Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 15:45

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was] made a quickening spirit.

45. And so it is written ] In Gen 2:7. This applies only to the first part of the verse. But did not St Paul know that the words had been uttered, and would one day be recorded, which make it true also of the second part? See St Joh 5:21; Joh 6:33; Joh 6:39-40; Joh 6:54; Joh 6:57; Joh 11:25.

The first man Adam was made a living soul ] Rather, became a living soul. The word here translated soul, the adjective formed from which is rendered by the word natural in the last and in the next verse, is translated indifferently by life and soul in the N. T. As instances of the former see St Mat 10:39; Mat 16:25; of the latter, St Mat 10:28; Mat 16:26. We must not press this so far as to say that before Christ came man had no or spiritual nature (though the Hebrew word corresponding to is noticeably absent in Gen 2:7), but we are justified in saying that until Christ recreated and redeemed humanity the higher nature existed only in a rudimentary state, in the form of an aspiration after higher things, and that it was overborne and subjected by the lower, or animal nature. “Adam was therefore a ‘living soul,’ that is, a natural man a man with intelligence, perception and a moral sense, with power to form a society and to subdue nature to himself.” Robertson.

the last Adam ] So called because Christ was a new starting-point of humanity. Thus to be in Christ is called a ‘new creation,’ 2Co 5:17 (cf. Gal 6:15). He is called the ‘ new man,’ created after God in righteousness and holiness,’ Eph 4:24; Col 3:10, Whom we are to ‘put on,’ Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27. “For being from above and from heaven, and God by nature and Emmanuel, and having received our likeness, and become a second Adam, how shall He not richly make them partakers of His Own Life, who desire to partake of the intimate union effected with Him by faith? For by the mystic blessing we have become embodied into Him, for we have been made partakers of Him by the Spirit.” Cyril of Alexandria.

a quickening spirit ] See texts quoted under ‘it is written,’ and last note; also Rom 6:11 (Greek); 2Co 3:6; 2Co 3:17; Eph 2:5; Col 2:13; Col 3:4. “He does not call the second Adam a ‘ living spirit,’ but a life-giving one; for He ministers the eternal life to all.” Theodoret. The word ‘ quickening ’ means that which gives life, as we speak of the “ quick and the dead” in the Creed. The idea of activity to which the word quick and its derivatives is now confined, comes from its original idea of life. We use the word lively in a similar manner. The word is really kindred to the Latin vivus and the French vie.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And so it is written, – Gen 2:7. It is only the first part of the verse which is quoted.

The first man Adam was made a living soul – This is quoted exactly from the translation by the Septuagint, except that the apostle has added the words first and Adam. This is done to designate whom he meant. The meaning of the phrase was made a living soul ( egeneto eis psuchen zosan – in Hebrew, nephesh chayaah is, became a living, animated being; a being endowed with life. The use of the word soul in our translation, for psuche, and nephesh, does not quite convey the idea. We apply the word soul, usually, to the intelligent and the immortal part of man; that which reasons, thinks, remembers, is conscious, is responsible, etc. The Greek and Hebrew words, however, more properly denote that which is alive, which is animated, which breathes, which has an animal nature, see the note on 1Co 15:44. And this is precisely the idea which Paul uses here, that the first man was made an animated being by having breathed into him the breath of life Gen 2:7, and that it is the image of this animated or vital being which we bear, 1Co 15:48. Neither Moses nor Paul deny that in addition to this, man was endowed with a rational soul, an immortal nature; but that is not the idea which they present in the passage in Genesis which Paul quotes.

The last Adam – The second Adam, or the second man, 1Co 15:47. That Christ is here intended is apparent, and has been usually admitted by commentators. Christ here seems to be called Adam because he stands in contradistinction from the first Adam; or because, as we derive our animal and dying nature from the one, so we derive our immortal and undying bodies from the other. From the one we derive an animal or vital existence; from the other we derive our immortal existence, and resurrection from the grave. The one stands at the head of all those who have an existence represented by the words, a living soul; the other of all those who shall have a spiritual body in heaven. He is called the last Adam; meaning that there shall be no other after him who shall affect the destiny of man in the same way, or who shall stand at the head of the race in a manner similar to what had been done by him and the first father of the human family. They sustain special relations to the race; and in this respect they were the first and the last in the special economy. The name Adam is not elsewhere given to the Messiah, though a comparison is several times instituted between him and Adam. (See the Supplementary Note on 1Co 15:22; also Rom 5:12, note.)

A quickening spirit – ( eis pneuma zoopoioun. A vivifying spirit; a spirit giving or imparting life. Not a being having mere vital functions, or an animated nature, but a being who has the power of imparting life. This is not a quotation from any part of the Scriptures, but seems to be used by Paul either as affirming what was true on his own apostolic authority, or as conveying the substance of what was revealed respecting the Messiah in the Old Testament. There may be also reference to what the Saviour himself taught, that he was the source of life; that he had the power of imparting life, and that he gave life to all whom he pleased: see the note at Joh 1:4; note at Joh 5:26, For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. 1Co 15:21, for as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

The word spirit, here applied to Christ, is in contradistinction from a living being, as applied to Adam, and seems to be used in the sense of spirit of life, as raising the bodies of his people from the dead, and imparting life to them. He was constituted not as having life merely, but as endowed with the power of imparting life; as endowed with that spiritual or vital energy which was needful to impart life. All life is the creation or production of spirit ( Pneuma); as applied to God the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit. Spirit is the source of all vitality. God is a spirit, and God is the source of all life. And the idea here is, that Christ had such a spiritual existence such power as a spirit; that he was the source of all life to his people. The word spirit is applied to his exalted spiritual nature, in distinction from his human nature, in Rom 1:4; 1Ti 3:16; 1Pe 3:18. The apostle does not here affirm that he had not a human nature, or a vital existence as a man; but that his main characteristic in contradistinction from Adam was, that he was endowed with an elevated spiritual nature, which was capable of imparting vital existence to the dead.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Co 15:45-50

The first man Adam was made a living soul

Adam and Christ

Or the mystery of life contemplated:–

I.

In its sources.

1. Adam was endued with natural life, Christ with a life-giving Spirit.

2. The natural preceded the spiritual.

3. The natural is of the earth, the spiritual is the Lord from heaven.

II. In its communication.

1. From Adam we derive the earthy or natural life, from Christ the heavenly.

2. The image of the earthy precedes the heavenly.

3. As the earthy body (flesh and blood) cannot inherit heaven, it must be exchanged for an incorruptible body. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

The two Adams

I. The resemblance.

1. The existence of each rose not in the ordinary course of nature. Neither came by the ordinary laws of human generation.

(1) The first was formed out of the dust of the earth, and derived his spirit from the breath of God.

(2) the second was conceived of the Holy Ghost. The pedigree of each is unparalleled in the history of the race.

2. Each commenced free from sin.

(1) The first was created in the image of God; all his faculties were well balanced and free from all bias to wrong.

(2) The latter was harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.

3. Each had a nature capable of temptation. Temptability is an attribute of all created intelligences. Where there is no power to go wrong, there is no virtue in keeping right.

(1) The first Adam was tempted, and was conquered.

(2) The second was tempted, and triumphed.

4. The character of each exerts a momentous influence upon the whole race.

(1) The character of the first generated a moral atmosphere of sensuality, ambition, selfishness, unbelief.

(2) The character of the second generated an atmosphere that is morally salubrious, sunny, and invigorating. He who lives in the first atmosphere is still in Adam, and is earthy. He who lives in the second is Christly and spiritual.

II. The dissimilarity.

1. The one had a sublimer connection with God than the other. Adam was the offspring, representative, and steward of God. Christ was God-man. God was in Him in a special sense, unfolding truths, working miracles, and reconciling the world unto Himself. Be was God manifested in the flesh. The one yielded to the devil, the other conquered him.

2. the One possessed a higher type of moral excellence than the other. The character of the first was innocence, not holiness. Holiness implies intelligence, convictions, efforts, habits. This had not Adam. Hence he gave way to the first and simplest temptation. This holiness Christ had in the sublimest degree; and He triumphed over principalities and powers of evil, and made a show of them openly.

