---
title: 1 Corinthians 15:44
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-15-44/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/1-corinthians-15-44.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: 1 Corinthians 15:44
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# 1 Corinthians 15:44

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "It is sown a physical body; it is raised up a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual one."

## JW Usage

A load-bearing verse for the Watchtower's teaching that Jesus was raised as a spirit creature and that his physical body was disposed of. "Raised up a spiritual body" is read as meaning raised as a spirit, and the same is applied to the 144,000, who are taught to receive spirit bodies in heaven.

## Protestant Usage

The phrase to slow down on is "spiritual body." Paul does not say "raised a spirit" — he says raised a body, and calls it spiritual. Paul's adjectives here describe what animates something, not what it is made of. He uses the same adjective at 1 Corinthians 2:15 and 3:1 of people — spiritual and physical men — and nobody thinks a spiritual man is immaterial. A spiritual body is a body governed by the Spirit, as a physical body is one governed by natural life. Then the resurrection accounts, which is where the argument settles. Jesus says at Luke 24:39 "a spirit does not have flesh and bones just as you see that I have," and asks for something to eat. He invites Thomas to touch him. The tomb is empty, which is the point of the women's discovery. So the New Testament's own witness is a transformed body, not a discarded one. And Colossians 2:9 says the fullness of the divine quality dwells in Christ bodily, written after the resurrection and in the present tense. Compare 1 Corinthians 15:17, Hebrews 13:8.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The Incarnation Is Addition, Not Compression](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/word-became-flesh-not-michael.md) — Why the Logos-to-Michael-to-Jesus-to-Michael cycle does not match the New Testament [Deity of Christ]