sarx · flesh

What it means

sarx (σάρξ) is a Greek word of the Bible that means “flesh”.

The body, and weak human nature; "flesh and blood", a human being with only human strength.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. The soft part of the body, of people or animals; also the body itself.
2. Human beings, frail and mortal.
3. The human nature that opposes God's Spirit.

From Abbott-Smith (1922) · Thayer (1889)

Word study

Flesh: the stuff of the body; the human person, frail and mortal; and in Paul, what is human as opposed to the Spirit.

• “The Word became flesh” John 1:14
• “Flesh and blood”: what is human Matthew 16:17John 1:13
• “The two will become one flesh” Matthew 19:5
• “A spirit does not have flesh and bones” Luke 24:39
• The flesh against the Spirit Mark 14:38Romans 8:6Galatians 5:17

How we translate it

“Flesh” 147 times. This edition's glossary sets “flesh” with no deviations, so that the same word is seen in John 1:14, in “one flesh” and in Paul's letters.

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Matthew×5
• Mark×4
• Luke×2
• John×13
• Acts×3
• Romans×26
• 1 Corinthians×11
• 2 Corinthians×11
• Galatians×18
• Ephesians×9
• Philippians×5
• Colossians×9
• 1 Timothy×1
• Philemon×1
• Hebrews×6
• James×1
• 1 Peter×7
• 2 Peter×2
• 1 John×2
• 2 John×1
• Jude×3
• Revelation×7

• Matthew 16:17

  And Jesus answered and said to him, “Happy are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

• Matthew 19:5

  and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?

• Matthew 19:6

  So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

• Matthew 24:22

  And if those days had not been cut short, no flesh would have been saved; but for the sake of the chosen those days will be cut short.

• Matthew 26:41

  Keep watch and pray, so that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh weak.”

• Mark 10:8

  and the two will become one flesh’; so they are no longer two but one flesh.

• Mark 13:20

  And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no flesh would have been saved; but for the sake of the chosen, whom he chose, he cut short the days.

• Mark 14:38

  Keep watch and pray, so that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh weak.”

• Luke 3:6

  and all flesh will see the salvation of God.”

• Luke 24:39

  See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

• John 1:13

  who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of a man, but of God.

• John 1:14

  And the Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and of truth.

• John 3:6

  What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

• John 6:51

  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world.”

• John 6:52

  So the Jews were arguing with one another, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

• John 6:53

  So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life in yourselves.

• John 6:54

  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

• John 6:55

  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

• John 6:56

  Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.

• John 6:63

  It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is of no use. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

• John 8:15

  You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

• John 17:2

  just as you have given him authority over all flesh, so that to all that you have given him he may give eternal life.

• Acts 2:17

  ‘And it will be in the last days, says God, that I will pour out from my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams;

• Acts 2:26

  Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; and moreover my flesh also will dwell in hope,

• Acts 2:31

  foreseeing this, he spoke about the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was neither abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see decay.

• Romans 1:3

  concerning his Son, who came from the offspring of David according to the flesh,

• Romans 2:28

  For the one who is one outwardly is not a Jew, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh;

• Romans 3:20

  because by works of the law no flesh will be declared righteous before him, for through the law comes knowledge of sin.

• Romans 4:1

  What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, found?

• Romans 6:19

  I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to iniquity for iniquity, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

• Romans 7:5

  For when we were in the flesh, the passions of sins, which were through the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

• Romans 7:18

  For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wanting is present with me, but the doing of the good is not.

• Romans 7:25

  Thanks be to God through Jesus the Messiah our Lord. So then, I myself with the mind serve as a slave to the law of God, but with the flesh, to the law of sin.

• Romans 8:3

  For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did: sending his own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin and on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,

• Romans 8:4

  so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

• Romans 8:5

  For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

• Romans 8:6

  For the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace;

• Romans 8:7

  because the mindset of the flesh is hostility toward God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor indeed can it;

• Romans 8:8

  and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

• Romans 8:9

  But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah, this person is not his.

And 107 more times.