It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.The NRSV is worse with "physical body" versus "spiritual body." Actually, in Greek, the terms are soma psychikon and soma pneumatikon, which are more literally rendered as "soulish body" and "spiritual body," respectively. Both are types of bodies and both are physical--if a "spiritual body" is not physical, then neither is a "soulish" body; no one uses the word "soulish" as a synonym for "physical" or "soul" as a synonym for "body." As Wright repeatedly points out, in a nice way, "Yeah right. Everything in the NT, including Paul's other writings, points to physical resurrection, but then Paul, with one verse, shows that no one really meant or believed in that."
What Wright (The Resurrection of the Son of God, p. 346) actually says:
What Paul desires, to take his terminology at face value, is not to let the soul fly free to a supposed astral home, but to stop the "soul," the psyche, from being the animating principle for the body. Precisely because the soul is not, for him, the immortal fiery substance it is for Plato, he sees that the true solution to the human plight is to replace the "soul" as the animating principle of the body with the "spirit"--or rather, the Spirit.The neat thing that made me go "Yes!" when reading this was that this is exactly what I had figured out on my own, at age 16 (or was it 17?), with my trusty (but not so good) interlinear Greek New Testament.
3 comments:
'If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.'
Paul carefully explains that there are two different bodies, which is why the Corinthians were so foolish to wonder how a corpse can become a resurrected being.
Paul has explained the difference between heavenly things and earthly things, using examples like fish and the moon.
A fish does not turn into the moon.
Likewise, a natural body does not turn into 'a life-giving spirit'.
The natural body is destroyed (See 2 Corinthians 5)
'replace the soul'
Wright puts the word 'replace' in italics, presumably to highlight the fact that Paul does not ever use the word 'replace'
Steven,
1. Have you read Wright on this?
2. Do you know Greek? Psyche does not really mean "natural." It is a poor translation choice.
3. Why are you right and orthodox Christianity down the centuries, believed by billions, wrong?
Be careful here. Sorry to be so blunt, but your soul is at stake on this one.
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