To Florus 6.31

Enough now about Genesis. Let us turn to the apostle Paul, whom Mani and the advocate of inherited sin think supports their opinion. Discussing the resurrection of the dead, he says: ‘As all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ’ (1 Corinthians 15:22) (Psalm 116:15). You, with whom we have our dispute, appropriated this testimony. But because you did not say what you thought it established, I can scarcely confirm it, though I suspect it.

What does it have to do with transmission of sin if everyone is said to die in Adam, when Adam is a human being’s name, while transmission denotes sin and Manichaean corruption? Unless perhaps you acknowledge Adam himself to be and to mean nothing other than sin, so that by this name the apostle seems to have pronounced that everyone dies in sin? But this is obviously insane.

What is strange, then, if, since the Hebrew word Adam means nothing other than ‘human’—as its translation expresses—the apostle said, ‘All die in Adam, and all will be made alive in Christ’: those who die according to human nature are raised from the dead through Christ’s power? Anyone denying this statement is mad. By the power of the same author who established fertility and mortality in this life, everyone will be raised from the graves, ‘so that each may receive what belongs to deeds done in the body, according to what was done, whether good or evil’ (2 Corinthians 5:10).

In the apostle’s saying, then, ‘As all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ,’ do you think he indicates bodily death, common to the just and unjust, or that penal death appointed for the devil and the ungodly? If this ordinary natural death, which in the saints is even precious (Psalm 116:15; LXX/Vulgate Psalm 115:6), and happens equally not only to good and evil people but also to humans and animals—if, I say, the apostle indicates this death—then plainly ‘Adam’ denotes human nature, while ‘Christ’ denotes the power of the Creator who raises the dead.

But if you want ‘All die in Adam’ to mean guilt rather than nature, an explanation is available as plain as it is certain: As all—that is, many—die by imitating Adam, so all—that is, many—are saved by imitating Christ. Either he spoke of common death and indicated nature, or of sin and condemned imitation. So he added shortly afterward: ‘As we have borne the image of the earthly one, let us also bear the image of the heavenly one’ (1 Corinthians 15:49). Certainly assuming the image could not be commanded if it were considered natural in either quality.