The Meaning of 1 Corinthians 15:46 Explained

1 Corinthians 15:46

KJV: Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.

YLT: but that which is spiritual is not first, but that which was natural, afterwards that which is spiritual.

Darby: But that which is spiritual was not first, but that which is natural, then that which is spiritual:

ASV: Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Howbeit  that [was] not  first  which is spiritual,  but  that which is natural;  and afterward  that which is spiritual. 

What does 1 Corinthians 15:46 Mean?

Verse Meaning

Even though God breathed life into Adam at Creation, that gift constituted Adam a natural person fitted for the present order. The breathing of new life into believers at resurrection, so to speak, will make us spiritual persons fitted for the eschaton. We have the physical body until the eschaton, not before it begins.
Paul may have included this word of clarification to refute the Platonic idea that the ideal precedes the real. Plato taught that the ultimate realities are spiritual, and physical things only represent them. This is probably a view that some in Corinth held. Paul said the physical body precedes the spiritual body, which is the ultimate body.

Context Summary

1 Corinthians 15:42-58 - Victory Over Sin And Death
Life on the other side will be as real and as earnest as here. We shall not dissolve into thin mist or flit as bodiless ghosts. We shall each be provided with a body like that which our Lord had after, He arose from the dead. It will be a spiritual body, able to go and come at a wish or a thought; a body that will be perfectly adapted to its spiritual world environment. The last Adam, our Lord, will effect this for us. But we must in the meanwhile be content to make the best use of the discipline of mortality, keeping our body pure and sweet as the temple and vehicle of the Holy Spirit until we are born into the next stage of existence. Always the physical before the psychical and the psychical before the spiritual.
What triumph rings through those last four verses! As generations of Christians have stood around the mortal remains of their beloved, they have uttered these words of immortal hope. The trumpet's notes will call those who have died and the saints that are still alive on the earth, into one mighty host of transfigured and redeemed humanity. Oh, happy day! Then we shall be manifested, rewarded, and glorified with Christ. All mysteries solved, all questions answered! Till then let us abound always in the work of the Lord. [source]

Chapter Summary: 1 Corinthians 15

1  By Christ's resurrection,
12  he proves the necessity of our resurrection,
16  against all such as deny the resurrection of the body
21  The fruit,
35  and the manner thereof;
51  and of the resurrection of those who shall be found alive at the last day

Greek Commentary for 1 Corinthians 15:46

Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural [αλλ ου πρωτον το πνευματικον αλλα το πσυχικον]
Literally, “But not first the spiritual, but the natural.” This is the law of growth always. [source]
Not first - spiritual - natural []
A general principle, illustrated everywhere in human history, that the lower life precedes the higher. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for 1 Corinthians 15:46

1 Corinthians 2:14 Now the natural man [πσυχικος δε αντρωπος]
Note absence of article here, “A natural man” (an unregenerate man). Paul does not employ modern psychological terms and he exercises variety in his use of all the terms here present as πνευμα — pneuma and πνευματικοσ πσυχη — pneumatikosπσυχικοσ σαρχ — psuchē and σαρκινος — psuchikosσαρκικος — sarx and σαρχ πνευμα — sarkinos and πσυχη — sarkikos A helpful discussion of the various uses of these words in the New Testament is given by Burton in his New Testament Word Studies, pp. 62-68, and in his Spirit, Soul, and Flesh. The papyri furnish so many examples of Πσυχικος — sarxπσυχη — pneuma and ανιμα — psuchē that Moulton and Milligan make no attempt at an exhaustive treatment, but give a few miscellaneous examples to illustrate the varied uses that parallel the New Testament. πσυχικος — Psuchikos is a qualitative adjective from πνευματικος — psuchē (breath of life like πσυχικος — anima life, soul). Here the Vulgate renders it by animalis and the German by sinnlich, the original sense of animal life as in Judges 1:19; James 3:15. In 1 Corinthians 15:44, 1 Corinthians 15:46 there is the same contrast between πνευματικος — psuchikos and ου δεχεται — pneumatikos as here. The ουδε γαρ δυναται — psuchikos man is the unregenerate man while the μωρια — pneumatikos man is the renewed man, born again of the Spirit of God. [source]
Galatians 3:3 So foolish []
Explained by what follows. Has your folly reached such a pitch as to reverse the true order of things? Comp. 1 Corinthians 15:46. [source]
Jude 1:19 The spirit []
The higher spiritual life. So the adjective πνευματικός ,spiritual, is everywhere in the New Testament opposed to ψυχικός , natural. See 1 Corinthians 15:44, 1 Corinthians 15:46. [source]

What do the individual words in 1 Corinthians 15:46 mean?

However not first [was] the spiritual but natural then spiritual
Ἀλλ’ οὐ πρῶτον τὸ πνευματικὸν ἀλλὰ ψυχικόν ἔπειτα πνευματικόν

Ἀλλ’  However 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: ἀλλά  
Sense: but.
πρῶτον  first  [was] 
Parse: Adverb, Superlative
Root: πρῶτον 
Sense: first in time or place.
πνευματικὸν  spiritual 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root: πνευματικός  
Sense: relating to the human spirit, or rational soul, as part of the man which is akin to God and serves as his instrument or organ.
ψυχικόν  natural 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root: ψυχικός  
Sense: of or belonging to breath.
πνευματικόν  spiritual 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Neuter Singular
Root: πνευματικός  
Sense: relating to the human spirit, or rational soul, as part of the man which is akin to God and serves as his instrument or organ.

What are the major concepts related to 1 Corinthians 15:46?

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