Lessons #539 and 540
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New American Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
+ 4. Text is based on 1984 edition of the NIV +
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Resurrection Related Matters (1 Cor 15:20-28)
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23 But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 For he “has put everything under his feet.” Now when it says that “everything” has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28 When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.
In the preceding section of 1 Corinthians 15:12-19 Apostle Paul was concerned with the implications of denial of resurrection absolutely and so with its message which is that Denial of the resurrection of Christ implies that the Christian faith is false, and no one would be eternally saved. But in our present section of 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 he is concerned with resurrection related matters. The first resurrection related matter is the confirmation of Christ’s resurrection in view of the preceding section. This matter of confirmation of Christ’s resurrection is given in verse 20. The second resurrection related matter the apostle is concerned with involve the causal agents or means of death and resurrection as he discoursed in verses 21 to 22. The third resurrection matter concerns resurrection order that includes the conclusion of God’s plan in relation to His creation discoursed in verses 23-28. Based on these resurrection related matters we have given; we derive the message we believe the Holy Spirit wants us to convey to you the believer in Christ. This message is: Christ’s resurrection ensures orderly future resurrection and successful conclusion of God’s plan in relationship to creation. As we expound the passage before us, it will become clearer how this message was derived.
It is our assertion that the first resurrection matter is the confirmation of Christ’s resurrection. This makes sense in that after the apostle had stated various implications of denying resurrection absolutely that he would follow that with a declaration of the reality of Christ’s resurrection along with what that entails. This aside, our assertion is based on the fact that verse 20 in the Greek begins with a Greek phrase comprised of two particles. The first is a Greek word (nyni) that may mean “now” as an adverb of time with focus on the moment. This is the way the apostle used it as he defended himself against Jewish accusations before Governor Felix as we read in Acts 24:13:
And they cannot prove to you the charges they are now making against me.
The word may mean “in fact” as the apostle used it in the imagery he used to argue for unity in the body of Christ by referencing that each part of the human body has been arranged as God wanted to ensure the body functions correctly as we read in 1 Corinthians 12:18:
But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
The second particle used in verse 20 is a Greek word (de) that may be used to connect one clause to another, either to express contrast or simple continuation but in certain occurrences the marker may be left untranslated. Although it is often translated “but” in the English when there is a perceived contrast between two clauses, but it has other meanings such as “now,” “then,” “and,” “so” when it is used to link segments of a narrative. It can also be used to indicate transition to something new. The use of the meaning “but” appears more times in the Greek NT to express contrast than any of its other usages. For example, it is a word used when Jesus contrasts what should be the right way to pray to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees as He stated in the Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew 6:6:
But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Anyway, when the two Greek words we have considered form a phrase that begins a clause, the combined words in the Greek that may be translated literally but now could be interpreted in one of two ways. The resultant phrase could be understood to mean “as the situation is” in which case it could be translated “but now” or “as it is” as the word is used by Apostle Paul to recognize the situation he was in, in which he does what he did not want to do, implying that sin, present as a force in him was working in him as we read in Romans 7:17:
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.
Another interpretation of the combined Greek particles as a phrase is that the Greek phrase introduces the real situation after an unreal conditional clause or sentence that precedes the usage of the phrase and so the phrase may be used to introduce the real situation after an unreal conditional clause or sentence with the translation “but, as a matter of fact” or any other phrase that conveys in an emphatic manner that something that follows is real in contrast to the unreality of what preceded it. It in this second interpretation of the Greek phrase that Apostle Paul used it in the context of the passage we cited previously, that is, 1 Corinthians 12:18:
But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
The translators of the NIV rendered the Greek phrase appropriately as but in fact so also the English versions that begin the verse with But as a matter of fact or something that expresses the fact that what is presented next is a reality in contrast to what has been said in the preceding verses. The reason for asserting that this interpretation is appropriate is because the apostle introduced things that were not real in 1 Corinthians 12:15–17:
15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
However, in verse 18, he introduced that which is a reality hence we are correct in our interpretation. The same use of the combined Greek phrase used in 1 Corinthians 15:20 that literally translates “but now” is used to describe the reality of the one sacrifice of Christ that settled forever the matter of sin, so to speak, as the Greek phrase is used by the human author of Hebrews as we read in Hebrews 9:26:
Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Although the Greek phrase we are considering is translated But now in Hebrew 9:26, nonetheless, it is used to state what is real, in that Christ appeared on this planet to die for our sins as in the sentence he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. This sentence is preceded by two unreal situations stated in Hebrews 9:24–25:
24 For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.
The author of Hebrews stated two things that did not happen in these two verses. In verse 24, he indicated that Christ did not enter man-made sanctuary. In verse 25, he indicated that Christ did not enter heaven to offer Himself in a repeated sacrifice. After these two things that did not happen, the human author of Hebrews stated in verse 26 what actually happened. Thus, it was fitting that the combined Greek words or the Greek phrase that literally translates “but now” is used to begin the second sentence of verse 26.
