ACC ~ 1 Corinthians 15 v45 - 50

OVERVIEW:

The Lord who was heavenly became earthly that he might make heavenly those who were earthly (CYRIL OF JERUSALEM, AUGUSTINE, SEVERIAN OF GABALA). The spiritual body is understood as a body so subject to spirit that it may be suited to its celestial habitation (AUGUSTINE). The first man is formed of the mire (MAXIMUS OF TURIN). The second or resurrected man lives in the elements and is a joint heir with Christ (HILARY OF POITIERS, ISAAC OF NINEVEH, AMBROSE). Do not despise the body that is destined to be the heir of eternity (NOVATIAN, JEROME).

15:45 | A Living Being

THE HOPE OF BETTER THINGS. CHRYSOSTOM: The apostle said these things so that we might learn that the signs and promises both of this present life and of that which is to come have now come upon us. He sets out the better things as matters for hope and indicates that they have already begun, because their root and their source have been revealed. If that is the case, there is no need to doubt that the fruits will appear in due course. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 41.6.

THE NATURAL AND THE SPIRITUAL BODY DISTINGUISHED. AUGUSTINE: The first man, Adam, was made into a living soul … but of all the animals it was said: “Let the earth bring forth the living creatures.” We understand, then, that the natural body is said to be like the other animals because of the dissolution and corruption of death. It is daily renewed by food, and when the bond of life is broken it is dissolved. But the spiritual body which is now with the Spirit is immortal. LETTER 205, TO CONSENTIUS.

15:46 | Physical Death, Then Spiritual

LESSER AND BETTER THINGS. CHRYSOSTOM: In God’s plan, things keep getting better. This is why Paul says that the lesser things have already come to pass and that the better ones are on the way. … For the farmer, seeing the grain dissolving, does not mourn. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 41.6.

THE CLAY BECOMES GRADUALLY MOLDED. AUGUSTINE: First comes the clay that is only fit to be thrown away, with which we must begin but in which we need not remain. Afterward comes what is fit for us, that into which we can be gradually molded and in which, when molded, we may remain. CITY OF GOD 15.1.

READINESS FOR CELESTIAL HABITATION. AUGUSTINE: The spiritual body is understood as a body so subject to spirit that it may be suited to its celestial habitation, all earthly weakness and corruption and being changed and converted into celestial purity and stability. FAITH AND THE CREED 6.13.

15:47 | A Man from Heaven

PRESENT LIFE AND THE LIFE TO COME. CHRYSOSTOM: The previous difference was between the present life and the life to come, but this difference is between life before grace revealed and the life after grace is revealed. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 42.1.

THE HEAVENLY MAN. AMBROSE: It is not the spiritual that comes first but the physical, and then the spiritual. … The last one is like the sum of the whole. It is he alone who, like the cause of the world for which all things were made, dwells in all the elements. The second man from heaven, the resurrected, heavenly man, lives amid beasts, swims with fish, flies above the birds, talks with angels, dwells on earth, does battle in heaven, ploughs the sea, feeds in the air, is a tiller of the soil, a traveler on the deep, a fisher in streams, a fowler in the air, an heir in heaven, a joint heir with Christ. LETTER 49.

FIRST THE NATURAL BODY, THEN THE SPIRITUAL. AUGUSTINE: First comes in the natural body such as Adam was the first man to possess. Had he not sinned, he would never have died. Such a body we too possess, except that its nature as a result of sin has become so changed for the worse that it is now faced with inexorable death. Such a body Christ also deigned to assume for our sakes, not indeed by necessity but in virtue of his power. Afterward, however, comes the spiritual body such as that which Christ, our head, was the first to have been, but which we, his members, will have at the final resurrection of the dead. CITY OF GOD 13.23.

THE SECOND MAN. THEODORET OF CYR: Paul is referring here to the second coming of Christ. COMMENTARY ON THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS 279.

15:48a | Those of the Dust

THE MAN OF DUST. ORIGEN: If you remain in what is of the earth, you will be turned away in the end. You must be changed yourself, you must be converted, you must be made “heavenly.” HOMILIES ON GENESIS 9.

CONCEIVED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, BORN OF THE VIRGIN. HILARY OF POITIERS: The first man was made from the slime of the earth. The second man came from heaven. By using the word man, he taught the birth of this man from the virgin, who in fulfilling her function as a mother acted in accordance with the nature of her sex in the conception and birth of the man. And when he asserted that the second man was from heaven, he testified that his origin was from the appearance of the Holy Spirit who came upon the virgin. Thus precisely while he was a man, he was also from heaven. The birth of this man was from the virgin. The conception was from the Spirit. ON THE TRINITY 10.

FORMED FROM MIRE. MAXIMUS OF TURIN: Adam is formed from mire by the hands of God. Christ is formed in the womb by the Spirit of God. SERMON 50.2.

15:48b | Those of Heaven

THE MAN OF HEAVEN. CHRYSOSTOM: The man of heaven indicates a lofty and severe life on the one hand, with something quite different [man of dust] on the other. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 42.1.

