1 Corinthians 15:44

“There is sown a psychic body; there is raised a spiritual body.” This dictum grounds the antithesis unfolded in 1 Corinthians 15:42 f. upon its proper basis; the diff [2540] is not a matter of condition merely, but of constitution. Corruption, dishonour, feebleness are, in great part, penal inflictions (Romans 5:12 ff.), signalising not a natural defect, but a positive subjection to the power of sin (1 Corinthians 15:53-56); man, however, is essentially ψυχὴ under the present order (1 Corinthians 15:45), and his body therefore is essentially ψυχικὸν as determined by that order (cf. 1 Corinthians 6:13, and note; Colossians 2:20 ff., Matthew 22:30, etc.), being fitted to and expressive of the “soul” wherein his earthly being centres; see the note on ψυχικός 1 Corinthians 2:14. Though inadequate, “natural” is the best available rendering of this adj [2541]; it indicates the moulding of man's body by its environment and its adaptation to existing functions; the same body is χοϊκὸν in respect of its material (1 Corinthians 15:47). ψυχικὸν is only relatively a term of disparagement; the “psychic body” has in it the making of the “spiritual”; “its adaptation for the present service of the soul is the sowing of it, that is the initial step in its adaptation for the future uses of the spirit. An organism fitted to be the seat of mind, to express emotion, to carry out the behests of will, is in process of being adapted for a still nobler ministry” (Ed [2542]): “he that sows to the Spirit (in the natural body), will reap of the Spirit (in the spiritual body),” Galatians 6:8. “If there is a psychic body, there is also a spiritual”: a frame suited to man's earthly life argues a frame suited to his heavenly life, according to the principle of 1 Corinthians 15:38 b (cf. the argument from lower to higher in Matthew 6:30); and the σῶμα πν. lies, in some way, germinally hidden in the σῶμα ψ., to be unfolded from it under “the universal law of progress” (Ed [2543]). ἔστιν (existit) bears emphasis in each clause; from the fact of sense P. argues to the fact of faith. Observe txtl. notes 1 3.

[2540] difference, different, differently.

[2541] adjective.

[2542] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[2543] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2