Journal: Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society
Volume: JETS 36:2 (Jun 1993)
Article: Does The Christian Have “Flesh” In Gal 5:13-26?
Author: Walter Bo Russell III

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JETS 36:2 (June 1993) p. 179

Does The Christian Have “Flesh” In Gal 5:13-26?

Walter Bo Russell, III*

I. The View Through Our Present Interpretative Glasses

Probably since Augustine we have used a set of hermeneutical glasses to read Paul that some have argued does not correspond to Paul’s set of glasses.1 Specifically, in passages like Romans 6–8 and Galatians 5–6 we have read Paul’s descriptions of human behavior vertically (metaphysically) rather than horizontally (historically). We have taken his ethical statements primarily as abstract anthropological descriptions of parts of the Christian rather than as historical descriptions of the whole identity of persons.

In Galatians 5–6 we have understood sarx and pneuma (“flesh” and “Spirit”) as a description of an internal duality within the Christian. Thus the Christian is commonly described as “a battlefield of the opposing forces of flesh and Spirit.”2

Within this understanding, “the flesh” is defined as “that element in man’s nature which is opposed to goodness, that in him which makes for evil; sometimes thought of as an element of himself, sometimes objectified as a force distinct from him, this latter usage being, however, rather rhetorical.”3 Robert Jewett defines “the flesh” in Galatians 5–6 as “Paul’s term for everything aside from God in which one places his final trust.”4

Lexical works echo the same view of sarx in contexts like Romans 6–8 and Galatians 5–6. Louw and Nida, in particular, place sarx within the semantic domain of “psychological faculties” with similar terms like “the inner man,” “the hidden person,” “heart,” and “the inner self.” They define sarx as “the psychological aspect of human nature which contrasts with the spiritual nature; in other words, that aspect of human nature which is characterized by or reflects typical human reasoning and desires in contrast

* Walter Russell is associate professor of New Testament at Talbot School of Theology, 13800 Biola Avenue, La Mirada, CA 90639.

JETS 36:2 (June 1993) p. 180

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