Death swallowed up in victory
Paul quotes Isaiah's promise that God will swallow up death when explaining the future victory of resurrection through Jesus.
Historical context
Isaiah pictures God's mountain as the place of a feast for all peoples. God removes the shroud over the nations, ends death and tears, and brings salvation for which his people have waited.
Tradition note
Begin with each Old Testament passage in context, then examine the New Testament's wording and argument. Explicit fulfillment citations, apostolic applications, and typological comparisons carry different kinds of evidence; Protestant approaches to particular passages vary.
Avoid overclaiming
The oracle promises a broad divine victory and should retain its horizon of peoples, death, and mourning. Paul applies it to the future transformation of believers, grounded in the risen Christ. It does not claim that human mortality and every tear ceased on Easter morning, nor does this map calculate when its full realization occurs.
Key points
- New Testament application
- 1 Corinthians 15:53–57 (New Testament application) — Paul says that the promise of death being swallowed up will come to pass when mortality is clothed with immortality. His argument rests on Jesus' resurrection and gives thanks for victory through him while looking toward the future completion of that victory.
Doctrinal connections
- Paul says that the promise of death being swallowed up will come to pass when mortality is clothed with immortality. His argument rests on Jesus' resurrection and gives thanks for victory through him while looking toward the future completion of that victory.
Scripture
- Isaiah 25:6–9 — Isaiah pictures God's mountain as the place of a feast for all peoples. God removes the shroud over the nations, ends death and tears, and brings salvation for which his people have waited.
- 1 Corinthians 15:53–57 — Paul says that the promise of death being swallowed up will come to pass when mortality is clothed with immortality. His argument rests on Jesus' resurrection and gives thanks for victory through him while looking toward the future completion of that victory.