Be that as it may, it is our interpretation that it is the second interpretation of the combined Greek particles at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15:20 as a phrase that introduces a real situation in an emphatic manner after an unreal conditional clause or sentence that precedes the usage of the phrase is applicable to our verse. The translators of the NIV rendered the combined Greek particles as but…indeed to convey that what is stated is real after the apostle had used two unreal conditions in his argument regarding the reality of resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:17–19:
17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18 Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
In this passage, there are two unreal conditions the apostle stated. The first supposes that Christ was not resurrected as in the clause of verse 17 And if Christ has not been raised. This states what is not true but for the sake of the apostle’s argument he states what is unreal. The second supposes that believers have hope only in this life as in the clause of verse 19 If only for this life we have hope in Christ. The Scripture reveals that we have hope beyond this life so what the apostle states is something that is unreal. Having stated these two unreal situations, the apostle proceeded to state what is real in verse 20 where the Greek phrase is rendered in the NIV as but…indeed that indicates that the apostle was emphatic in what he stated. Other English versions, such as the ESV, conveyed the emphasis using the phrase “but in fact.” Nonetheless, the apostle emphatically confirmed the truth of the resurrection of Christ. This confirmation of the truth of resurrection of Christ was made more direct by such English versions as the TEV, the Message, and the REB that began verse 20 with the clause But the truth is.
The truth that the apostle emphatically confirmed is the resurrection of Christ as in the sentence of verse 20 Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. The expression “been raised” is translated from a Greek word (egeirō) with a range of meanings. The word may mean “to wake from sleep” as it is used to describe what the disciples of the Lord Jesus did when He was asleep and there was violent storm during a boat ride of the disciples along with the Lord as we read in Matthew 8:25:
The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
The word may mean “to raise up from sickness,” that is, to restore to health as in the promise of healing through prayer of faith given in James 5:15:
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven.
The word may mean “to cause to return to life” after death hence means “to raise up.” The raising up to life is of two kinds. A person who died but is caused to return to life, that is, resuscitation, might still die at a later time as was the case with Lazarus that Jesus Christ raised from the dead as referenced in the records of John 12:17:
Now the crowd that was with him when he called Lazarus from the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to spread the word.
The other kind of being caused to return to life involves a state where death could no longer occur or be experienced by the one raised up from the dead. It is this kind of returning to life after death that is best described with the word “resurrect” that is applicable to Jesus Christ since His body did not decay before He came back to life. In effect, when Apostle Paul used the Greek word translated “raised” from death in our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:20, he meant that Jesus Christ resurrected, no more to die. The apostle used a perfect tense in the Greek implying that the apostle wanted to convey the present state of Christ that resulted from the past action of His resurrection. In effect, the apostle was not merely stating something that happened in the past but focuses on the present state of Jesus Christ. He was raised from the dead, and He remains alive at the present time. Of course, the apostle used the passive voice in the Greek implying an agent was involved in the resurrection of Christ. His interest is not to mention the agent at this point since his focus was on the reality of Christ’s resurrection. However, the agent of resurrection is God.
Anyway, the apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:20 Christ has indeed been raised from the dead. The word “dead” is translated from a Greek word (nekros) that literally pertains to being in a state of loss of life and so means “lifeless, dead.” It is in the literal sense that the word is used to describe a person whose life has left his or her body so that we say that the person is dead. However, the adjective is used figuratively to describe a person who is morally or spiritually deficient so that the person is said to be dead. It is in the sense of being morally deficient that the word is used to describe the wayward or prodigal son in Luke 15:24:
For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
In a figurative sense, the word may mean “unfaithfulness” or “inactive” in spiritual matters, as it is used to describe the local church in Sardis in Revelation 3:1:
“To the angel of the church in Sardis write: These are the words of him who holds the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Of course, there is the implication that the local church was dead in the sense of being hypocritical in that its members gave an impression of spiritual vitality that was not true. The word can also mean one that is without spiritual life as evident in the person being annoyingly insensitive to spiritual things. It is this kind of person that Jesus described in Luke 9:60:
Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
In this passage of Luke 9, the word “dead” appears twice. In the first usage, it refers to those who are spiritually dead and in the second it refers to those who died physically. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:20, the word means “dead” in the sense of people not physically alive.
