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G4559 σαρκικός (sarkikós)
Greek
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Quick Definition

σαρκικός, ή, όν Adj fleshly, carnal

Strong's Definition

from 4561; pertaining to flesh, i.e. (by extension) bodily, temporal, or (by implication) animal, unregenerate

KJV Usage: carnal, fleshly

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

adjc. | -ή, -όν | σάρξ

26.8 · Psychological Faculties

human, natural pertaining to what is human or characteristic of human nature

2CO 1:12

79.1 · Features of Objects · Physical [Material], Spiritual

material, physical pertaining to being material or physical, with the possible implication of inferior It is possible that σαρκικός in ROM 15:27 refers to blessings for the body, but the context would seem to imply blessings of greater significance than those designed only for a person’s body.

ROM 15:27 · 1CO 9:11 · 2CO 10:4

79.4 · Features of Objects · Natural [Human], Spiritual

natural, human pertaining to the natural, physical characteristics of persons and often including their characteristic behavior

1CO 3:3 · 1CO 3:3

41.42 · Behavior and Related States · Particular Patterns of Behavior

worldly, base (derivative of σάρξ[f] ‘human nature,’ 26.7) pertaining to behavior which is typical of human nature, but with special focus upon more base physical desires In some languages the expression τῶν σαρκικῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν in 1PE 2:11 may be rendered as ‘the desires which one’s body has’ or ‘what the body wants.’

1PE 2:11

1 In a number of contexts it is difficult to determine whether the focus of σάρκινος[c] and σαρκικός[c] is upon the natural, physical characteristics or upon the tendency to behave in a particular way. In any event, resulting behavior is always implied. 2 1CO 3:3 · 1CO 3:3 The close proximity of σάρκινος and σαρκικός in the context of 1CO 3:1-1CO 3:3 would seem to indicate that there is little, if any, difference in meaning.

UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament © United Bible Societies, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

σαρκικός, -7, -dv, (aap), fleshly, carnal (Vulg. carnalis) ; 1. having the nature of flesh, i. e. under the control of the animal appetites (see σάρξ, 3), Ro. vii. 14 Ree. (see odpκινος, 3); governed by mere human nature (see σάρξ, 4) not by the Spirit of God, 1 Co. iii. 1, 3, also 4 RG; havying its seat in the animal nature or roused by the animal nature, ai σαρκικαὶ ἐπιθυμίαι, 1 Pet. 11. 11; i. q. human: with the included idea of weakness, ὅπλα, 2 Co. x. 4; with the included idea of depravity, σαρκ. codia (i. 6. mavoupyia, 2 Co. iv. 2), 2 Co. i. 12. [(Anthol. Pal. 1, 107; cf. ἀπέχου TOV σαρκικῶν κ. σωματικῶν ἐπιθυμιῶν, ‘Teaching’ οἴο. 1,4). Cf. Trench, Syn. § lxxi.] 2. pertaining to the flesh, i.e. to the body (see σάρξ, 2): relating to birth, lineage, ete., ἐντολή, Heb. vii. 16 Rec.; τὰ σαρκικά, things needed for the sustenance of the body, Ro. xv. 27; 1 Co.ix. 11, (Aristot. ἢ. anim. 10, 2 p. 635%, 11; Plut. de placit. philos. 5, 8, 7; once in Sept., 2 Chr. xxxii. 8 Compl. )br

Mounce Concise Greek Dictionary

σαρκικός sarkikos 7x

fleshly; pertaining to the body, corporeal, physical, Rom. 15:27; 1 Cor. 9:11; carnal, pertaining to the flesh, 1 Pet. 2:11; carnal, low in spiritual knowledge and frame, 1 Cor. 3:3 (2x); carnal, human as opposed to divine, 2 Cor. 1:12; 10:4*

Abbott-Smith Greek Lexicon

* σαρκικός, -ή, -όν (< σάρξ)

(v.l. for σάρκινος, Arist., H.A., x, 2, 7)

= Lat. carnalis, i.e.

associated with or pertaining to the flesh, fleshly, carnal: Ro 15:27, I Co 9:11;

in a more ethical sense, of the nature of the flesh, under the control of its appetites, fleshly, carnal, sensual (but including more than mere sensuality; cf. Hort, I Pe., 133): I Co 3:3, II Co 1:12 10:4, I Pe 2:11.†

SYN.: σάρκινος (q.v.), ψυχικός; cf. Tr., Syn., §§ lxxi, lxxii; Lft., Notes, 184 f.; Vau. on Ro 7:14

