Carrier (2005a, p. 134) argues
from Paul’s statement, ‘Christ is a life-giving spirit’ (v. 45), and citing
verse 47, he claims that while Adam’s body is made of earth, Christ’s body is
not; it comes from heaven. In reply, verse 45 can be understood as emphasizing
the spiritual aspect of the resurrected Jesus, but this does not deny that the
resurrected Jesus had a physical body. On the contrary, the view that Jesus’
resurrected body had both spiritual and physical properties is already affirmed
by other texts . . . By ‘life-giving spirit’ Paul could also be identifying
Jesus with the Spirit on the level of Christian experience (2 Cor. 3:17) and/or
Paul might be comparing Jesus with God’s life-giving breath in Genesis 2:7
(Wright 2003, p. 355). ‘The second man from heaven’ (v. 47) is referring to
Jesus’ second coming and not the discontinuity of his resurrected body with his
old physical body (ibid.). (Andrew Loke, Investigating the Resurrection of
Jesus Christ: A New Transdisciplinary Approach [Routledge New Critical
Thinking in Religion, Theology and Biblical Studies; Oxfordshire: Routledge,
2020], 135)
