1 Corinthians 15:45

γέγραπται. In Genesis 2:7. This applies only to the first part of the 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 second part? See John 5:21; John 6:33; John 6:39-40; John 6:54; John 6:57; John 11:25. The citation is from the Hebrew.

ἐγένετο. Became a living soul, ψυχή is translated indifferently by life and soul 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 πνεῦμα or spiritual nature (though the Hebrew word corresponding to πνεῦμα is noticeably absent in Genesis 2:7), but we are justified in saying that until Christ recreated and redeemed humanity the higher nature existed only 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, perception and a moral sense, with power to form a society and to subdue nature to himself.’ Robertson.

ὁ ἔσχατος Ἀδάμ. So called because Christ was a new starting point of humanity. Thus to be in Christ is called a ‘new creation,’ 2 Corinthians 5:17 (cf. Galatians 6:15). He is called the ‘new man,’ ‘created after God in righteousness and holiness,’ 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 received our likeness, and become a second Adam, how shall He not richly make them partakers of His Own Life, who desire to partake of the intimate union effected with Him by faith? For by the mystic blessing we have become embodied into Him, for we have been made partakers of Him 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.’

πνεῦμα ζωοποιοῦν. See texts quoted under γέγραπται, and last 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 second Adam 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.