What Does 1 Corinthians 15:47 Mean in the King James?
The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The verse names two origins that shape human likeness: dust from the earth, and the Lord from heaven.
THE MEANING
Your human life has a real, embodied origin in the earth. Yet this verse also names the Lord from heaven as another human pattern, so dust is not the only likeness held before you.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that your earth-born limits tell the whole story of what a human can be.
THE ROOT
χοϊκός
choikos
GROWS FROM
χοῦς
choos
Dust, loose earth.
The Greek word translated “earthy” means dust-made, linking the first man’s nature to the dust from which humanity is formed. English keeps “earth” and “earthy” together, but the Greek makes the relation more specific: he comes from the earth and bears the character of dust.
ALSO GROWS
choos: Dust, loose earth.
χοῦς
This is the dust-word behind “earthy,” recalling the human origin named in Genesis 2:7.
choikos: Dust-made, earthy.
χοϊκός
This is the verse’s description of the first man: his origin is also the mark of his nature.
οὐρανός
ouranos
GROWS FROM
οὐραν-
ouran-
Heaven, the heavens, or sky.
The next verse uses ἐπουράνιος (epouranios, heavenly), from the same heaven-word family. English shifts from “from heaven” here to “heavenly” there, while Greek keeps the shared source visible: the one from heaven gives the name for the likeness that follows.
ALSO GROWS
ouranos: Heaven, the heavens, or sky.
οὐρανός
This is the source named for the second man.
epouranios: Heavenly, belonging to heaven.
ἐπουράνιος
The same word family describes the heavenly likeness in the following verse.
THE PATTERN
Those who come from a source bear the likeness of that source.
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth: he that cometh from heaven is above all.And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.THE THREAD
As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.The same Greek word for “earthy,” χοϊκός (choikos, dust-made), returns here beside the word for “heavenly,” ἐπουράνιος (epouranios, belonging to heaven). The contrast expands from where the two men come from to the likeness shared by those who belong to each.
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