3. The influence of the one upon the race has been infinitely pernicious, that of the other infinitely beneficent. The first planted that upas whose pestiferous branches have spread over all men, and whose poisonous food all have tasted and been injured. The other planted the tree of life, bearing fruit for the healing of the nations.

4. The moral influence of the one is destined to decrease, the other to increase. Where sin abounded, grace will much more abound. The kingdoms of our God shall become the kingdoms of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

The first and the last Adam

1. St. Paul bases his assertion that if there is a psychical body, there is also a spiritual, first, on the analogies of Nature; second, on the nature of Man as revealed in Holy Writ (see 1Co 15:44); third, on the historical facts that Adam had the one and Christ the other.

2. Note, however, some interesting preliminaries. The opening clause of the text is almost an exact quotation from Gen 2:7; that the second refers to Christ is proved by these two facts: that with the rabbis, at whose feet Paul sat, the last Adam was a common name for the Messiah; and that St. Paul never uses the designations the second Man, or the last Adam, of any one but Christ. Again the rabbis bid us note that Moses says, not man was made, but became a living soul. They hold that when God breathed the breath of life into Adam, He conferred on him the higher spiritual nature of man; but that, when Adam sinned, he fell, and became a man in whom the soul ruled rather than the spirit. And the rabbis have the Scriptures on their side. What was the fall but a fall from the higher life of the spirit into the lower life of the soul, into a life of mere intelligence and passion as distinguished from a life of righteousness, faith, love, joy, peace? Why was he debarred from the tree of life but because that it was no longer meet that his body should put on incorruption and immortality?

I. The first man Adam became a living soul.

1. The psychical or soulish man is a man in whom the soul is supreme. Conscience, righteousness, faith, God, etc., do not stand first with him; but man, time, earth, the gratifications of sense and intellect. Was not Adam a man of this type? When the spiritual crisis came his faith failed him. God was not first with him, nor Gods will.

2. A soulish man he came to have a soulish body. Indications of this are seen in–

(1) Adams newborn shame of his nakedness.

(2) The passion which made Cain a murderer.

(3) The infirmities, the special forms of death and corruption, to which Adam and his children became liable.

Nevertheless, as our own experience proves, the body, even when thus changed and depraved, was nevertheless perfect in its adaptation to the faculties, functions, cravings, needs of the soul.

II. Christ, the last Adam, was a life-giving spirit.

1. He was the true spiritual Man; for in Him all faculties and passions of the soul were in subjection to the spirit. To Him, living and walking in the spirit, all that is of earth and time and soul was as nothing when compared with the eternal realities. And therefore He could refuse all the kingdoms of this world, and could hasten to help any man, however lowly, however earthly, and seek to quicken in him, by help to the body, the life of the spirit. Of a charity so intense that He loved every man, of a faith so clear and strong that He looked through all the shows of time to the eternal substance, of a hope so lively that He despaired of no man, of a righteousness so pure that even the practised eyes of incarnate evil could find nothing in Him, of a peace so perfect that even His unparalleled labour and conflict could not impair it; in heaven even while He was on earth; making His Fathers will His daily food, He stands before us the one true spiritual Man.

2. So also the last Adam teaches us what the spiritual body is.

(1) He had a body like to ours, yet not altogether the same as ours. Conceived of a Virgin by the Holy Ghost, Christ took our flesh as Adam took it, from the hands of God, immaculate; receiving a physical body which might change and rise into a spiritual body without passing, as our bodies must, through the purifications of corruption. We die perforce. But He laid down His life. He saw no corruption. It was not possible that He should be holden of death.

(a) And therefore we see signs of the spiritual body even in the body of His humiliation. Virtue went out of Him. He lived not by bread alone. He walked on the storm-tossed waves. On Mount Tabor He stood before the eyes of His amazed and dazzled disciples a spiritual man in a spiritual body.

(b) But all these signs of the spiritual m the physical region of His life were prompted by that which is of the spirit, not by that which is of the soul. It was at the touch of faith, of spiritual need and desire and trust, that virtue went out of Him. It was that He might feed the hungry, succour the distressed, or deliver the imperilled, that He exerted a supernatural control over natural laws: and He fed, succoured, delivered men that they might come to know Him, and God in Him, and thus possess themselves of eternal life. When the weak physical frame was transfigured with an immortal strength and splendour, it was because His spirit was rapt in the ecstasies of redeeming love as He talked with Moses and Elias, because He saw that the work of His redemption would be triumphantly accomplished.

(2) After His death and resurrection, the signs that He inhabits a spiritual body grow more apparent. Though He can still eat and drink, etc., He glides through closed doors, passes as in an instant from place to place, vanishes from their sight as the disciples recognise Him. At His will, He is visible or invisible: He is here. He is there; the spiritual body being now as perfect a servant of the spirit in Him as the psychical body of the soul. He can eat, but He does not need to eat. His body is raised into higher conditions, endowed with loftier powers. It is heavenly, not earthly; it is spiritual rather than physical or psychical. Conclusion: Do any ask: But what is all this to us? Adam and Christ were both exceptional men. If the first Adam was a psychical man and the last Adam a spiritual man, how does that bear on St. Pauls argument? It is much–nay, it is everything–to us; and that precisely because both Adam and Christ were exceptional men, who stand in an exceptional relation to the human race. For (verse 22) both the Adam and the Christ are in us, and in all men; that they contend together in us for the mastery; that it is at our own option to side either with the one or with the other; and that, according as we espouse the first Adam or the last, we become earthly or heavenly, psychical or spiritual men. If we permit the Christ to reign in us, in our mortal members, our mortality will put on immortality–as His did, and be swallowed up of life–as His was. Like His, our spiritual manhood will demand and receive a spiritual body. And therefore St. Paul may fairly exhort us that, as we bear the image of the earthly (man), so also we should bear the image of the heavenly. ( S. Cox, D.D.)

The second Adam a quickening Spirit

Human relationships correspond with those which subsist between Jesus Christ and His people, and doubtless were constituted to shadow it forth. In procuring the redemption of His people, Christ assumes the standing of a husband, who, by uniting Himself to us, made Himself capable of standing in our place, and answering for our acts. In advocating our cause, that He may do this effectually, and with an experimental feeling of our wants, He assumes the place of a brother unto us. By His resurrection He assumes the relationship of a father, the giver of life and of being to His people. As the natural life, or life of the soul, is to be traced to the first man Adam, so the spiritual life in the believer is to be traced to Christ, the last Adam. But here, however, the resemblance ends. Adam was but a living soul, capable of continuing the same life in others who should succeed him; but Christ, by His resurrection from the dead, has become a quickening spirit, capable of giving life unto the dead. Note the bearing of the text–

I. On the foundation of the Christians salvation.

1. The apostle here enumerates only two men of all that have ever lived: because all men stand in such a relationship to the first Adam, and all believers stand in such a relationship to the second, as they can stand in to no other man. We do not see, in the ordinary course of human generation, that all children are born with what is peculiar in the sinful propensities of their immediate progenitors. By dint of care you may guard against the outbreaking of those sins which have been peculiar to the immediate progenitor; but you will not be able by your utmost care to root out the evil which is in the heart of man. And the inference from this is that there is a connection between us and the first man Adam which does not subsist between us and our immediate parents, or any intermediate link of the chain by which we are connected with our first progenitor. And so it is written of Adam, that he begot a son in his own image, after his own likeness; who thus deriving from him his life of nature, shared with Adam in all the miserable circumstances of his fallen condition. When God created Adam, He created all men; all therefore stood, and all fell in Adam: all in him became not only exposed to the consequences, but also infected with the very nature of his sin.

2. Now there is no greater difficulty in the idea that having union with the last Adam as a quickening Spirit, we are endowed with His life and His likeness, than in the former idea. This is the only foundation of our salvation. Salvation is not to be found in the reformation of conduct, in a difference of feeling, in an act of the mind, but in a vital union with Christ.

