1 Corinthians 15:19-21
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
19 If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.
Christ the Firstfruits.[a] 20 (A)But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits[b] of those who have fallen asleep. 21 [c]For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came also through a human being.
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- 15:20–28 After a triumphant assertion of the reality of Christ’s resurrection (1 Cor 15:20a), Paul explains its positive implications and consequences. As a soteriological event of both human (1 Cor 15:20–23) and cosmic (1 Cor 15:24–28) dimensions, Jesus’ resurrection logically and necessarily involves ours as well.
- 15:20 The firstfruits: the portion of the harvest offered in thanksgiving to God implies the consecration of the entire harvest to come. Christ’s resurrection is not an end in itself; its finality lies in the whole harvest, ourselves.
- 15:21–22 Our human existence, both natural and supernatural, is corporate, involves solidarity. In Adam…in Christ: the Hebrew word ’ādām in Genesis is both a common noun for mankind and a proper noun for the first man. Paul here presents Adam as at least a literary type of Christ; the parallelism and contrast between them will be developed further in 1 Cor 15:45–49 and in Rom 5:12–21.
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