A. Early Christian Usage.
1. Adam as the First Man. 1 Tim. 2:13-14 appeals to Adam as the first man when arguing for a right man/woman relation on the grounds that Adam was made first and Eve was deceived first.
2. The NT Typology Adam/Christ. Adam is Christ’s antitype in Mark 1:13; Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:22, 45-49. In Mark 1:13 Christ reverses Adam’s fall and reopens paradise (cf. the genealogy in Luke 3:38). Paul uses the typology to show the universality of grace (Rom. 5:12-21), to establish the certainty of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:22), and to indicate that we will have spiritual bodies (1 Cor. 15:44ff.; cf. Gen. 2:7 LXX). With respect to our earthly bodies we are like the first Adam, with respect to our resurrection bodies we will be like the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:48).
B. The Origin of the Typology Adam/Christ.
The rabbis do not call the Redeemer the last Adam, but the ideas occur that the first man was ideal, that the Messiah will restore the glory lost at the fall, and that the Messiah is preexistent (cf. Philo). Paul adopts these ideas but gives them an eschatological thrust: Adam is the head of this aeon, but Christ is at the head of the new aeon of God’s perfect and redeemed creation.
→ huiós toú anthrṓpou
J. JEREMIAS, I, 141–43
[Theological Dictionary of the NT]
Adám [Adam]
A. Early Christian Usage.
I. Adam as the First Man. 1 Tim. 2:13-14 appeals to Adam as the first man when arguing for a right man/woman relation on the grounds that Adam was made first and Eve was deceived first.
2. The NT typology Adam/Christ. Adam is Christ’s antitype in Mk. 1:13; Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:22, 45-49. In Mk. 1:13 Christ reverses Adam’s fall and reopens paradise (cf. the genealogy in Lk. 3:38). Paul uses the typology to show the universality of grace (Rom. 5:12-21), to establish the certainty of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:22), and to indicate that we will have spiritual bodies (1 Cor. 15:44ff.; cf. Gen. 2:7 LXX). With respect to our earthly bodies we are like the first Adam, with respect to our resurrection bodies we will be like the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:48).
B. The Origin of the Typology Adam/Christ. The rabbis do not call the Redeemer the last Adam, but the ideas occur that the first man was ideal, that the Messiah will restore the glory lost at the fall, and that the Messiah is preexistent (cf. Philo). Paul adopts these ideas but gives them an eschatological thrust: Adam is the head of this aeon, but Christ is at the head of the new aeon of God’s perfect and redeemed creation.
→ huiós toú anthrṓpou [J. Jeremias, I, 141-43]
[Theological Dictionary of the NT]