The human body is a versatile symbol in the Bible. For example, the body symbolizes the church of Christ. The church members are the parts of the body and Christ is the head. The various body parts themselves also have an important symbolic value in the Bible. Whether it concerns the foot or the hand, an ear or an eye, heart or kidneys, in the Bible they rise above their own literal meaning and point to a deeper reality.
The Body in the Bible
The Old Testament hardly mentions the body explicitly. Hebrew doesn’t actually have a word for our bodies. An explanation for this has to do with the image of humanity. Hebrew does not recognize the distinction between body and soul. From the Hebrew view, man is a physical and spiritual unity. From this unity, emphasis can be placed on the external, the body, or on the internal, the spirit, but man is and remains a unity. This is different from Greek thinking which distinguishes between body and soul. This distinction is also called dualism.
The body created by God
In the first book of the Bible it is written that man is a creation of God; He made man from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). The human body is a work of art that, according to the Bible, was created by God. This applies to the first creation, but also to every new person that is born. Psalm 139 poetically expresses how God prepared our bodies in our mother’s womb: For you created my reins, and knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-14a).
The Body in the New Testament
Although the Old Testament does not actually have a word for body, the New Testament has a common one. In the Greek of the New Testament the word soma is used for the body . The New Testament has more of a separation between body and spirit. For example, Jesus himself makes that distinction when He says: And do not fear those who kill the body and cannot kill the soul (Matthew 10:28). The body is not something inferior in the New Testament either. It is an essential part of man. Jesus recognizes the high value of the body through the many healing miracles He performs.
The apostles about the body
The body is given a negative association by the apostle Paul when he speaks about the body of sin: This we know, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed (Romans 6:6). But in Jesus Christ there is redemption from the sinful body: Who Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, might live to righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). Through the resurrection of Jesus, death has been defeated. For Paul, the resurrection from the dead means receiving a new body (1 Corinthians 15:35-49).
The body is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. A natural body is sown, a spiritual body is raised. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)
The body as a symbol for the church
In the New Testament the body is used as a symbol for believers. The community of faith is the body and Christ is the head of the body. Paul uses this image to show that all believers are important. In the church, everyone contributes in his or her own way. No one is inferior in this. Every person has been given their own gifts and talents and can therefore contribute to building up the church.
We have all been baptized in one Spirit and have thereby become one body, we are all drenched in one Spirit, whether we are Jews or Greeks, whether we are slaves or free. After all, a body does not consist of one part, but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘I am not a hand, so I do not belong to the body,’ does it really not belong? And if the ear were to say, ‘I am not an eye, so I do not belong to the body,’ does it really not belong? If the whole body were an eye, how could it hear? If the whole body were an ear, what could it smell like? God has simply given all body parts their own place, just as he wanted. (1 Corinthians 12:13-18)
The meaning of body parts in the Bible
In the Bible, the various body parts are used as symbols that point to a spiritual meaning. Whether it concerns hands, arms, ears or eyes. In the Bible, in addition to their direct concrete meaning, they often also have a symbolic meaning.
Anthropomorphisms of God
The Bible speaks of God as if He had a human body. God then has hands, arms, a head and ears, so to speak. These images are called anthropomorphisms. This word is derived from the Greek ‘ anthropos’ meaning human and the Greek ‘ morphe ‘ meaning form. This imagery, symbolism, makes it easier to visualize God.
Poor
The word ‘poor’ in the Bible often refers to the power of God. Usually the arm of God refers to his actions against the Egyptians when the people of Israel were in slavery to Egypt. It is referred to several times in the Old Testament, for example in Deuteronomy 5:15: ‘For you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand. and outstretched arm’. “And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, with great awesome deeds, with signs and with wonders” (Deuteronomy 26:8). The New Testament refers to God’s power. For example, Mary sings in her hymn of praise about God: ‘He has done a mighty work by His arm’ (Luke 1: 51).
Sight
In the Bible, the face refers to the front of the head. Literally it refers to the face of a human being. From a faith perspective it can also refer to the presence of God. The word ‘face’ is often used. “And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 16:11). You can often see how someone feels in someone’s face. The face expresses emotions. For example, Genesis describes how Jacob watches his uncle Laban’s face when tensions arise between them. “And Jacob looked on the countenance of Laban, and behold, it was no more toward him as before” (Genesis 31:2).
Hands
The word ‘hand’ appears often in the Bible. The Hebrew word yad is found more than 1,600 times in the Bible. In our language we find jad in the word jatten. Literally it means ‘to remove by hand’. In many Bible texts the hand symbolizes power. This is visible, for example, in the expression ‘God’s hand’. Many verbs are linked to God’s hand. For example, comfort, bless, protect, deliver, uplift, punish, create, etc. All these different verbs show that God is an acting God. This is how God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt: ‘the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand’ (Exodus 13:16).