II. On the trials of the Christians present condition. The great peculiarity in the Christians condition is that while he is a quickened spirit in union with Christ the quickening Spirit, he yet has a body proper only to a soul, by still having, in his own nature, union with the first Adam. This throws a striking light on many passages in Scripture which are descriptive of the Christian experience (2Co 5:1-4; Rom 8:22-23; Rom 7:24). What do these (and a variety of similar passages) express but the desires of the quickened spirit to be released from this prison-house in which it is pent up? And does not this also point out the Christians resource under such trials? What is it but to walk by faith and not by sight? (Rom 8:10-13; Col 3:1-5).

III. On the Christians future prospects. We are as yet, indeed, in the natural body–the body proper to a soul; but there is a spiritual body; and as we are now by faith quickened in spirit, so there is a renewal unto holiness to this body also, which shall be revived, and glorified, and changed into the likeness of Christs glorious body. For as the resurrection of Christ shows us the perfection and sufficiency of Christs work, so ours will bring to perfection in us the fruit of His work. As it was His resurrection that showed Him to have come out from under the effects of imputed sin, into the possession of the glory which He had with the Father before the world was; so ours will show us to have come out of the course of sin and of the flesh into the enjoyment of that glory. As it was His resurrection that showed Him to be the Conqueror of Satan; so ours will show us to be conquerors over all evil through Him. As it was by His resurrection that He was declared to be the Son of God with power; so it is ours by which we shall be manifested to be sons of God. (W. Dodsworth, M.A.)

The last Adam

Note–

I. The relation between Christ and Adam which is implied in the name. A name used to designate a party whoso proper name it is not, expresses a symbolical or typical relation between the two (Rom 5:14). Adam prefigured Christ–

1. In the holiness of his nature. There have been only two men who were free from every taint of sin when they came into the world; and there never will be more.

2. In his dominion (Psa 8:1-9; cf. Heb 2:1-18.). Adam as the lord of this world, and the creatures contained in it, symbolised that King who has on His head many crowns.

3. In his marriage (Eph 5:25-33).

4. In his trial.

(1) By God. A course of obedience was prescribed to him, and a reward was promised if he followed it. Do this and thou shalt live, was the substance of what God said to Adam. To the Son of God also a course of obedience was prescribed: and on this account He took the form of a servant. To Him, too, it was said, Do this and live.

(2) His trial by Satan.

5. In his covenant headship. The covenant with Adam was expressed in the form of a threatening (Gen 2:16-17), while the covenant with Christ was expressed in the form of a promise (Gal 3:16); but the fact is unaltered that there was a covenant with each. Now Adam, in his headship, typified Christ in–

(1) The representative character which he bore. The first progenitor represented his posterity. Such representation is not unusual. Parents represent their children, and princes their subjects. But the only case which for magnitude and grandeur can be likened to that of Adam, is the case of Christ.

(2) The vicarious action of Adam under the covenant, which furnishes a typical illustration of that which was vicarious in the Saviours career.

(3) The imputation and legal reckoning of Adams vicarious procedure to his posterity. Analogous, in some measure, to this, is the legal reckoning which we see applied to great trading companies for the doings of their managers. So vicarious action was binding on Christ (Rom 5:12-19; Gal 3:13).

(4) The transmission of moral qualities and tendencies from Adam to all his posterity. The first man, by his fall, not only contracted guilt, but brought upon his nature the taint of corruption; and that taint is communicated through him to all mankind. In Christ, the Son of God, there is a holy human nature. And by the power of His Holy Spirit, effecting a real and vital union between Him and His people, they become holy as He is holy.

II. The relation which is implied by prefixing to the name adam the term last. Christ is called David and Solomon. But He is not called the last David, or the last Solomon. John the Baptist is called Elias, but not the last Elias. These were types and only types. But Adam was not a mere type. There was, beyond this, a public and official relation between him and Christ; so that if Adam had not gone before, or if he had been other than he was, or had actual otherwise than he did, there would have been no need of Christ. The common name is suggestive of the unity of obligation being derived from the first member of the series. The special term last is suggestive of the obligation being at last fulfilled.

1. Let the two Adams be contrasted.

(1) In respect of what they were (verses 45, 47).

(2) In respect of what they accomplished.

(a) The first Adam entailed only sin upon his posterity; the last Adam has for His people righteousness: He is their righteousness (Rom 5:19).

(b) The first Adam condemns all; the last Adam justifies all (Rom 5:18).

(c) In the first Adam, all die, all are dead (Rom 5:15-17); in the last Adam, Christ, all are made alive (1Co 15:22; 1Co 15:18-19).

2. Let our Lords success, as the last Adam, be considered in opposition to the failure of the first Adam. Christ, as the last Adam, succeeded by fulfilling the obedience to the law in which the first Adam failed, and by overcoming the obstacle which the first Adams failure created. The last Adam is perfect, as a competitor for the prize–eternal life to man–which the first Adam lost; as a worker at the task in which the first Adam broke down.

(1) In respect of his vicarious action. In that respect he is emphatically the last Adam. His vicarious action was perfect. There was no flaw in it (Heb 5:8-9; Rom 5:19).

(2) In respect of the imputation and legal reckoning of his vicarious action (Rom 5:18).

(3) In respect of the actual transmission and communication of all the life and holiness which His vicarious action involves. As the last Adam, He has the Holy Spirit to give. And by the gift of the Holy Spirit He effectually secures the salvation of all who are His. (A. Gray.)

Christ the archetype of Adam

Sometimes, after an engraven steel-plate has given forth some pictures it is destroyed, in order to enhance the value of the copies thrown off. If the copies were all destroyed, then the ideal would be lost. But when one type was thrown off and planted in paradise, the original remained when the copy was spoiled. Man still remained–the Eternal Son remained. (W. Anot, D.D.)

The wonderful contrast

I. Adam was a living soul, which includes–

1. Reason; thus above the brute, and able actively to glorify God. They passively praise Him.

2. Spirituality, or knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness in mind and soul. Nothing can comprehend holiness but the image of that holiness.

3. Happiness. Holiness is happiness; God infinitely happy, because infinitely holy. He must delight in His own image, and for us to wear that image is a greater honour than, if it were possible to be invested with creative power.

4. Immortality. We are immortal, but not independently so; God alone is (1Ti 6:16).

II. The last adam a quickening spirit. He quickens–

1. From spiritual death (Eph 2:5).

2. The afflicted (Psa 119:50).

3. The backslider (Hos 14:4).

4. From the grave (Php 3:20-21).

We manifest our oneness with Adam by our disobedience, and our oneness with Christ by our obedience. The most glorious work of God is the renewal of a human soul, and its transition from grace to glory. How grateful we should be that God has promised that His work within us shall be as perfect as His work for us (Eph 5:14). (Homiletic Monthly.)

Natural and spiritual life

I. Adam was made a living soul.

1. Endued with natural life.

2. His body possessed no inherent immortality.

3. Its perpetuated life depended upon obedience and his access to the tree of life.

4. Consequently he could not in any case confer immortality upon his descendants.

II. Christ was made a quickening spirit.

1. Possessed life in Himself, hence His resurrection.

2. Communicates it to all who believe in Him.

3. Hence also He will raise them up in the last day. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 45. The first man Adam was made a living soul] These forms of expression are also common among the Jews: hence we find Adam harishon, “Adam the first;” and Adam kadmai, ” Adam the last.” They assert that there are two Adams: 1. The mystical heavenly Adam; and 2. The mystical earthly Adam. See Sohar Exod., fol. 29; and the several examples in Schoettgen. The apostle says this is written: The first man Adam was made a living soul: this is found Ge 2:7, in the words nishmath chaiyim, the breath of lives; which the apostle translates , a living soul.

The last Adam – a quickening spirit.] This is also said to be written; but where, says Dr. Lightfoot, is this written in the whole sacred book? Schoettgen replies, In the very same verse, and in these words: vayehi ha-Adam le-nephesh chaiyah, and Adam became a living soul; which the apostle translates , a quickening, or life-giving spirit. Among the cabalistic Jews nephesh is considered as implying greater dignity than nishma. The former may be considered as pointing out the rational, the latter the sensitive soul. All these references to Jewish opinions and forms of speech the apostle uses to convince them that the thing was possible; and that the resurrection of the body was generally credited by all their wise and learned men. The Jews, as Dr. Lightfoot observes, speak frequently of the Spirit of the Messiah; and they allow that it was this Spirit that moved on the face of the waters, Ge 1:2. And they assert that the Messiah shall quicken those who dwell in the dust.

