Jesus was the last adam

JESUS WAS THE LAST ADAM
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
1 Corinthians15:45 45So it is written: "The first man
Adam became a livingbeing"; the last Adam, a life-
giving spirit.
New Living Translation
The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became
a livingperson.” But the lastAdam—that is, Christ—
is a life-givingSpirit.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
"the Last Adam."
1 Corinthians 15:45
J.R. Thomson
The apostle has supported the Christian belief in the resurrectionby adducing
natural analogies, and these will always possessa certain measure of force for
intelligent and reflective minds. But it is observable that he returns to what is
the strongestground of belief in the future life and all which it involves, viz.
the personalrelation of the Christian to his Divine and mighty Lord. The

foundation of our hope is in the assurance ofour Saviour, "BecauseI live, ye
shall live also."
I. THE DESIGNATION OF CHRIST:THE LAST ADAM. This, though a
rabbinical expressionapplied to the Messiah, has a truly Christian
signification.
1. It implies our Lord's true humanity; he was a descendantof our first
parents, and he was the Son of man.
2. It implies his federal headship, his representative character, and his
peculiar authority. There is a new humanity createdafreshfor the glory of
God; and of this the Lord Christ is the one rightful Ruler and Head.
II. THE DESCRIPTION OF CHRIST:A LIFE-GIVING SPIRIT.
1. This is in contrastwith the descriptionof the first Adam, "a living soul," so
calledin the book of Genesis.Fromour progenitor we have inherited the body
and the animal and rational nature for which that body is a suitable vehicle.
2. This is indicative of the perogative of Christ to impart a new and higher
spiritual life to humanity. We receive from him by the bestowalof his Spirit a
nobler being, a being which allies us to God, and which fits us for the
occupations and the joys of heaven. "In him was life." He did not however
possesslife only to retain it as his own, but in order to share it with his people.
"I," said he, "am come that they might have life, and that they might have it
more abundantly."
3. This is explanatory of the revelationof resurrection and immortality. The
nature we inherit from Adam fits us for earth; the nature which we receive
from Christ fits us for heaven. Adam is "the earthy," and they who dwell on
earth share his earthy being and life; Christ is "the heavenly" and they who
are made in his likeness andwho share his characterand spirit are qualified
for celestialandeternal joys. - T.
Biblical Illustrator

The first man Adam was made a living soul
1 Corinthians 15:45-50
Adam and Christ
J. Lyth, D.D.
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) cannotinherit heaven, it must be
exchangedfor an incorruptible body.
(J. Lyth, D.D.)
The two Adams
D. Thomas, D.D.
I. THE RESEMBLANCE.
1. The existence of eachrose 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
secondwas conceivedofthe Holy Ghost. The pedigree of eachis unparalleled
in the history of the race.

2. Eachcommencedfree from sin.(1) The first was createdin the image of
God; all his faculties were well balancedand free from all bias to wrong.(2)
The latter was harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.
3. Eachhad a nature capable of temptation. Temptability is an attribute of all
createdintelligences. Where there is no powerto go wrong, there is no virtue
in keeping right.(1) The first Adam was tempted, and was conquered.(2)The
secondwas tempted, and triumphed.
4. The characterof eachexerts a momentous influence upon the whole
race.(1)The characterof the first generateda moral atmosphere of sensuality,
ambition, selfishness, unbelief.(2)The characterofthe secondgeneratedan
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
secondis Christly and spiritual.
II. THE DISSIMILARITY.
1. The one had a sublimer connectionwith God than the other. Adam was the
offspring, representative, and stewardof God. Christ was God-man. God was
in Him in a specialsense, unfolding truths, working miracles, and reconciling
the world unto Himself. Be was God "manifestedin the flesh." The one
yielded to the devil, the other conquered him.
2. the One possesseda higher type of moral excellencethan the other. The
characterof 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 foodall 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
S. Cox, D.D.
1. St. Paul bases his assertionthat "if there is a psychicalbody, there is also a
spiritual," first, on the analogiesofNature; second, on the nature of Man as
revealedin Holy Writ (see ver. 44); third, on the historicalfacts that Adam
had the one and Christ the other.
2. Note, however, some interesting preliminaries. The opening clause of the
text is almostan exactquotation from Genesis 2:7;that the secondrefers to
Christ is proved by these two facts:that with the rabbis, at whose feetPaul
sat, "the last Adam" was a common name for "the Messiah";and that St.
Paul never uses the designations the secondMan," or "the last Adam," of any
one but Christ. Again the rabbis bid us note that Mosessays, not"man was
made, but became a living soul." They hold that when God breathed the
breath of life into Adam, He conferredon 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
lowerlife of the soul, into a life of mere intelligence and passionas
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 longermeet 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 ofsense 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 God's will.
2. A soulish man he came to have a soulish body. Indications of this are seenin
—
(1)Adam's newborn shame of his nakedness.
(2)The passionwhich made Cain a murderer.
(3)The infirmities, the specialforms of death and corruption, to which Adam
and his children became liable.Nevertheless, as ourown experience proves,
the body, even when thus changed and depraved, was nevertheless perfectin
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 ofthe
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, howeverlowly, howeverearthly, 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 clearand strong that He looked
through all the shows of time to the eternal substance, ofa 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 perfectthat
even His unparalleled labour and conflict could not impair it; in heaven even
while He was on earth; making His Father's 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 altogetherthe same as ours. Conceivedof 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-tossedwaves. OnMount TaborHe stoodbefore 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 regionof 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, succourthe distressed, ordeliver the
imperilled, that He exerteda supernatural control overnatural laws:and He
fed, succoured, delivered men that they might come to know Him, and God in
Him, and thus possessthemselves ofeternal life. When the weak physical
frame was transfigured with an immortal strength and splendour, it was
because His spirit was rapt in the ecstasies ofredeeming love as He talked
with Moses andElias, 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 closeddoors, 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 psychicalbody 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 exceptionalmen. If the first
Adam was a psychical man and the last Adam a spiritual man, how does that
bear on St. Paul's argument? "It is much — nay, it is everything — to us; and
that preciselybecause both Adam and Christ were exceptionalmen, who
stand in an exceptionalrelation to the human race. For(ver. 22) both the
Adam and the Christ are in us, and in all men; that they contend togetherin
us for the mastery; that it is at our ownoption 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 swallowedup 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 secondAdam "a quickening Spirit
W. Dodsworth, M.A.
Human relationships correspondwith those which subsistbetweenJesus
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 resurrectionHe 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 tracedto the first man Adam, so the
spiritual life in the believer is to be traced to Christ, the lastAdam. But here,
however, the resemblance ends. Adam was but a living soul, capable of
continuing the same life in others who should succeedhim; but Christ, by His
resurrectionfrom 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 CHRISTIAN'S SALVATION.
1. The apostle here enumerates only two men of all that have ever lived:
because allmen 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 ofhuman 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 againstthe
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
connectionbetweenus and the first man Adam which does not subsist

betweenus and our immediate parents, or any intermediate link of the chain
by which we are connectedwith our first progenitor. And so it is written of
Adam, that he "begota 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 ofhis fallen condition. When God createdAdam, He
createdall men; all therefore stood, and all fell in Adam: all in him became
not only exposedto the consequences, but also infected with the very nature of
his sin.
2. Now there is no greaterdifficulty in the idea that having union with the last
Adam as a quickening Spirit, we are endowedwith 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 CHRISTIAN'S PRESENT CONDITION. The
greatpeculiarity in the Christian's 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 (2 Corinthians 5:1-4; Romans 8:22, 23;
Romans 7:24). What do these (and a variety of similar passages)express but
the desires ofthe quickened spirit to be releasedfrom this prison-house in
which it is pent up? And does not this also point out the Christian's resource
under such trials? What is it but to walk by faith and not by sight? (Romans
8:10-13;Colossians 3:1-5).
III. ON THE CHRISTIAN'S 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 renewalunto
holiness to this body also, which shall be revived, and glorified, and changed
into the likeness of Christ's glorious body. For as the resurrectionof Christ
shows us the perfection and sufficiencyof Christ's work, so ours will bring to
perfection in us the fruit of His work. As it was His resurrectionthat showed
Him to have come out from under the effects of imputed sin, into the
possessionofthe glory which He had with the Fatherbefore 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 showedHim to be the
Conqueror of Satan; so ours will show us to be conquerors overall evil
through Him. As it was by His resurrectionthat He was declaredto be the
Son of God with power; so it is ours by which we shall be manifestedto be
sons of God.
(W. Dodsworth, M.A.)
The lastAdam
A. Gray.
Note —
I. THE RELATION BETWEENCHRIST AND ADAM WHICH IS
IMPLIED IN THE NAME. A name used to designate a party whoso proper
name it is not, expressesa symbolical or typical relation betweenthe two
(Romans 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 (Psalm 8; cf. Hebrews 2.). Adam as the lord of this world,
and the creatures containedin it, symbolised that King who has on His head
many crowns.
3. In his marriage (Ephesians 5:25-33).
4. In his trial.(1) By God. A course of obedience was prescribedto him, and a
reward was promised if he followedit. 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 accountHe took the form of a servant.
To Him, too, it was said, Do this and live.(2) His trial by Satan.
5. In his covenantheadship. The covenantwith Adam was expressedin the
form of a threatening (Genesis 2:16, 17), while the covenantwith Christ was

