Psyche, Pneuma, Soma and Sarx Word Study

Part 6, The Weakness of Sarx and the Power of Pneuma

Last post in this series.

Having looked at the word soma (body) in the last post, let's finish this series up by looking at the word sarx. 

To start, the contrast that modern people tend to focus in a study like this is that between "body" and "soul." But the curious thing is that the New Testament isn't all that interested in body and soul. The contrast that deeply concerns the New Testament, is rather, for Paul especially, between spirit and flesh, between pneuma and sarx. 

The word sarx is generally translated as "flesh," though it can shade into a range of meanings. And by "flesh" we mean something like "flesh and bones," the biological stuff that makes up human bodies. Tissues, muscles, organs, ligaments, bones. What your body is physically "made of" is sarx. 

We've already seen the contrast Paul makes between soma and sarx in 1 Corinthians 15. Specifically, soma is viewed positively. There will be somas in heaven. The afterlife is embodied. The issue for Paul concerns the material (or supramaterial) constituents that make up soma. Because, as we've seen, there are "psychical somas" and "pneumatical somas." Psychical somas are natural, biological bodies. Paul describes these biological somas as weak and perishable. Biological somas turn to dust. And the reason for this is that psychical somas are made of sarx, made of mere "flesh." And as Paul says very clearly in 1 Corinthians 15.50: 

I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh (sarx) and blood (haima) cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 

Again, for Paul soma isn't a problem. The problem is what the soma is made of. And a soma made of sarx is weak and prone to corruption. Sarx is what makes us vulnerable to death.

As I recount in The Slavery of Death, the vulnerability of sarx to death plays a huge role in Paul's thinking. Both about our moral capacity and eventual resurrection. The two are tied together. According to Paul, the biological weakness of sarx makes it morally impotent when facing the powers of sin, death, and the devil. Sarx quakes and quails in the face of those big bullies. Being made of sarx, therefore, we need an infusion of some stronger more powerful stuff. This infusion is pneuma. Only spirit is strong enough to resist sin, death, and the devil. And only spirit is able to survive death. As Paul describes in Romans 8.5-11:

For those who live according to sarx set their minds on the things of sarx, but those who live according to pneuma set their minds on the things of pneuma. For to set the mind on sarx is death, but to set the mind on pneuma is life and peace. For the mind that is set on sarx is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in sarx cannot please God.

You, however, are not in sarx but in pneuma, if in fact the pneuma of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the pneuma of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the soma is dead because of sin, the pneuma is life because of righteousness. If the pneuma of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal soma through his pneuma who dwells in you.

A couple of things. 

Notice that the issue here isn't about "body" and "soul." The critical issue is between sarx and pneuma, between flesh and spirit. This sarx/pneuma dualism is critical to Paul's soteriological thinking. As we saw in 1 Corinthians 15, the concern over sarx is weakness and incapacity. Morally, sarx "does not submit to God's law; indeed it cannot." Pneuma is required for righteousness. And not just righteousness, resurrection. Our mortal soma, made of sarx, cannot survive death. Our hope of resurrection is tied to the pneuma of Christ dwelling within us.

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Series Post-Script:

I had planned to let the word study end here, feeling little impulse to tie a neat bow on this series. I figured I'd just let you wrestle with it on your own, like I have. I don't have all the answers you're looking for. But being a sympathetic sort of person, I thought I might offer some summary reflections here at the end for those who read this whole series and don't quite know what to think of it all. 

So, some thoughts.

First, puzzlement is good. You can't learn anything new if you're never puzzled. Consequently, I think it's good from time to time to encounter the Bible as strange and weird. I think it's healthy to keep the Bible startling and surprising. So, if nothing else, I hope this series bumped into and unsettled some preconceived notions about how body, soul, and spirit relate to each other. If you've read this series, you're hearing those words a bit differently and coming to see the Bible more clearly than most other Christians.

Second, beyond reencountering the "strange new world within the Bible," to borrow from Karl Barth, can any positive lessons be taken away from this word study? I think so.

I'd suggest that the biggest lessons can be found in the words "extrinsic" and "substantive" when we think of the word "spiritual." 

For most modern people, "spiritual" doesn't mean extrinsic and substantive. "Spiritual" means "intrinsic" and "ghostly." That is, my "soul"-- the "spiritual" part of me -- is the proverbial "ghost in the machine." But as we've learned in this series, in the Biblical imagination pneuma is extrinsic to your person. Well, to be more precise, God's pneuma is extrinsic to your person. Pneuma comes to us as an infusion of divine power and grace. Spirit is put into you. And possessing this pneuma is critical for the divine/human relation.

Further, pneuma isn't spectral, wispy, insubstantial, or ghostly. Pneuma is "substantive" rather than insubstantial. And it's this "substantive" aspect of pneuma that infuses into a corruptible humanity immortality and immunity to death. Pneuma is what keeps our existence from succumbing to the tides of change and decay. In the ancient imagination, it's the material world that is unstable and fleeting, subject to mutability and corruption. Contrary to modern assumptions, it is the physical and material world that is insubstantial, vaporous, and ghostly. Earthly, material, factual life -- the stuff of science -- is mere smoke. Pneuma, by contrast, is the very "stuff" and "substance" of the celestial and heavenly realm. As the Gospel of John succinctly says, "God is pneuma." Pneuma is the very "substance" and "stuff" of divine existence and life. 

I find these understandings of pneuma, very different ways of thinking about the "spiritual," well worth the investment in this word study. I hope you did as well.