Giuseppe wrote:So James Dunn about 1 Cor 15:47:
“This, I must confess, I find astonishing… if commentators can read such a clearly eschatological/resurrection text as a reference to Christ’s pre-existence it simply underlines the danger we run in this most sensitive of subjects of reading the text with the presuppositions of subsequently developed dogmas and of falling to let the context (in this case the context of the argument itself) determine our exegesis”.
Christology in the Making (London, SCM Press, 1989, xviii)
1 Cor 15:45 (translated by Hering)
The first Adam was created to have a living nature, the second Adam to be a life-giving spirit
According to Dunn, there is no pre-existence of Christ here for Paul, but the translation may well mean that:
- Adam became a living nature
from a previous state as not-living nature,
-Jesus became a spirit life-giving
from a previous state as pure spirit who does
n't give life.
Naturally,
pace Dunn, the idea of pre-existence in Paul is confirmed
beyond any doubt in 1 Cor 2:8 :
None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
...meaning that Jesus is the Lord of glory
already before the crucifixion and the death.
But then why is Jesus named ''second Man'' in 1 Cor 15:47?
''Second'' in comparison to who, precisely?
The first man is of the earth; the second man from heaven.
ὁ πρῶτος ἄνθρωπος ἐκ γῆς χοϊκός, ὁ δεύτερος ἄνθρωπος ἐξ οὐρανοῦ
I think that Jesus
was pre-existent as pure spirit,
not as Man, before the same creation of the world.
Therefore the first man, in absolute chronological terms, was the sinner Adam.
After the fall of Adam, God decided that the spirit Jesus had to become a second man - a man of another class of heavenly men - and in that role, not more merely a spirit, but a
life-giving spirit.
Hence Adam will resurrect just as the Second Man (the spirit Jesus wearing a humanoid body) is already resurrected.
Therefore I think that, for Paul, the
pre-existent Christ is merely
pure spirit, not even a man who wears a spiritual flesh in the paradise. Christ becomes human (better: humanoid), only when he is sent to be killed in the lower heavens and to resurrect shortly after.
Question: can you prove the contrary, that Jesus was a pre-existent
Man in Paul and not only merely pre-existent (i.e.: pre-existent but without still being a Man) ?