What does Paul mean by “mortal body”?

Explanation:

To understand what Paul means by mortal body it is helpful to note what he writes about the body in Romans 6:6. He writes that we have been crucified with Christ so that the body of sin would be brought to nothing. The body of sin, in this context, has to do with the whole person’s interactions in their present existence.³ That is, Paul is saying that we have been crucified with Christ so that sin would no longer rule over our present existence, which Paul characterizes as the body of sin. Most likely, Paul has something similar in mind when he refers to the mortal body. That is, when Paul exhorts the Romans not to let sin reign in their mortal body, he likely has in mind not letting sin reign over their existence in this present reality.⁴    

Counterargument:

Unfortunately for this argument, even if we agree to use Romans 6:6 to inform the meaning of Romans 6:12, it is not clear that Romans 6:6 has to do with one’s whole existence in this reality. Rather, when Paul refers to the body of sin in Romans 6:6 he could just as easily have in mind the physical body. For the context of Romans 6:6 suggests that Paul has in mind the fact that the human body is subject to sinful impulses.⁵ Of course, if Paul has in mind the human body, and we can use Romans 6:6 to inform Romans 6:12, then when he refers to the mortal body in Romans 6:12, he likely has in mind the physical body.

Response to counterargument:

While it is possible that body of sin refers to the physical body, it is more likely that it refers to a person’s whole existence. We can detect that body of sin refers to the whole human existence because Paul was a Jew and Jews did not quickly separate the human person into soul and body.⁶ Rather, the whole human person was denoted with the term body, which was then characterized a certain way for more precision. For example, Paul sometimes refers to the resurrection body, which denotes the person in a resurrected state. Or, as in Romans 6:12, he refers to the mortal body, referring to the person who exists in a reality where he is mortal and will pass away.⁷

Explanation:

When Paul exhorts the Romans not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies he likely has the whole person, including the physical body, in mind. We can detect this by noticing what Paul writes in Romans 6:13. For in Romans 6:13 Paul continues his exhortation, telling the Romans not to let sin reign over their members. When he tells the Romans not to let sin reign over their members, the term can be used to denote a body part. Still, after exhorting them not to let sin reign over their members, Paul tells them to present yourselves to God, which suggests a blending of the body with the rest of the human person.⁸ Now, if Paul has in mind the whole person in Romans 6:13 when he warns the Romans not to let sin reign over their members, he likely also has the whole person in mind in Romans 6:12 when tells them not to let sin reign over their mortal bodies.

Counterargument:

Romans 6:13 suggests that when Paul refers to the mortal body, he has in mind the physical body. For when we reach Romans 6:13, Paul specifically refers to not presenting your members to sin. Now, members is another term for body part. So clearly Paul has in mind not sinning with one’s body parts. Further, when Paul says to instead present yourselves to God, since the body is part of the person, the term yourselves simply refers to the body belonging to that person. We could paraphrase Paul to make the point that Romans 6:13 has to do with the physical body, for he seems to be saying, Do not sin with your body parts, but present your body to God as one who has been brought from death to life. In fact, Paul will go on in Romans 12:1 to urge the Romans to present their bodies as a living sacrifice to God. So Paul seems to have physical body in mind in Romans 6:13.

Of course, according to this view, we should use Romans 6:13 to inform the meaning of mortal body in Romans 6:12, which implies that mortal body in Romans 6:12 refers to the physical body.

Response to counterargument:

While it is true that likely members indicates body parts in Romans 6:13, it is unlikely that when Paul tells the Romans to present yourselves he has in mind their physical bodies. For Paul follows up this line with the conjunction και (and), before stating that they should present their members to God. In other words, Paul says, Present yourselves to God and present your members to God. Of course, if the members are body parts and the self is separate from the members, then Paul is telling the Romans to present their body parts and themselves, which is something different from their body. Thus, in Romans 6:13 Paul has in mind presenting the whole person, both body and mind, as pleasing to God. And since Romans 6:13 informs Romans 6:12, when Paul refers to the mortal body he has in mind the whole person.

The weakness of this view is that Paul does spend some time in Romans 6:1–23 urging the Romans not to sin with their bodies. Further, he will raise this issue again in Romans 12:1 when he exhorts the Romans to present their bodies as a living sacrifice, implying the physical body. So while it may be that mortal body refers to the persons whole existence, the physical body is not far from Paul’s mind.

Explanation:

Paul has been convincing his readers that through Jesus Christ, believers are justified before God, and thus have peace with God and life in abundance (Romans 5:1–5). Of course, this means it is not appropriate for them to continue in sin (Romans 6:1). To help the Romans understand the folly of continuing in sin, Paul contrasts the transient nature of bodily pleasures with eternal life with Christ (Romans 6:23). To help them grasp the vast superiority of eternal life with Christ, Paul exhorts the Romans not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies. By referring to their mortal bodies, Paul has in mind their physical bodies, which highlights the contrast between simple earthly bodily pleasures that will soon disappear and life everlasting.¹¹ Thus, the term mortal body refers to the physical human body, whose pleasures are transitory, which is a sharp contrast to the joy of eternal life.

Counterargument:

The problem here is that it is less a clever rhetorical device than a tautology to refer to the mortal body.¹² That is, if Paul uses the term mortal body to refer to the physical body, since the physical body is inherently mortal, he seems to be exhorting the Romans not to let sin reign in their physical bodies. In other words, if Paul wants to tell the Romans not to let sin reign in their physical bodies, he could simply tell them not to let sin reign in their bodies, rather than their mortal bodies, to avoid a tautology.

Response to counterargument:

Paul is not being tautological by referring to the body as the mortal body, for his whole point is to highlight the transient nature of the physical body by referring to it as mortal. That is, the term mortal is a reminder to the Romans that physical bodily pleasures will eventually pass away, in contrast with the hope they have for eternal life with Christ. So Paul is not being tautological by referring to the mortal body, but a skilled rhetorician.

 Explanation:

When Paul exhorts the Romans not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies he must have the physical body in mind. We can detect this because a believer is a new creature in the sense that his soul is immortal, and therefore beyond the reach of sin and death.¹³ Since the soul is immortal and beyond the reach of sin and death, Paul cannot have in mind anything but the physical body when he refers to the body as mortal. Thus, the mortal body refers to the physical body.

Counterargument:

The problem here is that this view reads ideas into the text that may be foreign to Paul. For example, Paul says nothing in Romans about a soul, nor that the soul of believers is immortal. In fact, Paul does not separate the body and soul at all but seems to simply refer to the whole person as either inhabiting the current world or looking forward to a resurrection reality. The idea that there is a strict separation of the body and soul is generally considered an ancient Greek philosophical idea, but not one that Jews like Paul would hold.¹⁴ Finally, this view seems to imply that the soul of a person is beyond the power of sin but that the body is not, but it does not explain what the soul is, or how it’s possible for a body to sin without the consent of the soul. Nor what it means for a purely physical body aside from the soul to sin. For all of these reasons it is not clear that Paul separates the soul from the body, so it is not clear that referring to the mortal body is a reference only to the physical body.

The problem with this view is that it is not clear how a body could sin without the consent of the person. That is, physical bodies are simply a collection of particles, and collections of particles cannot sin. Since Paul is exhorting the Romans not to let sin reign in their mortal bodies, and physical bodies cannot sin aside from the intent of the person, he likely has the whole person in mind.