1 Corinthians 15:51
New International Version
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—

New Living Translation
But let me reveal to you a wonderful secret. We will not all die, but we will all be transformed!

English Standard Version
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

Berean Standard Bible
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—

Berean Literal Bible
Behold, I tell to you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--

King James Bible
Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

New King James Version
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—

New American Standard Bible
Behold, I am telling you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

NASB 1995
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

NASB 1977
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

Legacy Standard Bible
Behold, I tell you a mystery: we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

Amplified Bible
Listen very carefully, I tell you a mystery [a secret truth decreed by God and previously hidden, but now revealed]; we will not all sleep [in death], but we will all be [completely] changed [wondrously transformed],

Christian Standard Bible
Listen, I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed,

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Listen! I am telling you a mystery: We will not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed,

American Standard Version
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed,

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Behold, I tell you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be transformed,

Contemporary English Version
I will explain a mystery to you. Not every one of us will die, but we will all be changed.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall all indeed rise again: but we shall not all be changed.

English Revised Version
Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

GOD'S WORD® Translation
I'm telling you a mystery. Not all of us will die, but we will all be changed.

International Standard Version
Let me tell you a secret. Not all of us will die, but all of us will be changed—

Literal Standard Version
Behold, I tell you a secret: we indeed will not all sleep, but we will all be changed;

Majority Standard Bible
Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—

New American Bible
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed,

NET Bible
Listen, I will tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--

New Revised Standard Version
Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed,

New Heart English Bible
Look, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

Weymouth New Testament
I tell you a truth hitherto kept secret: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

World English Bible
Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,

Young's Literal Translation
lo, I tell you a secret; we indeed shall not all sleep, and we all shall be changed;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Where, O Death, is Your Victory?
50Now I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.…

Cross References
1 Corinthians 13:2
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

2 Corinthians 5:2
For in this tent we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling,

2 Corinthians 5:4
So while we are in this tent, we groan under our burdens, because we do not wish to be unclothed but clothed, so that our mortality may be swallowed up by life.


Treasury of Scripture

Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

I shew.

1 Corinthians 2:7
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

1 Corinthians 4:1
Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God.

1 Corinthians 13:2
And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

We shall not.

1 Corinthians 15:6,18,20
After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep…

1 Thessalonians 4:14-17
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him…

changed.

Philippians 3:21
Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

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Asleep Changed Death Fall Hitherto Kept Mystery Revelation Secret Shew Show Sleep Truth
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Asleep Changed Death Fall Hitherto Kept Mystery Revelation Secret Shew Show Sleep Truth
1 Corinthians 15
1. By Christ's resurrection,
12. he proves the necessity of our resurrection,
16. against all such as deny the resurrection of the body.
21. The fruit,
35. and the manner thereof;
51. and of the resurrection of those who shall be found alive at the last day.














(51) Behold, I shew you a mystery.--It is better to take these words as referring to what follows rather than (as some have done) to the preceding statement. A mystery means something which up to this time has been kept concealed, but is now made manifest (Romans 11:25; Ephesians 3:3-5).

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be Changed.--There are here a considerable variety of readings in the Greek, but the text from which our English version is taken is probably correct. The Apostle believed that the end of the world might come in the lifetime of some then living. We shall not all, he says, necessarily sleep, but we shall all be changed. The change from the earthly to the spiritual body is absolutely necessary. To some it will come through the ordinary process of death; to those who are alive at Christ's advent it will come suddenly, and in a moment. The dead shall be raised, but we (the living) shall be changed.

Verse 51. - I show you a mystery. I make known to you a truth now made known to me by revelation. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. There is a great diversity of readings in this verse, noticed even by St. Jerome and St. Augustine. St. Jerome says that all the Latin manuscripts had "we shall all rise," and that the Greek manuscripts wavered between "we shall all sleep" and "we shall not all sleep." Some Greek manuscripts had "we shall all rise, but we shall not all be changed." This reading cannot be right, for it contradicts the next verse. There is little doubt that the reading of the Authorized version is right. It accounts for all the variations. They arose from a desire to shelter St. Paul from an apparent mistake, since he and his readers did all sleep. But

(1) St. Paul may have written under that conception of the imminence of Christ's personal return which he expresses in 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, where he evidently imagines that the majority of those to whom he was writing would be of those who would be "alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord;" or

(2) even if he no longer entertained that expectation, the "we" may naturally apply to the continuity of the Christian Church. For in 2 Corinthians 4:14 he uses "us" of those who shall die and be raised. The universal expectation of the immediate return of Christ in the first century rose

(1) from their non apprehension of the truth that the close of the old dispensation was the "coming" to which our Lord had primarily referred in his great eschatological discourse (Matthew 24:34), and . . .

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
Listen,
Ἰδοὺ (Idou)
Verb - Aorist Imperative Active - 2nd Person Singular
Strong's 2400: See! Lo! Behold! Look! Second person singular imperative middle voice of eido; used as imperative lo!

I tell
λέγω (legō)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 1st Person Singular
Strong's 3004: (a) I say, speak; I mean, mention, tell, (b) I call, name, especially in the pass., (c) I tell, command.

you
ὑμῖν (hymin)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Dative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

a mystery:
μυστήριον (mystērion)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3466: From a derivative of muo; a secret or 'mystery'.

{We will} not
οὐ (ou)
Adverb
Strong's 3756: No, not. Also ouk, and ouch a primary word; the absolute negative adverb; no or not.

all
πάντες (pantes)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3956: All, the whole, every kind of. Including all the forms of declension; apparently a primary word; all, any, every, the whole.

sleep,
κοιμηθησόμεθα (koimēthēsometha)
Verb - Future Indicative Passive - 1st Person Plural
Strong's 2837: From keimai; to put to sleep, i.e. to slumber; figuratively, to decease.

but
δὲ (de)
Conjunction
Strong's 1161: A primary particle; but, and, etc.

we will all be changed—
ἀλλαγησόμεθα (allagēsometha)
Verb - Future Indicative Passive - 1st Person Plural
Strong's 236: To change, alter, exchange, transform. From allos; to make different.


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NT Letters: 1 Corinthians 15:51 Behold I tell you a mystery (1 Cor. 1C iC 1Cor i cor icor)
1 Corinthians 15:50
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