THE IMAGE OF THE EARTHLY AND THE HEAVENLY. AUGUSTINE: If you do not like the Christian faith, say so. But you will not find another Christian faith. There is one man unto life; there is one unto death. The one is only man; the other is God and man. Through the one the world was made the enemy of God. Through the other those chosen from the world are reconciled to God. For “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Therefore even as we have borne the image of the earthly, let us also bear the image of the heavenly. Whoever tries to undermine these foundations of the Christian faith will himself be destroyed, but they will remain firm. AGAINST JULIAN 4.

THE HEAVENLY BECAME EARTHLY TO MAKE THE EARTHLY HEAVENLY. AUGUSTINE: The Lord who was heavenly became earthly that he might make heavenly those who were earthly. From immortal he became mortal by taking the form of a servant, not by changing the nature of the Lord, that he might make immortal those who were mortal by imparting the grace of the Lord, not by retaining the offense of the servant. LETTER 205, TO CONSENTIUS.

15:49 | Bearing the Same Image

THE IMAGE OF THE HEAVENLY. ORIGEN: You bore at that time “the image of the earthly.” But now since these things have been heard, having been cleansed from the whole earthly mass and weight by the Word of God, make the “image of the heavenly” shine brightly in you. HOMILIES ON GENESIS 13.4.

THE IMAGE OF THE MAN OF HEAVEN. AMBROSIASTER: This means that just as we have borne the corruptible body of the earthly Adam, so we shall in the future bear an incorruptible body, like that of the resurrected Christ. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

GOD DWELLS IN THE HEAVENLY MAN. CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: They are also a “heaven” “bearing the likeness of the heavenly man,” since God is dwelling in them and mingling with them. MYSTAGOGICAL LECTURES 5.11.

BY CHOICE, NOT NATURE. CHRYSOSTOM: To “bear an image” is not so much a matter of our nature as such, as of our choices and behavior. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 42.2.

WHY ARE WE MADE THIS WAY? AUGUSTINE: Therefore, given that our nature sinned in paradise, we are now formed through a mortal begetting by the same divine providence, not according to heaven but according to earth—not according to the Spirit but according to the flesh. We have all become one mass of clay, a mass of sin. Since therefore we have forfeited our reward through sinning, and since, in the absence of God’s mercy, we as sinners deserve nothing other than eternal damnation, who then does the man from this mass think he is that he is able to question God and say: “Why have you made me this way?” If you want to know these things, do not be clay, but become a son of God through the mercy of him who has given to those believing in his name the power to become sons of God, although he has not so given, as you might want, to those desiring to know divine things before they believe. QUESTIONS 68.3.

15:50 | Inheriting the Kingdom of God

FLESH AND BLOOD CANNOT INHERIT. NOVATIAN: This does not mean that the substance of our flesh was condemned. On the contrary, only the guilt of the flesh is censured, the guilt which was caused by humanity’s deliberate and rash rebellion against the claims of divine law. ON THE TRINITY 10.

A METAPHOR FOR DISOBEDIENCE. AMBROSIASTER: By “flesh” Paul means disobedience, and by “blood” he means an evil and wicked life. Not only will neither of these things inherit eternal life; both must be put under control in this life. COMMENTARY ON PAUL’S EPISTLES.

WICKEDNESS CANNOT INHERIT. CHRYSOSTOM: By “flesh” Paul here means willful evil deeds. The body by itself is not the obstacle; rather it is because of our wickedness that we cannot inherit the kingdom of God. HOMILIES ON THE EPISTLES OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS 42.2.

DO NOT DESPISE THE BODY. JEROME: Let us by no means scorn the flesh, but let us reject its works. Let us not despise the body that will reign in heaven with Christ. “Flesh and blood can obtain no part in the kingdom of God.” This does not refer to flesh and blood as such but to the works of the flesh. HOMILY 54 ON PSALM 143.

NO FURTHER CONFLICT. AUGUSTINE: There will then be such a common accord between flesh and Spirit—the Spirit quickening the servant flesh without any need of sustenance from it. There will be no further conflict within ourselves. And just as there will be no more external enemies to bear with, so neither shall we have to bear with ourselves as enemies within. ENCHIRIDION 23.91.

CLOTHED WITH IMMORTALITY. SEVERIAN OF GABALA: Heretics get really mixed up about this. Paul did not say that flesh and blood would not rise from the dead but that they cannot inherit the kingdom of God. What this means is that the earthly flesh and blood which we now have is perishable, but it will be clothed with immortality, and in that state we shall enter the kingdom. PAULINE COMMENTARY FROM THE GREEK CHURCH.

CORRUPTION AND INCORRUPTION. ISAAC OF NINEVEH: By “incorruption” he means the knowledge of that other world, and by “corruption” and “flesh and blood” he designates the corrupting passions of both the soul and the body, the realm of whose motions is in the “mind of the flesh.” … And by the “Kingdom of God” he means the lofty, noetic theoria of the blessed intuitions of that eternal effulgence, into which the holy soul is permitted to enter only by means of the incorruptible intuitions that are exalted above corruption, flesh and blood. ASCETICAL HOMILIES 5.