Carnal

(σαρκικὸς), fleshly, sensual. Wicked of unconverted men are represented as under the domination of a "carnal mind, which is enmity against God," and which must issue in death (Rom 8:6-7). Worldly enjoyments are carnal, because they only minister to the wants and desires of the animal part of man (Rom 15:27; 1Co 9:11). The ceremonial parts of the Mosaic dispensation were carnal; they related immediately to the bodies of men and beasts (Heb 7:16; Heb 9:10). The weapons of a Christian’s warfare are not carnal; they are not of human origin, nor are they directed by human wisdom (2Co 10:4). SEE FLESH.

sarkikos (G4559) Carnal, Fleshly

sarkinos (G4560) Of Flesh

Our discussion of the relation between psychikos (G5591) and sarkikos naturally leads us to examine the relation between sarkikos and another form of the word, sarkinos.Sarkinos occurs three or four times in the New Testament. It appears only once in the Textus Receptus (2Co_3:3). The evidence overwhelmingly favors accepting it in Rom_7:14 and in Heb_7:16, and the evidence strongly favors accepting it in 1Co_3:1.

Words ending in -inos are common in the New Testament. Thus we have thyinos, hyalinos hyakinthinos, dermatinos, and akanthinos. Sarkinos, the only form of this word recognized in classical Greek, is another example. In 2Co_3:3, sarkikos is correctly translated "of flesh"being composed of the substance of flesh. I am unable to confirm that the word fleshen ever existed in English, but had it existed and survived, it would be an even better translation, since of flesh or fleshy may mean carnosus (fleshy, abounding in flesh), which is also the case with sarkinos. Fleshen, however, must mean what sarkinos means here, namely carneus or "having flesh for its material." The former existence of a word like fleshen is not improbable, since many such forms once were used that now have passed away. The demise of such words is unfortunate, since they added to the language. German uses both steinig (full of stones) and steinern (consisting of stones), and Latin has lapidosus (full of stones) and lapideus (consisting of stones), and saxosus (full of rocks) and saxeus (consisting of rocks). We might have used stony and stonena "stony" place is one where there are many stones; a "stonen" vessel would be a vessel made of stone. A "glassy" sea is a sea resembling glass; a "glassen" sea is a sea made of glass. Fleshly, fleshy, and fleshen would have been useful, just as earthly, earthy, and earthen each have a proper use.

"Fleshly" lusts are lusts existing in the ethical domain of the flesh, lusts that have their source in that rebellious region of man's corrupt and fallen nature. This is the case with the "fleshly [sarkikai] lusts" in 1Pe_2:11. The man who allows the sarx (G4561) a position that does not belong to it is sarkikos.Sarx's proper place is under the dominion of the pneuma (G4151), where it receives a law. Sarx becomes the source of all sin and opposition to God when this position is reversed and sarx becomes the ruler rather than the ruled. When Paul said that the Corinthians were sarkinoi (1Co_3:1), this was a serious charge, though not as grave as if he had written sarkikoi. In 1Co_3:1, Paul was not charging the Corinthians with positive active opposition to the Spirit of God but only with intellectually and spiritually pausing at the threshold of the faith (cf. Heb_5:11-12). Although they might have been carried great distances by the mighty transforming powers of the Spirit freely given to them by God, they were making no progress and were content to remain where they were. Paul did not charge the Corinthians with being antispiritual but unspiritualbeing flesh and little else, when they might have made spiritual progress. In 1Co_3:3-4, where Paul leveled the more serious accusation that the Corinthians were allowing the sarx to work actively as a ruling principle, he used a different word. Not only were the Corinthians sarkinoi, but they also were sarkikoi full of "envy, strife, and divisions."

On the one hand, it is not easy to suggest a way that our Authorized translators could have distinguished between sarkinos and sarkikos in 1 Corinthians 3. In all likelihood, however, this was not a difficulty for them, since they accepted the Textus Receptus, which does not use two different words. On the other hand, in 2Co_3:3 the translators' task was plain, and they correctly translated sarkinai plakes (G4109) as "fleshy tables." Erasmus observed that sarkinos, not sarkikos, is used in this passage "in order that you may understand material and not quality." Paul was drawing a contrast between the tables of stone, where the law of Moses was written, and the tables of flesh, where Christ's law is written, and he was exalting the latter over the former. "Fleshy" is not a dishonorable term in this passage but indicates the superiority of the new law over the old. The latter is graven on dead tables of stone, the former on the hearts of living men (cf. Jer_31:33; Eze_11:19; Eze_36:26; Heb_8:10; Heb_10:16).

See FLESHLY.

kar´nal: In the Old Testament there is an expression which indicates sexual intercourse שׁכבת זרע, shikh^ebhath zera‛, “lying of seed,” Lev 18:20; Lev 19:20; Num 5:13). In the New Testament the words rendered “carnal” are derived from σάρξ, sárks, “flesh.” This refers to the flesh as opposed to the pneúma, “spirit,” and denotes, in an ethical sense, mere human nature, the lower side of man as apart from the Divine influence, and therefore estranged from God and prone to sin; whatever in the soul is weak and tends toward ungodliness (see FLESH). Thus one may be carnal (σάρκινος, sárkinos), sold under sin (Rom 7:14). Christians may be carnal (sarkinos, 1Co 3:1; sarkikós, 1Co 3:3); the lower side of their being is dominant and not the spirit, hence, they fall into sins of envy and strife. The weapons of the Christian warfare are not carnal, not merely human (of the flesh the Revised Version (British and American), the American Standard Revised Version), but spiritual (2Co 10:4); “not after the law of a carnal commandment” (Heb 7:16); “The carnal mind is enmity against God” (“mind of the flesh” the Revised Version (British and American), the American Standard Revised Version, Rom 8:7). So, “to be carnally minded is death” (“mind of the flesh” the Revised Version (British and American), the American Standard Revised Version, Rom 8:6). There are “carnal ordinances,” in contrast to the spiritual ones of the gospel (Heb 9:10); “Minister unto them in carnal things,” those that pertain to the body in contrast to spiritual things (Rom 15:27; 1Co 9:11). The same expressions are elsewhere rendered “fleshly” (2Co 1:12; 2Co 3:3 the Revised Version (British and American) “hearts of flesh”; 1Pe 2:11).