expressedin the form of a promise (Galatians 3:16); but the fact is unaltered
that there was a covenantwith each. Now Adam, in his headship, typified
Christ in —(1) The representative characterwhichhe bore. The first
progenitor representedhis posterity. Such representationis not unusual.
Parents representtheir 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 Saviour's
career.(3)The imputation and legalreckoning of Adam's vicarious procedure
to his posterity. Analogous, in some measure, to this, is the legalreckoning
which we see applied to great trading companies for the doings of their
managers. So vicarious actionwas binding on Christ (Romans 5:12-19;
Galatians 3:13).(4)The transmissionof moral qualities and tendencies from
Adam to all his posterity. The first man, by his fall, not only contractedguilt,
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 powerof His Holy Spirit, effecting a real
and vital union betweenHim 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." ButHe is not called"the last David," or "the last Solomon." John
the Baptistis called "Elias," but not "the lastElias." These were types and
only types. But Adam was not a mere type. There was, beyond this, a public
and officialrelation betweenhim and Christ; so that if Adam had not gone
before, or if he had been other than he was, or had actualotherwise 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 specialterm "last" is suggestive ofthe obligation being at last fulfilled.
1. Let the two Adams be contrasted.(1)In respectof what they were (vers. 45,
47).(2)In respectof 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 (Romans 5:19).

(b)The first Adam condemns all; the lastAdam justifies all (Romans 5:18).
(c)In the first Adam, all die, all are dead (Romans 5:15-17); in the lastAdam,
Christ, all are made alive (1 Corinthians 15:22, 18, 19).
2. Let our Lord's success,as the last Adam, be consideredin opposition to the
failure of the first Adam. Christ, as the last Adam, succeededby fulfilling the
obedience to the law in which the first Adam failed, and by overcoming the
obstacle whichthe first Adam's failure created. The lastAdam is perfect, as a
competitor for the prize — eternal life to man — which the first Adam lost; as
a workerat the task in which the first Adam broke down.(1) In respectof his
vicarious action. In that respecthe is emphatically the "lastAdam." His
vicarious action was perfect. There was no flaw in it (Hebrews 5:8, 9; Romans
5:19).(2) In respectof the imputation and legalreckoning of his vicarious
action(Romans 5:18).(3)In respectof the actualtransmission and
communication of all the life and holiness which His vicarious actioninvolves.
As the last Adam, He has the Holy Spirit to give. And by the gift of the Holy
Spirit He effectuallysecures the salvationof all who are His.
(A. Gray.)
Christ the archetype of Adam
W. Anot, D.D.
Sometimes, afteran engravensteel-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
Homiletic Monthly.

I. ADAM WAS A LIVING SOUL, which includes —
1. Reason;thus above the brute, and able actively to glorify God. They
passivelypraise Him.
2. Spirituality, or knowledge,righteousness, andtrue holiness in mind and
soul. Nothing cancomprehend 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 wearthat image is a
greaterhonour than, if it were possible to be invested with creative power.
4. Immortality. We are immortal, but not independently so;God alone is (1
Timothy 6:16).
II. THE LAST ADAM A QUICKENING SPIRIT. He quickens —
1. From spiritual death (Ephesians 2:5).
2. The afflicted (Psalm 119:50).
3. The backslider(Hosea 14:4).
4. From the grave (Philippians 3:20, 21).We manifestour oneness withAdam
by our disobedience, and our oneness withChrist by our obedience. The most
glorious work of God is the renewalof 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 perfectas His work for us (Ephesians 5:14).
(Homiletic Monthly.)
Natural and spiritual life
J, Lyth, D.D.
I. ADAM WAS MADE A LIVING SOUL.
1. Endued with natural life.
2. His body possessedno inherent immortality.

3. Its perpetuated life depended upon obedience and his accessto the tree of
life.
4. Consequentlyhe could not in any case conferimmortality upon his
descendants.
II. CHRIST WAS MADE A QUICKENING SPIRIT.
1. Possessedlife in Himself, hence His resurrection.
2. Communicates it to all who believe in Him.
3. Hence also He will raise them up in the lastday.
(J. .Lyth, D.D.)
STUDYLIGHT RESOURCES
Adam Clarke Commentary
The first man Adam was made a living soul - These forms of expressionare
also common among the Jews:hence we find ‫ןושארה‬ ‫םדא‬ Adam harishon,
"Adam the first;" and ‫יאמדק‬ ‫םדא‬ Adam kadmai, " Adam the last." They assert
that there are two Adams: 1. The mystical heavenly Adam; and 2. The
mystical earthly Adam. See SoharExod., fol. 29;and the severalexamples in
Schoettgen. The apostle says this is written: The first man Adam was made a
living soul: this is found Genesis 2:7, in the words ‫םייח‬ ‫תמשנ‬ nishmath chaiyim,
the breath of lives; which the apostle translates ψυχηνζωσαν, a living soul.
The lastAdam - a quickening spirit - This is also said to be written; but
where, says Dr. Lightfoot, is this written in the whole sacredbook? Schoettgen
replies, In the very same verse, and in these words: ‫היח‬ ‫ויהי‬ ‫האדם‬ ‫יניש‬ vayehi
ha - Adam lėnepheshchaiyah, and Adam became a living soul; which the
apostle translates πνευμα ζωοποιουν, a quickening, or life-giving spirit.
Among the cabalistic Jews ‫שינ‬ nephesh is consideredas implying greater

dignity than ‫משנ‬ eht tuo gnitniop sa deredisnoc eb yam remrof ehT . amhsin ‫ה‬
rational, the latter the sensitive soul. All these references to Jewishopinions
and forms of speechthe 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, Genesis1:2. And they assertthat the
Messiahshallquicken those who dwell in the dust.
"It ought not to be passedby," says the same author, "that Adam, receiving
from God the promise of Christ - The seedof the womanshall bruise the head
of the serpent, and believing it, named his wife ‫הוח‬ Chauvah, that is, life; so
the Septuagint, και εκαλεσεν Αδαμ το ονονα της γυναικος αυτου Ζωη·And
Adam called the name of his wife, Life. What! Is she calledLife that brought
death into the world? But Adam perceivedτον εσχατονΑδαμ, the last Adam
exhibited to him in the promise, to be πνευμα ζωο, ποιουν, 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, John 1:4; : Εν αυτῳ
ζωη ην, 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 personwith the body of his resurrection. See on
1 Corinthians 15:49; (note).
Albert Barnes'Notes onthe Whole Bible
And so it is written, - Genesis 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” ( ἐγένετο εις ψυκὴν ζωσαν egeneto eis
psuchēn zōsan- in Hebrew, ‫חיה‬ ‫ניח‬ nephesh chayaahis, became a living,
animated being; a being endowedwith life. The use of the word “soul” in our
translation, for ‫ר‬‫ח‬‫רחק‬ psuchēand‫ניח‬ nepheshdoes 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 1 Corinthians 15:44. And this is preciselythe idea which Paul uses
here, that the first man was made an animated being by having breathed into
him the breath of life Genesis 2:7, and that it is the image of this animated or
vital being which we bear, 1 Corinthians 15:48. Neither Mosesnor Paul deny
that in addition to this, man was endowedwith a rational soul, an immortal
nature; but that is not the idea which they present in the passage in Genesis
which Paul quotes.
The lastAdam - The secondAdam, or the “secondman,” 1 Corinthians 15:47.
That Christ is here intended is apparent, and has been usually admitted by
commentators. Christ here seems to be calledAdam 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 resurrectionfrom the grave. The
one stands at the head of all those who have an existence representedby 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 affectthe 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 specialrelations to
the race;and in this respectthey were “the first” and “the last” in the special
economy. The name “Adam” is not elsewhere given to the Messiah, though a
comparisonis severaltimes instituted betweenhim and Adam. (See the
Supplementary Note on 1 Corinthians 15:22;also Romans 5:12, note.)
A quickening spirit - ( ‫ים‬‫ח‬‫͂שןנןין‬ ‫ייב‬‫ח‬‫נםו‬ ‫ץן‬‫י‬‫ו‬ eis pneuma zōopoiounA 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 ofwhat was revealedrespecting the Messiahin

