1 Corinthians 15:45

“And so it is written: the first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the last Adam, a quickening spirit.”

The apostle does not say, as usually in his Scripture proofs: καθὼς γέγραπται, as it is written. The form οὕτω καί, and so, indicates, not a proof strictly so called, but simple agreement of thought. Hofmann even thinks that he may detach this short proposition altogether from what follows, and connect it with what precedes. But this is only a poor expedient intended to set aside the difficulty which attaches to the following quotation. The difficulty is this: If the proposition relative to the first man is a quotation from Genesis 2:7, it seems as if the same should be the case with the following proposition, relative to the last Adam. But in the Old Testament text there is nothing corresponding to this second idea. How then are we to explain the course taken by the apostle, if the two propositions depend on the: so it is written? The apostle evidently had no intention of deceiving his readers by leading them to believe that the second proposition was taken from the Old Testament as well as the first. Most commentators think that he found in the well-known parallelism between the two heads of humanity the right to introduce the second member into his quotation, though it was not expressly found in the narrative of Genesis. But would not this be to carry freedom of quotation to an unwarrantable degree? I do not think it necessary to apply the: it is written, to the verse as a whole. The first proposition is taken from a universally known Scripture text. The second is borrowed from the fact of the equally well-known appearance of the historic Christ, and Paul expresses it, according to the law of contrast, on the model of the former. As Bengel says: “ Caetera addit ex naturâ oppositorum; ” so that the first proposition alone depends, in his view, on the: so it is written. The sequel will still better explain this procedure.

The form γίνεσθαι εἰς, to be made into..., denotes not only the first moment of man's creation, but also the whole development of this Divine act even to its goal. It is wholly false to make this term ψυχή ζῶσα, living soul, the equivalent of psychical man (1 Corinthians 2:14), and to conclude from this comparison that the was made implies the fall. The one point in question here is the fact of creation. The was made refers to the progress indicated in the account of Genesis itself, according to which man, created at first of the dust, afterwards received the communication of the Divine breath, thereby attaining the form of existence which was provisionally destined for him.

The Hebrew text says: “And Adam was made a living soul;” the LXX. likewise, translating Adam by ὁ ἄνθρωπος, man. Paul preserves the two terms: man and Adam, because the latter contains the idea of the head of a species. Besides, he adds the epithet πρῶτος, first, with a view to the coming antithesis. His object is precisely to trace the line which this man, who is yet only the first, and not the final man, shall not be able to pass. This psychical state will only be a point of departure; a new creative act will be needed to produce the final man.

This limit of the natural man, this provisional maximum, is denoted by the term ψυχὴ ζῶσα, living soul. In the passages Genesis 1:20; Genesis 1:24, this same expression is applied to all the animals, to distinguish them from plants. We thus see that the term signifies: a life-breath individualized and animating a physical organism; an animated being, endowed with a body. But these life-breaths which are the principle of animal existence, may be very variously endowed; and consequently the parity of man with the animal world, so strongly emphasized by this term, does not contradict the superiority and sovereignty ascribed to the human species in this same account of Genesis. The meaning of the word ψυχή, soul, must not be restricted to the purely sensitive and inferior powers of the human soul. There is nothing requiring or even authorizing such limitation. As the life-breath belonging to each animal is distinguished by special powers, more or less elevated, that of man differs from that of other animated beings in certain faculties which constitute his superiority over them all and make him their sovereign: the νοῦς, mind, whereby he distinguishes truth from falsehood, good from evil; will, its own mistress and capable of choosing between opposite motives; the καρδία, heart, that deep and rich soil of feeling into which will and mind strike their roots; finally, the higher organ with which the human soul is endowed for the perception of the Divine, the πνεῦμα, spirit, the religious sense which distinguishes man absolutely from all that is animal and which forms the starting-point of the higher existence in which the natural life is to issue. If Genesis does not mention this special element of human nature, and speaks only of the soul, it is because it embraces it also in this term. It is not till a subsequent period that spirit will become the dominant principle of human life. In the sphere of natural life, it is the living soul which is the characteristic feature. The soul is for the time the seat of the personality which, by the body, communicates with the lower world and, by the spirit, with God in whose image it is created. From the standpoint of Genesis, the expression living soul therefore denotes a terminal point, the goal of the first creation; whereas from Paul's point of view this goal was a first stage, simply a state of expectation. And this is what gives occasion to the second proposition added by the apostle. The first asserted a fulness, but also a void; and this void the second serves to fill.

