ACC ~ 1 Corinthians 15 v50

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.