the Old Testament. There may be also reference to what the Saviour himself
taught, that he was the source oflife; that he had the powerof imparting life,
and that he gave life to all whom he pleased:see the note at John 1:4; note at
John 5:26, “Foras the Fatherhath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son
to have life in himself.” 1 Corinthians 15:21, “for as the Fatherraiseth up the
dead, and quickeneththem, 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 ofspirit
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 endowedwith the
powerof imparting life; as endowed with that spiritual or vital energywhich
was needful to impart life. All life is the creationor production of “spirit” (
‫ייב‬‫ח‬‫בםו‬Pneuma); as applied to God the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit.
Spirit is the source of all vitality. Godis a spirit, and God is the source of all
life. And the idea here is, that Christ had such a spiritual existence suchpower
as a spirit; that he was the source of all life to his people. The word “spirit” is
applied to his exaltedspiritual nature, in distinction from his human nature,
in Romans 1:4; 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 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 elevatedspiritual nature, which was capable of imparting vital
existence to the dead.
Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible
So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam
became a life-giving spirit.
For an extended discussionof the similarities and contrasts betweenAdam I
and Adam II, see my Commentary on Romans, pp. 205-212. Ofcourse, there
were far more contrasts than similarities betweenAdam and Christ; but the

position that eachholds as head of the natural creation(of man) on the one
hand, and head of the spiritual creationon the other is similar.
The passagePaulquoted here is Genesis 2:17. "Living soul" is what Adam
BECAME;God had breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; but through
disobedience Adam became this lower thing, the merely natural man.
Through Christ, however, man may enjoy that higher existence whichGod
intended from the first.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible
And so it is written,.... In Genesis 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 JewsF1 frequently do, ‫םדא‬ ‫,ןושארה‬ "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, causalityand dignity; whose name was Adam, so calledby God in the
day he was created, because he was formed ‫ןמ‬ ‫,המדאה‬ "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 sleepand rest; and was capable of
dying, and should die, in case ofsin; 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 ownassertion:
the lastAdam was made a quickening spirit: by "the last Adam" is meant
Jesus Christ, called Adam, because he is really and truly a man, a partakerof
the same flesh and blood as the restof mankind; and because he is the
antitype of the first man Adam, who was a figure of him that was to come;
and therefore calledAdam, for the same reasonas he is calledDavid and

Solomon:he is said to be "the last", in distinction from the first Adam, with
respectto him he stood, ‫,ןורחא‬ last upon the earth, as in Job19:25 to which
passagesome think the apostle here alludes; and because he appeared in the
last days in the end of the world, and is the lastthat 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 conceivedand bred, and born as animal bodies are;it grew
and increased, and was nourished with meat and drink, and sleepand rest;
and was subjectto infirmities, and to death itself, as our bodies be; but it is to
be understood of it as raisedfrom the dead, when it was made a spiritual
body, for which reasonit is called a "spirit": not that it was changedinto a
spirit, for it still remained flesh and blood; but because it was no more
supported in an animal way; nor subjectto those weaknessesthat 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 Sonof God, their bodies will be quickened
at the lastday, 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 resurrectionis a spiritual and life giving one, as the
Syriac version renders it; so the Cabalistic writersF2 speak of
"Adam; who is the holy and supreme, who rules over all, and gives spirit and
life to all.'
Geneva Study Bible

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 calleda 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 togetherwith the soul
is made alive with a far more excellentpower, that is, with the Spirit of God,
who descends from Christ the secondAdam to us.
(x) Adam is calledthe 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 calleda Spirit, by reasonof that most excellentnature, that is to
say, God who dwells in him bodily, as Adam is calleda living soul, by reason
of the soul which is the best part in him.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
so — in accordancewith the distinction just mentioned betweenthe natural or
animal-souled body and the spiritual body.
it is written — (Genesis 2:7); “Man became (was made to become)a living
soul,” that is, endowed with an animal soul, the living principle of his body.
the lastAdam — the LAST Head of humanity, who is to be fully manifested in
the lastday, which is His day (John 6:39). He is so calledin Job 19:25;see on
Job 19:25 (compare Romans 5:14). In contrastto “the last,” Paulcalls “man”
(Genesis 2:7) “the FIRST Adam.”
quickening — not only living, but making alive (John 5:21; John 6:33, John
6:39, John 6:40, John 6:54, John 6:57, John 6:62, John 6:63; Romans 8:11). As
the natural or animal-souledbody (1 Corinthians 15:44)is the fruit of our
union with the first Adam, an animal-souled man, so the spiritual body is the

fruit of our union with the secondAdam, who is the quickening Spirit (2
Corinthians 3:17). As He became representative of the whole of humanity in
His union of the two natures, He exhaustedin His own personthe sentence of
death passedon all men, and giveth spiritual and everlasting life to whom He
will.
Robertson's WordPictures in the New Testament
Became a living soul (‫͂שובם‬ ‫נוחקחם‬ ‫וין‬ ‫ודוםוין‬ — egeneto eis psuchēn zōsan).
Hebraistic use of ‫וין‬ — eis in predicate from lxx. God breathed a soul (‫נוחקח‬
— psuchē) into “the first man.”
The lastAdam became a life-giving spirit (‫͂שןנןיןחם‬ ‫נםוחיב‬ ‫וין‬ ‫הבי‬ ‫ב‬ ‫ווקביןן‬ ‫ן‬ —
ho eschatos Adam eis pneuma zōopoioun). Supply ‫—ודוםוין‬ egeneto (became).
Christ is the crown of humanity and has powerto give us the new body. In
Romans 5:12-19 Paul calls Christ the SecondAdam.
Vincent's Word Studies
A living soul ( ‫יובם‬‫ש‬͂ ‫רם‬‫ח‬‫רחק‬ )
See Genesis 2:7. Here ‫ר‬‫ח‬‫רחק‬ passesinto its personalsense - an individual
personality (see Romans 11:4), yet retaining the emphatic reference to the
‫ר‬‫ח‬‫רחק‬ as the distinctive principle of that individuality in contrastwith the
‫ייב‬‫ח‬‫נםו‬ spiritfollowing. Hence this factillustrates the generalstatement there is
a natural body: such was Adam's, the receptacle andorgan of the ‫ר‬‫ח‬‫רחק‬
soulLastAdam
Christ. Put over againstAdam because ofthe 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 Romans
5:14.
Quickening spirit ( ‫ים‬‫ח‬‫͂שןנןין‬ ‫ייב‬‫ח‬‫נםו‬ )

