Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 15:44
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
44. it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body ] For the word natural see ch. 1Co 2:14. The ‘natural body’ is the body accommodated to, and limited by, the needs of the animal life of man. Man possesses a spiritual life through union with Jesus Christ, but his present body is not adapted to the requirements of such a life. It is called a ‘body of death,’ Rom 7:24 (‘this body of death,’ in the E. V. ‘the body of this death.’). ‘The corruptible body ( Wis 9:15 ) presseth down the soul,’ and we groan under its weight, and look earnestly forward to its redemption (Rom 8:23; 2Co 5:2; 2Co 5:4). But the spiritual body will not only be a body in which the spiritual principle dominates the whole organism (Theodoret), but it will be adapted to the needs of that principle, and therefore will be possessed of powers hitherto unknown. So St Chrysostom. See also last note and 2Co 5:1, ‘we have in the heavens a house not made with hands.’ “The earthly and celestial body are not identical, but not absolutely different; the elements of the former are employed in the formation of the latter, the operation of Christ in believers gradually transforms the one into the other.” Olshausen. This remark, however, leaves out of sight the fact that however gradual the transformation of the natural man into the spiritual man in this life, it is completed by a process which is not gradual, namely the Resurrection.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body ] Most modern editors have received the better supported reading, ‘if there is a natural body, there is a spiritual one also.’ It is also the reading of the Vulgate and of Wiclif. The reading in the text, which is that received by Tyndale, is the more easy to understand, but perhaps it is for that very reason that it has been substituted for the other. If we receive it, the passage is a simple assertion of the existence of a spiritual as well as of a natural body. If we prefer the other, it affirms that the life spiritual of necessity demands a proper vehicle as much as the life natural; that if the latter has and we see that this is so a body corresponding to its demands, it follows that the life spiritual will have one also.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It is sown a natural body – ( soma psuchikon). This word, natural, denotes properly that which is endowed with animal life, having breath, or vitality. The word from which it is derived ( psuche) denotes properly the breath; vital breath; the soul, as the vital principle; the animal soul, or the vital spirit; the soul, as the seat of the sentient desires, passions, and propensities; and then a living thing, an animal. It may be applied to any animal, or any living thing, whether brutes or men. It is distinguished from the soul or spirit ( Pneuma), inasmuch as that more commonly denotes the rational spirit, the immortal soul, that which thinks, reasons, reflects, etc. The word natural here, therefore, means that which has animal life; which breathes and acts by the laws of the animal economy; that which draws in the breath of life; which is endowed with senses, and which has need of the supports of animal life, and of the refreshments derived from food, exercise, sleep, etc.
The apostle here, by affirming that the body will be spiritual, intends to deny that it will need that which is now necessary to the support of the animal functions; it will not be sustained in that way; it will lay aside these special animal organizations, and will cease to convey the idea which we now attach to the word animal, or to possess that which we now include under the name of vital functions. Here the body of man is endowed simply with animal functions. It is the dwelling-place indeed of an immortal mind; but as a body it has the properties of animal life, and is subject to the same laws and inconveniences as the bodies of other animals. It is sustained by breath, and food, and sleep; it is endowed with the organs of sense, the eye, the ear, the smell, the touch, by which alone the soul can hold communication with the external world; it is liable to disease, languor, decay, death. These animal or vital functions will cease in heaven, and the body be raised in a different mode of being, and where all the inconveniences of this mere animal life shall be laid aside.
It is raised a spiritual body – Not a mere spirit, for then it would not be a body. The word spiritual ( pneumatikon) here stands opposed to the word natural, or animal. it will not be a body that is subject to the laws of the vital functions, or organized or sustained in that way. It will still be a body ( soma), but it will have so far the nature of spirit as to be without the vital functions which here control the body. This is all that the word here means. It does not mean refined, sublimated, or transcendental; it does not mean that it will be without shape or form; it does not mean that it will not be properly a body. The idea of Paul seems to be this: We conceive of soul or spirit as not subject to the laws of vital or animal agency. It is independent of them. It is not sustained or nourished by the functions of the animal organization. It has an economy of its own; living without nourishment; not subject to decay; not liable to sickness, pain, or death. So will be the body in the resurrection. It will not be subject to the laws of the vital organization. It will be so much like a spirit as to be continued without food or nutriment; to be destitute of the special physical organization of flesh, and blood, and bones; of veins, and arteries, and nerves, as here 1Co 15:50.; and it will live in the manner in which we conceive spirits to live; sustained, and exercising its powers, without waste, weariness, decay, or the necessity of having its powers recruited by food and sleep. All, therefore, that has been said about a refined body, a body that shall be spirit, a body that shall be pure, etc., whatever may be its truth, is not sustained by this passage. It will be a body without the vital functions of the animal economy; a body sustained in the manner in which we conceive the spirit to be.
