Hebrew Techniques Used In Paul's Letters

For the sake of comparison, I will mention a few occurrences of σάρξ from outside the Pauline corpus. There are a number of quotations from the Hebrew scriptures in Paul’s letters. The Hebrew concept בָּשָׂ֑ר (basar) is translated into both σάρξ and σῶμα, and can also be rendered with personal pronouns in the Septuagint (LXX). In Paul’s letters, σάρξ, σῶμα and personal pronouns can be used interchangeably (see, e.g., 2 Cor. 4.10–12; Rom. 8.3–4). The Hebrew בָּשָׂ֑ר is commonly used with reference to the recognition of one’s kin.1 In the same vein, σάρξ is used in Luke when the resurrected Jesus assures his terrified disciples ‘it is me myself’ (ἐγώ εἰμι αὐτός) with reference to himself as being σάρκα and ὀστέα (Eng. ‘flesh and bone’: Lk 24.39).

They suggest the semantic components ‘dead or alive’ and ‘nonbone’ in the interpretation of σάρξ in Luke 24.39, a suggestion that would appear nonsensical and random had we not known that the established translation of σάρξ into English is ‘flesh’. In every-day English, flesh is generally the muscular component of the human or animal body (which can be dead or alive), and is inconclusive toward the other anatomic components of that body (such as bone or blood). The Greek term σάρκα καὶ ὀστέα (‘flesh and bone’) on the other hand, refers to the human person and, more specifically, to the human person as incorporated into a specific collective group. In Romans 11.14, the individual words σάρκα and ὀστέα are not used in their contrastive sense, with the implication that the entity consists of flesh and bones and nothing more than that, but in its inclusive sense of flesh and bone and everything inbetween. Much can be said about the term flesh in English, but it is clearly not functionally equivalent with the Greek term σάρξ. The assumption that σάρξ would refer to inanimate physical matter probably emanates from other sources than the Greek