Trench — Synonyms of the New Testament

Ψυχιεκός occurs six times in the N. Τὶ On three of these it cannot be said to have a distinctly ethical employment ; seeing that in them it is only the meanness of the σῶμα ψυyexov which the faithful now bear about that is contrasted with the glory of the σῶμα πνευματικόν which they shall bear (1 Cor. xv. 44 bis, 46). On the other three occasions a moral emphasis rests on the word, and in every instance a most depreciatory. Thus St. Paul declares that the ψυχικός receives not and cannot receive, as having no organ for their reception, the things of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. ii. 14); St. James (iii. 15) characterizes the wisdom which is Ψυχική, as also ἐπίγειος, ‘earthly,’ and δαιμονιώδης, ‘devilish ;’ St. Jude explains the ψυχικοί as those πνεῦμα μὴ ἔχοντες (ver. 19). The word nowhere appears in the Septuagint; but ψυχικῶς in the sense of ‘ heartily’ (=é« ψυχῆς, Col. iii. 23) twice in the Apocrypha (2 Mace. iv. R75 eV. 24); It is at first with something of surprise that we find ψυχικός thus employed, and keeping this company; and the modern fashion of talking about the soul, as though it were the highest part of man, does not diminish this surprise; would rather lead us to expect to find it associated with πνευματικὸς, as though there were only light shades of distinction between them. But, indeed, this (which thus takes us by surprise) is characteristic of the inner differences between Christian and heathen, and indicative of those better giftsand graces which the Dispensation of the Spirit has brought into the world. Ψυχικός, continually used as the highest in later classical Greek literature— the word appears first in Aristotle—being there opposed to σαρκικός (Plutarch, Ne Suav. Vivi Posse, 14), or, where there is no ethical antithesis, to σωματικός (Aristotle, Eth. Nic. iii. 10. 2; Plutarch, De Plac. Phil. i. 9; Polybius, vi. §ixx1.. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 269 5. 7), and constantly employed in praise, must come down from its high estate, another so much greater than it being installed in the highest place of all. . That old philosophy knew of nothing higher than the soul of man; but Revelation knows of the Spirit of God, and of Him making his habitation with men, and calling out an answering spirit in them. There was indeed a certain reaching out after this higher in the distinction which Lucretius and others drew between the ‘anima’ and the ‘ animus,’ giving, as they did, the nobler place to the last. <According to Scripture the ψυχή, no less than the σάρξ, belongs to the lower region of man’s being; and if a double employment of ψυχή there (as at Matt. xvi. 25; Mark viii. 35), requires a certain caution in this statement, it is at any rate plain that ψυχικός is not a word of honour! any more than σαρκικός, being an epithet quite as freely applied to this lower. The ψυχικός of Scripture is one for whom the ψυχή is the highest motive power of life and action; in whom the πνεῦμα, as the organ of the divine Πνεῦμα, is suppressed, dormant, for the time as good as extinct ; whom the operations of this divine Spirit have never lifted into the region of spiritual things (Rom. vii. 143 villi. 1; Jude 19). Fora good collection of passages from the Greek Fathers in which ψυχικός is thus employed see Suicer, Thes. 8. v. 1 Hilary has not quite, however nearly, extricated himself from this notion, and in the following passage certainly ascribes more to the Ψ υχικός than the Scriptures do, however plainly he sets him in opposition to the πνευματικός (Tract. in Ps, xiv. 3): ‘ Apostolus et carnalem [σαρκικόν] hominem posuit, et animalem [Ψψυχικόν], et spiritalem [πνευματικόν] ; carnalem, belluze modo divina et humana negligentem, cujus vita corporis famula sit, negotiosa cibo, somno, libidine. Animalis autem, qui ex judicio sensis humani quid decens honestumque sit, sentiat, atque ab omnibus vitiis animo suo auctore se referat, suo proprio sensu utilia et honesta dijudicans; ut pecuniam spernat, ut jejuniis parcus sit, ut ambitione careat, ut voluptatibus resistat. Spiritalis autem est, cui superiora illa ad Dominum studia sint, et hoc quod agit, per scientiam Dei agat, intelligens et cognoscens que sit voluntas Ejus, et sciens que ratio sit a Deo carnis assumpte, qui crucis triumphus, qua: mortis potestas, que in virtute resurrectionis operatio.’ Compare Irenzeus, v. 6. 270 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, §1.xx1. It may be affirmed that the σαρκικός and the ψυχικός alike, in the language of Scripture, are set in opposition to the πνευμωτικός. Both epithets ascribe to him of whom they are predicated a ruling principle antagonistic to the πνεῦμα, though they do not ascribe the same. When St. Paul reminds the Ephesians how they lived once, “ fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Ephes. ii. 3), he describes them first as σαρκικοί and then as ψυχικοί. For, indeed, in men unregenerate there are two forms of the life lived apart from God; and, though every unregenerate man partakes of both, yet in some one is more predominant, and in some the other. There are capxixol, in whom the σάρξ is more the ruling principle, as there are ψυχίικοί, in whom the ψυχή. It is quite true that σάρξ is often used in the N.T. as covering that entire domain of our nature fallen and made subject to vanity in which sin springs up, and in which it moves (Rom. vii. 18; viii. 5). Thus the ἔργα τῆς σαρκός (Gal. v. 19-21) are not merely those sinful works that are wrought in and through the body, but those which move in the sphere and region of the mind as well; more than one half of those enumerated there belonging to the latter class. But for all this the word, covering at times the whole region of that in man which is alienated from God and from the life in God, must accept its limitation when the ψυχή is brought in to claim that which is peculiarly its own. There is an admirable discussion on the difference between the words, in Bishop Reynolds’ Latin sermon on 1 Cor ii. 14, preached before the University of Oxford, with the title Animalis Homo (Works, Lond. 1826, vol. iv. p- 349). 1 quote the most important paragraph bearing on the matter in hand: ‘ Verum cum homo ex carne et animé constet, sitque anima pars hominis prestantior, quamvis sepius irregenitos, propter appetitum in vitia pronum, atque precipites concupiscentiz motus, σάρκα et §uxxi. SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 271 capxixovs Apostolus noster appellet; hic tamen hujusmodi homines a prestantiore parte denominat, ut eos se intelligere ostendat, non qui libidinis mancipia sunt, et crassis concupiscentiis vel nativum lumen obruunt (hujusmodi enim homines ἄλογα ζῶα vocat Apostolus, 2 Pet. ii. 12), sed homines sapientiz studio deditos, et qui ea sola, que stulta et absurda sunt, rejicere solent. Hic itaque ψυχικοί sunt quotquot τὸ πνεῦμα οὐκ ἔχουσι (Jud. 19), utcunque alias exquisitissimis nature dotibus prefulgeant, utcunque potissimam partem, nempe animam, omnigena eruditione excolant, et rectissime ad prescriptum rationis vitam dirigant. Denique eos hic ψυχικούς vocat, quos supra Sapientes, Scribas, Disquisitores, et istius seculi principes appellaverat, ut excludatur quidquid est native aut acquisite perfectionis, quo nature viribus assurgere possit ratio humana. Ψυχικός, ὁ τὸ πᾶν τοῖς λογισμοῖς τῆς ψυχῆς διδούς, καὶ μὴ νομίζων ἄνωθεν δεῖσθαι βοηθείας, ut recte Chrysostomus: qui denique nihil in se eximium habet, preter animam rationalem, cujus solius lucem ductumque sequitur.’ I add a few words of Grotius to the same effect (Annott. in N. T.; 1 Cor. ii. 14): ‘Non idem est ψυχικὸς ἄνθρωπος et σαρκικός. Ψυχικός est qui humane tantum rationis luce ducitur, σαρκικός qui corporis affectibus gubernatur; sed plerunque ψυχικοί aliqua in parte sunt σαρκικοί, ut Greecorum philosophiscortatores, puerorum corruptores, glorie aucupes, maledici, invidi. Verum hic [1 Cor. ii. 14] nihil aliud designatur quam homo humana tantum ratione nitens, quales erant Judzorum plerique et philosophi Greecorum.’ The question, how to translate ψυχικός, is one not very easy to answer. ‘ Soulish,’ which some have proposed, has the advantage of standing in the same relation to ‘soul’ that ψυχικός does to Ψυχή and ‘ animalis’ to ‘ anima’s but the word is hardly English, and would certainly convey no meaning at all to ordinary English readers. Wiclif rendered it,‘ beastly,’ which, it need hardly be said, had 272 SYNONYMS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. ϑυχχπ. nothing for him of the meaning of our ‘ bestial’? (see my Select Glossary, 5. v.) ; but was simply =‘ animal’ (he found ‘animalis’in his Vulgate) ; the Rhemish ‘ sensual,’ which, at Jam. iii. 15; Jude 19, our Translators have adopted, substituting this for ‘ fleshly,’ which was in Cranmer’s and the Geneva Version. On the other three occasions they have rendered it ‘natural.’ These are both unsatisfactory renderings, and ‘sensual’ more so now than at the time when our Version was made, ‘sensual’ and ‘ sensuality’. having considerably modified their meaning since that time; and now implying a deeper degradation than once they did. On the whole subject of the relations of the ψυχή, to the σάρξ and the πνεῦμα, there is much very interesting, though not very easy to master, in Delitzsch’s Psycho-. logy, English Version, pp. 109-128.

