The Last Adam Became a Life-Giving Spirit

Spirit possession is central to the religious experience of Paul and his Christ groups, expressed through the idiom of being "in Christ." This possession by a πνεῦμα (spirit), identified with the risen Christ, grants believers salvation from eschatological wrath and the expectation of eternal life. Paul believed Christ achieved the state of πνεῦμα through his death and resurrection, an idea shared by other early Christ groups, as confirmed by the Shepherd of Hermas, though with notable differences.

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Abstract

This chapter looks at the fundamental role played by spirit possession in the religious experience of Paul and of his Christ groups. It begins with their doctrinal and specifically christological elaborations. Being “in Christ” is the idiom through which Paul expresses the experience of possession by a πνεῦμα‎, which is identified with the risen Christ and which, through its presence in them, grants to believers salvation from the eschatological wrath and the expectation of eternal life. For Paul, Christ has achieved the state of existence designated as πνεῦμα‎ through his death and resurrection. This was an idea that was also shared by other early Christ groups, as is confirmed—albeit not without negligible difference—by an examination of a key section in the Shepherd of Hermas.