1Cor 15:54-55 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 54. Death is swallowed up in victory. ] κατεποθηο θανατοςειςνικος. These words are a quotation from , where the Hebrew is billa hammaveth lanetsach: He (God) hath swallowed up death in victory ; or, for ever . These words in the Septuagint are thus translated: κατεπιενοθανατος ισχυσας. Death having prevailed , or conquered, hath swallowed up. But in the version of Theodotion , the words are the same with those of the apostle. The Hebrew lanetsach the Septuagint sometimes translate ειςνικος, in victory , but most commonly εις τελος, for ever ; both, as Bishop Pearce observes, in such kind of phrases, signifying the same thing, because eternity conquers all things; and accordingly, in , where the Septuagint have μηειςνικοςκαταφαγεταιηρομφαια, our English version has, Shall the sword devour FOR EVER? And the same may be seen in ; ; ; from which authority the bishop translates the clause here, Death is swallowed up FOR EVER. Death is here personified and represented as a devouring being, swallowing up all the generations of men; and by the resurrection of the body and the destruction of the empire of death, God is represented as swallowing him up; or that eternity gulps him down; so that he is endlessly lost and absorbed in its illimitable waste. How glorious a time to the righteous, when the inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick; when God shall have wiped away all tears from off all faces, and when there shall be no more death. This time must come. Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.

‏ 1 Corinthians 15:54-55

Verse 54. Death is swallowed up in victory.] κατεποθηο θανατοςειςνικος. These words are a quotation from Isa 25:8, where the Hebrew is billa hammaveth lanetsach: He (God) hath swallowed up death in victory; or, for ever. These words in the Septuagint are thus translated: κατεπιενοθανατος ισχυσας. Death having prevailed, or conquered, hath swallowed up. But in the version of Theodotion, the words are the same with those of the apostle. The Hebrew lanetsach the Septuagint sometimes translate ειςνικος, in victory, but most commonly εις τελος, for ever; both, as Bishop Pearce observes, in such kind of phrases, signifying the same thing, because eternity conquers all things; and accordingly, in 2Sa 2:26, where the Septuagint have μηειςνικοςκαταφαγεταιηρομφαια, our English version has, Shall the sword devour FOR EVER? And the same may be seen in Job 36:7; La 5:20; Am 1:11; 8:7; from which authority the bishop translates the clause here, Death is swallowed up FOR EVER.

Death is here personified and represented as a devouring being, swallowing up all the generations of men; and by the resurrection of the body and the destruction of the empire of death, God is represented as swallowing him up; or that eternity gulps him down; so that he is endlessly lost and absorbed in its illimitable waste. How glorious a time to the righteous, when the inhabitant shall no more say, I am sick; when God shall have wiped away all tears from off all faces, and when there shall be no more death. This time must come. Hallelujah! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.

Verse 55. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?] πουσουθανατετοκεντρον. πουσουαδητονικος. These words are generally supposed to be taken from Ho 13:14, where the Hebrew text stands thus: ehi debareyca maueth; ehikatabca sheol: which we translate, O death! I will be thy plagues; O grave! I will be thy destruction; and which the Septuagint translate very nearly as the apostle, πουηδικησουθαντεπουτοκεντρονσοναδη; O death, where is thy revenge, or judicial process? O grave, where is thy sting? And it may be remarked that almost all the MSS., versions, and many of the fathers, interchange the two members of this sentence as they appear in the Septuagint, attributing victory to death; and the sting, to hades or the grave; only the Septuagint, probably by mistake or corruption of copyists, have δικη, dike, revenge or a judicial process, for νικος, nikos, victory: a mistake which the similarity of the words, both in letters and sound, might readily produce. We may observe, also, that the ehi (I will be) of the Hebrew text the Septuagint, and the apostle following them, have translated που, where, as if the word had been written where, the two last letters interchanged; but ehi, is rendered where in other places; and our translators, in the 10th verse of this same chapter (Ho 13:10) render ehi malca, "I will be thy king," but have this note in the margin, "Rather, where is thy king? King Hoshea being then in prison." The apostle, therefore, and the Septuagint, are sufficiently vindicated by the use of the word elsewhere: and the best Jewish commentators allow this use of the word. The Targum, Syriac, Arabic, Vulgate, and some MSS. of Kennicott and De Rossi, confirm this reading.

Having vindicated the translation, it is necessary to inquire into the meaning of the apostle's expressions. Both Death and Hades are here personified: Death is represented as having a sting, dagger, or goad, by which, like the driver of oxen, he is continually irritating and urging on; (these irritations are the diseases by which men are urged on till they fall into Hades, the empire of Death;) to Hades, victory is attributed, having overcome and conquered all human life, and subdued all to its own empire. By the transposition of these two members of the sentence, the victory is given to Death, who has extinguished all human life; and the sting is given to Hades, as in his empire the evil of death is fully displayed by the extinction of all animal life, and the destruction of all human bodies. We have often seen a personification of death in ancient paintings-a skeleton crowned, with a dart in his hand; probably taken from the apostle's description. The Jews represent the angel of death as having a sword, from which deadly drops of gall fall into the mouths of all men.

Hades, which we here translate grave, is generally understood to be the place of separate spirits. See Clarke on Mt 11:23.