Moulton & Milligan — Vocabulary of the Greek NT

σαρκικός = ‘‘fleshly " (caznalis), with the nature and characteristics of σάρξ, as distinguished from σάρκινος, ‘‘ fleshy” (carneus), made or composed of σάρξ; but in Hellenistic Greek the distinction between adjectives in --ἰκός and —tvos must not be pressed too far. See Lightfoot /Vo¢es, p. 184.

Liddell-Scott-Jones — Greek-English Lexicon

σαρκικός (sarkikos) — fleshly. σάρκ-ῐνος, η, ον, of or like flesh, fleshy, σ. ὄζος (see. ὄζος) σ. [μέρη] fleshy parts, such as the gums, [Refs 4th c.BC+]; made of flesh (and blood), [Refs]; ἄνθρωποι θνατοὶ καὶ σ. [Refs 2nd c.BC+]; σ. ἰχθῦς (opposed to a dream) [Refs 3rd c.BC+]; τοῖς τὸ χρήσιμον καὶ σ. καὶ ὠφέλιμον [ἔχουσι τῶν λόγων] substantial, [Refs 1st c.AD+]

2. made of gut, σχοινία [Refs 2nd c.AD+]

3. fleshly, of the flesh, Ep. Hebrew [NT]

II. fleshy, corpulent, [Refs 5th c.BC+]

III. σάρκινος ἤτοι γυργαθός, perhaps ={σαργάνη}[Refs]

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