3 For I passed on to you as of first importance what I also received – that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures1 Corinthians 15:3-4

The Pure Gospel

Paul writes to the Corinthian church that he wants to "make clear...the gospel...by which you are being saved" (vv 1,2). In verses 3 and 4, Paul does just that. The Gospel includes three main points:

  1. Christ...
  2. died for our sins...
  3. was raised on the third day...

All who believe that Christ died for our sins and was raised are saved (v2).

Early Creed

Gary Habermas lists five things that point to this statement of Paul's being an early Christian creed (Habermas, The Historical Jesus, 153-54).

  1. Formula. The words "delivered" and "received" were used specifically in passing on tradition, meaning that the message did not originate with Paul, but that he was repeating what he had received from another source.
  2. The use of non-Pauline words in the creed (vv 5-8) indicates the creed originated from another source. These include the phrases "for our sins", "according to the scriptures", "he has been raised", "third day", "he was seen", and "the twelve".
  3. Parallel form indicates an oral confession.
  4. Semitic indicators, such as the use of the name Cephas instead of Peter
  5. Other Hebrew indiactors, such as the repetition of "and that" along with fulfilled Scripture references

Paul's reception of the creed

The passage therefore preserves uniquely early and verifiable testimony. It meets every reasonable demand of historical reliability.A. M. Hunter on the 1 Corinthians creed

Paul's letter to the Corinthians is dated by Christians and skeptics alike at around AD 54 or 58, but Paul must have received the creed before he could have recorded it in his letter. In fact, Paul tells us that he gave this Gospel to them earlier. Christians and skeptics alike agree Paul visited Corinthians and gave them the Gospel orally about AD 51.

Paul tells us that about 3 years after his conversion, he went to Jerusalem and saw Peter and James (Galatians 1:18-19). It's likely that Paul received the creed while in Jerusalem. If Christ was crucified in AD 30, then Paul would have been converted a short while later (perhaps 33-35, though more likely as early as 31 and no later than 33), placing his tript o Jerusalem around 36-38. Obviously Paul would have spoken with the two apostles about the Gospel, an assumption which is strengthened by the specific mention of meeting with Peter, James and the Gospel 14 years after his first journey (Galatians 2). So Paul likely received the creed no later than AD 38 directly from the apostles.

It's possible that Paul receied the creed even earlier, perhaps while in Damascus 3 years earlier than his trip to Jerusalem. However, as mentioned above, the creed contains a number of items which indicate Semitic origin, making Jerusalem a more likely location.

The creed's origin

So Paul's reception of the creed was no more than 8 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. However, the creed must have been in circulation before Paul received it. What's more, the individual assertions in the creed must have been accepted before the formulation of the creed itself, and this likely happened at the time of the events themselves (the death and resurrection of Jesus).

In Galatians 2, Paul tells us that he went again to Jerusalem 14 years later to make sure that he was preaching the right Gospel, checking with influential people, including Peter and James (with whom he met on his first journey to Jerusalem, where we assume he received the creed). Remember than the apostles were eyewitnesses themselves to the resurrected Christ (1 Corinthians 15:5), and these same apostles affirmed the message that Paul was preaching, so much so that "they add nothing to [Paul's] message" (Galatians 2:6).

From an apologetics standpoint, the creed in 1 Corinthians 15 thus proves that the Gospel we have today--Christ, Him crucified and resurrected--is not at all different from what the early church and the apostles themselves taught immediately after the death and resurrection of Christ, but rather what we preach was affirmed by the apostles themselves. This Gospel message is preserved as a historical confession of the earliest Christians.