“It ought not to be passed by,” says the same author, “that Adam, receiving from God the promise of Christ-The seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent, and believing it, named his wife Chauvah, that is, life; so the Septuagint, And Adam called the name of his wife, Life. What! Is she called Life that brought death into the world? But Adam perceived , the last Adam exhibited to him in the promise, to be , , a quickening or life-giving spirit; and had brought in a better life of the soul; and should at last bring in a better life of the body. Hence is that saying, Joh 1:4: , In HIM was LIFE.”

Some contend that the first Adam and the last Adam mean the same person in two different states: the first man with the body of his creation; the same person with the body of his resurrection. 1Co 15:49.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The first part is written in Gen 2:7, God breathed into mans nostrils the breath of life, and so he became a living soul; that is, a living substance, living an animal, natural life, by virtue of that breath of life which God breathed into him.

The last Adam, by which he meaneth Christ, who in time was after the first Adam, and was born in the last days, and was the last common Head; as Adam was the first, with respect of natural and carnal propagation, so Christ was the last Head, in respect of grace and spiritual regeneration, he

was made a quickening spirit: He was made so, not when he was conceived and born, for he had a body subject to the same natural infirmities that ours are; but upon his resurrection from the dead, when, though he had the same body, in respect of the substance of it, yet it differed in qualities, and was much more spiritual; with which body he ascended up into heaven, clothed with a power, as to quicken souls with a spiritual life, so also to quicken our mortal bodies at his second coming, when he shall raise the dead out of their graves.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

45. soin accordance with thedistinction just mentioned between the natural or animal-souledbody and the spiritual body.

it is written (Ge2:7); “Man became (was made to become) a living soul,”that is, endowed with an animal soul, the living principle ofhis body.

the last Adamthe LASTHead of humanity, who is to be fully manifested in the last day,which is His day (Joh 6:39).He is so called in Job 19:25;see on Job 19:25 (compare Ro5:14). In contrast to “the last,” Paul calls “man”(Ge 2:7) “the FIRSTAdam.”

quickeningnot onlyliving, but making alive (Joh 5:21;Joh 6:33; Joh 6:39;Joh 6:40; Joh 6:54;Joh 6:57; Joh 6:62;Joh 6:63; Rom 8:11).As the natural or animal-souled body (1Co15:44) is the fruit of our union with the first Adam, ananimal-souled man, so the spiritual body is the fruitof our union with the second Adam, who is the quickening Spirit (2Co3:17). As He became representative of the whole of humanity inHis union of the two natures, He exhausted in His own person thesentence of death passed on all men, and giveth spiritual andeverlasting life to whom He will.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

And so it is written,…. In Ge 2:7

the first man Adam was made a living soul: in the Hebrew text it is, man, or Adam, became, or was made a living soul; that is, as the apostle says, “the first man Adam”: he calls him, as the Jews a frequently do, , “the first man”; he was the first man that was made, and the first parent of mankind, and the head and representative of all his posterity, and so the first in time, causality and dignity; whose name was Adam, so called by God in the day he was created, because he was formed , “from the ground, or earth”; when God breathed life into the earthly mass, or lump; and being animated with a rational soul, it became an animal body, or a living creature; and so the apostle proves, from the first man that was upon earth, that there is a natural, or animal body; a body animated by a soul, and which was supported by eating and drinking, by sleep and rest; and was capable of dying, and should die, in case of sin; and which was the state of it in its first creation, whilst in innocence, and before the fall; and this is all he meant to prove by this Scripture; for what follows is not mentioned as therein written, or elsewhere, but as the apostle’s own assertion:

the last Adam was made a quickening spirit: by “the last Adam” is meant Jesus Christ, called Adam, because he is really and truly a man, a partaker of the same flesh and blood as the rest of mankind; and because he is the antitype of the first man Adam, who was a figure of him that was to come; and therefore called Adam, for the same reason as he is called David and Solomon: he is said to be “the last”, in distinction from the first Adam, with respect to him he stood, , last upon the earth, as in Job 19:25 to which passage some think the apostle here alludes; and because he appeared in the last days in the end of the world, and is the last that shall rise up as a common head and representative of the whole, or any part of mankind: now he is made “a quickening spirit”; which some understand of the Holy Spirit, which filled the human nature of Christ, raised him from the dead, and will quicken our mortal bodies at the last day; others of the divine nature of Christ, to which his flesh, or human nature, was united; and which gave life, rigour, and virtue, to all his actions and sufferings, as man; and by which he was quickened, when put to death in the flesh, and by which he will quicken others another day: though rather I think it is to be understood of his spiritual body, of his body, not as it was made of the virgin, for that was a natural, or an animal one; it was conceived and bred, and born as animal bodies are; it grew and increased, and was nourished with meat and drink, and sleep and rest; and was subject to infirmities, and to death itself, as our bodies be; but it is to be understood of it as raised from the dead, when it was made a spiritual body, for which reason it is called a “spirit”: not that it was changed into a spirit, for it still remained flesh and blood; but because it was no more supported in an animal way; nor subject to those weaknesses that animal bodies are, but lives as spirits, or angels do; and a quickening one, not only because it has life itself, but because by virtue of the saints’ union to it, as it subsists in the divine person of the Son of God, their bodies will be quickened at the last day, and made like unto it, spiritual bodies; also because he lives in his body as a spiritual one, they shall live in theirs as spiritual ones: and so the apostle shows, that there is a spiritual, as well as an animal body; that as the first man’s body, even before the fall, was an animal or natural one; the last Adam’s body upon his resurrection is a spiritual and life giving one, as the Syriac version renders it; so the Cabalistic writers b speak of

“Adam; who is the holy and supreme, who rules over all, and gives spirit and life to all.”

a T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol 38. 2. & 100. 1. & alibi passim. &

, Cabala denud. par. 4. p. 195, &c. Vid. 2 Esdras iii. 21. b Zohar in Exod. fol. 59. 4.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Became a living soul ( ). Hebraistic use of in predicate from LXX. God breathed a soul () into “the first man.”

The last Adam became a life-giving spirit ( ). Supply (became). Christ is the crown of humanity and has power to give us the new body. In Ro 5:12-19 Paul calls Christ the Second Adam.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

A living soul [ ] . See Gen 2:7. Here yuch passes into its personal sense – an individual personality (see Rom 11:4), yet retaining the emphatic reference to the yuch as the distinctive principle of that individuality in contrast with the pneuma spirit following. Hence this fact illustrates the general statement there is a natural body : such was Adam ‘s, the receptacle and organ of the yuch soul.

Last Adam. Christ. Put over against Adam because of the peculiar relation in which both stand to the race : Adam as the physical, Christ as the spiritual head. Adam the head of the race in its sin, Christ in its redemption. Compare Rom 5:14.

Quickening spirit [ ] . Rev., life – giving. Not merely living, but imparting life. Compare Joh 1:4; Joh 3:36; Joh 5:26, 40; Joh 6:33 35; Joh 10:10; Joh 11:25; Joh 14:6. The period at which Christ became a quickening Spirit is the resurrection, after which His body began to take on the characteristics of a spiritual body. 133 See Rom 6:4; 1Pe 1:21.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “There is one glory of the sun, ‘ (alle, doksa heliou) “There exists one (kind of) glory of the sun.” Three kinds of present celestial glory bodies are here considered. Each kind, though real in glory, differs in degree of glory. Thus the logic for glory to be expected in the resurrection.

2) “And another glory of the moon,” (kai alle doksa selenes) “And another kind of glory of the moon.” Glory of the luminous orbs have or hold self existent degrees of glory, so also in the resurrection, Rom 6:5; 1Jn 3:2.

3) “Another glory of the stars:” (kai alle doksa asteron) “And another kind of glory of the stars.” These have the widest range of degrees of reflective glory of all celestial (heavenly) bodies, or luminaries. Even so in heaven God, angels, and the righteous shall have glories of differing degrees.

