Meat (theology)
In the Bible, the term meat has three other meanings in addition to the common meaning of meat as food, which are partly related to one another, but are used very differently (neutral or negative, something similar is the case with the term world in the Bible ) . While older Bible translations use the term much more frequently, it is increasingly being replaced by other terms and formulations in translations in today's language.
The human being as a body and soul unit
First of all, in the Bible , meat describes the human being as a body and soul unit. When the Bible speaks of “all flesh”, it means all of creation (for example when it speaks of impermanence): “All flesh is like grass and all its glory is like the flower of the grass. The grass withered and the flower fell off ”( 1 Petr 1:24 LUT ). In the union of man and woman, the two are "one flesh" ( Gen 2.24 EU )
The realm of the earthly
As the transmission of the first meaning, flesh denotes the entire area of the earthly, corporeal, human. According to Christian doctrine, God entered this area with the incarnation of God , which is shown in one of the central verses of the New Testament : “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory, the glory of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. "( Joh 1,14 EU )
Unsavedness and dependence on sin
The apostle Paul sees human action as well as human thinking and willing not of God, but of the desires of the flesh and thus also of sin : “We know that the law itself is determined by the Spirit; but I am flesh, that is, sold to sin ”( Rom 7:14 EU ).
The second and third meanings (both of which have found strong entry into theological literature) have in common that they have an opposite concept in the Bible, the spirit .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jörg Sieger: Introduction to the Bible. Central themes of the Old Testament. Cape. 8: Man as "flesh"