There is a natural body – This seems to be added by Paul in the way of strong affirmation arising from earnestness, and from a desire to prevent misconception. The affirmation is, that there is a natural body; that is apparent: it is everywhere seen. No one can doubt it. So, with equal certainty, says Paul, there is a spiritual body. It is just as certain and indisputable. This assertion is made, not because the evidence of both is the same, but is made on his apostolic authority, and is to be received on that authority. That there was an animal body was apparent to all; that there was a spiritual body was a position which he affirmed to be as certain as the other. The only proof which he alleges is in 1Co 15:45, which is the proof arising from revelation.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 44. It is sown a natural body] . An animal body, having a multiplicity of solids and fluids of different kinds, with different functions; composed of muscles, fibres, tendons, cartilages, bones, arteries, veins, nerves, blood, and various juices, requiring continual support from aliment; and hence the necessity of labour to provide food, and skill to prepare it; which food must be masticated, digested, and refined; what is proper for nourishment secreted, brought into the circulation, farther elaborated, and prepared to enter into the composition of every part; hence growth and nutrition; without which no organized body can possibly exist.
It is raised a spiritual body.] One perfect in all its parts; no longer dependent on natural productions for its support; being built up on indestructible principles, and existing in a region where there shall be no more death; no more causes of decay leading to dissolution; and consequently, no more necessity for food, nutrition, c. The body is spiritual, and has a spiritual existence and spiritual support.
What the apostle says here is quite consistent with the views his countrymen had on this subject.
In Sohar Chadash, fol. 43, it is said: “So shall it be in the resurrection of the dead only, the old uncleanness shall not be found.”
R. Bechai, on the law, fol. 14, says: “When the godly shall arise, their bodies shall be pure and innocent; obedient to the instinct of the soul: there shall be no adversary, nor any evil disease.”
Rab. Pinchas says: “The holy blessed God shall make the bodies of the righteous as beautiful as the body of Adam was when he entered into paradise.”
Rab. Levi says: “When the soul is in heaven, it is clothed with celestial light; when it returns to the body, it shall have the same light; and then the body shall shine like the splendour of the firmament of heaven. Then shall men gain the knowledge of what is perfect.” Sohar. Gen., fol. 69.
The Jews have an opinion that the os coxendicis, the lower joint of the backbone, survives the corruption of the body; and that it is out of this bone that the resurrection body is formed. In the place last quoted, fol. 70, we have the following teachings on this subject: “Let us borrow an example from what relates to the purifying of silver. First, the ore is cast into the burning furnace, that it may be separated from its earthly impurities; it is then silver, but not perfect silver. They put it into the furnace a second time, and then all its scoriae are separated from it, and it becomes perfect silver, without any adulteration. Thus does the holy blessed God: he first buries our bodies under the earth, where they putrefy and corrupt, that nothing remains but that one bone: from this a new body is produced, which is indeed a body, but not a perfect body. But in that great day, when all bodies are hidden in the earth, and the soul departs, then even that bone decays, and the body which was formed out of it remains, and is as the light of the sun, and the splendour of heaven. Thus, as the silver was purified, so is the body: and no imperfect mixture remains.” See Schoettgen.
These things must not be treated as rabbinical dotages; the different similes used for the apostle have the same spirit and design: as the seed which is sown in the earth rots, and out of the germ contained in it God in his providence produces a root, stalk, leaves, ear, and a great numerical increase of grains; is it not likely that God, out of some essential parts of the body that now is, will produce the resurrection body; and will then give the soul a body as it pleaseth him; and so completely preserve the individuality of every human being, as he does of every grain; giving to each its own body? 1Co 15:38. So that as surely as the grain of wheat shall produce wheat after it is cast in the earth, corrupts, and dies; so surely shall our bodies produce the same bodies as to their essential individuality. As the germination of seeds is produced by his wisdom and power, so shall the pure and perfect human body be in the resurrection. Hence he does not say the body is buried, but the body is sown; it is sown in weakness, it is sown in dishonour, &c., &c.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.] This very saying is found in so many words, in Yalcut Rubeni, fol. 126: “There are different kinds of men.”
“There is a spiritual Adam, and there is also a corporeal Adam.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
It is sown a natural body; such a body as all living creatures have by nature, which is upheld by the actions of the soul that quickeneth it; both the vegetative powers, by which it is nourished by the use of meat and drink, the eating, concocting, and digesting it, &c.; and the sensitive powers, &c. But it shall be
raised a spiritual body; spiritual, not as to the substance of it, for in that sense a spiritual body is a contradiction, but in respect of the qualities and conditions of it, Mat 22:30; Luk 20:35,36. Bodies which, in respect of many new qualities they shall have, shall be more like angels and other spirits, than human bodies; beautiful, incorruptible, free from infirmities, not subject to hunger, or thirst, or injuries from cold or heat, &c.; not using meat, drink, clothes, physic, or marriage; free, active, and nimble as spirits, 1Th 4:17.
Spiritual, because they shall perfectly obey the soul made perfect, and be by it commanded to spiritual actions only; of subtile, spiritual, refined constitutions.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
44. a natural bodyliterally,”an animal body,” a body moulded in its organism of”flesh and blood” (1Co15:50) to suit the animal soul which predominates in it. The HolySpirit in the spirit of believers, indeed, is an earnest of asuperior state (Ro 8:11), butmeanwhile in the body the animal soul preponderates; hereafterthe Spirit shall predominate, and the animal soul be dulysubordinate.
spiritual bodya bodywholly moulded by the Spirit, and its organism not conformed to thelower and animal (Luk 20:35;Luk 20:36), but to the higher andspiritual, life (compare 1Co 2:14;1Th 5:23).