4) “For one star differeth from another star in glory.” (aster gar asteros diapheri en doksa) “For a star from a star varies in degree of glory.” With illustrations of parallelism of structure of 1) seed, 2) flesh, 3) earthly and heavenly bodies, instruments of natural clarifying reasoning, Paul emphasized the possibility, probability, and certainty of the resurrection.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1) “And so it is written,” (houtos kai gegraptai) “Thus also it has been written.” Gen 2:7. Paul sanctions the accuracy of the Genesis account of the origin of humanity.

2) “The first man Adam was made a living soul;” (egeneto ho protos anthropos adam eis pouchen zosan) “The first Adam-man became into (unto) a living soul.” Had there been a Neanderthal, Piltdown, or cave man in existence prior to Adam, the mathematical definitive term (protos) “first,” an ordinal number, could not have, would not have been used by the Holy Spirit of inspiration. Adam was the first man.

3) “The last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” (ho eschatos adam eis pneuma zoopoioun) “The last Adam-man (became) into or unto a life-making or life-giving spirit.” Jesus was the second, last, final man (humanity), the giver of eternal life and assurance of the bodily resurrection of all men, Joh 10:27-28; Rev 1:18.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

45. As it is written, The first Adam was made Lest it should seem to be some new contrivance as to the animal body, (113) he quotes Scripture, which declares that Adam became a living soul, (Gen 2:7) — meaning, that his body was quickened by the soul, so that he became a living man. It is asked, what is the meaning of the word soul here? It is well known, that the Hebrew word נפש, (nephesh,) which Moses makes use of, is taken in a variety of senses; but in this passage it is taken to mean either vital motion, or the very essence of life itself. The second of these I rather prefer. I observe that the same thing is affirmed as to beasts — that they were made a living soul, (Gen 1:20😉 but as the soul of every animal must be judged of according to its kind, there is nothing to hinder that a soul, that is to say, vital motion, may be common to all; and yet at the same time the soul of man may have something peculiar and distinguishing, namely, immortal essence, as the light of intelligence and reason.

The last Adam. This expression we do not find anywhere written. (114) Hence the phrase, It is written, must be understood as referring exclusively to the first clause; but after bringing forward this testimony of Scripture, the Apostle now begins in his own person to draw a contrast between Christ and Adam. “Moses relates that Adam was furnished with a living soul; Christ, on the other hand, is endowed with a life-giving Spirit. Now it is a much greater thing to be life, or the source of life, than simply to live.” (115) It must be observed, however, that Christ did also, like us, become a living soul; but, besides the soul, the Spirit of the Lord was also poured-out upon him, that by his power he might rise again from the dead, and raise up others, This, therefore, must be observed, in order that no one may imagine, (as Apollinaris (116) did of old,) that the Spirit was in Christ in place of a soul. And independently of this, the interpretation of this passage may be taken from the eighth chapter of the Romans, where the Apostle declares, that the body, indeed, is dead, on account of sin, and we carry in us the elements of death; but that the Spirit of Christ, who raised him up from the dead, dwelleth also in us, and that he is life, to raise up us also one day from the dead. (Rom 8:10.) From this you see, that we have living souls, inasmuch as we are men, but that we have the life-giving Spirit of Christ poured out upon us by the grace of regeneration. In short, Paul’s meaning is, that the condition that we obtain through Christ is greatly superior to the lot of the first man, because a living soul was conferred upon Adam in his own name, and in that of his posterity, but Christ has procured for us the Spirit, who is life.

Now as to his calling Christ the last Adam, the reason is this, that as the human race was created in the first man, so it is renewed in Christ. I shall express it again, and more distinctly: All men were created in the first man, because, whatever God designed to give to all, he conferred upon that one man, so that the condition of mankind was settled in his person. He by his fall (117) ruined himself and those that were his, because he drew them all, along with himself, into the same ruin: Christ came to restore our nature from ruin, and raise it up to a better condition than ever. They (118) are then, as it were, two sources, or two roots of the human race. Hence it is not without good reason, that the one is called the first man, and the other the last. This, however, gives no support to those madmen, who make Christ to be one of ourselves, as though there were and always had been only two men, and that this multitude which we behold, were a mere phantom! A similar comparison occurs in Rom 5:12

(113) “ Vne nouuelle imagination qu’il ait forgee;” — “A new fancy that he had contrived.”

(114) “ Ceci n’est point trouue en lieu quelconque de l’Escriture;” — “This is not found in any passage of Scripture.”

(115) “As it is said, Adam was at first a living soul, (‘So God breathed into him the breath of life,’ — that pure, divine, and heavenly breath,) ‘and he became a living soul;’ so, then to have asked the question, ‘What is man?’ must have been to receive the answer, ‘He is a living soul: he is all soul, and that soul all life.’ But now is this living soul buried in flesh, a lost thing to all the true, and great, and noble ends and purposes of that life which was at first given it. It is true, indeed, that this is a thing much less than what is said of the second Adam, in 1Co 15:45. ‘The first man Adam was made a living soul; the second Adam was a quickening Spirit.’ This latter is a great deal more. A living soul signified him to live himself; but a quickening spirit signifies a power to make others live. That the first Adam could not do; the more excellent kind of life which he had (for there was a complication of lives in the first creation of this man) he could not lose: but he could not give. He could not lose it from himself; but he could never have given it, by any power or immediate efficiency of his own, to another. Here the second Adam — the constitution of the second Adam — was far above that of the first, in that he could quicken others — a quickening spirit, not only quickened passively, but quickened actively, such a spirit as could give spirit, and diffuse life.” — Howe’s Works, (Lond. 1834,) page 1209. — Ed.

(116) The views held by Apollinaris were as follows: “ Christum corpus assumpsisse sine anima, quod pro anima ei fuerit deitas illudque corpus consubstantiale fuisse deitati, nec ex substantia Martin efformatum;” — “That Christ assumed a body without a stud, because Deity was to him in place of a stud, and that body was co-essential with Deity, and was not formed from the substance of Mary.” — See Mastrieht’s Theology, (1698,) volume ii. page 975. “Apollinaris, or Apollinarius, taught that the Son of God assumed manhood without a soul, ( ψυχης ανευ,) as Socrates relates; but afterwards, changing his mind, he said that he assumed a soul, but that it did not possess the intelligent or rational principle, ( νουν δε ουκ εξεις αυτην) and that the λογος (word) was instead of that principle, ( αντιςου )” — Dick’s Lectures on Theology volume iii. page 22. — Ed.

(117) “ Le poure mal-heureux par sa transgression;” — “The poor miserable creature by his transgression.”

(118) “ Adam done et Christ;” — “Adam and Christ, therefore.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(45) And so it is written.Better, And so it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul: the last Adam became a quickening spirit. The quotation which follows here is from Gen. 2:7, and it is the latter part of that verse which is quoted. The Rabbinical explanation of that passage wasthat God breathed into man the breath of life originally, but that man became (not was made) only a living soul, i.e., one in whom the mere human faculties held sway, and not the spirit. He became this lower thing by his own act of disobedience. Here, then, St. Paul, contrasts the two Adamsthe first man and Christfrom whom we derive our natural and our spiritual natures, and our natural and spiritual bodies. The first Adam became, by his disobedience, a mere living soul, and from him we inherit that nature; the second Adam, by his obedience, became a life-giving spirit, and from Him we inherit the spiritual nature in us. The same verb which is expressed in the first clause must be understood in the second clause. The same thought is expressed in Rom. 5:19.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

45. So In accordance with this distinction between the soulical and the spiritual, it is written in Gen 2:7.

Was made a living soul Paul quotes the words of the Septuagint, which, like those of the Hebrew, are literally rendered became unto, or into, a living soul. From these words, as Dr. Poor truly says, no argument for immortality could be drawn, for our English translation wrongly conceals that in Gen 1:20-21; Gen 1:24, the words severally rendered creature that hath life, living creature, living creature, are in the Hebrew precisely the same as here for living soul, which last is the true translation in every case. Yet a most remarkable difference between the case of the animals who, in the above three verses, become a living soul, and man, who becomes a living soul, is this: that whereas the animals become such in accordance with God’s fiat to nature to bring them forth, man becomes so by the direct breath of the Almighty.

