Yet the last item in this sequence is the one that he is driving toward: “It is sown a natural body [psychikon sōma], it is raised a spiritual body [pneumatikon sōma]” (v. 44, NIV). This is the nub of his argument. This last contrast, however, presents a vexing problem for translators (cf. 2:14, where the same contrast occurs). The phrase psychikon sōma is notoriously difficult to translate into English. The NRSV’s translation (“physical body”) is especially unfortunate, for it reinstates precisely the dualistic dichotomy between physical and spiritual that Paul is struggling to overcome. In any case, psychikon certainly does not mean “physical.” Furthermore, although pneumatikon sōma is easier to translate, “spiritual body” sounds like an oxymoron. What sense are we to make of this?
By far the most graceful translation of verse 44, and the one that best conveys the meaning of Paul’s sentence, is found in the Jerusalem Bible: “When it is sown it embodies the soul, when it is raised it embodies the spirit. If the soul has its own embodiment, so does the spirit have its own embodiment.” That is Paul’s point: our mortal bodies embody the psychē (“soul”), the animating force of our present existence, but the resurrection body will embody the divinely given pneuma (“spirit”). It is to be a “spiritual body” not in the sense that it is somehow made out of spirit and vapors, but in the sense that it is determined by the spirit and gives the spirit form and local habitation.
Hays, R. B. (1997). First Corinthians (p. 272). Louisville, KY: John Knox Press.