There is, &c.Theoldest manuscripts read, “IFthere is a natural (or animal-souled) body, there is alsoa spiritual body.” It is no more wonderful a thing, that thereshould be a body fitted to the capacities and want of man’s highestpart, his spirit (which we see to be the case), than that thereshould be one fitted to the capacities and wants of his subordinatepart, the animal soul [ALFORD].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
It is sown a natural body,…. Or an animal one, being generated as animals are, and supported with food as they be, and die at last as they do: see Ec 3:19.
It is raised a spiritual body; not as to substance, but as to its quality; it will not be changed into a spirit; our Lord’s risen body, to which ours will be conformed, was not a spirit, but, as before, consisted of flesh and bones: but the body will then be subject to the spirit and soul of man; it will be employed in spiritual service, for which it will be abundantly fitted and assisted by the Spirit of God; and it will be delighted with spiritual objects; it will be like the angels, those excellent spirits; it will live as spirits do, without natural helps and means, as meat, drink, clothes, sleep, and, as they, will never die:
there is a natural; or “animal body”, such as the first man’s was, and those are that descend from him by ordinary generation; and
there is a spiritual body; such as the body of Christ now is, and as will be the bodies of the risen saints; the phrase is Jewish,
, “the spiritual body” y and the flesh of the righteous, being
, “spiritual flesh” z, are to be met with in their writings.
y Nishmath Chayim. fol. 37. 1. z Tzeror Hammor, fol. 9. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
A natural body ( ). See on 2:14 for this word, a difficult one to translate since has so many meanings. Natural is probably as good a rendering as can be made, but it is not adequate, for the body here is not all either as soul or life. The same difficulty exists as to a spiritual body ( ). The resurrection body is not wholly . Caution is needed here in filling out details concerning the and the . But certainly he means to say that the “spiritual body” has some kind of germinal connection with the “natural body,” though the development is glorious beyond our comprehension though not beyond the power of Christ to perform (Php 3:21). The force of the argument remains unimpaired though we cannot follow fully into the thought beyond us.
If there is ( ). “If there exists” ( means this with accent on first syllable), a condition of first class assumed as true.
There is also ( ). There exists also.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
A natural body [ ] . See on ch. 1Co 2:14. The word yucikon natural occurs only twice outside this epistle; Jas 3:15; Jude
1Co 15:19The expression natural body signifies an organism animated by a yuch soul (see on Rom 11:4); that phase of the immaterial principle in man which is more nearly allied to the sarx flesh, and which characterizes the man as a mortal creature; while pneuma spirit is that phase which looks Godward, and characterizes him as related to God. “It is a brief designation for the whole compass of the non – corporeal side of the earthly man” (Wendt). “In the earthly body the yuch soul, not the pneuma spirit is that which conditions its constitution and its qualities, so that it is framed as the organ of the yuch. In the resurrection – body the pneuma spirit, for whose life – activity it is the adequate organ, conditions its nature” (Meyer). Compare Plato : “The soul has the care of inanimate being everywhere, and traverses the whole heaven in divers forms appearing; when perfect and fully winged she soars upward, and is the ruler of the universe; while the imperfect soul loses her feathers, and drooping in her flight, at last settles on the solid ground – there, finding a home, she receives an earthly frame which appears to be self – moved, but is really moved by her power; and this composition of soul and body is called a living and mortal creature. For immortal no such union can be reasonably believed to be; although fancy, not having seen nor surely known the nature of God, may imagine an immortal creature having a body, and having also a soul which are united throughout all time” (” Phaedrus, ” 246).
Spiritual body [ ] . A body in which a divine pneuma spirit supersedes the yuch soul, so that the resurrection – body is the fitting organ for its indwelling and work, and so is properly characterized as a spiritual body.
“When, glorious and sanctified, our flesh Is reassumed, 132 then shall our persons be More pleasing by their being all complete; For will increase whate’er bestows on us Of light gratuitous the Good Supreme, Light which enables us to look on Him; Therefore the vision must perforce increase, Increase the ardor which from that is kindled, Increase the radiance from which this proceeds. But even as a coal that sends forth flame, And by its vivid whiteness overpowers it So that its own appearance it maintains, Thus the effulgence that surrounds us now Shall be o’erpowered in aspect by the flesh, Which still to – day the earth doth cover up; Nor can so great a splendor weary us, For strong will be the organs of the body To everything which hath the power to please us.” ” Paradiso, ” 14, 43 – 60.
There is. The best texts insert if. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. The existence of the one forms a logical presumption for the existence of the other.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “It is sown a natural body;” (Speiretai soma psuchikon) “it is sown in the earth a natural, depraved, putrefying body.”
3) “And the glory of the terrestrial is another.” (hetera de ton epigeion) “Yet the glory of the earthly (bodies) is another (kind of) glory.” The earthly body; human bodies, beast bodies, fish bodies, and fowl bodies; is another — these are all tied to earthly time, shall pass away, but man, made in the image and likeness of God, shall have an heavenly body, 2Co 5:1-6.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
44. It is sown an animal body. As he could not express each particular by enumerating one by one, he sums up all comprehensively in one word, by saying that the body is now animal, (108) but it will then be spiritual. Now that is called animal which is quickened by ( anima ) the soul: that is spiritual which is quickened by the Spirit. (109) Now it is the soul that quickens the body, so as to keep it from being a dead carcase. Hence it takes its title very properly from it. After the resurrection, on the other hand, that quickening influence, which it will receive from the Spirit, will be more excellent. (110) Let us, however, always bear in mind, what we have seen previously — that the substance of the body is the same, (111) and that it is the quality only that is here treated of. Let the present quality of the body be called, for the sake of greater plainness, animation; (112) let the future receive the name of inspiration. For as to the soul’s now quickening the body, that is effected through the intervention of many helps; for we stand in need of drink, food, clothing, sleep, and other things of a similar nature. Hence the weakness of animation is clearly manifested. The energy of the Spirit, on the other hand, for quickening, will be much more complete, and, consequently, exempted from necessities of that nature. This is the simple and genuine meaning of the Apostle; that no one may, by philosophizing farther, indulge in airy speculations, as those do, who suppose that the substance of the body will be spiritual, while there is no mention made here of substance, and no change will be made upon it.
