1 Corinthians 15:4 → Hosea 6:2

Paul's statement that Christ "was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (tē hēmera tē tritē kata tas graphas) in 1 Corinthians 15:4 likely echoes Hosea 6:2, where Israel voices its hope of national restoration "on the third day" (bayyōm hashelishi). In Hosea's context these are Israel's own words in its call to return to the LORD (6:1-3), not a divine oracle, and YHWH answers them with a rebuke of its fleeting loyalty: "your loyalty is like a morning mist" (6:4). The creed Israel sings is nonetheless sound — the God who has torn will heal — and the third day marks the decisive act of that restoring God (a sense the wider ancient Near Eastern use of the third day also bears). While the connection is debated, the early church fathers widely recognized Hosea 6:2 as a resurrection prooftext, and its appearance in TSK under 1 Corinthians 15:4 alongside Psalm 16:10-11 and Isaiah 53:10-12 reflects the traditional reading. Paul's formula names no single text; it is read to include Hosea 6:2 without quoting it, and the closer Greek wording is Luke 24:46's. The logic is corporate solidarity: as Israel hoped to be raised up "on the third day," so Christ, as true Israel, was raised on the third day — the one Israelite raised first, in whom His people are raised. Jonah 1:17 (cited by Jesus in Matt 12:40) provides a parallel third-day resurrection type.