Rev., life-giving. Not merely living, but imparting life. Compare John 1:4;
John 3:36; John 5:26, John 5:40; John 6:33, John 6:35; John 10:10; John
11:25;John 14:6. The period at which Christ became a quickening Spirit is
the resurrection, afterwhich His body beganto take on the characteristicsof
a spiritual body. See Romans 6:4; 1 Peter 1:21.
Wesley's ExplanatoryNotes
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last
Adam was made a quickening spirit.
The first Adam was made a living soul — God gave him such life as other
animals enjoy: but the lastAdam, Christ, is a quickening spirit - As he hath
life in himself, so he quickeneth whom he will; giving a more refined life to
their very bodies at the resurrection. Genesis 2:7
Abbott's Illustrated New Testament
The original of that part of the verse which is quoted, is found Genesis 2:7.
The antithesis consists in the distinction intended betweenthe words living
and quickening; the former meaning here life-receiving, the latter life-giving.
Calvin's Commentary on the Bible
45.As it is written, The first Adam was made Lest it should seemto be some
new contrivance as to the animal body, (113)he quotes Scripture, which
declares that Adam became a living soul, (Genesis 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 ‫,שינ‬ (nephesh,) which Moses makes use of, is takenin a variety of
senses;but in this passage itis taken to mean either vital motion, or the very
essenceoflife itself. The secondof these I rather prefer. I observe that the

same thing is affirmed as to beasts — that they were made a living soul,
(Genesis 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 lastAdam. This expressionwe do not find anywhere written. (114) Hence
the phrase,Itis 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 contrastbetweenChrist and
Adam. “Mosesrelates thatAdam was furnished with a living soul; Christ, on
the other hand, is endowedwith 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 powerhe 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 passagemaybe takenfrom the
eighth chapter of the Romans, where the Apostle declares, thatthe body,
indeed, is dead, on accountof sin, and we carry in us the elements of death;
but that the Spirit of Christ, who raisedhim up from the dead, dwelleth also
in us, and that he is life, to raise up us also one day from the dead. (Romans
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 ofregeneration. 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 conferredupon 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 lastAdam, the reasonis this, that as the
human race was createdin the first man, so it is renewedin Christ. I shall
express it again, and more distinctly: All men were createdin the first man,
because, whateverGoddesignedto give to all, he conferredupon that one
man, so that the condition of mankind was settledin 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, ortwo 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 Romans 5:12
Vv. 45. "And so it is written: the first man, Adam, was made a living soul; the
last Adam, a quickening spirit."
, not a proof strictly so
called, but simple agreementof thought. Hofmann even thinks that he may
detach this short proposition altogetherfrom what follows, and connectit
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 Genesis 2:7, it
seems as if the same should be the case with the following proposition, relative
to the lastAdam. But in the Old Testamenttext there is nothing
corresponding to this secondidea. How then are we to explain the course
takenby 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 secondproposition was takenfrom the Old Testament
as well as the first. Most commentators think that he found in the well-known
parallelism betweenthe two heads of humanity the right to introduce the
secondmember 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 necessaryto apply the: it is
written, to the verse as a whole. The first proposition is taken from a

universally known Scripture text. The secondis borrowedfrom the fact of the
equally well-knownappearance ofthe historic Christ, and Paul expresses it,
according to the law of contrast, on the model of the former. As Bengelsays:
"Caetera additex natur‫ג‬ oppositorum;" so that the first proposition alone
depends, in his view, on the: so it is written. The sequelwill still better explain
this procedure.
oment 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 ‫קחר‬ή ͂ῶ‫,בו‬ living soul, the equivalent
of psychical man (1 Corinthians 2:14), and to conclude from this comparison
that the was made implies the fall. The one point in question here is the factof
creation. The was made refers to the progress indicatedin the accountof
Genesis itself, according to which man, createdat first of the dust, afterwards
receivedthe 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 ὁ ἄ‫,ןןנשסטם‬ 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 ‫סנ‬ῶ‫,ןןי‬ first, with a view to the coming antithesis.
His objectis preciselyto trace the line which this man, who is yet only the
first, and not the final man, shall not be able to pass. This psychicalstate will
only be a point of departure; a new creative act will be neededto produce the
final man.
This limit of the natural man, this provisional maximum, is denoted by the
term ‫קחר‬ὴ ͂ῶ‫,בו‬ living soul. In the passagesGenesis1:20;Genesis 1:24, this
same expressionis 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, maybe 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
sovereigntyascribedto the human species inthis same accountof Genesis.
The meaning of the word ‫קחר‬ή, soul, must not be restrictedto 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 eachanimal
is distinguished by specialpowers, 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 ‫ןם‬ῦ‫,ן‬ mind,
whereby he distinguishes truth from falsehood, goodfrom evil; will, its own
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 ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫,בי‬ 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 notmention this specialelement 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 seatof the personality which, by the body,
communicates with the lower world and, by the spirit, with God in whose
image it is created. Fromthe standpoint of Genesis, the expressionliving soul
therefore denotes a terminal point, the goalof the first creation;whereas from
Paul"s point of view this goalwas a first stage, simply a state of expectation.
And this is what gives occasionto the secondpropositionadded by the apostle.
The first asserteda fulness, but also a void; and this void the secondserves to
fill.
Christ is calledAdam, to characterize Him as head of a race, no less than the
first. At the same time He is calledthe last. Why not the second, as in 1
Corinthians 15:47? Becausein consequence ofthe subject treatedthroughout
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 receivedto bring it to its final state.
There is found in the treatise NevSchaloman analogous expression:"Adamus
postremus estMessias."This agreementof Paul with the Rabbinical writing is
easilyexplained; for it is knownthat the Nev Schalomis the work of Rabbi
Abraham, of Catalonia, who died in 1492.

The lastAdam begins by realizing in Himself the perfectstate. He is ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫בי‬
efil[ gninekciuq a ,‫ם‬ῦ‫-͂שןנןין‬giving] 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 ‫ו‬ἰ‫ן‬ ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫,...בי‬ necessarilyleads us to supply the verb
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 eternallife" (John 4:14). As
Edwards says, "the soul is the object [the seat]of life; the spirit is the source
of life." The epithet ͂‫ןיןנןש‬ῦ‫,ם‬ quickening, is also applied to the ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫,בי‬ John
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 evernew force and
becoming, which made Him a quickening spirit? When He was createdas the
heavenly man, answers Holsten. We delay the examination of this idea of the
heavenly man, ascribedto Paul, till 1 Corinthians 15:45. At the time of the
incarnation, thinks Edwards: "Thenit 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
possessedfrom the beginning. Ambrosiaster, Grotius, Meyer, Heinrici, etc.,
made, become, relieve us from the necessityofchoosing betweenthese
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 powerof 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 psychicalbody,
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 betweenthe spirit of holiness, under the powerof which the Lord
lived on the earth, and His bodily glorification, Romans 1:4; Romans 8:11.
It may be askedwhether the epithet ͂‫ןיןנןש‬ῦ‫,ם‬ quickening, already points to
the influence which Christ will exercise overthe body of His own at the
Advent to glorify it like His own; comp. Philippians 3:21. It is evident that
Paul is tending to this idea, which he will express positively in 1 Corinthians
15:48-49;but for the present it is undoubtedly wisestto 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 seenthat the absence ofthe article before ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫בי‬
.rewsna siht fo ruovafniskaeps ‫ם‬ῦ‫͂שןנןין‬
But a question very naturally presented itself: How does it happen, that the
spiritual state being superior to the psychical state, Godwas pleasedto 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
takenby God, and which the apostle confines himself to stating here without
explaining it.
John Trapp Complete 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 calleda spirit from his Deity, as
Hebrews 9:14, and a quickening spirit, because he is the principle of life to all
believers.
Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible

