The Received Gospel Announces Christ's Death, Burial, Resurrection, and Appearances

The gospel they received is a death, a burial, a raising, and named appearances.

Paul reminds them of the gospel he preached, which they received, in which they stand, and by which they are being saved if they hold it fast—unless they believed in vain. He handed on as of first importance what he also received: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he was buried, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and he appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at once, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep; then to James, then to all the apostles.

Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to Paul. Paul is the least of the apostles, unfit because he persecuted the church of God; but by the grace of God he is what he is, and that grace toward him was not in vain. He worked harder than all of them—yet not he, but the grace of God that is with him. Whether then it was he or they, so they preach and so the Corinthians believed. Burial and appearances keep the claim bodily. This is not a denial that Jesus died, and not a rumor of a ghost. The witness list does not license invented details Paul does not give, and it does not forbid honest historical questions.