The mystery in 1 Corinthians 15.51–52 has long been a standard prooftext for the idea that Paul envisaged the parousia happening in his lifetime.¹ On this view of the passage, Paul assumes his survival and that of a portion of his generation until ‘the last trumpet’, when all believers—living or dead—would experience immediate transformation.
…The main point of the first half of this article (“πάντες οὐ κοιμηθησόμεθα in 1 Cor. 15.51-52a”) is to suggest a rereading of 1 Cor. 15.51–52a by arguing that πάντες οὐ probably does not mean ‘not all’ since the negative goes with the verb, and that the verb κοιμηθησόμεθα can be understood in a durative sense (‘being asleep’). As a result, 1 Cor. 15.51b can be translated: ‘None of us shall (continue to) sleep, but we will all be changed’. This fits rather well with Paul’s emphasis in vv. 51–52 on the blaring of the last trumpet, especially given his explicit reference in v. 52b to the tradition of the final trumpet waking the dead.
In the second main section (“‘We’ the living or ‘We’ all ἀλλαγησόμεθα (15.52)”), the main aim was to query the usually assumed reading of v. 52bc as distinguishing between the living and the dead, making those changed in v. 52 a subset of those changed in v. 51, and envisaging Paul’s survival until the parousia. As Klein notes, the arguments for these points are not nearly as strong as is commonly assumed, especially considering Paul’s larger argument.

Finally, we examined the circumstantial evidence. We noted the rhetorical point that, even if Paul did present himself in 1 Cor. 15.51–52 as surviving to the parousia, he can also present himself in a different rhetorical context (in 6.14) as destined to die and be raised from the dead. There is also the evidence of Paul’s hazardous lifestyle in which—on the face of it—he is constantly aware of the danger of death, not least in 1 Cor. 15 itself. Read more»

Simon Gathercole | “Did Paul Expect to Survive until the Parousia? A Suggested Re-reading of 1 Cor. 15.51–52,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament (August 7, 2025)

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