about prophecy, this is a sobering and freeing word: prophecy is partial and passes away; love remains. The Catechism points to this verse on the vision of God in heaven (CCC 1023).
- For now
- Prophecy serves love, not curiosity. Whatever is studied on these pages is “indistinct” until the day of seeing face to face.
“But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
- Reading
- Some in Corinth denied the resurrection of the dead; Paul answers that without it, faith is empty (15:12–14; CCC 991). “For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life” (15:22). Then comes the order of the end: Christ first, then those who belong to him at his coming, then the end, when he hands the kingdom to the Father. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (15:26), “so that God may be all in all” (15:28).
- Why two labels
- The firstfruits are already harvested: Christ is risen. The rest of the harvest, the resurrection of the dead, is still to come. The Catechism sees all of God's plan pointing to that last line, when God will be “all in all” (CCC 130, 1050).
“Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet.”
- Reading
- “For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (15:52). Christ rose with his own body, and all will rise with theirs, transformed (CCC 999). Then the prophets' word comes true: “Death is swallowed up in victory” (15:54; Isaiah 25:8), and Paul taunts death: “Where, O death, is your victory?”
- Note
- Some Christians read this “mystery” as a gathering of the faithful to meet Christ before a final tribulation, distinct from his visible return in glory. The Catholic reading takes the “last trumpet” as the same event as the trumpet of 1 Thessalonians 4:16: one visible return of Christ, with the resurrection of the dead on the last day (CCC 1001). See The Lamb's Victory on the rapture.
- For now
- “But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:57).
Still to come on this pageFurther passages to add: waiting for the revelation of our Lord and the day of the Lord (1:7–8), the Lord who will bring to light what is hidden (4:5), Christ our Passover (5:7), the saints who will judge the world (6:2–3), “the world in its present form is passing away” (7:29–31), the gift of prophecy in the Church (chapter 14), and the first and last Adam (15:45–49).
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