CHRIST, BODY OF (σῶμα τοῦ Χριστοῦ). The term is used in three connections:

1. The human body of Jesus while on earth. This body was prepared for the Son by God (Heb 10:5). It was a real body made of flesh and blood (Heb 2:14). The Docetic teaching that Jesus’ body was only an appearance is condemned (1 John 4:2, 3). His was a true manhood, and His body was subject to ordinary human limitations and needs (Heb 5:7, 8). The consistent picture of the four gospels is of a real man, who felt hunger, thirst, tiredness, pain, sorrow, joy, friendship. He touched, spat, wept, prayed. It was a real human body of flesh which died on the cross (John 19:34, 35; Heb 10:20). In the resurrection there was continuity while also transformation of that body. The evangelists emphasize the physical nature of Christ’s resurrection body. He was recognized, held (Matt 28:9), and touched (Luke 24:37-40); He ate food (Luke 24:41-43). On the other hand, He was able to appear (Mark 16:12, 14; Luke 24:34) and disappear (Luke 24:31). His transformed resurrection body is a guarantee of the resurrection of the believer (1 Cor 15:20-23).

2. The bread of the Eucharist. At the Last Supper Christ said, “This is my body” (Matt 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19; 1 Cor 11:24). This cannot mean that in the Eucharist the consecrated bread actually changes into the body of Christ. The disciples in the Upper Room can only have understood Jesus’ words symbolically. The bread represented Christ’s self-giving, received in the heart by faith.

3. The Church. In 1 Corinthians and Romans the phrase indicates the local church, and emphasizes the unity of its members and their harmonious working together according to the varying functions God has assigned by His Spirit to each (Rom 12:4-8; 1 Cor 12:4-31). Paul does not think of Christ as head of the body in these epistles (1 Cor 12:21). In Paul’s later letters, Ephesians and Colossians, reference is to the universal Church, of which Christ is the head (Eph 1:22, 23; 4:15, 16; 5:23; Col 1:18; 2:19). Each member is related to Christ as the directing, controlling center. The unity emphasized in Ephesians is that of Jew and Gentile in the one body (Eph 2:11-16; 3:6; 4:4) while in Colossians the unity of the whole cosmos under Christ’s headship is in view (Col 1:16-19; 2:10).

The origin of Paul’s thought of the Church as the body of Christ has been sought in four fields: (1) the communal participation in the communion bread, as suggested by 1 Corinthians 10:16, 17; (2) the Stoic description of an ecclesia, a public meeting, as a united body composed of different independent persons; (3) the meaning of the “corporate personality” of Israel in the OT, as in the figure of the vine (Ps 80:8); (4) the close identification of Christ with Christians, as for example in their sufferings (Acts 9:4, 5; Col 1:24).

Some regard the phrase as indicating that the Church is the extension of the incarnation, but it is better understood metaphorically, signifying the unity of believers in the Church, a unity which depends upon Christ.

Bibliography S. Hanson, The Unity of the Church in the New Testament (1946); K. L. Schmidt, The Church (tr. J. R. Coates 1950); F. J. Taylor, “Body,” RTWB (1950); J. A. T. Robinson, The Body (1952); L. Newbigin, The Household of God (1953); E. Best, One Body in Christ (1955); A. Nygren, Christ and the Church (1956); A. Cole, The Body of Christ (1964); E. Schweizer, The Church as The Body of Christ (1965).