(108) “ It is generally agreed on by the best expositors, that ψυχικὸς here, as being opposed to πευματικὸς , (spiritual,) especially as the expression is used with a reference to the words of Moses respecting the body of Adam, ἐγένετο εἰς ψυχὴν ζῶσαν (became a living soul,) must signify animal, (literally that which draws in the breath of life, necessary to the existence of all animal bodies,) that which is endowed with faculties of sense, and has need of food, drink, and sleep for its support.” — Bloomfield. “ Ψυχικὸν not φυσικὸν. (says Granville Penn,) and therefore not ‘ naturale ’ but ‘ animale ,’ as rendered in the Latin. Wiclif,” (he adds,) “strangely rendered, from the Vulg., ‘ a beastli bodi, ’ in correcting whom, our revisers would have done well to prefer ‘ animal’ to ‘ natural.’” — Ed.
(109) “ Au reste la ou nous traduisons, Sensuel, il y auroit a le tourner au plus pres du Grec, Animal: c’est a dire, gouuerne et viuifie de l’ame. Voyla donc que signifie Le corps sensuel. Le corps spirituel est celuy qui est viuifie de l’Esprit; ” — “ But what we translate sensual, might be rendered, more closely to the Greek, animal: that is to say, governed and quickened by the soul. Mark then what is meant by the sensual body. The spiritual body is that which is quickened by the Spirit.”
(110) “ Sera vne chose beaucoup plus excellente;” — “Will be a thing much more excellent.”
(111) “ La substance du corps sera tousiours vne; ” — “ The substance of the body will always be the same.”
(112) “ Animation, qui est nom descendant de ce mot Ame ;” — “ Animation, which is a name derived from this word Soul. ”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(44) It is sown a natural body.Here is a further and different application of the three analogies. It is not only that there is a variety of body in these illustrations, but there is also an adaptability. The body which a plant has when it is in the form of seed is suited to the condition in which seed is placed; the body which it has when grown into a plant is suited to the changed conditions in which a plant exists; the flesh in the body form of a bird is suited to its sphere of life; the flesh in the body form of a fish is suited to its condition; and so on. It is not an accidental but a purposely adapted variety. So it will be in the variety of bodies for Humanity. A mans organism is sown (i.e., is born into this world) a natural body; it is raised (through and by death) a spiritual body. The body which we have here on earth is suited with a marvellous detail of adaptability to the life, physical and intellectual, amid which we are placed, and of which we form a part. It is, however, a hindrance to the spiritual man in each of us. (See 2 Corinthians 5) There will be a time for each when the body will become as perfectly adapted to the spiritual man in each as the human body here is to the natural manno longer its hindrance, but its help. The willing spirit will then never be hampered and thwarted by a weak flesh; the body, having become spiritual itself, will be spiritually strong.
There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.This emphatic assertion that there are two bodies for manas really as seed and a blossom are two bodies yet the same plantis introductory to the further thought introduced in the next verse.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
44. Natural body spiritual body The word natural, to the English reader, entirely breaks the thread of the apostle’s thought. If we assume a difference between soul and spirit, and coin the word soulical as the antithesis of spiritual, we present his exact idea, and the connexion with the word soul, 1Co 15:45, will be immediately made. The Greek word , psyche soul or life when used as antithetical to , pneuma spirit signifies that animating, formative, and thinking soul or anima which belongs to the animal, and which man, as animal, shares as his lower nature, with the animals. Its range is within the limits of the five senses, within which limits it is able to think and to reason. Such is the power of the highest animals. Overlying this, is the spirit which man shares with higher natures, by which thought transcends the range of the senses, and man thinks of immensity, eternity, infinity, immortality, the beautiful, the holy, and God. Whether soul and spirit exist in man as two entities distinct from each other, we need not here discuss; yet it is certain that man’s mind possesses both these two classes or sets of thoughts. The lower faculties may exist without the higher; for they do so exist in brutes. The brute has also a higher set of faculties overlying those of the oyster. But it is all-important to note that it is by man’s spiritual faculties that he rises into a supernal region, and shows affinities with celestial natures.
When St. Paul says it is sown a soulical body, as in the two preceding cases (1Co 15:42-43) of the sown, he does not refer to the dead or dying body, but to the body as mortal in life, and sown in death. It is a soulical body while living, and is buried as the vacated frame of a soulical body.
The body dies because the animal soul either fuses into surrounding nature, or is borne by the spirit into the spirit region.
