On Raising Osiris in 1 Corinthians 15

Abstract

The suggestion that Paul’s theology of resurrection was developed on the basis of Osirian concepts of the afterlife, although not particularly new, has been revived of late. This article examines possible comparisons between Paul’s teaching on resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15 and the Egyptian myth of resurrection. This involves not only a consideration of the isolated parallels, but an investigation of the degree of coherence between Paul’s theological framework and the broad perspective of the Osirians. Recent arguments for Osirian influence in Paul, though superficially plausible, are in the end unsuccessful because they fail to understand Paul and the Egyptians on their own conceptual terms.