In any case, the apostle not only stated emphatically that Christ is raised from the dead, but he went on to confirm that He is alive and remains alive in heaven since he described Him in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:20 the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
The word “firstfruits” is translated from a Greek word (aparchē) that may mean “firstfruits, first portion” as it is used in the Septuagint in a literal sense to describe the instruction of Yahweh to Israel regarding what they were to offer to Him from their harvest as recorded in Numbers 15:17–21:
17 The LORD said to Moses, 18 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘When you enter the land to which I am taking you 19 and you eat the food of the land, present a portion as an offering to the LORD. 20 Present a cake from the first of your ground meal and present it as an offering from the threshing floor. 21 Throughout the generations to come you are to give this offering to the LORD from the first of your ground meal.
It is in the literal sense that Apostle Paul used the word in his illustrations from Israel’s practice of offering first portion of their harvest to God to explain in which way Gentiles have become God’s people through being grafted into Israel as we read in Romans 11:16:
If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
Some of our English versions such as the NET rendered the Greek word as “first portion” while others such as the TEV rendered it “first piece.” By the way, Israel’s firstfruits that are indeed the first sample of grain or fruit offered to God symbolized a promise or pledge to Israel and their confident expectation that the rest of the harvest is guaranteed. Figuratively, the word was used to refer to the first convert to the Christian faith in Asia as stated in Romans 16:5:
Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.
The phrase the first convert is literally the first fruits. Still figuratively, the word may have the sense of “guarantee or pledge or birth certificate” as it is used by Apostle Paul to describe the Holy Spirit given to believers in Romans 8:23:
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
The word may mean “beginning” as Apostle Paul used it to describe the election of the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 2:13:
But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:20, the word has the sense of “first” or “firstfruits”, that is, the first element in a countable series of resurrection of the dead. However, the apostle in using the Greek word that we said has the sense of “first” or “firstfruits” meant to convey that Jesus’ resurrection guarantees future resurrection in proper time and sequence.
Christ, the apostle states, is the first to be raised from the dead in the sense of never to die again since he used the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:20 the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. The expression “fallen asleep” is translated from a Greek word (koimaō) that may mean “to fall asleep” in a literal sense as the word is used to describe Apostle Peter sleeping in jail in Acts 12:6:
The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance.
The word may mean “to fall asleep” figuratively in the sense of “to die” as it is used to describe the death of Lazarus by the Lord Jesus as we may gather from John 11:11–12:
11 After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” 12 His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.”
The Lord Jesus described Lazarus of having fallen asleep, but the disciples did not understand that He was speaking figuratively so we have a commentary that indicates He meant death, as we read in John 11:13:
Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.
The figurative usage of the meaning “to fall asleep” is one that is specifically used to describe the death of believers in Christ. Thus, Apostle Paul used it to describe to the Thessalonians the death of believers who will be resurrected in the future in 1 Thessalonians 4:14:
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
Of course, the Greek word we are considering is outright translated with the meaning “to die” in the passage where Apostle Peter speaks about those who would mock the idea of the second coming of Christ in 2 Peter 3:4:
They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
The sentence our fathers died is literally the fathers fell asleep. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:20, the Greek word is used in the sense of “to be dead,” conceived of as being in or entering into the state of sleep.
We should note that the apostle did not qualify the dead he had in mind. He simply wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:20 those who have fallen asleep. The Holy Spirit directed him to be general in his description because the concept of resurrection is not limited to believers in Christ. This is because every human being that has died since the time of Adam will resurrect as Prophet Daniel stated in Daniel 12:2:
Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt.
The Lord Jesus spoke of general resurrection in John 5:28–29:
28 “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice 29 and come out—those who have done good will rise to live, and those who have done evil will rise to be condemned.
Apostle Paul held to the belief in general resurrection as he stated in his defense before Governor Felix as narrated for us in Acts 24:15:
and I have the same hope in God as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.