There is The anti-resurrectionists of the Corinthian Church seem never to have understood this striking assertion. A soulical body a spiritual body But as the soulical body is not all pure soul, so the spiritual body is not pure spirit. For a pure spirit is not a body at all. As the soulical body is soul-pervaded body, so the spiritual body is spirit-pervaded body. But while the soul pervades and gives sensitive life to body alone, the spirit pervades both soul and body, and gives supernal life to both; forming the unit of body, soul, and spirit.
Scholars agree that the true reading here is, If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. By the body’s becoming a “spiritual body” we understand that it will be so subtilized, so adjusted to the pure spirit, and so subjected in every part and particle to the volition and power of the spirit, that while the spirit becomes, so to speak, more substantiated, the personal unit of the two natures possesses all the capabilities that our thought usually attributes to the pure spirit. By volition it passes with lightning rapidity through measureless distances. It clairvoyantly sees, at volition, through a finite immensity. By volition it transforms itself to any shape, and invests itself with a countless variety of properties and phenomenal presentations. It can become as the dark, rolling cloud, the flashing lightning, the solid rock. And yet it will have a normal figure and face which will at once be the true expression of its essential nature, (far more truly than human physiognomy now manifests the character,) and will reveal to the intuition of the fellow-celestials the particular personality, and perhaps the entire past history, of the individual. When asked, Will the glorified bodies have teeth? we reply, If they please; and eat with them, too, as the angels did who visited Abraham. If asked, Will they have hair? we reply, Yes, if they please. And when asked, Where will they get their clothes? we answer, Just where the “two angels” who stood before the apostles at Christ’s ascension, procured their “shining raiment.” it is perfectly clear, we think, that varying phenomenal form and properties are more or less at the command both of the pure spirit and of the unit of spirit and spiritual body. See note on Luk 24:39.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
Ver. 44. A spiritual body ] Luther saith the body shall move up and down like thought. Augustine saith, they shall move to any place they will, as soon as they will. As birds (saith Zanchius) being hatched, do fly lightly up into the skies, which being eggs, were a heavy and slimy matter; so man, being hatched by the resurrection, is made pure and nimble, and able to mount up into the heavens.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
44 a. . .] an animal body , of which the , the animal soul, was the acting and informing power. This soul having departed out of it, does not do away with the correctness of the predicate: its whole organism which still remains when it is sown , is arranged to suit this predominance of the animal soul.
] Theophyl., having explained ., , proceeds , , . , , . . , . But this is not quite enough: for thus the body might remain as it is, sin only being removed: whereas it shall be no longer a body in which the predominates to the subordination of the higher part, the , but one in which the , and that informed fully by the Spirit of God, shall predominate, its organism being conformed not to au animal, but to a spiritual life: see on ch. 1Co 6:13 . Some understood , therial, aery , , (Chrys. p. 391), or as Origen, . (see Theophyl.), but the other is certainly right.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
44 b 49 .] Reassertion and Confirmation of the existence of the spiritual body .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
44 b.] If there exists an animal body, there exists also a spiritual : i.e. it is no more wonderful a thing, that there should be a body fitted to the capacities and wants of man’s highest part, his spirit, than (which we see to be the case) that there should be one fitted to the capacities and wants of his subordinate animal soul. The emphasis is both times on .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 15:44 . “There is sown a psychic body; there is raised a spiritual body.” This dictum grounds the antithesis unfolded in 1Co 15:42 f. upon its proper basis; the diff [2540] is not a matter of condition merely, but of constitution . Corruption, dishonour, feebleness are, in great part, penal inflictions (Rom 5:12 ff.), signalising not a natural defect, but a positive subjection to the power of sin (1Co 15:53-56 ); man, however, is essentially under the present order (1Co 15:45 ), and his body therefore is essentially as determined by that order ( cf. 1Co 6:13 , and note; Col 2:20 ff., Mat 22:30 , etc.), being fitted to and expressive of the “soul” wherein his earthly being centres; see the note on 1Co 2:14 . Though inadequate, “natural” is the best available rendering of this adj [2541] ; it indicates the moulding of man’s body by its environment and its adaptation to existing functions; the same body is in respect of its material (1Co 15:47 ). is only relatively a term of disparagement; the “psychic body” has in it the making of the “spiritual”; “its adaptation for the present service of the soul is the sowing of it, that is the initial step in its adaptation for the future uses of the spirit. An organism fitted to be the seat of mind, to express emotion, to carry out the behests of will, is in process of being adapted for a still nobler ministry” (Ed [2542] ): “he that sows to the Spirit (in the natural body), will reap of the Spirit (in the spiritual body),” Gal 6:8 . “If there is a psychic body, there is also a spiritual”: a frame suited to man’s earthly life argues a frame suited to his heavenly life, according to the principle of 1Co 15:38 b ( cf. the argument from lower to higher in Mat 6:30 ); and the . lies, in some way, germinally hidden in the ., to be unfolded from it under “the universal law of progress” (Ed [2543] ). ( existit ) bears emphasis in each clause; from the fact of sense P. argues to the fact of faith. Observe txtl. notes 1 3.
[2540] difference, different, differently.
[2541] adjective.
[2542] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2
[2543] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
natural. Greek. psuchikos. See 1Co 2:14.
spiritual. Greek. pneumatikos. See 1Co 12:1.
and there is = there is also.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
44 a. . .] an animal body, of which the , the animal soul, was the acting and informing power. This soul having departed out of it, does not do away with the correctness of the predicate: its whole organism which still remains when it is sown, is arranged to suit this predominance of the animal soul.
