Fathers

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What the Fathers say

1 Corinthians 15:47

Eastern Fathers

John Chrysostom

Having said that "the natural was first," and "the spiritual afterward," he again states another difference, speaking of "the earthy" and "the heavenly." For the first difference was between the present life and that which is to come: but this between that before grace and that after grace. …

Homily on 1 Corinthians 42 ↗

Theophylact of Ohrid

Lest they grow negligent regarding the beautiful life, he now wishes to persuade them toward a God-pleasing life, and says that Adam was from the earth, from which he was also so named; for Adam means earthly and dusty. But the second man was the Lord from heaven. He gives the first a name from the worse, and the second from the better, not because the man, that is, the assumed human nature, was from heaven, as the foolish Apollinarius babbled, but because there is one person in one Christ. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗

Cyprian

That Christ is both man and God, compounded of both natures, that He might be a Mediator between us and the Father. In Jeremiah: "And He is man, and who shall know Him? Also in Numbers: "A Star shall arise out of Jacob, and a man shall rise up from Israel." Also in the same place: "A Man shall go forth out of his seed, and shall rule over many nations; and His kingdom shall be exalted as Gog, and His kingdom shall be increased; and God brought Him forth out of Egypt. …

Treatise XII. Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews. ↗

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

First comes in the natural body such as Adam was the first man to possess. Had he not sinned, he would never have died. Such a body we too possess, except that its nature as a result of sin has become so changed for the worse that it is now faced with inexorable death. Such a body Christ also deigned to assume for our sakes, not indeed by necessity but in virtue of his power. …

City of God 13.23 ↗

Ambrose of Milan

The first man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening Spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterwards that which is spiritual; and then he adds, The first man is of the earth, earthy, the second man is from heaven, heavenly. …

Letter 43, To Horontianus ↗

Thomas Aquinas

995. – He assigns the reason for what is said about diversity, saying, the first man. As if to say: truly the first man was made a living animal, because he is of the earth: "God formed man of dust from the ground" (Gen. 2:7), and therefore he is said to be of the earth, i.e., animal. The second man, namely Christ, was made a life-giving spirit, because he is of heaven. Because it is the divine nature that was united to this nature, he is from heaven. …

Commentary on 1 Corinthians ↗