Homilies on First Corinthians

⁶ “So also it is written, the first man Adam became a living soul: the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.”

And yet the one indeed is written, but the other not written. How then said he, “it is written?” He modified the expression according to the issue of events: as he is wont continually to do: and indeed as it is the way of every prophet. For so Jerusalem, the prophet said, should be “called a city of righteousness;” yet it was not so called. What then? Did the prophet speak false? By no means. For he is speaking of the issue of events. And that Christ too should be called Immanuel; yet was he not so called. But the facts utter this voice; so also here, “the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.”

And these things he said that you may learn that the signs and pledges both of the present life and of that which is to come have already come upon us; to wit, of the present life, Adam, and of the life to come, Christ. For since he sets down the better things as matters of hope, he signifies that their beginning has already come to pass, and their root and their fountain been brought to light. But if the root and the fountain be evident to all, there is no need to doubt of the fruits. Wherefore he says, “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.” And elsewhere too, He “shall quicken your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwells in you.” It is the Spirit's work then to quicken.

Further, lest any should say, “why are the worse things the elder? And why has the one sort, to wit, the natural, come to pass not merely as far as the first-fruits, but altogether; the other as far as the first-fruits only?”— he signifies that the principles also of each were so ordered.