Flesh and Spirit by F.F. Bruce FOR PAUL, TO BE “UNDER LAW” IS ONE WAY OF BEING “IN THE FLESH”. His use of the term “flesh” (sarx) plays such a central part in his theology that it calls for careful examination. The background of his terminology is provided by the Old Testament, although the Old Testament usage is extended along lines peculiarly his own. In the Old Testament “flesh” is the basic material of human and animal life. Apart from occurrences of the word in the sense of animal life in general (as in Genesis 6:19)1 or the meat of animals which may or may not be eaten (as in Exodus 12:8), men are categorized as “flesh” in contrast to “the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh” (Daniel 2:11). When God imposes a limit on the duration of human life, he says, “My spirit shall not abide in man For ever, for he is flesh”2 (Genesis 6:3). Man, in fact, is animated flesh: “all flesh” means “all mankind” (except in a few places where it has the wider sense of “all animal life”). “Flesh” may denote human nature in its weakness and mortality: “he remembered that they were but flesh” (Psalm 78:39). It can be used of the human body, as when a man is directed to “wash his flesh in water” (e.g. Leviticus 14:9), or of the man himself in a more general sense, as in Psalm 63:1, where “my flesh faints for thee” stands in synonymous parallelism with the preceding clause, “my soul thirsts for thee” — here both “my soul (Heb. nefesh)” and “my flesh (Heb. bāsār)” are little more than alternative ways of saying “I”. the-highway/articleAug03.html
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 11:00:48 +0000
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