remarked, is not only inconsistent with the prevailing use of the word, but with the whole context. Others, admitting that the passage necessarily treats of a resurrection to glory and blessedness, insist that the word all must be taken to include all men. But this contradicts the constant doctrine of the Bible, and has no support in the context. It is not absolutely all who die through Adam, but those only who were in him ; so it is not absolutely all who live through Christ, but those only who are in him.
23. But every man in his cmn order : Christ the first-fruits ; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
In his own order. The word ray/Aa is properly a concrete term, meaning a hand^ as of soldiers. If this be insisted upon here, then Paul considers the hosts of those that rise as divided into different cohorts or companies ; first Christ, then his peo- ple, then the rest of mankind. But the word is used by later writers, as Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinthians I. 37, and 41, in the sense of ra^is, order of succession. And this best suits the context, for Christ is not a band. All that Paul teaches is, that, although the resurrection of Christ secures that of his people, the two events are not contemporaneous. First Christ, then those who are Christ's. There is no intima- tion of any further division or separation in time in the process of the resurrection. The resurrection of the people of Christ is to take place at his coming^ 1 Thess. 3, 13. 4, 14-19.
24. Then (cometh) the end, when he shall have de- livered up the kingdom to God, even the Father ; when he shall have put down aU rule, and all authority and power.
This is a very difficult passage, and the interpretations given of it are too numerous to be recited. The first question is. What is the end here spoken of? The common answer is. That it is the end of the world. That is, the close of the pres- ent order of things ; the consummation of the work of redemp- tion. In favour of this view, it may be urged, 1. That where there is nothing in the context to determine otherwise, The end naturally means the end of all things. There is nothing