This being the case, we are correct to assert that when the apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:20 those who have fallen asleep he certainly was not limiting the resurrection concept to believers only but that he was thinking of general resurrection of both believers and unbelievers. When the apostle intended to speak of resurrection of believers only, he qualified the expression have fallen asleep with either “in Christ” or “in Him” as we read, for example, in 1 Thessalonians 4:14:
We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.
In any event, everything we have considered in verse 20 is simply to prove that Apostle Paul confirmed that Jesus’ resurrection was true.
Apostle Paul having confirmed the truth of Christ’s resurrection and having stated that He is the first in resurrection event, proceeded to provide an explanation and reason for his assertion regarding the position of Christ in the matter of resurrection. We said that the apostle provided both an explanation and reason for describing Christ as the first in resurrection event because of the two Greek conjunctions the apostle used translated in the NIV with the phrase that begins 1 Corinthians 15:21 For since.
The word “for” is translated from a Greek conjunction (gar) that has several usages. For example, it can be used as a marker of inference with the meaning “so, then, by all means” or it can be used as a marker of cause or reason for something in which case it may be translated “for, because.” It can used as a marker of clarification or explanation so that it may be translated “for” or “you see.” It is in the sense of providing explanation that the word is used in our passage.
The word “since” is translated from a Greek conjunction (epeidē) that may be used as a marker of time with the meaning “when, after” as it is used to indicate what Jesus did, after He finished His sermon that was similar to the Sermon on the Mount that Luke recorded, in Luke 7:1:
When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum.
The conjunction may be used as a marker of cause or reason with the meaning “because, since”, as it is used by Apostle Paul to provide the reason Epaphroditus desired to see the Philippians and was distressed about them, as stated in Philippians 2:26:
For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:21, it is used as a marker of reason hence means “because, since.”
The two Greek conjunctions we have considered support our assertion that the apostle provided both an explanation and reasons for stating that Christ is the first to be raised from the dead. His explanation is that Christ’s resurrection implies the resurrection of the dead. His first reason is the existence of death as a reality that has come into the world as stated in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:21 since death came through a man. There is no word “came” in the Greek text, but it is supplied in our English versions to make sense of the elliptical construction of the apostle since literally the Greek reads since through man (came) death.
The clause since death came through a man introduced the concept of general causal agent of death. We say this first because no man is mentioned in the verse, but Adam is mentioned later in verse 22. Anyway, we state that the apostle introduced the concept of general causal agent of death because of the word through used in the NIV.
The word “through” is translated from a Greek preposition (dia) with several meanings but we focus our attention on the meanings that are candidates in our passage where a genitive is used in the Greek with the word “man.” The Greek word may mean “by” to describe the manner of communication as it is used to describe how Judas and Silas were to confirm to the church in Antioch, the decision of the church in Jerusalem regarding what is required of Gentile believers as it relates to the Law as stated in Acts 15:27:
Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing.
The word may mean “result” as Apostle Paul used it to indicate that God’s gift is not like that which results from one man’s sin as we read in Romans 5:16:
Again, the gift of God is not like the result of the one man’s sin: The judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation, but the gift followed many trespasses and brought justification.
The word may mean “through” as an efficient cause of something as Apostle Paul used it to indicate that Jesus Christ is the efficient cause of Gentiles sharing in the blessing God promised to Abraham as we read in Galatians 3:14:
He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
The word may mean “by, through” as a marker of personal agency. It is with the meaning “by” that Apostle Paul used it to deny that his appointment as an apostle was by a human being but by Jesus Christ and God the Father as stated in Galatians 1:1:
Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—
The meaning “through” as a marker of personal agency may be understood to mean “by means of” as Apostle Paul used it to indicate that angels were intermediate agents of Moses receiving the Law according to Galatians 3:19:
What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.
Most of our English versions translated our Greek preposition with the meaning “through” in this passage in Galatians 3:19 but the standard Greek English Lexicon (BDAG) suggests that the phrase through angels may be translated by means of divine messengers. As a marker of agency, the Greek preposition is used with focus on the originator of an action still with the meaning “through” as God is focused on as the creator of all things as expressed in Hebrews 2:10:
In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.
The focus on God as creator of all things is given in phrase for whom and through whom. The word at times may have causal meaning “because of, on account of” that is, a marker of reason something happens as the word is used by Apostle Paul to convey to the Corinthians that because of their generosity the beneficiaries would praise God as stated in 2 Corinthians 9:13:
Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:21, the word may be interpreted as having causal meaning, that is, “because of” as reflected in the CEV or as marker of means of an action, that is, “by means of” as reflected in the TEV. Perhaps, this may be a case where both meanings are intended to fully convey what the Holy Spirit conveyed through the apostle. In effect, that death is because of and came by means of man.
