Bible Dictionaries
Body, Bodily

Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words

is "the body as a whole, the instrument of life," whether of man living, e.g., Matthew 6:22 , or dead, Matthew 27:52; or in resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:44; or beasts, Hebrews 13:11; of grain, 1 Corinthians 15:37,38; of the heavenly hosts, 1 Corinthians 15:40 . In Revelation 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," Matthew 5:29; 6:22; Romans 12:1; James 3:6; Revelation 18:13 . Sometimes the person is identified with his or her "body," Acts 9:37; 13:36 , and this is so even of the Lord Jesus, John 19:40 with John 19:42 . The "body" is not the man, for he himself can exist apart from his "body," 2 Corinthians 12:2,3 . The "body" is an essential part of the man and therefore the redeemed are not perfected till the resurrection, Hebrews 11:40; no man in his final state will be without his "body," John 5:28,29; Revelation 20:13 .

The word is also used for physical nature, as distinct from pneuma, "the spiritual nature," e.g., 1 Corinthians 5:3 , and from psuche, "the soul," e.g., 1 Thessalonians 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., Ephesians 1:23; Colossians 1:18,22,24; also of a local church, 1 Corinthians 12:27 .

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

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

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

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

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