Christ is called Adam, to characterize Him as head of a race, no less than the first. At the same time He is called the last. Why not the second, as in 1 Corinthians 15:47 ? Because in consequence of the subject treated throughout this chapter, Paul is concerned, not about Christ's relation to the other Adam, but about the part He fills in relation to humanity, the mission which He has received to bring it to its final state.

There is found in the treatise Nevé Schalom an analogous expression: “ Adamus postremus est Messias. ” This agreement of Paul with the Rabbinical writing is easily explained; for it is known that the Nevé Schalom is the work of Rabbi Abraham, of Catalonia, who died in 1492.

The last Adam begins by realizing in Himself the perfect state. He is πνεῦμα ζωοποιοῦν, a quickening [life-giving] spirit. There is no article, as if this were His exclusive privilege. It is a human state, which Paul contrasts with a living soul. The construction εἰς πνεῦμα..., necessarily leads us to supply the verb ἐγένετο, was made, according to the first proposition. Contrasted as it is with soul, spirit denotes, not only a being that lives, but a principle capable of giving life; which, while continually renewing itself, communicates life to that which it penetrates: “a fountain springing up into eternal life” (John 4:14). As Edwards says, “the soul is the object [the seat] of life; the spirit is the source of life.” The epithet ζωοποιοῦν, quickening, is also applied to the πνεῦμα, John 6:63, and there as characterizing its essence: τὸ πνεῦμά ἐστι τὸ ζωοποιοῦν. In our context, it seems to me that the term should not be applied to the communication of spiritual life, but rather to the spirit's action on the body, which serves as its organ. The soul animates the body; it guides and moves it. The spirit does more: it quickens it by communicating to it ever new force and youth. To what point in the life of the Saviour should we apply this γίνεσθαι, becoming, which made Him a quickening spirit? When He was created as the heavenly man, answers Holsten. We delay the examination of this idea of the heavenly man, ascribed to Paul, till 1 Corinthians 15:45. At the time of the incarnation, thinks Edwards: “Then it was that Christ introduced a Divine force into humanity.” This meaning would not, according to this commentator, prevent us from holding that the body of Christ was psychical, like ours, during His earthly life, and that He did not receive His spiritual body till the time of His resurrection, by the quickening spirit whom He possessed from the beginning. Ambrosiaster, Grotius, Meyer, Heinrici, etc., think of the time of the resurrection. Does not the form γίνεσθαι εἰς, to be made, become, relieve us from the necessity of choosing between these different suppositions? From the time of the incarnation there began in Jesus the growing and quickening action of the spirit on the body. This action, suspended by His voluntary submission to the power of death, broke forth gloriously in His resurrection, but in a certain measure only, for the facts prove that in His appearances the risen One still had His psychical body, though already transformed to some extent. Finally, it was at the Ascension that the transformation was completed, and that He put on the spiritual body in which He appeared to Paul at the time of his conversion. Compare on the relation between the spirit of holiness, under the power of which the Lord lived on the earth, and His bodily glorification, Romans 1:4; Romans 8:11.

It may be asked whether the epithet ζωοποιοῦν, quickening, already points to the influence which Christ will exercise over the body of His own at the Advent to glorify it like His own; comp. Philippians 3:21. It is evident that Paul is tending to this idea, which he will express positively in 1 Corinthians 15:48-49; but for the present it is undoubtedly wisest to answer, with R. Schmidt: “Here there is but one thing in question: whether there will be another body completely different from the earthly body. The question how Jesus succeeds in procuring a spiritual body for other men, is a remoter one” (p. 114). We have already seen that the absence of the article before πνεῦμα ζωοποιοῦν speaks in favour of this answer.

But a question very naturally presented itself: How does it happen, that the spiritual state being superior to the psychical state, God was pleased to begin with the latter, and then delayed so long to grant the former? Does not God in all things will what is perfect? There is a law which has determined the course taken by God, and which the apostle confines himself to stating here without explaining it.