Question: 2 Cor. 4:10. What is meant by νέκρωσιν (translated in the English Bible “dying”) here? Is it “deadness” or the state of death, or what else? W.
Answer: Νέκρωσις is stated to have a passive or rather neutral sense as well as active, it is not simply deadness. It is not the state of Heath, but, where not killing, the act of dying. So putting to death even is used in English: only agency is supposed there. I may say ‘his putting to death’ was inexcusable, i.e., his being put to death. In Rom. 4 it is not simply death, as if Sarah were dead, but the losing the power of life which had taken place. He did not think of Sarah’s womb losing its vital powers. In 2 Cor. 4:10 it is not losing, as in Rom. 4, but he realized in the body the applying death to it, as death was Christ’s portion. It is not, as to Christ, the Jews’ act of crucifying and slaying, which is in mind. Hence killing does not snit, but the fact of the setting aside of life. No English word exactly answers. Dying is looked at as the fruit of something at work; but it is not the working of the instrument which is looked at, but the effect on the person. He held his body down as dead because, as regards Christ in this world, he knew Him as one Who had died to it, for whom putting to death was His portion and the source of all blessing. It is the cross applied to the flesh’s life. Νέκπωσις is making a corpse of, depriving of life; this ended with his body because it had so been with Christ. So Peter says, Christ having ‘Suffered in the flesh, we are to arm ourselves with the same mind.