Dictionaries :: Body, Bodily

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Body, Bodily:

is "the body as a whole, the instrument of life," whether of man living, e.g., Mat 6:22, or dead, Mat 27:52; or in resurrection, 1Cr 15:44; or beasts, Hbr 13:11; of grain, 1Cr 15:37, 38; of the heavenly hosts, 1Cr 15:40. In Rev 18:13 it is translated "slaves." In its figurative uses the essential idea is preserved.

Sometimes the word stands, by synecdoche, for "the complete man," Mat 5:29; 6:22; Rom 12:1; Jam 3:6; Rev 18:13. Sometimes the person is identified with his or her "body," Act 9:37; 13:36, and this is so even of the Lord Jesus, Jhn 19:40 with 42. The "body" is not the man, for he himself can exist apart from his "body," 2Cr 12:2, 3. The "body" is an essential part of the man and therefore the redeemed are not perfected till the resurrection, Hbr 11:40; no man in his final state will be without his "body," Jhn 5:28, 29; Rev 20:13.

The word is also used for physical nature, as distinct from pneuma, "the spiritual nature," e.g., 1Cr 5:3, and from psuche, "the soul," e.g., 1Th 5:23. "Soma, 'body,' and pneuma, 'spirit,' may be separated; pneuma and psuche, 'soul,' can only be distinguished" (Cremer).

It is also used metaphorically, of the mystic Body of Christ, with reference to the whole Church, e.g., Eph 1:23; Col 1:18, 22, 24; also of a local church, 1Cr 12:27.

Body, Bodily:

signifies "the surface of a body," especially of the human body, Act 19:12, with reference to the handkerchiefs carried from Paul's body to the sick.

Body, Bodily:

denotes, lit., "a fall" (akin to pipto, "to fall"); hence, "that which is fallen, a corpse," Mat 14:12; 24:28, "carcase;" Mar 6:29; 15:45, "corpse;" Rev 11:8, 9, "dead bodies" (Gk., "carcase," but plural in the 2nd part of ver. 9).
See CARCASE, CORPSE.

Body, Bodily:

sun, "with," and A, No. 1., means "united in the same body," Eph 3:6, of the Church.

Body, Bodily:

"bodily," is used in Luk 3:22, of the Holy Spirit in taking a bodily shape; in 1Ti 4:8 of bodily exercise.

Body, Bodily:

"bodily, corporeally," is used in Col 2:9.