[B-Greek] hOUTWS KAI in 1 Cor 15.45
Arie Dirkzwager
dirkzwager at pandora.be
Mon Sep 6 05:33:36 EDT 2004
In my opinion there is more to be said here.
It is clear that we have a quotation from the Old Testament. But where does
it end?
In the LXX we have EGENETO hO ANQRWPOS EIS YUCHN ZWSAN. Paul added PRWTOS
and ADAM in order to make his use of the quotation more clear.
Then we have the words about the second Adam hO ESCATOS ADAM EIS PNEUMA
ZWiOPOIOUN.
A particle is missing at the beginning. So Paul does not take up his own
reasoning again. But where to find these words in the Old Testament?
The exact words are missing, but for a Jewish theologian it was possible to
quote a whole passage with one word from it. The rest could be adapted to
the reasoning.
I think the "quoted" word, or better the allusion, is ZWiOPOIOUN. That is an
allusion to the name of Eve in Hebrew "giving life ".
The first place where the name Eve is used is Gn 3: 20. Adam gave this name
to his wife "because she would become the mother of all the living". The
verse however is standing in the story of the fall of man. Nothing about
children of Adam and Eve.
We have only verse 15 with the promise of the offspring of Eve that would
crush the head of the serpent. I get the impression that the name Eve does
not refer to the immediate children of Adam and Eve but to the fact that one
of the offspring would annihilate the curse of death that came upon men
after the fall. There would come a ZWiOPOIOS person. And by this way Eve
would give life to mankind.
So Paul postulates a new Adam that would give life om the base of Gn 3: 15
and 20. As a YUCH cannot be ZWiOPOIH, he had to use the word PNEUMA - like
he did in his reasoning before.
It is interesting to note that the name Eve was rendered ZWH in Gn 3: 20.
I have to apologize for some lines of interpretation, but I think the
absence of the particle of connection and the extension of the quotation
could not be explained without it.
Arie
Dr. A. Dirkzwager
Hoeselt, Belgium
e-mail dirkzwager at pandora.be
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