] Theophyl., having explained .,- ,-proceeds , , . , , . . , . But this is not quite enough:-for thus the body might remain as it is, sin only being removed: whereas it shall be no longer a body in which the predominates to the subordination of the higher part, the , but one in which the , and that informed fully by the Spirit of God, shall predominate,-its organism being conformed not to au animal, but to a spiritual life: see on ch. 1Co 6:13. Some understood , therial, aery, , (Chrys. p. 391), or as Origen, . (see Theophyl.), but the other is certainly right.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 15:44. , animal [natural] body) which, consisting of flesh and blood, 1Co 15:50, is wholly moulded [given form and fashion to] by the animal soul.-, spiritual) which is wholly moulded by the spirit.-) and so consequently.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 15:44
1Co 15:44
it is sown a natural body;-A natural body is a body of which animal life is the animating principle. It consists of flesh and blood; is susceptible of pain and decay; and needs air, food, and rest. It is adapted to the conditions of an earthly existence.
it is raised a spiritual body.-[What a spiritual body is, we know from Pauls description, and from the manifestation of Christ in his glorified body. It is incorruptible, glorious, and powerful, adapted to the high state of existence in heaven, and therefore not adapted to an earthly condition.]
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.- [If it is right to speak of a body adapted to the principle of animal life, it is right to speak of a body adapted to the spirit. Just as certainly as we have a body adapted to our lower nature, we shall have one adapted to our higher nature.]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
there is a spiritual: Luk 24:31, Joh 20:19, Joh 20:26
Reciprocal: 1Co 2:14 – the natural man
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THE FUTURE LIFE
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.
1Co 15:44
There is no more wonderful or impressive chapter in the Bible than this fifteenth chapter of the Epistle to the Corinthians, which deals with the transfiguration of this present life into its future state. Whenever we hear it readas we often do on the saddest occasions of our liveswe are listening to the best explanation we shall ever get of the great change which will take place when we ourselves pass out of the present life.
I. In stating the fact of the future life St. Paul was not making a new statement, especially to the people of Greece. Their most ancient poets had written of a future life. They believed most thoroughly in a life beyond the grave. Man would continue to livethat was the ideabut only in some shadowy state, some pale reflection of the life on earth. And so this letter of St. Paul to these clever Corinthians, these men of universal intelligence, had a very special message. It was not to prove that the soul was indestructible, but to prove by the Resurrection of Christ what sort of life awaited man beyond the grave. The value of human personality is the basis of St. Pauls letter. This conception had within the past thirty years undergone a tremendous change. There were, perhaps, 300 or 350 men still alive in Palestine who had actually listened to our Lordhad seen Him before He died, and seen Him and listened to Him again after He rose from the grave. Life was to them, indeed, a different, a far higher, thing. Christ had taught the extreme value of personality, and it was this fact which changed so completely and brightened so wonderfully the hope of immortality. It was, then, this wonderful new thought which led St. Paul to write as he did.
II. Our ideas of personality are so much bound up with the bodies that are so closely our own that we shrink from the idea of a purely spiritual existence.It is so unintelligible; we have not the slightest idea what pure spirit is like. We may say truly, of course, that our bodies are not ourselvesthat, indeed, every particle of the body we see and feel undergoes some complete chemical change in the course of seven or eight years, while we remain the same, we continue the same personality. We admit logically and easily that our individualitythat mysterious something within us which is not imperilled by such changes as loss of limb or the chemical renewal of the fleshis our true soul. Yet, though the thought is quite logical, we cannot separate the body from the soul, we cannot imagine a pure spiritual existence. St. Paul, however, distinctly encourages us to believe that the future life will not be that mere abstraction from which we recoil, will not be a merely spiritual existence; but rather that the spirit will continue to have its body. We may be comforted by the hope that in the future life our friends, and we ourselves, shall possess some real distinction in form as well as in spirit. St. Paul speaks of another body, a spiritual body, yet a body bearing the closest relationship to the natural body. An analogy, he says, may be found in the growth of the seedthe seed which in its wonderful transformation to the flower loses none of its individuality, That suggests to us much that is comforting.
III. It suggests to us the comfort of recognition.We shall not be lost to one another. The resurrection body will, we doubt not, in a way that we cannot yet conceive, present sufficient points of resemblance to the earthly body to make recognition possible. There is the consolation here that we all wantthat we must have before we can ever take a calm view of death. All that is best in our life here has been sanctified by loving ties. Our spiritual growth has depended so largely on the way we have spent and used our life in the interests of others that we seem to demand the assurance that all this love will not be lost. Such an assurance is given us by St. Paul.
Rev. W. M. Le Patourel.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
1Co 15:44. Natural and spiritual bodies are applied to the same thing, namely, the human body. But the first applies to it when it is sawn (is placed in the grave), the second applies to it when it will be resurrected. The false teachers in Corinth, and all others today who deny the resurrection of the body, are disposed to ignore this verse. They say it is impossible for a material thing to be changed into an immaterial one, thus limiting the power of the Creator. Yet in the realm of nature as they must recognize it, there is an indisputable proof of changes virtually as great. For instance; the universe is divided into three distinct classes, namely, the mineral, the vegetable and the animal. The first is inorganic and the others are organic. Notwithstanding these independent and different existences, the inorganic mineral is absorbed into the vegetable, the vegetable is next absorbed and converted into the animal. If there is a Creator who can establish such laws of change within our own knowledge, why doubt His power to lift the animal to one more stage and convert it into a spiritual state? With God all things are possible that are right (Gen 18:14).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 15:44. it is sown a natural bodyGr. an animal body, animated by the same vital principle which we have in common with the entire animal kingdom,it is raised a spiritual bodynot meaning a body simply of finer material than the present (the contrast does not lie in that), but a body whose animating principle is the spirit, or rational nature in its entirely purified and perfected condition; a body all whose organs and properties will be adapted to the inner and higher nature whose handmaid it is to be. (To be sober and safe on such a subject, one needs to keep strictly within the lines of these definitions.)
