The relationship between the “living soul” and “life-giving spirit”

in 1 Corinthians 15:45
for NTI on 4/14/99
by Chris Caughey, box 9

Many have undoubtedly misunderstood this verse to support a physical/spiritual

dualism. Certainly the Corinthians were being tempted to adopt this proto-gnostic

worldview from their culture. Paul’s argument, however, is rooted in a two-age

eschatology. He addresses believers who on the one hand are descendants of Adam by

nature, and on the other hand, are descendants of Christ by the Spirit. Their reception of

glorified bodies in heaven is not because matter is inherently bad, but because such a

state of glorification has been the goal (eschatology) of history from the beginning.

It appears that the pericope (1 Cor. 15:42-49) is arranged in a chiasm. Verses 42-

44a contrast natural and Spiritual bodies. Verses 44b-46 provide the core of the

argument, the reason for the Spiritual bodies (with verse 45 comprising the heart of the

argument). Finally, verses 47-49 return to the contrast between the two kinds of bodies.

I will be arguing for my thesis along three main lines. First, I will argue from Paul’s

biblical theology of Genesis 2:7 and Adam’s unique place in history. Second, I will

argue that because of the Fall, a condition obtains whereby man needs life as salvation

from death in addition to needing new life for his final mode of existence. Finally, I will

argue from Paul’s uses1 of the terms yuxiko/j (“psychical” or “natural”) and

pneumatiko/j (“pneumatic” or “Spiritual”) and their descriptions of the two

eschatological orders.

Paul’s Biblical Theology of Genesis 2:7

1
NB the plural. I will be arguing that yuxiko/j and pneu=ma (an etymological relative of
pneumatiko/j) have different referents at different points in the pericope which correspond to the
chaiastic structure.

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 That a state of glorification (and thus, the bestowal of glorified bodies) has been

the goal of history all along comes immediately into view when Paul quotes from Gen.

2:7. Two things are significant about this Old Testament text as it relates to 1 Cor.

15:45: 1) it is part of the subsequent history of creation, which, even as the initial picture

of human history has God’s eternal, Sabbath rest as its goal (cf. Heb. 3:16-4:10), and 2)

its location in history is prior to the fall. It is evident from the outset, then, that Adam’s

role as a “type of Him who was to come” (Rom. 5:14c) was not in regard to any part of

postlapsarian history, but was specifically bound up in his prelapsarian state.

It is inferred from Heb. 3:16-4:10 that man was designed to pass his probation by

his active (Gen. 1:26, 28) and passive (Gen. 2:17) obedience, and thus enter into God’s

eternal, Sabbath rest. In other words, if Adam had continued in his moral excellency to

finish his work of dominion, he would have been awarded a glorified body characterized

by physical luminosity for existence in the Spiritual realm.2 Plus, when God created

Adam and Eve, He made them (including their bodies) good (Gen. 1:31). So when Paul

makes his arguments in the immediate context (vs. 44b-46) of 1 Cor. 15:45 regarding

“natural” and “spiritual” bodies, he is not treating the former as “physical” or “bad” and

the latter as “immaterial” or good.” Instead, he treats them as two eschatological states

of affairs.

This is signaled by the designation of Adam as a yuxh\n zw=san,

a living being. The Hebrew phrase from which this is taken, η⋅φΨαξ ∃επ⇔εν:λ, is

applied to all life, animal and human alike.3 When Paul uses yuxiko/j, the etymological

relative of yuxh\, in vs. 44b and 46 he speaks of an entire world order which God

2
These categories (moral excellency, judicial dominion and physical luminosity) are provided by
Meredith G. Kline in his book Images of the Spirit, (Eugene: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1998), 31.
3
The Hebrew phrase occurs in Gen. 1:20, 21, 24, 30; 2:7, 19, etc. The LXX employs yuxh\n zw=san
in Gen. 1:20, 24; 2:7, 19, etc.

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created and declared “good” (Gen. 1:31)4 even though He has a more ultimate goal for it.

Thus, yuxiko/j here refers to the “natural order/realm.”5 It should be readily apparent

that Adam was living the life which God judged good (vs. 45/Gen. 2:7), and so did not

need life in the merely restorative sense that he might lose this one he already had.

The Fall and Paul’s two-age eschatology

In the slightly wider context (vs. 42-49), Paul has already implicitly introduced

the Fall into his argument. As a result of the Fall-induced curse, “natural bodies”

(sw=ma yuxiko/n) are sown in corruption (v. 42), dishonor and weakness (v. 43). It

is important to note that these adjectives are not inherent to bodies that are yuxiko/n,

but obtain in the curse God pronounced upon mankind for disobedience (Gen. 3:16-19).