Of the antitheses of this verse the clause, the first soul is Moses’ scripture; the last clause, the last quickening spirit, is Paul’s; and, as equally inspired, is equally good. Yet it may be Paul’s equivalent for Gen 2:7, “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” expressed in form to balance the antithesis. Christ is a quickening, that is, an alive-making, spirit, by the resurrection of men wrought by him.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘So also it is written, “The first man Adam became a living soul.” The last Adam was a life-giving spirit.’

He then illustrates this from history and Scripture. ‘The first Adam became a living soul’ (Gen 2:7). When man was first created God breathed into him and he became a living being with a body of flesh, and he passed on life to those who followed him. All who were produced from him and his seed, owed all they were to him, and were by nature like him. He was a ‘living soul’, a body with life breathed in by God.

But in contrast the last Adam is a life-giving spirit, a Spirit Who in essence has spiritual life in Himself which He can dispense to others. Through what He was, and now is through His resurrection, Jesus not only had life in spiritual form but was also a potential giver of that life. All was totally different. As Adam began the old creation, and passed on earthly life to his children, a life he had received from God, so Christ, the last Adam, begins the new creation, and gives spiritual life to His own, a life which comes from Himself and from God. And they too become like Him (1Jn 3:2).

We note that Jesus is the last Adam, not the second. Jesus Christ is the ultimate, the final life-giver. There can never be another. A third is not a possibility. No other will be necessary. He has fulfilled all that God had intended in Adam, and is the beginning of the new humanity.

It would, however, be a mistake to think that it was the resurrection which made Christ a life-giving Spirit and that He had not been so before. What it did do was reveal Him as a life-giving Spirit to those who were dead in sin. Prior to that He could give life, for ‘the Son has life in Himself — and makes alive whom He will’ (Joh 5:21; Joh 5:26). But nevertheless He also declared Himself to be the One Who would give final resurrection life (Joh 5:28-29). So all life is in His hands, both that given while He was still alive, and that which is in the future. And the life Jesus gives includes finally the resurrection of the body, for only so is the full restoration of the creation seen to occur. And that was only possible because He would suffer for our sins and rise again. From the very beginning in Him was life and the life was the light of men (Joh 1:4) and it was from Him that Adam received his life (Joh 1:3-4). And He could therefore confidently declare ‘I am the Life’ (Joh 14:6; Joh 11:35). The giver of life to Adam. The source of life for His own. Yet it will be through the resurrection that that fact will be especially manifested in the raising of men to a perfect life so that He could declare ‘I am the resurrection and the life’ (Joh 11:35). So Jesus, John and Paul agree together.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

1Co 15:45. The first man Adam was made a living soul; An animal with life, , anima, whence animal in the preceding verses. See 1Th 5:23 and the note on Gen 2:7. The last clause is not a quotation from Scripture, as some have thought, but what the Apostle adds on occasion of the quotation from Genesis; as if he had said, “Christ is the last Adam, as an illustrious type of the first (Rom 5:14.); and he hath in himself a Spirit, with which he quickeneth whom he pleases, and in what degree he pleases,even all his faithful saints.” See Joh 1:4; Joh 5:26 and the 21st and 26th verses of this chapter.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Co 15:45 . Scriptural confirmation for the . . . .

] so , i.e. in this sense , corresponding to what has been said above, it stands written also , etc. The passage is from Gen 2:7 according to the LXX. ( . . . .), but with the addition of the more precisely explanatory words and . The citation extends only to ; the . . . that follow are words of the apostle , in which he gives an explanation of his by calling attention, namely, to the opposite nature of the last Adam, as that to which the Scripture likewise pointed by its description of the first Adam, in virtue of the typical relation of Adam to Christ. He joins on these words of his own, however, immediately to the passage of Scripture, in order to indicate that the follows as necessarily from it according to its typical reference, as if the words had been expressed along with it. [80] He thus gives expression to the inference which is tacitly contained in the statement, by adding forthwith this self-evident conclusion as if belonging also to the passage of Scripture, because posited for it by the inner necessity of the antithesis. When others, such as Billroth and Rckert, assume that . . . is meant really to be a part of the Scripture-quotation, they in that case charge the apostle with having made the half of the citation himself and given it out as being Bible words; but assuredly no instance is to be found of such an arbitrary procedure, however freely he handles passages from the Old Testament elsewhere. And would the readers , seeing that is such a universally known statement, have been able to recognise in . . . Bible words? According to Hofmann, . is a completed sentence, which only states that the distinction between two kinds of human body is scriptural. In order to demonstrate this scripturalness the apostle then applies the passage Gen 2:7 . But against this it may be urged, first , that Paul is wont in general to use the for citing passages of Scripture; secondly , that the reader could all the less think here of another use of the word, since in reality at the moment a passage of Scripture, and that a universally familiar one, is joined on directly and without a particle (such as ) to lead the thoughts aright in another directio.

] by his creation, by means of the animation through God’s breat.

] comp. Gen 1:30 , unto a living soul-nature , so that thus the body of Adam must be formed as the receptacle and organ of the , must be a . [81] Therewith sin itself is not assumed as yet, nor even the necessity of its future entrance (comp. Ernesti, Urspr. d. Snde , I. p. 133), but the susceptibility for it, which, however, did not fall within the scope of the apostle her.

is Christ . Comp. 1Co 15:22 ; Rom 5:14 ; Neve Schalom, 1Co 9:9 : “Adamus postremus ( ) est Messias.” He is called, however, and is the last Adam in reference to the first Adam, whose antitype He is as the head and the beginner of the new humanity justified and redeemed through Him; but at the same time in reference also to the fact, that after Him no other is to follow with an Adamite vocation. Apart from this latter reference, He may be called also the second Adam. Comp. 1Co 15:47 .

. ] unto a life-giving spirit-being, sc . . It is thereby expressed that the body of Christ became a . But what is the point of time, at which Christ . ? Not as a created being , as one of the heavenly forms in the divine retinue before His mission (Holsten), nor yet in His incarnation , [82] whether we may supply mentally a Deitate (Beza, comp. too Rbiger, Christol. Paul. p. 35; Baur, Delitzsch, al. ), or take refuge in the communicatio hypostatica (Calovius and others); for during his earthly life Christ had a (only without sin, Rom 8:3 ), which ate, drank, slept, consisted of flesh and blood, suffered, died, etc. The one correct answer in accordance with the context, since the point in hand has regard to the resurrection (and see especially 1Co 15:44 ), can only be: after His death (comp. Hellwag in the Tbing. theol. Jahrb. 1848, 2, p. 240; Ernesti, Urspr. d. Snde , II. p. 122 ff.; Weiss, bibl. Theol. p. 314), and indeed through His resurrection , Christ became . The body, doubtless, of the Risen One before His ascension (hence the Socinians think here of the latter event; so, too, J. Mller and Maier) consisted still of flesh and blood, still ate, drank, etc.; but it was immortal, and so changed (see Remark appended to Luk 24:51 ) that it already appears as , although it was only at the ascension that it entered upon its completion in that respect, and consequently into its as the (Phi 3:21 ). The event producing the change, therefore, is the resurrection; in virtue of this, the last Adam, who shall appear only at the Parousia in the whole efficiency of His life-power (1Co 15:47 ), became ( ) , [83] and that through God, who raised Him u.

] , , Theophylact. The connection shows what is meant in , namely, the resurrection-life , which Christ, who has become ., works at His Parousia. Comp. 1Co 15:22 ; Phi 3:21 ; Col 3:4 ; 1Th 4:16 ; Joh 5:21 ff. This limitation of the reference of , made in accordance with the context, shows that we have not here an argument proving too much (in opposition to Baur, neut. Theol. p. 197).

[80] To make the relation of the two halves discernible in reading, let be read slowly and loud, pause markedly at , and let then . . . follow a little less slowly and loudly.

[81] Not as if he had lacked the higher life-principle (the ); but the was that which determined the nature of the body.

[82] So, too, Sellin in the Luther. Zeitschr . 1867, p. 231.

