Language Studies

Hebrew Thoughts

Bâsâr - בָּשׂןמפָר (Strong's #1320)
Flesh

בָּשׂןמפָר bâsâr (Strong's #1320, x270+) derives from בָּשׂןמפַר bâsar "to be fresh, full of life, rosy and cheerful, carry news" (Strong's #1319, x26). This root verb is used of bringing or carrying fresh news from the battlefront or as in Isaiah of the heralding of "good news" (Isaiah 52:7, מְבַָךֵּר mebhassêr). The messenger was usually "fresh-faced" or "flushed" from his arrival and the news was usually "good", though its first use in 1 Samuel 4:17 is off a "messenger" bringing the bad news of family and national slaughter to Eli.

From this idea of freshness, vitality and even that which is carried comes the noun, בָּשׂןמפָר bâsâr, which means "flesh" or "skin" of mankind and animals, presumably as that which is carried on the bodily frame and that which is flushed with colour. It could also mean the male genital organs.

בָּשׂןמפָר bâsâr is the more common adjective used to describe the body and with greater equivalence to the Greek word σωμα sôma (Strong's #4983), although Greek also has σαρξ sarx (Strong's #4561) for the "flesh". It is unfortunate that "flesh" has had such a hard time of things theologically as its root verb is the one used for carrying the good news and part of the good news was that Christ is come "in the flesh"! Flesh in the Hebrew Bible has no distinct ethical or moral quality, unlike the highly negative view of the flesh/body by the Greeks or early Christian docetists (an anti-flesh sect). It is certainly seen as weak, but physically so, rather than morally. In Hebrew the soul is morally weak whilst the flesh is physically weak. In Genesis 6:3, because man is flesh, God will only give him 120 years. Yet a few verses later, v.12, we have "all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth" and here flesh is a synonym for mankind.

In Psalm 63:1 we can see soul and flesh used as synonyms:

"my soul thirsts for thee,
my flesh longs for thee"

Whereas, Isaiah 31:3 has flesh and spirit as opposites, which creates for a confusing circle of parallelism and contrast, synonym and antonym, for elsewhere soul and spirit are paralleled:

"Now the Egyptians are men, and not God;
and their horses flesh, and not spirit." (Isaiah 31:3)

Here, flesh is a synonym for man and spirit a synonym for God. The implication is not that horses, unlike man, have no spirit for elsewhere Scripture describes animals as having spirit too (Genesis 7:15, Psalm 104:25).

In Genesis 2:21-24 woman, "flesh of my flesh", is made from man, and they become "one flesh", i.e., one unit or person, and this is seen as positive.

Flesh could be offered in sacrifice and hence was not inherently impure, except when it came into contact with "any unclean thing" (Leviticus 7:19).

Ezekiel speaks positively of the flesh for he says that God will "take away the stony heart out of your flesh and . . . give you an heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26; cf. 11:19).

The Hebrew Bible uses "all flesh" (e.g., Genesis 6:13), "all life" (kol chay) and also "all people" (kol ‘âm and kol nephesh, literally "all souls/life") indicating that "flesh", "life" and "soul" may sometimes be interchangeable as synonyms for mankind as a whole.

Job speaks of flesh perishing and returning to dust yet also of seeing God "in his flesh" after that:

"all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again to dust" (Job 34:15)

"and even after they corrupt my skin, yet this: in my flesh I shall see God" (Job 19:26)

The present and future state of man are alike, after death and resurrection man will once again be clothed in flesh, though of a less corruptible nature (1 Corinthians 15:35-49; 2 Corinthians 5:1-4) in order to enjoy the new earth, not a spiritual bodiless heaven. God created man the first time around including his flesh and declared it "very good".

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