Incorruption is the indestructible, imperishable quality of the resurrection body and of eternal life — the complete opposite of the decay and death that sin introduced into creation. Paul's great resurrection chapter (1 Cor 15) sets up the contrast: what is sown in corruption will be raised in incorruption; what is sown in dishonor will be raised in glory; what is sown in weakness will be raised in power. The body buried in the ground is not the final word — it will be transformed into a body that cannot decay, cannot die, cannot be destroyed. This is not merely immortality of the soul (a Greek concept) but bodily incorruption — the full redemption of the flesh. God does not evacuate creation; he renews it. Peter uses the same term for the inheritance "kept in heaven for you" — imperishable, undefiled, and unfading (1 Pet 1:4).
INCORRUPTION, n.
INCORRUPTION, n. [from incorrupt.] The state of not being subject to corruption or decay; incorruptibility.
• "For this corruptible must put on incorruption." — 1 Corinthians 15:53 (Webster quotes Scripture as his primary definition anchor)
• Webster extends it to moral incorruptibility — the inability to be bribed or morally degraded. But the primary biblical sense is physical and eschatological: the resurrection body that cannot rot, cannot age, cannot perish.
• 1 Corinthians 15:42 — "So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable."
• 1 Corinthians 15:53–54 — "This perishable body must put on the imperishable…Death is swallowed up in victory."
• 1 Peter 1:4 — "An inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you."
• Romans 2:7 — "To those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life."
• 2 Timothy 1:10 — "[Christ] abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
Modern Christianity has largely spiritualized the resurrection to the point of losing bodily incorruption.
Modern Christianity has largely spiritualized the resurrection to the point of losing bodily incorruption. The popular notion that believers "die and go to heaven" as disembodied souls forever is sub-biblical — the NT hope is bodily resurrection, the resurrection of the dead, not escape from matter. When the body is reduced to a disposable shell, incorruption becomes an abstract comfort rather than a world-shaking physical promise. Gnostic influence persists in the idea that "spiritual" means immaterial — but Scripture says the Spirit Himself will give life to our mortal bodies (Rom 8:11). The resurrection is not metaphor. The tomb was empty. The body matters. Incorruption is coming.
G861 — aphtharsia (ἀφθαρσία): incorruptibility, imperishability; from a- (not) + phtheirō (to corrupt, destroy, ruin).
G861 — aphtharsia (ἀφθαρσία): incorruptibility, imperishability; from a- (not) + phtheirō (to corrupt, destroy, ruin). Used in 1 Cor 15:42, 50, 53, 54; Eph 6:24; 2 Tim 1:10; Titus 2:7.
G862 — aphthartos (ἄφθαρτος): imperishable, incorruptible (adj.); used of God himself in Rom 1:23 — "the glory of the immortal God" — and of the crown believers seek (1 Cor 9:25).
Hebrew parallel: שַׁחַת (shachat, H7845) — the pit of corruption/decay; בְּלִי (beli, without decay) — "You will not let your Holy One see corruption" (Ps 16:10 — quoted of Christ's resurrection in Acts 2:27).
Proto-Indo-European *reup- → to break, to snatch → Latin rumpere (to break, burst) → corrumpere (to break down, rui...
Proto-Indo-European *reup- → to break, to snatch → Latin rumpere (to break, burst) → corrumpere (to break down, ruin) → corruptio (decay, putrefaction) → in- (not) + corruptio → incorruptio → English "incorruption" Greek ἄφθαρτος (aphthartos): a- (privative, "not") + phtheirō (φθείρω, to decay, destroy, corrupt) Proto-Indo-European *dʰgʷʰer- → to destroy → Greek phtheirō, phthora (φθορά, destruction, decay) → aphtharsia: the state of being beyond all decay The theological weight: God's nature is aphthartos (incorruptible, Rom 1:23). Believers are destined to share that same quality in the resurrection.