In the New Testament (soma, "the body" both of men and animals) the word has a rich figurative and spiritual use: (1) the temporary home of the soul (2Co 5:6); (2) "the temple of the Holy Spirit" (1Co 6:19); (3) "temple" (Joh 2:21); (4) "the old man," the flesh as the servant of sin or the sphere in which moral evil comes to outward expression (Ro 6:6; 7:7; compare Paul's use of sarx, "flesh"); (5) the "church" as Christ's body, the organism through which He manifests His life and in whichH is spirit dwells (Eph 1:23; Col 1:24); (6) the spiritual "unity" of believers, one redeemed society or organism (Eph 2:16; a corpus mysticum, Eph 4:4); (7) "substance" (spiritual reality or life in Christ) versus "shadow" (Col 2:17); (8) the ascended and glorified body of Jesus (Php 3:21); (9) the resurrection or "spiritual" (v. natural) body of the redeemed in heaven (1Co 15:44); (10) the whole personality, e.g. the spiritual presence, power and sacrificial work of Christ, the mystical meaning of "the body and the blood" symbolized in the bread and cup of the sacrament (1Co 11:27). The term body is exceptionally rich in connection with the selfgiving, sacrificial, atoning work of Christ. It was the outward sphere or manifestation of His suffering. Through the physical He revealed the extent of His redeeming and sacrificial love. He "bare our sins in his body upon the tree" (1Pe 2:24), thus forever displacing all the ceaseless and costly sacrifices of the old dispensation (Heb 9:24-28). Special terms, "body of his flesh" (Col 1:22); "body of sin" (Ro 6:6); "body of this death" (Ro 7:24); "body of his glory" (Php 3:21).
ptoma, used only of fallen, i.e. dead bodies (Re 11:8-9).
Dwight M. Pratt