1 Corinthians 15:45. The first man Adam was made a living soul;— An
animal with life, ‫—,חקחר‬ anima, whence animal in the preceding verses. See 1
Thessalonians 5:23 and the note on Genesis 2:7. The last clause is not a
quotation from Scripture, as some have thought, but what the Apostle adds on
occasionofthe quotation from Genesis;as if he had said, "Christis the last
Adam, as an illustrious type of the first (Romans 5:14.); and he hath in
himself a Spirit, with which he quickeneth whom he pleases, andin what
degree he pleases,—evenall his faithful saints." See John1:4; John 5:26 and
the 21stand 26th verses of this chapter.
Greek TestamentCritical ExegeticalCommentary
45.]Confirmation of this from Scripture.
noitatic ehT .dias tsuj neeb sah tahw htiw ecnadrocca ni .ziv ,suht,‫ישן‬ὕ‫ן‬
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
—bymeans of Godbreathing into him the breath of
life.
Messiah. The Rabbinicalwork Neve Shalomix. 9 (Sch‫צ‬ttgen), says:“Adamus
postremus estMessias:” see otherinstances in Sch‫צ‬ttg. ad loc.
ἔ‫,ןןיבקו‬ as being the last HEAD of humanity,—to be manifestedin the last
times: or merely in contrastto the first.
—became a quickening (life—bestowing)spirit.
When? This has been variously answered:see De Wette and Meyer. The
principal periods selectedare 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 secondAdam 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 embracedin these
words. That His resurrection-state alone is not intended, is evident from ἐ‫מ‬
saw eH.74:51 snaihtniroC 1 ,ῦ‫סבםן‬ὐ‫ן‬a ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫בי‬ ͂‫ןיןנןש‬ῦ‫,ם‬ even while in the ‫ו‬ῶ‫בי‬
noitcerruser eht si,‫ם‬ῦ‫-͂שןנןין‬life: see John5:21; John 5:28; Romans 8:11.
Heinrich Meyer's Critical and ExegeticalCommentaryon the New Testament
1 Corinthians 15:45. Scriptural confirmation for the ‫ו‬ἰ ἔ‫ייו‬ ‫ו‬ῶ‫בי‬ ‫.ר‬ ‫.ך‬ ‫.י‬ ‫.כ‬
sdnats ti,evoba dias neeb sah tahw otgnidnopserroc ,esnes siht ni.e.i,os ]‫יש‬ὕ‫ן‬
written also, etc. The passageis from Genesis 2:7 according to the LXX. ( ‫.ך‬
ὁ ἄ‫.סטם‬ ‫ו‬ἰ‫ן‬ ‫.ר‬ ͂.), but with the addition of the more precisely
ἔ‫ןןיבקו‬ ‫.ך‬ ‫.י‬ ‫.כ‬ that follow are words of the apostle, in which he gives an
explanation of his ‫ן‬ὕ‫שי‬ by calling attention, namely, to the opposite nature of
the lastAdam, 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
passageofScripture, in order to indicate that the ὁ ἔ‫ןןיבקו‬ … ͂‫ןיןנןש‬ῦ‫ם‬
follows as necessarilyfrom it according to its typical reference, as if the words
had been expressedalong with it.(80) He thus gives expressionto the inference
which is tacitly containedin the statement, by adding forthwith this self-
evident conclusionas if belonging also to the passageofScripture, because
posited for it by the inner necessityof the antithesis. When others, such as
a eb ot yllaer tnaem si .‫כ‬.‫י‬ .‫ך‬ ‫ןן‬
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, howeverfreely he handles passagesfrom the Old Testament
universally known statement, have been able to recognisein ὁ ἔ‫ןןיבקו‬ ‫.ך‬ ‫.י‬ ‫.כ‬
Bible words? According to Hofmann,

which only states that the distinction betweentwo kinds of human body is
scriptural. In order to demonstrate this scripturalness the apostle then applies
the passage Genesis 2:7. But againstthis it may be urged, first, that Paul is
that the reader could all the less think here of another use of the word, since in
reality at the moment a passage ofScripture, and that a universally familiar
thoughts aright in another directio.
‫ו‬ἰ‫רחק‬ ‫ן‬ὴ͂ ‫ם‬ῶ‫בה‬‫י‬ ]‫ח‬ ‫ח‬‫נינ‬‫נ‬ ‫יׁש‬]‫ובם‬ comp. Genesis 1:30, unto a living soul-nature, so
that thus the body of Adam must be formed as the receptacle andorgan of the
I. p. 133), but the susceptibility for it, which, however, did not fall within the
scope ofthe apostle her.
Schalom, 1 Corinthians 9:9 : “Adamus postremus ( ‫ןורחאה‬ ) 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
redeemedthrough 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 calledalso the secondAdam. Comp. 1 Corinthians
15:47.
efil a otnu ].‫͂שןנןי‬ ‫´ב‬ῦ‫נםו‬ ‫ן‬ἰ‫-ו‬giving spirit-
expressedthat the body of Christ became a ‫ו‬ῶ
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 R‫ה‬biger, 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 ‫ךיקחר‬ὸ‫ם‬ ‫ו‬ῶ‫בי‬ (only without sin, Romans
8:3), which ate, drank, slept, consistedofflesh and blood, suffered, died, etc.

The one correctanswerin accordancewith the context, since the point in
hand has regardto the resurrection(and see especially1 Corinthians 15:44),
can only be: after His death (comp. Hellwag i
and indeed through His resurrection, Christ became ‫ו‬ἰ‫ן‬ ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫בי‬ ͂‫.נןש‬ The body,
doubtless, of the RisenOne before His ascension(hence the Socinians think
and blood, still ate, drank, etc.;but it was immortal, and so changed(see
although it was only at the ascensionthat it entered upon its completion in
(Philippians 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(1 Corinthians 15:47),
Him u.
‫͂שןנןין‬ῦ‫ן‬ ]‫ם‬ὐ‫ו‬ ‫ך‬ἶ‫·נום‬‫ו‬ἰ‫נםו‬ ‫ן‬ῦ͂ ‫יב‬ῶ‫,ם‬ ἀ‫ככ‬ὰ ‫͂שןנןין‬ῦ‫י‬ ‫ם‬ὸ ‫יו‬ῖ‫ו‬ ‫͂ןם‬ἰ‫נ‬yhpoehT ,‫ם‬lact.
resurrection-life, which Christ, who has become ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫בי‬ ͂‫,.נןש‬ works atHis
Parousia. Comp. 1 Corinthians 15:22; Philippians 3:21; Colossians 3:4;1
Thessalonians 4:16;John 5:21 ff. This limitation of the reference of͂‫ןיןנןש‬ῦ‫,ם‬
made in accordance withthe context, shows that we have not here an
argument proving too much (in oppositionto Baur, neut. Theol. p. 197).
Johann Albrecht Bengel's Gnomonof the New Testament
1 Corinthians
ἄ‫ןןנשסטם‬ ‫ו‬ἰ‫ן‬ ‫קחר‬ὴ‫ם‬ ͂ῶ‫,םבו‬ man became a living soul. Paul adds other things in
accordancewith the nature of the contraries [the things antithetical to the
former.]— ofTSRIF eht,si taht (‫יןן‬ῶ‫נס‬r the lastis in antithesis to it; but in 1
Corinthians 15:47, ‫נס‬ῶ‫יןן‬ means the former of the two; for it is in antithesis to
‫,יוסןןהו‬ the second:and eachis there considered, as a model of the rest. ὁ
ἔ‫,וקביןן‬ the last, in like manner as ὁ ‫הו‬eht,‫יוסןן‬ second, points to Christ, not

to the whole human race in its perfect consummation.— ἀ‫ה‬ὰ‫)י‬ A proper name
here; but it is presently after repeated by antonomasia.(143)— efil,‫ם‬ὴ‫—רחק‬
soul) Hence ‫ךיקחר‬ὸ‫ם‬ living, animal, ]natural[ 1 Corinthians 15:44.— ὁ ἔ‫ןיבקו‬ ,‫ן‬
the last)Job 19:25. ‫,ןורחא‬ the same as he who is called ‫,יאנ‬ as is evident there
from the parallelism of the double predicate. Christ is last; the day of Christ is
the lastday, John 6:39 . [Christ is a Spirit, 2 Corinthians 3:17.—V. g.]—
uq,‫ם‬ῦ‫͂שןנןין‬ickening) He not only lives, but also makes alive.
Matthew Poole's EnglishAnnotations on the Holy Bible
The first part is written in Genesis 2:7, God breathed into man’s 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 lastAdam, by which he meaneth Christ, who in time was after the first
Adam, and was born in the lastdays, and was the last common Head; as
Adam was the first, with respectof natural and carnalpropagation, so Christ
was the last Head, in respectof 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 resurrectionfrom the dead, when, though he had the same
body, in respectof the substance ofit, yet it differed in qualities, and was
much more spiritual; with which body he ascendedup into heaven, clothed
with a power, as to quicken souls with a spiritual life, so also to quicken our
mortal bodies at his secondcoming, when he shall raise the dead out of their
graves.
Justin Edwards' Family Bible New Testament
It is written; Genesis 2:7. The quotation extends only to the first clause of the
verse.
The first man Adam; whose nature we all inherit.
Was made a living soul; see note to verse 1 Corinthians 15:44.

