Our English version has reversed the place of the article. In the original the word

"last" is without the article, but the word "death" has it. The usage of the word rendered

"last" (eschatos) is worth noticing in passing. We give only some of its occurrences.

It will be found that many passages contrast the "last" with the "first," and the idea

underlying the word and its usage seems to convey that of the last of a series.

Matt. 19: 30, "the first shall be last." The word occurs ten times in Matthew, and each

passage either actually refers to or implies the presence of the first (Matt. 5: 26; 12: 45;

19: 30; 20: 8, 12, 14, 16; 27: 64). It is so in Mark and Luke. In John the frequent

reference is to the "last day." That the "last day" need not necessarily mean that after that

period there would be no more days is indicated by John 7: 37, "in the last day, that

great day of the feast"--the last of the series of days which comprised the feast. The

word occurs five times in I Corinthians.

It will be seen that I Cor. 15: contains four of the five references, and that the idea of

last of a series is still uppermost.

In the case of 15: 8 it is the last of a number of above 500 witnesses of the

resurrection; in 15: 45 it is the last of a series of two only, the parallel being between

the first Adam and the last Adam, and the first man the second man.

While it may be true that death is to be destroyed last of all, the truth of I Cor. 15: 26

is that death is the last of a series of enemies which are to be destroyed. The other

enemies which form the series are enumerated under the terms, "all rule all authority and

power" death being the last of them to be destroyed. Among the enemies of the believer

we find principalities and powers as indicated in Eph. 6: These same foes are seen in

Col. 2: 15.

It may be as well if we have placed before us the passages where exousia, translated

"authority," and dunamis, translated "power," in I Cor. 15: 24 are used in connection

with spiritual beings.