And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
Paul is writing to early Christians in the ancient city of Corinth (in modern Greece) to remind them of the core message of the faith — what Christians call the gospel. This verse is part of one of the oldest summaries of Christian belief ever recorded: Jesus died, was buried, and was raised back to life three days later. The detail that he was buried matters — it confirms Jesus truly died, not merely fainted or appeared to. 'According to the Scriptures' means this was foretold in the Hebrew scriptures (the Old Testament) long before it happened. The resurrection is the hinge point of the entire Christian story: without it, Paul argues in this same chapter, the faith falls apart.
God, thank you that the burial wasn't the end — that you planned resurrection before I ever needed one. Help me hold that truth on the days that feel like Saturday, when hope seems sealed behind a stone. Teach me to trust that 'according to the Scriptures' applies to my story too. Amen.
The burial is the part we rush past. We move from the cross to the empty tomb like flipping past a quiet page in the middle of a story. But 'he was buried' is doing heavy lifting here. Burial is a full stop. A period. Nobody wraps someone in linen and rolls a stone in front of a tomb expecting them back on Sunday. When the disciples went home that Friday, they went home in grief — not in waiting. That burial is what makes the resurrection not just miraculous, but *meaningful*. You cannot cheat death if you were only mostly dead. And then there's that phrase: 'according to the Scriptures.' It means God wasn't improvising. Long before Roman crosses existed, before Pontius Pilate drew his first breath, before Mary held her newborn in Bethlehem — this was already written into the plan. Sit with that for a moment. The darkest weekend in human history was not a crisis God had to recover from. Which means the chapters in your life that feel like endings — the thing you've already mourned, the door you watched close — may not be the last word either. God has a long habit of writing resurrection into the places we've already buried our hopes.
Why do you think Paul specifically mentions the burial — not just the death and resurrection — as part of the core gospel summary?
Is there an area of your life where you've buried a hope and found it hard to believe resurrection is still possible? What does this verse say to that place?
Paul says this happened 'according to the Scriptures' — meaning it was planned far in advance. Does that make the suffering involved feel more meaningful, or does it raise harder questions for you about why God would plan suffering at all?
How does the reality of the resurrection change the way you show up for someone else who is in a 'Friday or Saturday' kind of moment — still waiting, still grieving?
If the resurrection is the foundation of the faith, what's one way you could engage with it more than just once a year at Easter — in a way that actually shapes how you live on an ordinary Tuesday?
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 3:15
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
Isaiah 53:9
After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
Hosea 6:2
From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Matthew 16:21
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53:12
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:40
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
Psalms 16:10
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Psalms 16:11
and that He was buried, and that He was [bodily] raised on the third day according to [that which] the Scriptures [foretold],
AMP
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
ESV
and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
NASB
that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
NIV
and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
NKJV
He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said.
NLT
that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says;
MSG