Romans 8:12-17
8:12 So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh–
8:13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
8:14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.
8:15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”
8:16 it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God,
8:17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ–if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
[12] ῎Αρα οὖν, ἀδελφοί, ὀφειλέται ἐσμὲν οὐ τῇ σαρκὶ τοῦ κατὰ σάρκα ζῆν·
[13] εἰ γὰρ κατὰ σάρκα ζῆτε, μέλλετε ἀποθνήσκειν· εἰ δὲ Πνεύματι τὰς πράξεις τοῦ σώματος θανατοῦτε, ζήσεσθε.
[14] ὅσοι γὰρ Πνεύματι Θεοῦ ἄγονται, οὗτοί εἰσιν υἱοὶ Θεοῦ.
[15] οὐ γὰρ ἐλάβετε Πνεῦμα δουλείας πάλιν εἰς φόβον, ἀλλ᾿ ἐλάβετε Πνεῦμα υἱοθεσίας, ἐν ᾧ κράζομεν· ἀββᾶ ὁ πατήρ.
[16] αὐτὸ τὸ Πνεῦμα συμμαρτυρεῖ τῷ πνεύματι ἡμῶν ὅτι ἐσμὲν τέκνα Θεοῦ.
[17] εἰ δὲ τέκνα, καὶ κληρονόμοι, κληρονόμοι μὲν Θεοῦ, συγκληρονόμοι δὲ Χριστοῦ, εἴπερ συμπάσχομεν ἵνα καὶ συνδοξασθῶμεν.
Comments
The passage deals with the recurring nouns ‘flesh’, ‘body’ and ‘spirit’. Their interrelationship is not of the dualist kind we associate with Homer, Plato, and other Greek thinkers.
[12] ῎Αρα οὖν: the combined particles ῎Αρα and οὖν are practically synonyms (‘so therefore’), and introduce an emphatic conclusion that emerges from the earlier statement (v. 11).[1]
ὀφειλέται ἐσμὲν τῇ σαρκὶ τοῦ κατὰ σάρκα ζῆν: ‘In Paul, ὀφειλέτης [”debtor”] always appears with εἰμί as a pred. nom., “be obligated”’ (Ex. Dict. NT, p. 550, s.v. ὀφειλέτης, 3). Here the phrase is combined with a final inf. Thus: ‘we are obligated to the flesh (τῇ σαρκὶ) to live (τοῦ ζῆν) according to the flesh (κατὰ σάρκα).’
σάρξ, ἡ, a collective sing., ‘the (human) body’ (Hippocrates & cl. trag.); ‘the flesh as the seat of affections and lusts, fleshly nature’ (Epicurus, the founder of the misnamed ‘hedonist’ or ‘Epicurean school’, b. 341 BC ).[2] The latter (philosophic) meaning does not seem to occur in LXX, but is very close to the meaning of the term in the NT. Hence St Paul may imply ‘flesh’ as sinful and hostile to God unless redeemed (Ex. Dict. NT, p. 231,s.v. 3c).
σάρξ occurs 147 times in the NT, and is one of Paul’s favourite words. As in the OT, so also in the NT—and contrary to the dualist view of most ancient Greeks —the ‘flesh’ is most frequently viewed as part of an ‘undivided whole’ (ibid., p. 230 s.v. 1).
Cf. English sarcophagus.
[13] εἰ δὲ Πνεύματι τὰς πράξεις τοῦ σώματος θανατοῦτε, ζήσεσθε: πνεῦμα, τό, ‘blast, wind’ (cl. Gk); ‘breath’ (cl. Gk).[3] The noun is derived from the vb πνέω, ‘blow’ (of a wind), ‘breathe’ (of a living being).[4] It occurs 379 times in the NT, almost always in a fig. sense, ‘spirit’.[5] Cf. English pneumonia.
σῶμα, τό, ‘corpse’, ‘dead body (of an animal)’ (in Homer); thereafter living body’; also ‘body as opposed to spirit or soul’, esp. in Plato, e.g. Gorgias 493a, as the soul’s tomb.[6] In the NT it means ‘body’.[7] Cf. English somatic.
[17] εἴπερ συμπάσχομεν: the conjunction εἰ + the strengthening particle περ is well-exampled in Greek of all periods and styles (Denniston, pp. 487-8). The standard meaning is ‘if really, if indeed’; here the meaning may be ‘since indeed’, ‘seeing that’ (Ex. Dict. NT, p. 393 s.v.).
[1] As others have noted, the combination produces (ungainly in my view)’hiatus’, i.e. a collision of vowels. In classical (Attic) Greek Plato & Xenophon reverse the combination (thus avoiding hiatus). This combination has no particular significance in cl. Gk (Denniston, p. 43).
[2] LSJ s.v. I.1 & II.
[3] LSJ s.v. I1. & II.
[4] LSJ s.v IV.
[5] Ex. Dict. NT, pp. 118-22, s.v.
[6] LSJ s.v. I.1, II.2 & 3.
[7] Ex.Dict. NT, pp. 321-5.
Insights into Biblical Greek Grammar and Syntax 