carries with it of necessity the issue of change and succession: the indissoluble life is above all change except a change of form.
A priesthood fashioned after the former type was essentially subject to the influence of death: a priesthood fashioned after the latter type must be eternal.
Each part also in the expression of the second contrast is contrasted, commandment with life, that which is of external injunction with that which is of spontaneous energy: and flesh with indissoluble, that which carries with it the necessity of corruption with that which knows no change.
ouj kata; novm. ejnt. Sark.
] Vulg.
non secundum legem mandati carnalis.
In the phrase
kata; novmon
the writer necessarily thinks of the Jewish Law, but this is not directly referred to in its concrete form as the Law, but indicated in its character as a law, so that the words express a perfectly general idea: not according to a law of carnal commandment. The
gen.
expresses that in which the law finds expression. Comp. John 5:29. See also Heb. 7:2 note.
In characterising the commandment (
ejnt. Sark.
) the strong form which expresses the substance (
savrkino"
) and not simply the character of flesh
(
sarkikov"
) is used to mark the element with which the commandment dealt, in which it found its embodiment. It was not only fashioned after the nature of flesh: it had its expression in flesh (comp. 9:10
dikaiwvmata sarkov"
). All the requirements, for example, to be satisfied by a Levitical priest were literally of flesh, outward descent, outward perfectness, outward purity. No moral qualification was imposed.
The distinction between savrkino" ( carneus, of flesh, fleshy ) and sarkikov" ( carnalis, flesh-like, fleshly ) is obvious. The former describes that of which the object is made (comp. livqino" John 2:6; 2 Cor. 3:3; xuvlino" 2 Tim. 2:20). The latter, which is a very rare and late word in non-Biblical Greek, and found only once as a false v. l. for savrkino" in LXX. 2 Chron. 32:8, is moulded on the type of pneumatikov" , and expresses that of which the object bears the character.
There is considerable confusion in authorities as to the form used in some passages of the N. T. The following appears to be the true distribution of the words:
1.
savrkino"
. Rom. 7:14
ejgw; de; savrkinov" eijmi
opposed to
oJ novmo" pneumatikov"
.
Cor. 3:1 wJ" sarkivnoi" opposed to wJ" pneumatikoi'" .
Cor. 3:3 plavke" savrkinai opposed to plavke" livqinai .
2. sarkikov" . Rom. 15:27 ta; sarkikav opposed to ta; pneumatikav .
Cor. 3:3 ( bis ) sarkikoiv ejste (in 3:4 read a[nqrwpoi ). Cor. 9:11 ta; sarkikav opposed to ta; pneumatikav .
Cor. 1:12 ejn sofiva/ sarkikh'/ .
10:4
ta; o{pla
...
ouj sarkika; ajlla; dunata; tw'/ qew'/
.
1 Pet. 2:11 aiJ sarkikai; ejpiqumivai .