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  • From: MillerJimE AT aol.com
  • To: corpus-paul AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: Re: Paul & fleshy lusts
  • Date: Sat, 15 Jun 2002 00:31:15 EDT


<< -to Jim Miller. A negative view of sex is also
present in the NT. Asceticism, and reasons for it,
were very important to Paul, who can be called a
"model ascetic" (Roetzel), as we see in Romans:
6:6 ... so that the sinful body might be destroyed
6:12 [don't] obey its passions
7:5 our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were
at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
7:8 sin, finding opportunity in the commandment, wrought
in me all kinds of covetousness.
[Probably it is the commandment to "be fruitful"
that accidentally (?) stimulated sinful sexual desire,
hence the repeated mention of how it was "through
the commandment" (7:13) that sin, like a Trojan horse,
penetrated our defenses and seduced us into sinning]
7:24 Who will deliver me from this body of death?
8:3 ...sinful flesh...
8:6 to set the mind on the flesh is death.
<snip>
Stephen Finlan>>

I would like to quote Peter Brown on patristic writers, from The Body and
Society p358,
"Paul's mighty notion of the flesh, as all that was opposed to the Spirit of
God, was whittled down to more managable proportions, by being referred
exclusively to sexual activity."
Because Paul uses the term "flesh" he is not necessarily referring to sex
or even the body. There is gluttony, covetousness and greed, laziness,
gossip and various heresies which Paul attacks, but not physicality itself.
Paul definitely uses "flesh" and "body" distinctly, the former almost always
negatively, the latter often without a strong positive or negative load.
Mmmm, that last statement ought to cause a lot of discussion. It's a little
too broad, but mostly accurate.
Jim Miller



  • Re: Paul & fleshy lusts, MillerJimE, 06/15/2002

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