The Fall, from a human perspective, “interrupted” God’s plan for a smooth transition

from the “natural,” yuxiko/n pre-eschatological order (vs. 44b and 46), to the

“Spiritual,” pneumatiko/n eschatological order (vs. 44b and 46). So Adam originally

did need life, but he needed a different kind of life for his continuation into a new,

Spiritual state of affairs, not as the antidote to death. As a result of the Fall, death,

corruption, dishonor and weakness now characterize yuxiko/n bodies.

For this reason, Paul must speak of resurrection from the dead. He must talk

about bodies being raised from the grave. Though man was commanded, in part, to

subdue the earth, his disobedience reversed the situation so that the earth subdued man in

becoming his gravesite.6 There is now a state of death which lies between the psychical

4
Arndt, William F. and Gingrich, Wilbur F. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other
Early Christian Literature, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957), 902.
5
Cf. Eph. 1:21 and 1 Cor. 7:31.
6
Kline, Meredith G. Kingdom Prologue, (self-published, 1993), 84.

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and the Pneumatic states of affairs. It is in this context that the Last Adam, Jesus,

became the life-giving Spirit.7

Tempting as it may be to understand Jesus’ function of “life-giving Spirit”

(pneu=ma z%opoiou=n) as mainly involved in the act of regeneration because of

passages like Eph. 2:1-5 and Col. 2:13, this interpretation must be resisted.8 Certainly 1

Cor. 15:45 does convey that nuance. But the main thrust of the idea of Christ becoming

“a life-giving Spirit” is in Christ’s resurrection, ascension and Pentecost distribution of

the promised paraklete/comforter/helper/Holy Spirit.9

It is important to note that when Paul says Christ became (}Ege/neto. . . ei)j)10

a life-giving pneuma (pneu=ma z%opoiou=n)11, he is not making an ontological

claim, but an economical one. That is, when Christ rose from the dead, He was

possessed by the Spirit in such a way that it can be said that through the Spirit, Christ

gave life to believers (Rom. 8:11). The key to understanding how Christ became life-

giving Pneuma is found in verse 20: “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has

become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Gaffin notes that the concept of

“firstfruits” connotes an organic continuity with “those who have fallen asleep” so that
7
Rom. 5, especially v. 14, makes the clear connection between the first and Last Adam by the use of
typology (tu/poj).
8
So notes Richard B. Gaffin on pgs. 41-44 of his book Resurrection and Redemption: A Study in Paul’s
Soteriology, (Phillipsburg: P & R Publishing Co., 1987), 41-44.
9
Cf. John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7; Acts 1:5, 8; 2:1-4; Phil. 4:13.
10
gi/nomai 2A A I 3 sg. “he became” – in this context, it is most likely a constative aorist which
“describes the action in summary fashion, without focusing on the beginning or the end of the action
specifically” Wallace, Daniel B. Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1996), 557.
11
Wallace also notes that “Ei)j + the accusative [in our case, pneu=ma z%opoiou=n] is
occasionally found replacing the predicate nominative in the NT. Although this construction is found in
the papyri, it is usually due to a Semitic influence (Hebrew λ ). This idiom is frequent in OT
quotations. . .” (pg. 47) Also, since gi/nomai is an equative verb, “The equation of S[ubject] and
P[redicate] N[ominative] does not necessarily or even normally imply complete correspondence (e.g., as
in the inter-changeability of A=B, B=A in a mathematical formula). Rather, the PN normally describes a
larger category (or state) to which the S belongs.” (pg. 40, brackets mine in both) This helps us
understand that the Person of Christ did not become the Person of the Holy Spirit (ontological unity), but
that the last, (Holy) Spiritual age began when Christ became life-giving Spirit (economic unity). The
(Holy) Spiritual age, then, is the larger category/state to which Christ now belongs in His human nature.

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what is true of the firstfruits is true of the whole.12 In other words, just as the firstfruit-

offering of an Israelite’s grain was grain itself, so Christ is analogously related to us. It is

also instructive to learn from verse 20 when Christ became life-giving pneuma: at His

resurrection. In Acts 1:8, we learn that it is the Holy Spirit, promised by Jesus during

His earthly ministry (John 14-16), who indwells believers and inaugurates our

pneumatiko/n (Spiritual) life. Just as surely as He was raised from the dead and

given a glorified body, so surely shall we be, who are united with Him by faith.13 Now,

Christ’s body is changed or glorified so that He is no longer characterized by the

psychical order. Instead, He is now characterized by the pneumatic order, or the

order/realm of the Spirit. In 1 Cor. 15 categories, His resurrection body is unlike

psychical bodies in that it is characterized by incorruption (v. 42), glory and power (v.

