"Body:" Its Hidden Meaning
People of Jesus’s time would have heard his use of the word translated as “body” differently than we do. This article explores the implication of the word’s hidden meaning.
The Greek Word
The Greek word is soma (σῶμά). Jesus uses soma in seventeen verses. It means "a living body," "a dead body," "any corporeal substance," "a solid," and "the whole of a thing." Most of these meanings also work in English but the last in this list is the most interesting. Soma’s sense as a “whole of a thing” also exists in English. This is what we mean when we say a "body of work,” or a "body of proof.” It doesn’t mean all the parts as much as it means the sum of them, the essence of a thing.
Jesus ofter uses soma, as “a physical body,” especially when this word is the opposite of the word mistranslated as “soul” (see this article). He does this in four verses. He, however, never uses it as the opposite of the Greek word translated as "spirit" (see this article). This indicates a possible misunderstanding of the “body/spirit” dichotomy that we see in much of philosophy. Jesus also saw the “body” as just one part of us alone with our spirits, minds, souls, and so on as similar components (see this article).
When Jesus talks about putting on oil or ointment, he is talking about his living body but refers to his death. He also uses soma to mean a “dead body” more clearly in verses such as Luke 17:37.
NIV: Just as the gathering of vultures shows there is a carcass nearby, so these signs indicate that the end is near.
The “carcass” here is soma.
The Hidden Meaning
The hidden meaning of soma is its meaning as "the whole of a thing" or the “sum of a thing.” Jesus indicates this meaning in a simple and consistent way. He often connects it with the eye and seeing.
Let us look at the first verse in the Gospels with both soma and “eye,” in it, Matthew 6:22:
NIV: The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.
Notice how similar this verse is to Luke 11:36.
NIV: Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.
It has the same word, “whole,” to indicate that Jesus means the “body” as the whole or sum of a thing. Jesus uses the word soma with the “whole” (holos) in six verses. “What is it the sum of? Jesus makes that clear as well, “of you.” In all these six verses, he says the same “whole sum of you.”
How did Jesus’s listeners hear Matthew 6:22?
Listeners Heard: The lamp of the body is the eye. When, in fact, it is, that eye of yours, focused, that whole sum of you will be a shining light.
How does our body shine? When it is all of us, but especially our body of work. This is from the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus says a little earlier that we are to let our light shine as “good deeds.” This made it all clear to Jesus’s listeners. The “sum of us” is what people see us do, our body of work.
More interesting is Matthew 5:29:
NIV: If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
(NOTE: The phrase in the NIV, “of your body,” doesn’t exist in the Greek, but was added by the translators.)
Once more, we see the phrase, “your whole body” heard as “that whole body of work of yours.” And again, in contrast with “whole,” Jesus uses a Greek word translated as “part.” Notice how dramatically this idea of a “sum of us” changes the focus of the verse. Jesus isn’t talking about a body being burnt but the whole value of a life being destroyed.
Both Meanings
Does knowing this additional meaning of soma help us understand some of Jesus better? Even in verses without “whole” and “your”?
Jesus clearly means the physical body when he describes a body, soma, putting on clothes. However, there was an association in Jesus’s time between clothing and a person’s accomplishments. Clothing was used to signal a person’s class and status in all ancient societies. When Jesus talks about clothes, his listeners heard him talking not just about garments that protect us from the weather but about social status. This changes what they heard in verses such as Luke 12:23:
NIV: For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.
The word for “life” in this verse primarily means “the self” (see this article). His listeners would have heard this verse as referring to a body of work and social status as well as a physical body and clothing:
Listeners Heard: Because this self is more than food. And this body of work? More than its social status.
The body is the sum of the self. Food feeds the body, not the self. The clothes are the symbol for social status, but they are less than the sum of a life.
This brings us inevitably to the most interesting group of verses.
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