[83] There exists no ground for assuming a different conception of the corporeity of the risen Christ before His resurrection on the part of Paul than on the part of the evangelists. It is true that Paul mentions the appearances of the Risen One, ver. 5 ff., in such a way that he speaks of the appearance after the ascension, ver. 8, no otherwise than of those which preceded it. But he had there no ground for drawing any such distinction, since it only concerned him generally to enumerate the appearances of the Risen One , while for his purpose it was all the same which of them had taken place before and which after the ascension.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

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

Ver. 45. A quickening spirit ] Christ is called a spirit from his Deity, as Heb 9:14 , and a quickening spirit, because he is the principle of life to all believers.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

45 .] Confirmation of this from Scripture.

, thus , viz. in accordance with what has been just said. The citation extends only to the words . . : and are supplied, as are also the concluding words, in which lies the real confirmation. The words quoted serve therefore rather for the illustration of man being a , than for a proof of the existence of the spiritual body.

] by his creation, by means of God breathing into him the breath of life.

. .] becoming thereby a .

. ] This expression was well known among the Jews as indicating the Messiah. The Rabbinical work Neve Shalom ix. 9 (Schttgen), says: “Adamus postremus est Messias:” see other instances in Schttg. ad loc.

, as being the last HEAD of humanity, to be manifested in the last times : or merely in contrast to the first .

. .] scil. became a quickening (life bestowing) spirit . When ? This has been variously answered: see De Wette and Meyer. The principal periods selected are his Incarnation , his Resurrection , and his Ascension . But it seems to me that the question is not one to be pressed: in the union of the two natures, the second Adam was constituted a life-bestowing Spirit , and is such now in heaven, yet having the resurrection-body. The whole complex of his suffering and triumphant state seems to be embraced in these words. That His resurrection-state alone is not intended, is evident from , 1Co 15:47 . He was a , even while in the ; and is still such in the . The life implied in , is the resurrection-life : see Joh 5:21 ; Joh 5:28 ; Rom 8:11 .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Co 15:45 puts into words of Scripture the law of development affirmed, thereby showing its agreement with the plan of creation and its realisation in the two successive heads of the race. Into his citation of Gen 2:7 (LXX) P. introduces and duplicates by ( ha’adm ), to prepare for his antithetical addition . On the principle of 1Co 15:44 b , the Adam created as was the crude beginning of humanity (the pred. is shared by A. with the animals , Gen 1:20 ; Gen 1:24 ) a “first” requiring a “last” as his complement and explanation. The two types differ here not as the sin-committing and sin-abolishing (Rom 5:12 ff.), but as the rudimentary and finished man respectively, with their physique to match. is repeated in the second clause by way of maintaining the humanity of Christ and His genetic relation to the protoplast ( cf. Luk 1:23-38 ), essential as the ground of our bodily relationship to Him (1Co 15:48 f.; cf. Heb 2:14 ff.). The time of Christ’s . ., in view of the context and esp. of 1Co 15:42 ff., can only be His resurrection from the grave (Est., Gr [2544] , Mr [2545] , Hn [2546] , Hf [2547] , El [2548] ), which supplies the hinge of Paul’s whole argument ( cf. Rom 1:4 ; Rom 6:4 ff; Rom 10:9 , etc.); not the incarnation (Thp [2549] , Bz [2550] , Baur, Ed [2551] ), for His pre-resurrection body was a (Rom 8:3 , etc.; 2Co 13:4 , Phi 2:7 , etc.). By rising from the dead, Christ He entered on the spiritual and ultimate form of human existence; and at the same time, . He entered this state so as to communicate it to His fellows: cf. 1Co 15:20-23 , Col 1:18 , Rev 1:5 ; also Rom 8:10 f., 2Co 4:14 ; Joh 6:33 ; Joh 11:25 ; Joh 14:19 , etc. The action of Jesus in “breathing” upon His disciples while He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Joh 20:22 f.), symbolised the vitalising relationship which at this epoch He assumed towards mankind; this act raised to a higher potency the original “breathing” of God by which man “became a living soul”. “Spirit is life-power, having the ground of its vitality in itself, while the soul has only a subject and conditioned life; spirit vitalises that which is outside of itself, soul leads its individual life within the sphere marked out by its environment” (Hf [2552] ); cf. Joh 3:34 ; Joh 4:14 ; Joh 5:25 f.; Heb 7:25 . recalls the Rabbinical title, ha’adm ha’acharn , given to the Messiah ( Neve Shalom , ix. 9): Christ is not, however, the later or second, but the last , the final Adam. The two Adams of Philo, based on the duplicate narrative of Gen 1:2 the ideal “man after the image of God” and the actual “man of the dust of the earth” with which Pfleiderer and others identify Paul’s and , and , are not to be found here. For ( a ) Philo’s first is Paul’s last ; ( b ) both Paul’s Adams are equally concrete; ( c ) the resurrection of Christ distinguishes their respective periods, a crisis the conception of which is foreign to Philo’s theology; ( d ) moreover, Gen 1:26 is referred in 1Co 11:7 above to the historical , not the ideal, First Man.

[2544] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.

[2545] Meyer’s Critical and Exegetical Commentary (Eng. Trans.).

[2546] C. F. G. Heinrici’s Erklrung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer’s krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[2547] J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht , ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[2548] C. J. Ellicott’s St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians .

[2549] Theophylact, Greek Commentator.

[2550] Beza’s Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[2551] T. C. Edwards’ Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians . 2

[2552] J. C. K. von Hofmann’s Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht , ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

And so, &c. = So it has been written also. We have the proofs from nature and analogy of the variety and resources in the Divine working, and the testimony of the Word besides.

was made. Literally became into. Greek. egeneto eis. The exact expression used in Gen 2:7 (Septuagint)

soul. Greek. psuche. App-110.

a quickening spirit = into (eis) a quickening spirit. See Joh 5:21.

spirit. App-101.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

45.] Confirmation of this from Scripture.

, thus, viz. in accordance with what has been just said. The citation extends only to the words . . : and are supplied, as are also the concluding words, in which lies the real confirmation. The words quoted serve therefore rather for the illustration of man being a , than for a proof of the existence of the spiritual body.

] by his creation,-by means of God breathing into him the breath of life.

. .] becoming thereby a .

. ] This expression was well known among the Jews as indicating the Messiah. The Rabbinical work Neve Shalom ix. 9 (Schttgen), says: Adamus postremus est Messias: see other instances in Schttg. ad loc.

, as being the last HEAD of humanity,-to be manifested in the last times: or merely in contrast to the first.

. .] scil. -became a quickening (life-bestowing) spirit. When? This has been variously answered: see De Wette and Meyer. The principal periods selected are his Incarnation, his Resurrection, and his Ascension. But it seems to me that the question is not one to be pressed: in the union of the two natures, the second Adam was constituted a life-bestowing Spirit, and is such now in heaven, yet having the resurrection-body. The whole complex of his suffering and triumphant state seems to be embraced in these words. That His resurrection-state alone is not intended, is evident from , 1Co 15:47. He was a , even while in the ; and is still such in the . The life implied in , is the resurrection-life: see Joh 5:21; Joh 5:28; Rom 8:11.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 15:45. , it is written) Gen 2:7, LXX., , man became a living soul. Paul adds other things in accordance with the nature of the contraries [the things antithetical to the former.]-) that is, the FIRST; for the last is in antithesis to it; but in 1Co 15:47, means the former of the two; for it is in antithesis to , the second: and each is there considered, as a model of the rest. , the last, in like manner as , the second, points to Christ, not to the whole human race in its perfect consummation.-) A proper name here; but it is presently after repeated by antonomasia.[143]-, life-soul) Hence living, animal, [natural] 1Co 15:44.- , the last) Job 19:25. , the same as he who is called , as is evident there from the parallelism of the double predicate. Christ is last; the day of Christ is the last day, Joh 6:39. [Christ is a Spirit, 2Co 3:17.-V. g.]-, quickening) He not only lives, but also makes alive.

[143] Append. The substitution of a proper name for a common name, or vice versa.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 15:45

1Co 15:45

So also it is written,-[It is only the first part of the verse (Gen 2:7) that is quoted. The words First and Adam are added by Paul as an inspired comment to give prominence to the fact that Adam was the beginning of the human race.]

