Evidence · Case 01 · Historical Jesus
The handed down formula (1 Corinthians 15:3)
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
In 1 Corinthians 15:3, written in the 50s AD, Paul introduces his summary with wording that means he is passing on a tradition he received from others rather than composing it himself. He says he delivered to the Corinthians what he also received.
Sources
1 Corinthians 15:1 to 3, NASB,
Objections & responses
- Paul says in Galatians 1:12 that he received his gospel by revelation, not from any man. So doesn’t “received” in 1 Corinthians 15:3 mean received from Christ directly?
The two passages are about different things. In Galatians Paul is defending his authority as an apostle and his understanding of what the gospel means (justification apart from the law), not the bare facts of Jesus’s death and resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15 the vocabulary of delivered and received is the standard rabbinic language for passing on a tradition, and what follows has the rhythmic, non-Pauline structure of a memorized formula. Nearly all scholars, including Ehrman and Lüdemann, read it as pre-Pauline tradition.