1 Cor 15:41-45
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The New Testament > 1 Corinthians > Chapter 15
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Lexical notes
Verse 44
The word translated here as "natural" can sometimes give the reader a false impression of a physical body as opposed to a non-physical body. However, the Greek word translated "natural" is psychikos, meaning, quite literally translated, "psychical," "according to the mind." Accordingly, the word "spiritual" translates the Greek pneumatikos, "according to the spirit" or even "according to the Spirit." When Paul goes on to say that "there is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body," it must be absolutely clear that both bodies are bodies, but that one is "according to the mind," and the other is "according to the spirit." (cf. Matt 10:28 where the same Greek word translated here as "natural" is contrasted to the body)
Exegesis
Verse 44
In other words, the body we have here is a body that is dominated by the mind, by our fallen thoughts and our pathetic take on the world. The body to be had in the resurrection is a body that is dominated by the spirit, one that allows for communication with the Spirit.
Verse 45
This verse can be, at first, confusing, but it can quickly be sorted out: though it appears that Paul is quoting some text that compares two Adam's, it is clear that the second half of this verse is Paul himself, adding to the text he quotes. "And so it is written": the reference is Gen 2:7. There one reads "and man [Hebrew: `dm, "Adam"] became a living soul [Hebrew nphsh]." The Septuagint (Greek OT) translates nphsh as psyche, "mind" or (roughly) "soul," which is the word Paul uses here, and of which he uses a cognate in the previous verse (poorly translated as "natural"). It is important to note that the word "first" does not appear in the OT text at all, that Paul himself has added it, as he has everything that follows the semi-colon. It would be better, then, to render this verse: And so it is written: The first man "Adam was made a living soul"; the last Adam a quickening spirit. Rendered thus, it becomes clear that Paul is not attempting here to quote a proof text, but rather to offer an interpretation of a very important text: the creation story as recorded in Genesis. That interpretation is not only vital to his own argument here, it is an incredibly fruitful reading of the Old Testament. It deserves some careful attention.
As is certainly the case in the immediately preceding and also in the immediately following verses, Paul divides the "history" of the world up into two eras, what one might (following the prevalent themes of the chapter) call "the old creation" and "the new creation" (following, perhaps more closely in the end, C. S. Lewis' similar distinction in Miracles). In doubling the verse from Gen 2, Paul relegates the story told in that verse to "the old creation," suggesting that beyond the creation story of Gen 2, there is another creation story, one in which a "last Adam" is made "a quickening [or lifegiving] spirit." In "the new creation" story, the "soul" is foregone in favor of the "spirit," in the same distinction drawn in verse 44: instead of having a body according to mind, as the first Adam did (and following the Hebrew text of Gen 2:7!), the last Adam, the Adam from "the new creation" story is to have a body according to spirit. Most important in all of this is the fact that Paul draws a careful distinction between two creations, or really, between two creation stories. The story as told in the second chapter of Genesis he effectively labels the story of "the old creation." The implication is either that the story of "the new creation" is as yet unwritten, or perhaps that Gen 1 is the story of the new creation. This latter turns out to be Paul's interpretation, as the next verse makes clear.
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