THE ‘SARX’ CONTROVERSY

“All flesh is not the same flesh:” – 1Co 15:39

It’s not very often that the fight among academic Bible scholars is spilled into the streets. They usually restrict their queer quarrels to scholarly journals, reviews and colloquiums. So, I found it interesting when a certain Greek scholar made public his reservations with the translation methodology of some modern Bible versions.

In this case, it was with the Holman Christian Standard Bible and the issue was with their translation of a rather unexceptional Greek word: “SARX”.

But what is “sarx” and (more importantly) why should we care? While it does sound exotic, it’s actually one of the more common words in the New Testament; occurring over 150 times and in almost each book.

Here’re four out of the five times Matthew used “sarx” in his Gospel:

...Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for SARX and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. (Mt 16:17)

...For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one SARX (Mt 19:5)

And except those days should be shortened, there should no SARX be saved… (Mt 24:22)

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the SARX is weak. (Mt 26:41)

From the above, we can see that “sarx” apparently means “flesh”. But we also notice that “flesh” in one verse is different from the “flesh” in the other. 2Ti 2:15 tells us to “Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, RIGHTLY DIVIDING the word of truth.”

This “rightly dividing”, lacking in many Bible studies today, has caused no small error in theologies and doctrine.

When studying the Word, we must let each word in each verse determine its meaning based on its immediate context. Transposing the meaning of the same word in another verse, or giving the same meaning to ALL incidences of that word will only lead to confusion at best, or heresy at worst.

Let’s not be like that Russian computer which, when asked to translate Mt 26:41 (quoted above), replied in Russian “The whisky is agreeable, but the meat has gone bad”. J

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN