"Israel after the flesh"

[Peairtach]

Observe Israel after the flesh: Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the altar? (I Cor 10:18, ESV)

Is the expression "Israel after the flesh" or "Israel according to the flesh" referring to unbelieving Jews i.e. "Israel after the sinful nature" or to the Jewish nation as a whole i.e. the people of Israel?

 

[Paul1976]

I'm assuming "flesh" is "sarx." Why woudn't this simply be Israelites according to descent? The expression itself wouldn't be specific to believing or unbelieving Jews. However, as Christians should have recognized that Christ's sacrifice was once for all and replaced the sacrificial system, it seems reasonable to expect that only non-Christian Isrealites would participate in current sacrifices. Translating "sarx" as "sinful nature" is questionable in other contexts (I'm talking to you, NIV. The word itself does not carry that meaning.) Here, that translation seems completely unjustified. So, in context, I would read the phrase as equivalent to unbelieving Jews.

Hope that helps!

 

[Contra_Mundum]

Paul is there talking about corporate "Israel, naturally considered." He draws on an illustration that is taken straight from the previous era, the Old Covenant, which national body was coextensive with the visible church of that era. Which situation in a national sense still obtained in the moment Paul was writing.

The basic concept can be drawn into various considerations, depending on the context. So that "flesh" can sometimes means nothing but the natural body, the "meat" that coats our bones; and at other times can describe the inner-man, which has no eternally spiritual life in it. That man is nothing but flesh.

 

[Peairtach]

Thanks for that.

I was just thinking of the correct Pauline terminology regarding the Jews and their salvation.

There has always been some of Israel-after-the-flesh, then, in the Olive Tree/in the Church/in the Israel of God, although most of Israel-after-the-flesh was cut out (Rom 9-11; Gal. 16:6)