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body[1]the one no less certain than the otherand simply an advance from the lower to the higher.
[1] Such is certainly the correct reading.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Observe here, 1. Our apostle draws a parallel between the two Adams, the first man and Christ; they were two roots and distinct fountains, from whence all life did spring and flow; all natural life from the first Adam, all spiritual life from Christ the second Adam; The first Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
Observe, 2. The apostle compares the animal life we live by the union of our souls and bodies, with the spiritual life we live by the union of our souls with Christ. In point of dignity and real excellency, the spiritual life is far before the natural; but in point of priority, the natural life is before the spiritual. First that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual.
Observe, 3. What the pedigree and original of man was and is: He is of the earth, earthy. Earth is the original of man, the matter out of which his form was produced. Hence the earth is called his earth, His breath goeth forth, and he returneth to his earth. Psa 146:4
Observe, 4. As believers have borne in their bodies here on earth the image of the first Adam, so in the resurretion their bodies shall bear the image of the heavenly Adam; that is be changed into the likeness of Christ’s glorious body. This is the highest degree of dignity and honour that a human body is capable of.
Those bodies which in their first formation were of dust and clay, and which in their dissolution are no better than a lump of corruption, when the grave delivers them back again shall be shining and excellent fabrics, bearing the image of Christ the heavenly Adam.
Then will the saints’ bodies be absolutely and everlastingly freed from all natural infirmities, from all accidental deformities, from all wants and necessities; and shall never more be subject to death, that formidable adversary of human nature.
O blessed hour! when both soul and body shall live immediately upon God, and act freely and delightfully for God, and be forever satisfied in the full fruition and final enjoyment of God.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 44. It is sown a psychical body, it is raised a spiritual body; there is a psychical body, and there is a spiritual body.
The terms animated or animal body are the only ones in our language by which we can render the term reproduced in our translation by the Anglicized Greek term. The meaning of the epithet is clear; it denotes a body, not of the same substance as the soul itself,otherwise it would not be a body,but formed by and for a soul, destined to serve as an organ to that breath of life called , which presided over its development. Neither, consequently, is the spiritual body a body of a spiritual nature,it would still less be a body in that case,but a body formed by and for a principle of life which is a spirit, and fully appropriated to its service. As the soul does not create the substance of the animal body, but finds it already prepared in a previously existing organism, so the spirit does not create the spiritual body,which would exclude all continuity between it and the earthly body,but it takes hold of a germ released from the present body, and causes it to open, not to resume, as in the generation of plants and animals, the cycle of its former existence, but to begin a mode of existence infinitely superior to the old one. The law of the beings belonging to nature is to revolve uniformly in the same circle; the privilege of spiritual being is to surmount this iron circle and to rise from the natural phase, which for it is only the means, to a higher sphere which is its end. This contrast arises from the wholly different mode of being possessed by the soul and the spirit. The soul is only a breath of life endowed with a certain measure of power, capable of taking hold of a material substance, subjecting it to itself, converting it into its agent, and using this organ for a fixed time up to the moment when it will no longer lend itself to such use. The characteristic of the spirit is that it possesses a life which is constantly being renewed, while acting and communicating itself (Joh 4:14). In a new order of things, after extracting from the body an organ adapted to its nature, it will perpetually renew its strength and glory. Such a body will never be to the principle of its life what the earthly body so often is to the inhabiting soul, a burden and a hindrance; it will be the docile instrument of the spirit, fulfilling its wishes and thoughts with inexhaustible power of action, as we even now see the artist using his hand or his voice with marvellous freedom, and thus foreshadowing the perfect spiritualization of the body. If any one should deny the capacity of matter thus to yield to the action of the spirit, I should ask him to tell me what matter is; then, by way of showing what spiritualized matter may be, I should invite him to consider the human eye, that living mirror in which all the emotions of the soul are expressed in a way so living and powerful. These are simple foreshadowings of the glory of a resurrection body. We cannot go further; a spiritual body is one of those things which eye hath not seen, which have not entered into the mind of man, and which God reserves for them whom He loves.
The spirit, the future body’s principle of life, is not directly the Spirit of God, it is spirit as the higher element of the human personality, but acting in its union with the Divine Spirit. We have already seen (1Co 14:14) that the apostle ascribes to man, not only a , soul, but also a , spirit, which is the soul’s organ in perceiving the Divine world.