The first man Adam became a living soul.-[The Scriptures teach that Adam was created with an animal nature, and that therefore he had an animal body. The proof with regard to the nature of Adam does not rest exclusively on the words quoted, but on the whole account of his creation, of which these words form a part. It is evident from the entire history that Adam was formed for an existence on this earth, and therefore with a body adapted to the present state of being; in its essential attributes not differing from those which we have inherited from him. But God personally inbreathing the principle of life into a lifeless, but organized body, the man, who before was only a lifeless body, became a living soul. The soul was the result of the entrance of the life principle into a mortal body.]

The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.-The second Adam gives spiritual and immortal life to those who are his. [Christ is called the last Adam in reference to the first Adam, whose antitype he is as the head of the new humanity, justified and redeemed through him. Hence it is said: Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. (2Co 5:17). But at the same time in reference also to the fact that after him no other is to follow as the head of the new race.]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

was made

Omit italicized words “was made.”

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

The first: 1Co 15:47-49, Gen 2:7, Rom 5:12-14, Rev 16:3

a quickening: Joh 1:4, Joh 4:10, Joh 4:14, Joh 5:21, Joh 5:25-29, Joh 6:33, Joh 6:39, Joh 6:40, Joh 6:54, Joh 6:57, Joh 6:63, Joh 6:68, Joh 10:10, Joh 10:28, Joh 11:25, Joh 11:26, Joh 14:6, Joh 14:19, Joh 17:2, Joh 17:3, Act 3:15, Rom 5:17, Rom 5:21, Rom 8:2, Rom 8:10, Rom 8:11, Phi 3:21, Col 3:4, 1Jo 1:1-3, 1Jo 5:11, 1Jo 5:12, Rev 21:6, Rev 22:1, Rev 22:17

Reciprocal: Job 33:4 – General Psa 68:18 – for men Psa 119:40 – quicken Eze 37:14 – shall put Eze 47:9 – shall live Luk 3:38 – of God Joh 5:26 – so hath Rom 4:17 – who quickeneth 1Co 15:22 – in Adam 2Co 3:6 – giveth life 2Co 3:17 – the Lord Gal 4:6 – the Spirit Gal 5:25 – we Eph 2:1 – you Col 2:13 – he Col 3:3 – your 1Ti 2:5 – the man

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

1Co 15:45. This statement is written In Gen 2:7, and Paul calls Adam the first man. This refutes a theory of some visionary followers of a visionary false teacher, that a prior creation of man occurred to that recorded in Genesis. The last Adam is Christ according to Rom 5:14, considered in connection with verse 22 here.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 15:45. So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul (Gen 2:7). The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. The last Adam, as a name for the promised Messiah, is not unknown to the rabbinical writers, though that feature in His constitution which is here expressedHis becoming the second Head of humanity, who would more than undo the evil done by the firstwas never dreamt of by them.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

1Co 15:45-46. And so it is written With respect to the animal body, Gen 2:7. The first Adam was made a living soul God gave him animal life, in many respects resembling that of other animals; the last Adam was made Rather was, or is, for there is nothing in the original for made; a quickening Spirit Having life in himself, and quickening whom he will: imparting even a more refined life to mens bodies at the resurrection, than that which they formerly possessed. Christ is called Adam, because believers receive their sanctified, spiritual nature, and their immortal bodies, from him, (see Eph 5:32,) just as mankind have derived their corrupted nature and mortal bodies from the first Adam. He is also called the last Adam, because he is posterior in time to the first Adam, or because there shall be no restorer and head of the human race after him. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, &c. That is, as the first Adam existed before Christ was sent to assume our nature, and become our Saviour, so must we first wear that animal body, which we derive from the one, before we put on that spiritual body which we receive from the other. Here we are taught that the plan of the divine government is to lead his creatures from a lower to a higher state of perfection. They, therefore, who contend that things should be as perfect at the beginning as at the conclusion of his administration, are wiser than God.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Vv. 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: , as it is written. The form , 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 Gen 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 natur 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 , 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 , living soul, the equivalent of psychical man (1Co 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 , 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 , 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 , living soul. In the passages Gen 1:20; Gen 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 , 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 , mind, whereby he distinguishes truth from falsehood, good from evil; will, its own mistress and capable of choosing between opposite motives; the , 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 , 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 1Co 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 Nev 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 Nev 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 , 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 …, necessarily leads us to supply the verb , 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 (Joh 4:14). As Edwards says, the soul is the object [the seat] of life; the spirit is the source of life. The epithet , quickening, is also applied to the , Joh 6:63, and there as characterizing its essence: . 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 , 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 1Co 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 , 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, Rom 1:4; Rom 8:11.

It may be asked whether the epithet , 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. Php 3:21. It is evident that Paul is tending to this idea, which he will express positively in 1Co 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 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.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

So also it is written [Gen 2:7], The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

45. And as has been written, The first Adam became a living soul, the last Adam a life-creating spirit. We read that when God created man, He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul as a result of that inbreathing. The Hebrew word ruach, translated spirit throughout the whole Bible, i. e., applied both to the Holy Spirit and the human spirit, also means the breath, which is but the atmosphere and one of the prominent symbols of the Holy Spirit. Hence, when it is said God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, using the verb form of the same word, the revelation is that God in so doing imparted to Adam his spirit.

The effect of the human spirit thus imparted was to confer immortality on the human soul already existing as a result of creation; because God never created anything dead. Hence we must conclude that when He created Adam he was alive, i. e., had animal life like the entire animal creation. Whereas it is said that God breathed into Adam the breath of life, and he became a living soul, He did nothing of this kind to any of the other animals. Hence the mistake of John Wesley and others in their conclusion that the animals are immortal and will be raised from the dead. While the body of man is a mere animal, he has the additional element of the human spirit, which inherits immortality from God who gave it, and confers the same on the human soul resident in the body. Whereas Adam the first became a living soul, this being the ultimatum of his existence, the last Adam, who has a human soul and body like the first Adam, is different from and superior to His predecessor in the fact that He is a life-creating spirit, i. e., none other than the very and eternal God who created the universe, and this same Second Adam became the Omnipotent Executive of the new creation, in which He creates life in the dead human spirit, the Greek word for quickening (E. V.) being zoopoioun, from zooee, life, and poieoo, create. Hence it means life-creating, constantly and pertinently applied to the Second Person of the Trinity, who (Colossians 1) is certified to have created all things in Heavens and in earth, visible and invisible, involving the conclusion that Omnipotence becomes creative in the Second Person of the Trinity.

MAN CREATED

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 45

The original of that part of the verse which is quoted, is found Genesis 2:7. The antithesis consists in the distinction intended between the words living and quickening; the former meaning here life-receiving, the latter life-giving.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

15:45 {25} And so it is written, The {x} first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam [was made] a {y} quickening spirit.

(25) That is called a natural body which is made alive and maintained by a living soul only in the manner that Adam was, of whom we are all born naturally. And that is said to be a spiritual body, which together with the soul is made alive with a far more excellent power, that is, with the Spirit of God, who descends from Christ the second Adam to us.

(x) Adam is called the first man, because he is the root as it were from which we spring. And Christ is the latter man, because he is the beginning of all those that are spiritual, and in him we are all included.

(y) Christ is called a Spirit, by reason of that most excellent nature, that is to say, God who dwells in him bodily, as Adam is called a living soul, by reason of the soul which is the best part in him.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The analogy from Scripture 15:45-49

Paul now returned to his analogy between Adam and Christ (cf. 1Co 15:21-22) to reinforce his argument, which he had brought to a head in 1Co 15:44.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The natural body is physical, the product of Adam who received life from God (Gen 2:7). That life resides in a body characterized as "soulish" (i.e., alive with material and immaterial components). It eventually dies. However, the resurrection body is spiritual, the product of Jesus Christ, the second Adam, who gives new life. That life will inhabit a body that will never die. Paul called it spiritual because it is ready for the spiritual rather than the physical realm. Moreover it comes to us from a spirit being, Jesus Christ, rather than a physical being, Adam. One can assume full "spiritual" existence, including a spiritual body, only as Christ did, namely, by resurrection. [Note: See Richard B. Gaffin Jr., "’Life-Giving Spirit’: Probing the Center of Paul’s Pneumatology," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 41:4 (December 1998):573-89.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)