He says, as it were, "Of what the resurrection is, I tell you nothing; for of this truth you have not doubted. But perhaps you need to know how the resurrection that I have preached to you will be. It is of this, that is, of how the resurrection will be, that I speak to you now.

Unless they believe in vain.

In order that you may be confirmed by words not to make them careless, He says: If you withhold, unless you believe in vain, that is, if you are not called Christians in vain. For the essence of Christianity lies in the doctrine of the resurrection.

For I taught you from the beginning what I myself received.

Since the doctrine of the resurrection is very important, I taught it from the beginning. For it is, as it were, the foundation of all faith. And I also received it, that is, from Christ. Therefore, as I keep it, so must you keep it. And as you accepted in the beginning, now you are wrong when you doubt even for a while.

That is, that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.

These words obviously belong to Christ Himself, who spoke through Paul. Since the Manichaeans would later say that Paul called the sins death, and the resurrection the deliverance from them, it pleased Him to rebuke them beforehand with these words. Thus, Christ died. What kind of death? without a doubt, bodily, not sinful; for He did not commit sin. If they are not ashamed to say that He also died a sinful death, then how is it said that He died for our sins? For if He was a sinner, how did He die for our sins? He also strikes them very clearly with this remark: according to the Scriptures. For the Scriptures everywhere ascribe this bodily death to Christ. Thus it is said: "They have pierced my hands and my feet" (Psalm 21:17); again: they will look upon Him Whom they have pierced (Zech. 12:10); again: He was wounded for our sins; for the transgressions of my people he goes to death (Isaiah 53:5,8).

And that He was buried.

Thus, He also had a body. For the body is buried. He did not add the word according to the Scriptures, either because the tomb was known to everyone, or because the word according to the Scriptures refers to everything in general.

And that He rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.

Where do the Scriptures say that He rose again on the third day? In the type of Jonah, and before that in Isaac, who was kept alive for his mother in three days, and was not slain, and in very many other types; also in the words of Isaiah: "The Lord wants to cleanse him from the plague, to show him light"; in the words of David: "Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell" (Psalm 15:10).

And that Cephas appeared.

In the former, he sets up a witness, the most reliable of all. Although the Gospel says that the Lord appeared before Mary (Mark 16:9), yet of the men He appeared to Peter first, as the best of the disciples. For he who first confessed Him to be Christ should have been the first to see the Resurrection; appears to him before the others, and because of his denial, in order to show him that he is not rejected.

Then the twelve (τοις δώδεκα).