In any case, the sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:21 death came through a man should be understood to mean that it is because of and by means of a man that both physical and spiritual death came. We say this because the word “death” is translated from a Greek word (thanatos) that may mean death as a termination of physical life as in Romans 7:10:
I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death.
The Greek word may refer to spiritual death as that which results from sin as the word is used to describe the state of every unbeliever before salvation in 1 John 3:14:
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death.
The word may mean “plague, pestilence, pandemic disease” associated with God’s punishment as it is used in Revelation 6:8:
I looked, and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
The phrase famine and plague is literally with hunger and with death. The word may refer to eternal death that means eternal separation from God and described as second death in Revelation 20:6:
Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:21, the word means “death” in the sense of both physical and spiritual death since when Adam died, it was first spiritual and then physical after several hundreds of years. Hence, our interpretation that the sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:21 death came through a man should be understood to mean that it is because of and by means of man that both physical and spiritual death came. The use of the article “a” to qualify man is to make the Greek read smoother in the English because literally the Greek reads through man death since the word “came” is not in the Greek but implied.
The word “man” here is translated from a Greek word (anthrōpos) that means “a human being” without regard to gender, as Apostle Paul used it to describe the fate of evil doers in Romans 2:9:
There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;
The word may mean “man” as male person as the apostle used it to describe Jesus Christ in His humanity in Romans 5:15:
But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!
The word may mean “self” as it is used in the instruction of Romans 6:6:
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—
The phrase old self is literally old man. The word may mean “person” as that is the way the word is used when the concern is to be inclusive of men and women, as in the doctrine of justification by faith the apostle stated in Galatians 2:16:
know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified.
Justification is for both men and women so that the phrase a man is to be understood as “a person,” hence the NRSV or the NIV2011 simply used the phrase a person. In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:21, it is used in the sense of a “human being” with stress on the nature of human being although the apostle certainly had in mind a specific person among human beings. This explains the absence of a definite article before the word “man” in the Greek that is translated in the NIV as a man.
Apostle Paul did not only mention the reason and the means of both physical and spiritual death but also that of resurrection as in the next clause of 1 Corinthians 15:21 the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
The word “resurrection” is translated from a Greek word (anastasis) that may mean a change in status for the better hence may mean “rising up” as in the blessing of Simeon on the human family of Jesus as we read in Luke 2:34:
Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against.
The word predominantly has the meaning of “resurrection from the dead” as Apostle Paul used it to describe what he wants to know about Christ in Philippians 3:10:
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:21, it is used with the meaning “resurrection,” that is, the change of state from being dead to being alive and never to experience physical death anymore. This change of state from being dead to being alive is conveyed in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:21 the resurrection of the dead.
The word “dead” is translated from the Greek word (nekros) we have previously examined that literally pertains to being in a state of loss of life and so means “lifeless, dead.” Figuratively it is used to describe a person who is morally or spiritually deficient so that the person is said to be dead.
In our passage of 1 Corinthians 15:21, the word means “dead” in the sense of people not physically alive.
Anyway, this resurrection from the dead is because of and by means of man as stated in the clause of 1 Corinthians 15:21 the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. Literally, the Greek reads through man also resurrection of dead. The word “through” is translated from the same Greek preposition (dia) we considered previously and concluded that it is used both as marker of cause and means. The same interpretation applies in the last sentence of 1 Corinthians 15:21. That the same interpretation is intended is conveyed with the word also that is translated from a Greek conjunction (kai) that is often translated “and” in our English versions. However, in our verse, it is used in an emphatic manner to add additional statement to the one that precedes in such a way that we should recognize there is similarity between the first and last clauses of the verse. That aside, the apostle made a general statement about the occurrence of death and resurrection as being because of and by means of man focusing on the nature of man. In the first mention of man the focus would be on sinfulness but on the second use of man the focus would be on sinlessness. Of course, he did not stop here. However, we have to stop here because we are out of time, but we will continue in our next study. Nonetheless, let me remind you that the message we have stated is: Christ’s resurrection ensures orderly future resurrection and successful conclusion of God’s plan in relationship to creation.
07/21/23