The lastAdam; Christ; to the nature of whose heavenly body our spiritual
bodies will be made like.
A quickening spirit; a spirit having life in himself, and bestowing spiritual life
and a spiritual body upon all who are his.
Cambridge Greek Testamentfor Schools andColleges
he 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 secondpart? See John 5:21; John
6:33; John 6:39-40;John 6:54; John 6:57; John 11:25. The citationis from the
Hebrew.
in the A.V. As instances of the former see Matthew 10:39;Matthew 16:25; of
the latter, Matthew 10:28;Matthew 16:26. We must not press this so far as to
say that before Christ came man had no ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫בי‬ or spiritual nature (though the
Hebrew word corresponding to ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫בי‬ is noticeably absent in Genesis 2:7), but
we are justified in saying that until Christ recreatedand redeemed humanity
the higher nature existedonly 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, perceptionand a moral sense, with
powerto form a societyand to subdue nature to himself.’ Robertson.
humanity. Thus to be in Christ is calleda ‘new creation,’2 Corinthians 5:17
(cf. Galatians 6:15). He is calledthe ‘new man,’ ‘createdafter God in
righteousness andholiness,’Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10, Whom we are to
‘put on,’ Romans 13:14; Galatians 3:27. ‘For being from above and from
heaven, and God by nature and Emmanuel, and having receivedour likeness,
and become a secondAdam, how shall He not richly make them partakers of
His Own Life, who desire to partake of the intimate union effectedwith Him
by faith? Forby the mystic blessing we have become embodied into Him, for
we have been made partakers ofHim by the Spirit.’ Cyril of Alexandria. See
Tertullian De Res. Carnis c. 49 ‘Nam et supra novissimus Adam dictus, de

consortio substantiae commercium nominis traxit, quia nec Adam ex semine
caro quod et Christus.’
ndlast note; also Romans
6:11; 2 Corinthians 3:6; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Ephesians 2:5; Colossians 2:13;
Colossians 3:4. ‘He does not call the secondAdam 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 ideal of life. We use the
word lively in a similar manner. The word is really kindred to the Latin vivus
and the French vie.
William Godbey's Commentary on the 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 createdman, 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 Godbreathed
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 effectof the human spirit thus imparted was to conferimmortality on the
human soul alreadyexisting as a result of creation;because Godnever
createdanything dead. Hence we must conclude that when He createdAdam
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 Wesleyand others in their conclusionthat the animals are
immortal and will be raised from the dead. While the body of man is a mere
animal, he has the additional elementof 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 souland body
like the first Adam, is different from and superior to His predecessorin the
fact that He is a life-creating spirit, i. e., none other than the very and eternal
God who createdthe universe, and this same SecondAdam 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 SecondPersonof the Trinity, who (Colossians
1) is certified to have createdall things in Heavens and in earth, visible and
invisible, involving the conclusionthat Omnipotence becomes creative in the
SecondPersonof the Trinity.
MAN CREATED
PeterPett's Commentary on the Bible
'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' (Genesis 2:7). When man was first createdGod breathed into him
and he became a living being with a body of flesh, and he passedon life to
those who followedhim. 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 contrastthe lastAdam 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 beganthe old creation, and passedon earthly life to his
children, a life he had receivedfrom 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 (1 John 3:2).

We note that Jesus is the last Adam, not the second. Jesus Christis the
ultimate, the final life-giver. There cannever 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 resurrectionwhich
made Christ a life-giving Spirit and that He had not been so before. What it
did do was revealHim 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’ (John 5:21; John 5:26). But nevertheless He also declared
Himself to be the One Who would give final resurrectionlife (John 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 restorationof the creationseento 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 (John 1:4) and it was from Him that Adam receivedhis life (John 1:3-4).
And He could therefore confidently declare 'I am the Life' (John 14:6; John
11:35). The giver of life to Adam. The source of life for His own. Yet it will be
through the resurrectionthat that fact will be especiallymanifestedin the
raising of men to a perfect life so that He could declare ‘I am the resurrection
and the life’ (John 11:35). So Jesus, Johnand Paul agree together.
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
45. So—In accordancewith this distinction betweenthe soulicaland the
spiritual, it is written in Genesis 2:7.
Was made a living soul—Paulquotes 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. Poortruly says, no argument for immortality could
be drawn, for our English translationwrongly conceals thatin Genesis 1:20-
21; Genesis 1:24, the words severallyrendered creature that hath life, living
creature, living creature, are in the Hebrew preciselythe same as here for
living soul, which last is the true translation in every case. Yeta most

remarkable difference betweenthe case ofthe 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 suchin accordancewithGod’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 lastclause, the last… quickening spirit, is Paul’s; and, as equally inspired,
is equally good. Yet it may be Paul’s equivalent for Genesis 2:7, “breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life,” expressedin form to balance the antithesis.
Christ is a quickening, that is, an alive-making, spirit, by the resurrectionof
men wrought by him.
Expository Notes ofDr. Thomas Constable
The natural body is physical, the product of Adam who receivedlife from God
( Genesis 2:7). That life resides in a body characterizedas "soulish" (i.e, alive
with material and immaterial components). It eventually dies. However, the
resurrectionbody is spiritual, the product of Jesus Christ, the secondAdam,
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.
Moreoverit 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 Jeremiah , ""Life-Giving Spirit": Probing the Center of Paul"s
Pneumatology," Journalof the EvangelicalTheologicalSociety41:4
(December1998):573-89.]
Schaff's Popular Commentary on the New Testament
1 Corinthians 15:45. So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living
soul (Genesis 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 expressed—His
becoming the secondHead of humanity, who would more than undo the evil
done by the first—was never dreamt of by them.
Copyright Statement
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesyof BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Bibliography
Schaff, Philip. "Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:45". "Schaff's Popular
Commentary on the New Testament".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/scn/1-corinthians-15.html.
1879-90.
return to 'Jump List'
The Expositor's Greek Testament
1 Corinthians 15:45 puts into words of Scripture the law of development
affirmed, thereby showing its agreementwith the plan of creationand its
realisationin the two successive heads ofthe race. Into his citation of Genesis
2:7 (LXX) P. introduces ‫סנ‬ῶ‫ןןי‬ and duplicates ἄ
to prepare for his antithetical addition ὁ ἔ‫ןןיבקו‬ ἀ‫ה‬ὰ‫י‬‫ו‬ἰ‫ן‬ ‫וםנ‬ῦ‫בי‬ ͂‫ןיןנןש‬ῦ‫.ם‬ On
the principle of 1 Corinthians 15:44 b, the Adam createdas ‫קחר‬ὴ was the
crude beginning of humanity (the pred. ‫קחר‬ὴ ͂ῶ‫בו‬ is sharedby A. with the
animals, Genesis 1:20;Genesis 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 (Romans 5:12 ff.), but as the rudimentary and
finished man respectively, with their physique to match.— ni detaeper si‫י‬ὰ‫בה‬
the secondclause by way of maintaining the humanity of Christ and His
genetic relation to the protoplast (cf. Luke 1:23-38), essentialas the ground of

our bodily relationship to Him (1 Corinthians 15:48 f.; cf. Hebrews 2:14 ff.).—
Corinthians 15:42 ff., can only be His resurrection from the grave (Est.,
Gr(2544), Mr(2545), Hn(2546), Hf(2547), El(2548)), whichsupplies the hinge
of Paul’s whole argument (cf. Romans 1:4; Romans 6:4 ff; Romans 10:9, etc.);
not the incarnation (Thp(2549), Bz(2550), Baur, Ed(2551)), forHis pre-
Philippians 2:7, etc.). By rising from th —He
entered on the spiritual and ultimate form of human existence;and at the
—He entered this state so as to
communicate it to His fellows:cf. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23, Colossians1:18,
Revelation1:5; also Romans 8:10 f., 2 Corinthians 4:14; John 6:33; John
11:25;John 14:19, etc. The action of Jesus in “breathing” upon His disciples
while He said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22 f.), symbolised the
vitalising relationship which at this epochHe assumedtowards mankind; this
act raisedto a higher potency the original “breathing” of Godby 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. John 3:34; John 4:14; John
5:25 f.; Hebrews 7:25.— ὁ ἔ‫ןןיבקו‬ ἄ‫ןןנשסטם‬ recalls the Rabbinicaltitle,
ha’ad‫ג‬m ha’achar‫י‬n, 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, basedon the duplicate narrative of Genesis 1, 2—the ideal “man after
the image of God” and the actual“man of the dust of the earth”—withwhich
Pfleiderer and others identify Paul’s ‫סנ‬ῶ‫ןןי‬ and ἔ‫,ןןיבקו‬ ‫ךתןק‬ὸ‫ן‬ and
(b) both Paul’s Adams are equally concrete;(c) the resurrectionof Christ
distinguishes their respective periods, a crisis the conceptionof which is
foreign to Philo’s theology;(d) moreover, Genesis 1:26 is referred in 1
Corinthians 11:7 above to the historical, not the ideal, First Man.
Copyright Statement