The second part of 1Co 15:44 presents three rather important variants. The Alexandrine and Greco-Latin documents read , if, before the first ; then they place the , also, after the second; finally, they omit the word , body, in the second proposition: If there is a psychical body, there is also a spiritual. The T. R. omits the , if; it places the , and, before ; and it reads (body) in the second proposition: There is a psychical body, and there is a spiritual body. It is impossible for me to share the preference of modern commentators (de Wette and Hofmann excepted) for the first of these two readings. The apostle had just expressed a paradoxical idea; the term spiritual body seemed even to be a contradictio in adjecto. Hence it is that, according to the reading of the T. R., he stops expressly to affirm the reality of this notion: I do not use the expression at random: there is truly a psychical body…, a spiritual. Of this forcible affirmation, the Alexandrine and Western copyists have wished to make a demonstration. They have added , if, thus making the existence of the psychical body a premiss from which to infer logically the existence of a spiritual body. Then they have transposed the , also, to make it the correlative of the , if, and thereby to emphasize the correctness of the conclusion which is certainly false, for it does not appear how it follows from the fact that a soul can have a body, that a spirit should have one. Meyer seeks to justify this argument logically; but he does not succeed. Holsten appeals to this understood idea: The soul and spirit are only the two modes of existence belonging to one and the same vital principle; whence it follows that if the soul needs a body in order to act, it is so also with the spirit. But if substantially the soul and spirit are one and the same thing, Paul would here prove the same by the same. Beet adduces this law: God ever wills what is perfect; hence it follows that His work proceeding from the imperfect, which is its beginning, must reach the goal which is the perfect. But how can we infer from this the necessity of a spiritual body? If, as was no doubt thought by the opponents of the resurrection, the purely spiritual state is superior to the spiritual state united to the bodily, the law referred to recoiled against the thesis of a resurrection. But, according to the true reading, that of the Byzantines, there is no argument at all. As Hofmann says, the apostle’s purpose is simply to state the contrast between the two kinds of bodies. This is exactly what the Byzantine reading does. No doubt it might be denied that the , if, of the Alex. must be taken in the sense of a proof. But if Paul had meant to make a simple comparison, he would have said or .
In regard to the repetition or omission of the word , body, in the second proposition, it seems to me that the omission would weaken the force of the paradox which the apostle wishes to affirm, while the exact repetition of the same terms renders the expression of it more striking. In support of this affirmation of two kinds of bodies, Paul produces a saying from Scripture.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
it is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. [This power of God to preserve identity in diversity works out glorious results for man. Our earthly body, when planted in death, will indeed bring forth after its kind, but God, in the fullness of his power and grace, shall cause it to lay aside its terrestrial glory, and assume the celestial. The nature of the change thus effected is illustrated by four contrasts, the corruption, dishonor, weakness and animal nature of the terrestrial body being laid aside for the incorruptible, glorious, powerful and spiritual body of the celestial world. If man owns a natural, or psychical, body, i. e., a body which is sustained and operated by his lower or soul-life, and suited to this world of death; so he also owns a spiritual body, suited to the desires, motions and operations of the spirit and eternal life; a body wherein the soul takes its proper position of subordination to the spirit, according to God’s original plan and purpose when he created man in his image. Paul says “is,” for such a body already exists, and is occupied by Christ our head– Rev 1:18]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
AN ANIMAL BODY AND A SPIRITUAL BODY
44. It is sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is an animal body, there is also a spiritual body. The conclusion from these Scriptures is clear and irresistible. Precisely as the present body is for the occupancy of the animal life, soul and intellect, for all of this really belongs to the animal kingdom; e. g., the horse has an intelligent mind, so has every animal an amount of intelligence. There is this fact in reference to all animals: while you can teach them many things, you can not teach them anything about God; from the fact that while they have a mind, they have no spirit homogeneous to the human spirit. Hence my body, like that of the animal, is the tenement in which my animal life dwells. In a similar manner the resurrection body will be a tenement for my spirit to live in. Hence you may depend on it, as Paul here certifies, that there is a body for human spirit to live in, as well as a body for the animal life, soul and intellect to dwell in.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
15:44 {24} It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
(24) He shows perfectly in one word this change of the quality of the body by the resurrection, when he says that a natural body will become a spiritual body: which two qualities being completely different the one from the other he straightway expounds, and sets forth diligently.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
It is natural (Gr. psychikon, soulish), belonging to the present age; but it becomes spiritual (pneumatikos, i.e., supernatural), belonging to the future age. The Corinthians had not entered into their eschatological states yet. This would come with their resurrections. Their bodies would become spiritual, namely, fitted for their future existence. Thus "spiritual" here refers to the body’s use, as well as its substance.
". . . for pagans in and outside the church, Paul seeks to show that the fundamental relation of creation to resurrection (and behind that the identification of the Creator as the Redeemer) is a non-negotiable of the metanarrative of the Christian gospel, an essential sine qua non of the Bible’s world view, without which one is lost (1Co 15:17; cf. Act 17:30-31)." [Note: Peter Jones, "Paul Confronts Paganism in the Church: A Case Study of 1 Corinthians 15:45," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society (49:4 (December 2006):736. See also René A. López, "Does The Jesus Family Tomb Disprove His Physical Resurrection?" Bibliotheca Sacra 165:660 (October-December 2008):425-46.]
The Corinthians believed that they were alive in a new kind of "spiritual" existence since they trusted Christ. This is the only type of resurrection they saw. They did not believe that human bodies had any future beyond the grave. Paul wrote to help them see that their physical bodies would be raised to continuing life, but that those bodies, while physical, would be of a different type than their present physical bodies. They would be spiritual, but of a different type than what they thought of as spiritual.