1 Corinthians 15 - HyperPreterist Response
by N.E. Barry Hofstetter
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EDITORIAL COMMENTS: N.E. Barry Hofstetter was kind enough to send this to me personally for inclusion on The PreteristSite. Permission for republication elsewhere should not be assumed. This was originally written as part of response in an online forum discussion.
1Co 15:35 But someone may ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?"1Co 15:36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.1Co 15:37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.1Co 15:38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.1Co 15:39 All flesh is not the same: Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.1Co 15:40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 1Co 15:41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.1Co 15:42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable;1Co 15:43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power;1Co 15:44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.1Co 15:45 So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.1Co 15:46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual.1Co 15:47 The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 1Co 15:48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.1Co 15:49 And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.1Co 15:50 I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.1Co 15:51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed--1Co 15:52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 1Co 15:53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality.
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Now, the length of this passage precludes detailed exegesis in this particular forum, but here I want to suggest that the h-p's have mistaken an eschatological category for an ontological one (and this was largely my point in my review of Otto that I posted earlier). What do I mean? Well, the context of the passage involves those who deny a general resurrection from the dead. Paul replies, in a very logical manner, that if the dead are not raised, then we are without hope, for this means that Jesus Christ himself has not been raised, and this in turn empties the Gospel of all meaning. We are united to Christ, and that which Christ experiences, we in turn experience in that unity. Christ's resurrection is the pattern of that to which we look forward, for Christ himself is the firstfruits. These considerations in turn lead Paul to discuss the nature of the resurrection, which is inseparably interwoven with the work of Christ. Paul uses the analogy of which our h-p seems fond, the analogy of seed to the full plant. That which the believer experiences now is the seed (cf. 1 Pet 1:23); the resurrection if the full growth of that which has been begun (cf. Phil 1:6).
Rather more than implicit in the passage is that to understand our own resurrection we must consider the resurrection of Christ, which is certainly to be informed by the descriptions in the gospels. These reveal an essential continuity with the pre-resurrection state, while determining that the resurrection body is no longer bound by the coils of sin and death. It is still essentially, ontologically human (Jesus eats, may be touched, etc.) but is now eschatologically actualized.
Paul then speaks of different kinds of "flesh" (Grk., *sarx*) and "bodies" (Grk. *somata*). Now, if we think of this in terms of modern scientific categories, we are going to be hopelessly lost, but Paul seems to have in mind here is the creation distinctives between the various examples that he gives, so that what Paul has in mind is really the creation account in Genesis 1. These various examples do not all look or behave the same, and have different properties according to God's design of them and purpose for them. Even stars have different types of properties which may be distinguished (Paul probably is thinking of stars and planets, but we are really not sure, and one can always reference the commentaries for more complete treatments). Again, the point is this, that the resurrection body is going to have certain properties peculiar to its state.
Paul's allusions here to the Genesis account suggest that the resurrection is on the same level as the original creation, a cosmic order event. The resurrection, in other words, parallels creation, and may be seen as re-creation (much as the flood can be seen as a re-creation and re-ordering of the original creation, yet still in fundamental continuity with it, and so similar OT analogies).
Paul continues his comparison and contrast with the original creation account by comparing and contrasting the "first" (Grk, *protos*) Adam with the "last" (Grk., *eschatos*) Adam, and one must see Gen 2:7 as part of the background here. In Gen 2:7, God breaths (Heb. *naphach*) the breath of life into Adam, and Adam becomes a "living being (Heb. *nephesh chayah*). Significantly, when the author of Genesis speaks of Adam's formation, he does not use the term *ruach* or cognates (*ruach*, breath, wind, spirit, cf. Gen 1:2), but a different root altogether to speak of God imparting life to the clay statue he has molded. Paul seems to pick up on the distinction here, when he contrast the first and second Adam. The first Adam has a *psychikon* body (living, soulish, the cognate *psuche* in the KJV usually translated "soul," but referring in general to the principle of physical life, cf. Heb. *naphach*), the second Adam has been given a *pneumatikon* (spiritual, cf. Heb. *ruach*) body. The first Adam is given life; the second Adam becomes the source of life for all who are united to him. The key word for our purposes here is *pneumatikos* (spiritual). It is the adjectival form of *pneuma* (breath, wind, spirit), and in the Pauline language, with one or two exceptions clearly qualified by the context, always refers to the Spirit of God. This adjectival form is used of that which possesses or is in someway qualified or conditioned by *the Spirit of God.* Paul uses it, for example, of Christians in Gal. 6 ("you who are spiritual...). A detailed study will bear this out, and one can always reference the various lexicons.
In this context, the resurrection body of Christ is clearly that which is conditioned eschatologically by the Spirit of God. It bears its own unique properties which are appropriate to that state, but this does not mean that it is amorphuous or invisible. It certainly does not mean that it is intangible. Such a body really exists, and has finite characteristics. It is better than bodies which are not fully realized, in that it no longer is troubled by certain limitations inherent in the fallen state, or the protological state of the sinless bodies of the first and second Adam. Christ has given the believer a share in this very same *pneuma*, even as we derive the principle of physical life (but condemned to death) from Adam. The resurrected individual does not cease to be who he is in terms of his personal integrity, but he transcends his prior limitations and becomes that which God fully intends him to be (cf. John 3:2).
With these considerations in mind, Paul then uses language which would be familiar to his readers, the apocalyptic language of the final resurrection. Paul speaks of the last trumpet, and speaks of the dead in general, at one moment in time (Grk. *en atomo*) being raised with Christ (cf. 1 Thess 4:15-17). At that point, even those who are not "asleep" will join with the dead in that final resurrection. The seed will come to full fruition in the blink of an eye, and no one will be able to deny that Christ is Lord, since every knee will bow.
Now, I have spent a fair amount of time on that passage, since I think consideration of it definitively overturns the h-p position at its root. In adopting the position that they do, the h-p's need to redefine the nature of the resurrection to be "spiritual" in a sense which is foreign to Paul's thinking on the subject, as I have attempted to demonstrate above. This in turn has serious consequences for the incarnation, which parallels the creation of Adam. If the nature of Christ is so called into question, then so called into question is the very nature of the salvation which Christ offers us.
This is far from an exhaustive treatment, and even my exegesis of 1 Cor 15 is only the barest outline of what a full-orbed exploration should be. For further reading, I suggest:
Ridderbos, Herman. Paul: An Outline of his Theology. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975.
Gaffin, Richard B. Jr. Resurrection and Redemption. Phillipsburg: P&R, 1987.
N.E. Barry Hofstetter