139 Cf. Rom. 5:12-19; 1 Cor. 15:21-22, 45-49.
138Cf. W. D. Davies, Paul and Rabbinic Judaism, pp. 53-55.
139Cf. Rom. 5:12-19; 1 Cor. 15:21-22, 45-49.
140Cf. A. Schweitzer, The Mysticism of Paul the Apostle, E.T. (London, 1931), passim (the particular aspect of corporate personality on which Schweitzer bases his argument is the predestined solidarity of Messiah with the messianic or elect people, a conception which he derives from apocalyptic literature); E. Best, One Body in Christ (London, 1955), pp. 93-95, 203-07. The expression “corporate personality” seems to have originated with H. W. Robinson, “The Hebrew Conception of Corporate Personality,” in Werden und Wesen des Alten Testaments, BZAW 66, ed. P. Volz, etc. (Giessen, 1936), pp. 49-62, reprinted as Corporate Personality in Ancient Israel, ed. J. Reumann (Edinburgh, 1982); cf. J. W. Rogerson, “The Hebrew Concept of Corporate Personality: A Re-examination,” JTS n.s. 21 (1970), 1-16.
141Cf. E. Percy, Der Leib Christi (Lund, 1942), pp. 18-43. Among other attempts to find the source of Paul’s use of the term “body of Christ” for the church may be noted those of A. E. J. Rawlinson (“Corpus Christi,” in Mysterium Christi, ed. G. K. A. Bell and A. Deissmann [London, 1930], pp. 225-44), who locates it in the eucharistic presentation of the body of Christ, and of C. Chavasse (The Bride of Christ [London, 1940], pp. 70-72), who locates it in the nuptial union of bridegroom and bride in “one flesh.” But both the eucharistic (1 Cor. 10:16b-17) and the nuptial (Eph. 5:28-31) applications of Paul’s thought on this subject are derived from his conception of the church as the body of Christ rather than vice versa.
142Cf. J. A. T. Robinson, The Body (London, 1952), p. 58. At this early stage the implication would simply have been that of the solidarity between Christ and his people, with no specific idea yet of Christ as the head crying out on behalf of the members (cf. Augustine, Sermon 279.1: “while the members were still on earth, the head cried out in heaven”). See also D. E. H. Whiteley, The Theology of St. Paul (Oxford, 1964), pp. 193-94; R. H. Gundry, ”Sōma” in Biblical Theology (Cambridge, 1976), p. 240.