Do you sow the whole stalk of wheat or just the bare grain in 1 Corinthians 15:37?
In this resurrection teaching, Paul teaches that you do not sow the whole stalk of wheat; you sow only the bare grain, the individual kernel. The seed is planted, not the stalk, and it must die before producing the stalk and the grain.
Paul is using the mundane things of agriculture to illustrate resurrection. Whether a person sows wheat, rye, corn, or some other grain, he does not sow the whole stalk that will later appear; he sows the bare grain, the individual kernel. That seed must die, or be quickened and made alive. Then the stalk comes first, and afterward the grain. Paul uses this as a total illustration of our own resurrection experience: what is sown is not the body that shall be. The bare kernel is not the final visible plant, just as the body sown is not the resurrection body that shall be.
And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:
More Questions
What kind of planting is Paul talking about in 1 Corinthians 15:36-37?
In this passage Paul is talking about the mundane things of agriculture, sowing wheat or rye or corn or whatever else that is going to produce a crop.