Bibliography
Nicol, W. Robertson, M.A., L.L.D. "Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:45".
The Expositor's Greek Testament.
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/egt/1-corinthians-15.html.
1897-1910.
Mark Dunagan Commentary on the Bible
1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living
soul. The last Adam {became} a life-giving spirit.
"So also it is written"- Genesis 2:7
"The first man Adam"-Paul doesn"thold the view that a pre-Adamitic race
of men lived on the earth and were destroyed prior to Adam. Paul did believe
that Adam and Eve were actualhistorical persons. (1 Timothy 2:13-15)
"became a living soul"-"became a human being" (TCNT). The reference in
Genesis 2:7 is describing the formation of Adam"s physical body. The passage
that points out that Adam also had a soul or spirit is 1:26-27.
"The last Adam"-Christ
"a life-giving spirit"-"We receive a ("living-soul") body fitted for life in this
world from Adam; we receive a ("life-giving spirit" ( a body fitted for life in
the world to come) from Christ." (Willis p. 579)(1 Corinthians 15:22)
Copyright Statement

Bibliography
Dunagan, Mark. "Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:45". "Mark Dunagan
Commentaries on the Bible".
https:https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/dun/1-corinthians-15.html.
1999-2014.
E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes
And so, &c. = So it has been written also. We have the proofs from nature and
analogyof the variety and resources in the Divine working, and the testimony
of the Word besides.
was made. Literally became into. Greek. egeneto eis. The exactexpression
used in Genesis 2:7 (Septuagint)
soul. Greek. psuche. App-110.
a quickening spirit = into (eis) a quickening spirit. See John 5:21.
spirit. App-101.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Unabridged
And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last
Adam was made a quickening spirit. So - in accordancewith the distinction
betweenthe natural, or animal-souled, and the spiritual bodies.
It is written (Genesis 2:7), "Manbecame (was made to become)[ egeneto
(Greek #1096)eis (Greek #1519)]a living soul" - i:e., endowedwith an animal
soul, the living principle of his body.
The lastAdam - the LAST Head of humanity, who is to be fully manifested in
the lastday, which is His day (John 6:39). He is so calledin Job 19:25;note
there. (Compare Romans 5:14.) In contrastto "the last," Paulcalls "man"
"the FIRST Adam."

Quickening - not only living, but making alive (John 5:21; John 6:33; John
6:39-40;John 6:54; John 6:57; John 6:62-63;John 11:25;Romans 8:11;
"Christ IS the resurrectionand the life;" not merely gives them: the gift is not
held by the recipient independently of the Giver, but by the believer becoming
"one spirit" with Him (Isaiah26:19; 1 Corinthians 6:17). As the animal-
souled body (1 Corinthians 15:44)is the fruit of our union with the first
Adam, an animal-souled man, so the spiritual body is the fruit of our union
with the secondAdam, the quickening Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17). Since He
became representative of all humanity in His union of the two natures, He
exhausted in His own person the sentence ofdeath passedon all, and giveth
spiritual and everlasting life to whom He will.
The Bible Study New Testament
For the scripture says. Paulparaphrases Genesis 2:7 Septuagint, which says
that Adam was createda living being. [PSUCHE means both soul and life,
according to the context, PSUCHEN ZOSAN here means living being.] This is
life in the animal or natural sense. Is the life-giving Spirit. The natural body
depended upon the presence of the soul for its life. Our spiritual bodies will
not be such fragile things. Paul implies a FUSING of our triune nature in 1
Thessalonians 5:23. But there is no way we can know just what this will be.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(45) And so it is written.—Better, And so it is written, The first man Adam
became a living soul: the lastAdam became a quickening spirit. The quotation
which follows here is from Genesis 2:7, and it is the latter part of that verse
which is quoted. The Rabbinical explanation of that passagewas—thatGod
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 lowerthing by his own actof
disobedience. Here, then, St. Paul, contrasts the two Adams—the first man
and Christ—from 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 secondAdam, by
his obedience, became a life-giving spirit, and from Him we inherit the
spiritual nature in us. The same verb which is expressedin the first clause
must be understood in the secondclause. The same thought is expressedin
Romans 5:19.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
SPURGEON,"Jesus is the federal head of his elect. As in Adam, every heir of
flesh and blood has a personalinterest, because he is the covenant head and
representative of the race as consideredunder the law of works;so under the
law of grace, everyredeemedsoul is one with the Lord from heaven, since he
is the SecondAdam, the Sponsorand Substitute of the electin the new
covenantof love. The apostle Pauldeclares that Levi was in the loins of
Abraham when Melchizedek met him: it is a certain truth that the believer
was in the loins of Jesus Christ, the Mediator, when in old eternity the
covenantsettlements of grace were decreed, ratified, and made sure for ever.
Thus, whateverChrist hath done, he hath wrought for the whole body of his
Church. We were crucified in him and buried with him (read Col. 2:10-13),
and to make it still more wonderful, we are risen with him and even ascended
with him to the seats onhigh (Eph. 2:6). It is thus that the Church has fulfilled
the law, and is "acceptedin the beloved." It is thus that she is regardedwith
complacencyby the just Jehovah, for he views her in Jesus, anddoes not look
upon her as separate from her covenanthead. As the Anointed Redeemerof
Israel, Christ Jesus has nothing distinct from his Church, but all that he has
he holds for her. Adam's righteousness was ours so long as he maintained it,
and his sin was ours the moment that he committed it; and in the same
manner, all that the SecondAdam is or does, is ours as well as his, seeing that
he is our representative. Here is the foundation of the covenantof grace. This
gracious systemof representationand substitution, which moved Justin
Martyr to cry out, "O blessedchange, O sweetpermutation!" this is the very

groundwork of the gospelof our salvation, and is to be receivedwith strong
faith and rapturous joy."
The RealMan
By Jerry N. Watts
Bible Book:1 Corinthians 15 : 45-49
Subject: Manhood
All of my life I have had my own personalconceptof what it means to be a
REAL man. Understand, I never gave it much “thought”, I simply watch dad,
papaw, my uncles, men friends, and others to decide what manhood is all
about. Know what I discovered? Mostof us men have given little thought to
being or becoming a real man, we just kind of “gravitated” into the role.
Candidly, as I reachedmy middle age years, I sensedthat maybe I didn’t have
it all “right” or altogetheronthis issue. So for the past severalyears my
passionhas become to engage menon the issue of becoming real men and how
to become real men.
By lunch tomorrow my desire is for you and I to have either discoveredor
reaffirmed what God is calling us to be and do.
Although in His word, God doesn’t write out the “definition” of a man, we are
certainly given picture after picture of what a Godly man looks like.
Turn in your Bible to 1 Corinthians 15 and let’s begin our journey for the
next few minutes about manhood. (READ TEXT)
Robert Lewis tells the old story about a man who always wanted to go to the
Super Bowl and could never gettickets. Finally, he found a ticket, bought it,
and arrived at the stadium to discoverthat his seatwas in this “nosebleed”
section. The only thing he could see would require binoculars. All during the
first half he watchedboth the game and the crowd. He was looking for a
vacant seatsomewhere closerto the field. He thought that surely someone

