| 20. Linguistic Exegesis The verse opens with the contrastive temporal marker nyni de {Νυνὶ δὲ | Nynì dè} ‘but now’, signaling a decisive shift from Paul’s prior hypothetical argument against resurrection. Christos {Χριστὸς | Khristòs} ‘Christ’ serves as the nominative subject of the perfect passive indicative verb egegertai {ἐγήγερται | egḗgertai} ‘has been raised’, portraying the resurrection as a completed divine action with ongoing significance. The prepositional phrase ek nekron {ἐκ νεκρῶν | ek nekrôn} ‘from the dead’ uses a genitive plural partitive to denote Christ’s emergence out of that collective realm. Aparche {ἀπαρχὴ | aparchḗ} ‘firstfruits’ stands in nominative apposition, identifying Christ as the representative initial portion of the resurrection harvest. The dependent genitive ton kekoimemenon {τῶν κεκοιμημένων | tôn kekoimēménōn} ‘of those who have fallen asleep’ functions as a partitive genitive, marking the larger group to which Christ belongs as the first offering. The participle kekoimēménōn employs the metaphor of sleep for death, combining rest with the expectation of future awakening. The translation preserves the Greek clause order (subject–verb–prepositional phrase–apposition) to maintain the theological emphasis on Christ’s resurrection as the guarantee of ours. |