Heart
Modern man speaks of the heart as a symbol for the center of emotions. In Biblical times, the heart was seen as the place where thought, will and action originate. The poet of Psalm 139 knows that the heart and the mind belong together: ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my thoughts’ (Psalm 139: 23). Also in Genesis the connection between the heart and the thoughts is made when it speaks of ‘the imaginations of his heart’ (Genesis 6:5). In Exodus there is frequent mention of ‘those who are wise in heart’ (Exodus 28:3, 31:6, 35:10, 35:25, 36:1, 36:2).
A heart full of love
Although the heart has to do with thinking, doing and wisdom, the Bible also knows the heart is full of love. So Hamor spoke to the patriarch Jacob and his sons, saying, “My son Shechem has loved your daughter with all his heart. Please give her to him as a wife” (Genesis 34:8). In the Song of Love, the bridegroom says to his bride: ‘You have won My heart, My sister, My bride, you have won My heart with one look of your eyes, with one link of your necklace’ (Song of Songs 4:9 ).
Kidneys
If someone is something in ‘heart and soul’ then he is with his whole being. Kidney are often used symbolically. Kidneys do not directly refer to the literal organ, but they refer to the inner being of the human being. In Biblical times, people saw staples as the seat of the soul and emotions. In all his suffering and adversity, Job says about God: ‘He splits my reins’ (Job 16:13). By this Job means that the core of his existence has been destroyed. Proverbs reports the opposite: “My reins shall rejoice” (Proverbs 23:16). Whoever says this is positively touched in his deepest being. God knows man (Psalm 139). The prophet Jeremiah knows that God searches man deeply: ‘You who try the reins and the heart’ (Jeremiah 11:20).
Knee
The knee is usually mentioned in the Bible in the context of bending the knees. When someone bends the knee to another, he gives respect and honor to the other. He thus shows that the other person is his superior. For the writer of the letter to the Philippians it is important that every person honors Jesus: ‘Therefore God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth” (Philippians 2:9-10).
Eyes
We can see with our eyes. Just like the ears, the eyes in the Bible are often not about concrete seeing, but about spiritual seeing. The eye is an important part of the body. Eyes in the Bible do not always refer to physical sight. Often eyes refer to spiritual vision. Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: ‘The lamp of the body is the eye; If your eye is sincere, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is evil, your whole body will be full of darkness” (Matthew 6:22-23a). The eye here is a symbolic window to the soul.
Ears
The ears are often used as a symbol in the Bible. Ears are organs for hearing. When the Bible talks about ears, it usually refers to spiritual hearing rather than physical hearing. “Therefore faith comes by hearing” (Romans 10:17). Israel’s central creed, the Shema, also begins with the call to hear: “Hear, O Israel: the Lord is our God; the Lord is one!’ (Deuteronomy 6:4, NKJV’51). Jesus said several times, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15, 13:9, 13:43). He spoke about ears and hearing as about spiritual hearing. By hearing with spiritual ears we open ourselves to God’s message and believe His words. In the Bible book of Revelation, readers are called to hear seven times: ,He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches, (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29 and 3:6, 13, 22) .
Tongue
The Bible talks a lot about the tongue. The tongue symbolizes what we say. It is therefore a powerful part of our body. Not in a literal sense. The tongue is small, but the tongue can do many big things. It can build up, inspire, comfort, destroy. People can be deeply hurt by the words of our mouths.
So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet boasts of great things. See how a small fire lights a large pile of wood. The tongue also is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. This is how it is with the tongue under our body parts. It contaminates the whole body, and sets our course of life on fire from the beginning, and it is itself set on fire by hell. For every nature, whether of wild beasts and birds, or of creeping things and sea creatures, is tamed and has been tamed by human nature. But no man can tame the tongue. (James 3:5-8)
Confess with the tongue
The tongue can hurt other people. The tongue can also speak well and praise God. “As I live, says the Lord, Every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will confess to God” (Romans 14:11). The writer of the letter to the Philippians advocates that: ‘every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ (Philippians 2: 11).
Feet
The writer of the letter to the vilest of Ephesus encourages the Christian to put on the spiritual armor. He pleads to have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15). Feet are there for walking, going and standing. The writer of the Ephesian letter calls for the peace of God to be spread everywhere. In the Bible, the foot also often symbolizes the path through life: ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path’ (Psalm 119:105). ‘Do not turn aside to the right or to the left, turn away your foot from evil!’ (Proverbs 4:27).
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