ACC ~ 1 Corinthians 15 v20

CHRIST HAS BEEN RAISED. AMBROSIASTER: Paul says this in order to get at the false prophets who claimed that Christ was never born and thus cannot have died. The resurrection from the dead proves that Christ was a man and therefore able to merit by his righteousness the resurrection of the dead. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

THE HEAD, THEN THE BODY. PELAGIUS: If the head has risen, then the rest of the body will follow in due course. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 15.

THE POWER OF DEATH DESTROYED. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: For the sake of all he tasted death. Although by nature he was life and was himself the resurrection, he surrendered his own body to death. By his ineffable power he trampled upon death in his own flesh that he might become the firstborn from the dead and the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. … Even if the resurrection of the dead may be said to be through a man, the man we know it is through is the Word begotten of God. The power of death has been destroyed through him. LETTER 17.11.

GOD ASSUMED FLESH THAT SUFFERED. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: The Word does not suffer insofar as he is viewed as God by nature. Yet the sufferings of his flesh were according to the economy of the dispensation. For in what way would he be “the firstborn of every creature, through whom have come to be principalities and powers, thrones and dominations, in whom all things hold together,” and in what way would he become the “firstborn of the dead” and the “first fruits of those who have fallen asleep,” unless the Word, being God, made his own the body born to suffer? LETTER 50.14.

1 Cor