would get sick, have a family emergency, or even have a caraccidentand be
unable to make it to the game.
Just before half, he saw it, a vacantseaton the 50 yard line next to an old
man. At half-time, he made his way down to row 10 and spoke to the man
about the vacantseat. “Sure you can sit here. Foryears, this seatwas my
wife’s but she died so make yourself at home and enjoy the game.”
Just as he took his seatthe secondhalf startedand he couldn’t believe it - only
10 rows away from the 50 yard line – at the Super Bowl. Wow! Surely it
doesn’t getany better than this!
As the third quarter ended, the man came back to reality and began to think
about this older gentleman. Turning to him he said, “Thank you so much for
letting me sit here, but I’m curious, I can’ t believe you couldn’t get one of
your friends to come to the SUPER BOWL with you.” With a tear in his eye,
the older man said, “They’re all at the funeral home.”
Now, that was an inconsiderate man. Forthe next few minutes, let’s consider
a couple thoughts which will be the spring board of all that the break out
leaders and our keynote speakerwill offer. We are going to consider, “A Real
Man.”
I. The Common View of Manhood
Some will, no doubt, be upset by what is about to be said. But my request of
ask every man here is that we lay aside our pride and our preconceptions for
the next 15-18 minutes and simply open our minds and hearts to another way
of thinking. This is not a new way, but rather an old (Old, Old) way of
thinking – God’s wayof thinking! Let the thoughts permeate your mind and
give a fair hearing and considerationto these truths so that the Holy Spirit
can use them to speak to our souls.
The common view of manhood to is difficult to express. Why? It is difficult to
express because so many are trying to define it. Forus, “southern males,”
manhood is almostalways about being the “most”, the “best”, and even the
“toughest.” As teenagers,this was drilled into us. The young man who scored
the most touchdowns, had the highest batting average, orscoredthe most

buckets was obviously the realman. By the way, the real man didn’t ever
express emotion, was literally insensitive, and could dominate those around
him. Then, starting about 20 or 30 years ago, as some of us came into
adulthood, the idea developedand was discussedthat men need to get in touch
with their “feminine side.” Thatwas a real winner. Honestly, I have looked
me overand there is nothing about me that looks or feels feminine.
A. The Facts aboutthis View of Manhood
The fact is that today we have a flawed conceptof manhood. Some of this has
come from dictating dads and manipulating moms as wellas uninformed
people. Mostof the time, this is done in and out of ignorance. Fromthe home
to the work ethic to sexuality, we live in a culture which is attempting to
redefine what God has designed. The results are horrendous.
Yesterday I satwith a few friends and askedthem if anyone had ever taught
them what manhood is or even had ever given them a definition of true,
Biblical manhood. The answerfrom everyone at that table was ‘no’. What is
sadder than that is that we live in a culture which gives conflicting and
confusing messagesaboutmanhood like I’ve already mentioned.
Is it any wonder that the ‘central problem of every societyis to define the
appropriate or correctroles for men.’ And when a culture is divided over the
role of men, that societyis doomed for ultimate failure. Dr. Lewis tells us that
the “#1 fearamong Junior High Students is that dad is going to leave mom.”
Why is this? This fear in large measure, in the USA, is due to the fatherless
societyas many men are MIA today. They are missing in action when it comes
to taking on the “Spiritual and developmental” responsibility for their
families. Foryou see, “as men go, so goes the life of a society.”
B. The Fallout from this View of Manhood
Conflicting messages aboutmasculinity have takena huge toll on men. In
Men’s Fraternity some of the first things we learned was “manhoodis in a
state of confusion,” “confusedmen cause problems,” and “confusedmen settle
for less.”

Before we take issue with all this confusion, considersome of the results of
having a confusedmasculinity in a culture; the men lack direction and are
troubled, women suffer and fight for their equality and protection, and family
life disintegrates while children are hurt. In essence societyas a whole
becomes troubled. I challenge to read the paper and watchthe news for the
next 7 days and debunk these truths.
II. The Contrasting Views of Manhood
From the scripture we have read and in other passages, we discovertwo
contrastedtwo views of manhood. In 1 Corinthians 15 they are spokenof as
the “FirstAdam” and the “LastAdam,” the first man and the secondman,
and the man of dust and the man of heaven. We know these two men as Adam
and Jesus. We’ll contrastthese two types of manhood as AcceptedManhood
(Adam) and Authentic Manhood (Jesus). At the end of our time, I will ask you
to decide which of these two represents you right now. And then ask, “Are you
satisfied?”
A. AcceptedManhood
We begin talking about the AcceptedManhood. Know why I term this the
“acceptedmanhood?” BecauseIam a simple personand simply put, this style
of manhood is readily accepted, if not expected. We first see it in Genesis 3 in
the fall of mankind. Isn’t it interesting that the first time the man (Adam) fails
to be what God designedhim to be, that all of mankind bears the shame and
the consequencesfor all time. Genesis 3 is a familiar passagebecause itis
known as “the fall” which is the first actof sin in the Bible. Let’s read how
this happened. (READ 1-6) All of my life I thought that Adam must have been
on the other side of the gardenwhen this took place, but the scripture tells us
that Adam was with her. What happened to the man who receivedGod’s
direct word “don’t eat of the tree?” At the very time He needed to step
forward, getactive, show leadership, and stand for the right, he went passive.
Perhaps he and Eve had already had some trying discussions and he didn’t
want to aggravate the situation, so he allowedher to make a decisionto be
disobedient to God.
AcceptedManhood Authentic Manhood

What a man does What a man is
Competition with other men Community with other men
Temporal powerTranscendentpower
Personalrewards Eternalrewards
Self Others
SuccessSignificance
Men, I know this is not popular today, but by the order of creationand His
words, God designedAdam to lead. Did you realize that God did not speak
directly to the womanuntil Adam directed God’s attention there? In case you
perceive this is a ‘put-down’ for women, this has nothing to do with the
respectfor women and men rather with the responsibility. Since the Garden
of Eden, God has designedand expectedmen to lead. And not just lead to the
ball-fields, fishing hole, and hunting stands, but also to the cross. Yet, the
acceptedmanhood of our day paints a picture of men who focuses on this
fleshly existence, basesdecisionsonhuman reasonand personal instinct, has
no real view of God and eternity, & as Genesis says and Paul writes, he is just
a living soul and that’s all.
B. Authentic Manhood
Now let’s talk about the Authentic Manhood. Have you ever had a day or even
period of time in your life when you felt like everything you did had the
reverse effectof what you were trying to do? You attempt to repair your car
and instead of it cranking it won’t even fire. You try to please your wife and,
probably not a goodillustration, but you getthe idea. I would suspectthat
Adam might have felt the same way and certainly the legacyhe presented us,
left some deep scars. However, the Last man, the 2nd Adam - Jesus the Lord,
gave us a model of manhood which we can like, learn from, and live by. Let’s
take a look at what Jesus did. And let’s look at Him in the midst of the
emotional upheaval at Gethsemane. Fromthis experience, let’s write down

and remember a definition of an authentic man. This didn’t originate with
me, but it is worth knowing.
A real man is one who rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, leads
courageously, and expects a greaterreward, God’s reward.
In Deuteronomy 6, God tells the Children of Israel to LOVE HIM with all
their heart, souls, mind, and strength. Do you know how important that was
to God? God’s instructions were to “repeatit to your children, talk about it
when you sit down, lie down, walk around, or get up. Put it on your hand,
your forehead, and your doorpost. It’s that important.”
At the critical time in the garden, Adam went passive. At the criticaltime in
different garden Jesus said, “Notmy will but Thy will.” Jesus was activelyin
the place where His Fathertold Him to be. He wasn’tactive or accepts His
responsibility because it was easy, but because it was His. RoySmith said it
this way, “The ability to acceptresponsibility is the measure of a man.” Have
you ever consideredall the responsibility God has place on our shoulders as
men? Mostof us would say, yes, I teachmy kids about guns, girls, and guts.
But what about the most important things in life? This is the area of leading
courageously. Being a real man is not for wimps. It requires courage, spiritual
courage to stand for truth, right and the gospelin a culture that will demean
and dumb you down. To lead courageously, we must masterone huge
obstacle. Thatis, “feelings.”The greatestwayto master these is to keepyour
eyes on the prize and expectthat greaterrewardof hearing Jesus say, “WELL
DONE.”
Men, I have attempted to encapsulate HOURS of truths we need to hear into
just a few minutes. Years ago, John Eldridge spoke to the masculine mentality
with a book entitled, “Wild at Heart.” While His conceptabout God needs
tweaking, but John nailed the triggerin the heart of a man. He wrote every
man has an adventure to live, a battle to fight, and a beauty to win. The real
man is living out His dream because it is God’s dream for Him. “Trust in the
Lord, and HE will give you the desires of your heart.” Having heard about
these two, which one are you?

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