In 1 Corinthians 15:53 Paul described the resurrection as an event that lies in the future. Now he helps us to imagine what it will be like when the moment of the resurrection has come. Then Isaiah’s prophecy will have been fulfilled: Death is swallowed up in victory
(Isaiah 25:8). The Hebrew text of Isaiah 25:8 actually reads, He will swallow up death forever.
The Hebrew word for forever
is sometimes translated as victory,
and Paul seems to make use of this alternative translation as he quotes loosely from the prophecy. He wants to emphasise that death is an enemy (see also 1 Corinthians 15:26), an enemy that will finally be destroyed at Christ’s return.
54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”