Paul knows the next questions people will ask, so he asks them himself. The first is about how: how can a body that has died and decayed live again? The second is about what: what kind of body will the raised dead have?

Barnes explains, "An objection will be made to the statement that the dead will be raised," and he thinks it "by no means improbable" that such questions were asked by the "subtle and philosophizing Greeks." Gill allows that a weak believer may be meant, but thinks it "looks rather" that "an infidel as to this doctrine is intended," someone who "laughed at it as monstrous and ridiculous." Matthew Henry sees two kinds of askers: "The former objection is that of those who opposed the doctrine, the latter of curious doubters."

Paul answers bluntly, then patiently. "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die" (1 Corinthians 15:36). A seed goes into the ground as "bare grain," and "God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him" (1 Corinthians 15:37-38). There are different kinds of flesh and different kinds of glory (1 Corinthians 15:39-41). "So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption"; "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:42-44).

Barnes thinks it likely that questions like these came from Greek thinkers. Paul had met this response before; at Athens, "when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked" (Acts 17:32). Paul's answer uses a picture every farmer knew: you do not sow the plant, only "bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain" (1 Corinthians 15:37). Barnes treats the two questions as separate inquiries and follows Paul's answer through the verses that come after.

Paul's answer starts with God, not with biology. "God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him" (1 Corinthians 15:38). Matthew Henry says, "It is foolish to question the Almighty power of God to raise the dead." The same God who turns a dry seed into living wheat can raise the dead.

The seed also shows that resurrection is both real continuity and real change. What is sown in "weakness" is raised "in power" (1 Corinthians 15:43). God does not just restore the old body; He raises it better than it was.