Is there any difference between sarkinos and sarkikoš? The former more definitely denotes the material of which an object is made. It may express with emphasis the idea of sarkikos, the spiritual given up as it were to the flesh. See MAN (THE NATURAL).

In two cases (Rom_8:7, Heb_9:10) the adj. ‘carnal,’ and in one (Rom_8:6) the adv. ‘carnally,’ are used in Authorized Version to render the gen. of óÜñî ‘flesh’; in Rom_8:6-7 Revised Version substitutes ‘of the flesh.’ The ‘carnal mind’ or ‘mind of the flesh’ (Rom_8:6-7) denotes, according to St. Paul’s frequent usage, human nature as fallen, sinfully conditioned, and hostile to the influences of the Holy Spirit; ‘carnal ordinances’ (Heb_9:10) are material ordinances as contrasted with those that are spiritual.

On the other occasions when ‘carnal’ is found in the Epistles it represents the adjectives óÜñêéíïò and óáñêéêüò, which, according to their strict meanings, correspond respectively to the Lat. carneus and carnalis, and the Eng. ‘fleshy’ and ‘fleshly.’ Belonging to the general class of proparoxytone adjectives in -éíïò which are used to denote the material of which a thing is made (cf. îýëéíïò, wooden, ëßèéíïò, made of stone, etc.), óÜñêéíïò properly describes that which is composed of flesh. It is the more literal and grosser term, while óáñêéêüò has an abstract and ethical application as denoting the ‘fleshly’ or what pertains to the flesh.

With regard to the use of the two words in the Pauline Epp., a difficulty arises owing to the way in which they are interchanged in different Manuscripts . In the view of some scholars, óÜñêéíïò, which was much the more familiar word of the two, has been substituted in some cases for óáñêéêüò, an adjective almost wholly unknown outside of biblical Greek (Winer, Gram. of NT Gr., translation Moulton, ed. 1882, p. 122). Others, conversely, are of opinion that óáñêéêüò as the more abstract term may have taken the place of the grosser óÜñêéíïò, which might seem to a copyist less appropriate to the Apostle’s meaning (Cremer, Lexicon, s.v.). There are cases, however (e.g. Rom_7:14), where according to the best readings óÜñêéíïò stands when óáñêéêüò might have been expected. According to some commentators (Tholuck, Alford), St. Paul used the two adjectives indiscriminately. Meyer, on the other hand, who lays stress on the difference of meaning between the two words, thinks that the Apostle sometimes of set purpose employed óἀñêéíïò as the stronger expression in order to indicate more emphatically the presence of the unspiritual element. He calls the Corinthians óἀñêéíïé (1Co_3:1) because the flesh appeared to constitute their very nature; he says of himself in Rom_7:14 ‘I am carnal’ (óἀñêéíïò), to show by this vivid expression the preponderance in his own case of that unspiritual nature which serves as the instrument of sin.

The use of óἀñêéíïò in such cases, however, is not to be taken as lending any support to the view that St. Paul recognized in the body the source and principle of sin. The language he uses in Gal_5:19 ff., 1Co_3:3 suggests rather that his contrast of ‘carnal’ and ‘spiritual’ (Rom_8:5 ff.) is equivalent to the contrast he elsewhere makes of ‘natural’ and ‘spiritual’ (1Co_2:13 ff.). The ‘carnal mind’ or ‘mind of the flesh’ is the mind which is not subject to the law of God (Rom_8:7) because it has not received the Spirit of God (1Co_2:12; 1Co_2:14). See, further, Flesh, Body.

Literature.-H. Cremer, Lex. of NT Greek3, Edinburgh, 1880, and R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the NT3, London, 1876, s. vv. óáñêéêüò, óÜñêéíïò; Comm. of Alford and Meyer on passages referred to; J. Laidlaw, Bible Doct. of Man, new ed., Edinburgh, 1895, ch. vi.; Sanday-Headlam, Romans 5 (International Critical Commentary , 1902), pp. 181, 412; H. B. Swete, The Holy Spirit in the NT, 1909, pp. 190, 214.

J. C. Lambert.

Rom 7:14 (a) It refers to anything and everything that pertains to human flesh and the human mind.

Rom 8:7 (a) This describes a mind which thinks only of temporal and physical things.

1Co 3:1 (a) The Corinthians were still occupied with the things which they could see and handle. They had not yet learned to live in the atmosphere of GOD.

2Co 10:4 (a) This refers to human weapons such as swords, spears, and other physical force.

To be controlled and motivated by one’s sinful, human nature rather than the Holy Spirit; a failure to live the Christian life as Jesus meant it to be lived.

—New Believer’s Bible Glossary