43).

One could hardly miss the connection between Rom. chapter 5 and verses 21 and

22 of 1 Cor. 15, with the contrast between death/sin and life/righteousness. Adam,

through the Fall, brought sin and death; Christ, through His resurrection brought

righteousness and life—Pneumatic life. Verses 23 and 24 tie this key passage back in

with the foundational, two-age eschatology in view in the heart of the chiasm (vs. 44b-

46) by discussing the temporal succession of history in relation to eschatology. Verse 46

especially resonates with verse 23: there is an order in which the eschatological ages

must come about.

First must come the psychical order of which we are a part, and of which Christ

became a part at His incarnation. Then the Pneumatic order must come. Christ became

the firstfruits of this last eschatological order at His resurrection, and through (as) the

12
Ibid., 34-36.
13
Cf. Rom. 1:1-4; 6:4-11; 1 Cor. 6:13b-17; Eph. 4:13-16; 1 John 1:1-3.

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life-giving Spirit He bestows His resurrection life on those who are united with him by

faith. Verses 47-49 resume the contrasting of the psychical and Pneumatic bodies, but

now Paul shifts to “dust” (xoi+ko/j) corresponding to psychical (yuxiko/j), and

“heavenly” (ou)ranou) corresponding to pneumatic (pneumatiko/j). Also

significant is Paul’s designation of Christ as the “second man” (deu/teroj

a)/nqrwpoj)—certainly a reference back to the language of both 1 Cor. 15:45 as well

as Rom. 5:12-21. This also makes sense of 1 Cor. 15:46: Adam is the “first” (prw=toj)

man (v. 45), Christ is the “second” (deu/teroj) man (v. 47) and the “last” (e)/sxatoj)

man (v. 45). The first, pre-eschatological order must, in the nature of the case, precede

the second and last eschatological order—the eschaton.14

The combination of Christ’s participation in “dust-ness,” “man-ness,” and

“heavenly-ness” seems to me to indicate that the characteristic of “physical-ness” or

“material-ness” is somehow continuous from this pre-eschatological age (which is

passing away)15 to the eschatological age to come (which is already, yet partially, here).16

Evidence for this can be adduced from the account recorded in John 20:11-21:13 and

Luke 24:28-43, regarding the touching of Jesus’ pneumatic body by his psychical friends

and disciples. Indeed, Luke 24:39 seems to be incontrovertible proof that there is some

sense in which the psychical and pneumatic bodies are alike.

Conclusion

I have demonstrated that what Paul intends to prove by quoting Gen. 2:7 is that

God intended Adam to make a smooth transition from his creation-state to his

glorification-state. In keeping with the biblical-theological principle that the process of

14
Gaffin, Ibid., 83-85.
15
Cf. 1 Cor. 7:31.
16
Cf. Luke 17:21; Acts 2:1-8; 2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 1:21.

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revelation is inextricably linked to the progress of history (whether pre-redemptive or

redemptive), I showed that Gen. 2:7 has prelapsarian Adam, and uniquely prelapsarian

Adam in view.

Next, I showed that prelapsarian Adam necessarily needed a new kind of life for

the new kind of existence which he was anticipating in Heaven. In addition to the need

for this new kind of life, the Fall plunged mankind into a situation where he also required

new life in terms of rescue from death. Death is an alien to creation, but it provides a

second referent to Christ’s role as life-giving Spirit.

Finally, I demonstrated that Adam in his creation-state, and Christ in His

resurrection-state, each represent respective, eschatological orders or states of affairs.

Adam represents the “psychical” (yuxiko/j) or natural order, and Christ represents the

“Pneumatic” (pneumatiko/j) or Spiritual order.

One of the implications of this exegesis, is that though the psychical state of affairs was
created good, and we should fully participate in it while we dwell within it, our hope is
not found there because it is passing away. Instead, our hope is in Jesus, the Spirit who
has already given us life here in the Pneumatic state of affairs. Though God has given
analogical expression to His kingdom in the psychical order in the past, the kingdom
itself is Pneumatic. We have already begun to live in the kingdom itself, because our
Lord has given us life—Pneumatic life. Come quickly Lord Jesus, that we may fully
realize our Pneumatic, kingdom life—Maranatha!