ABSTRACT
In Romans 7:24, Saint Paul, lamenting the conflict between his enlightened mind and his sinful flesh, utters a cry that has echoed down the centuries: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Popular English translations of the Bible, such as Geneva and King James, in accord with the Latin Vulgate and the Greek, carefully specify “this death,” which might suggest that the death at issue is spiritual and that it results from sin, not simply from the physical constitution of humankind. 1 This vital distinction becomes less distinct, however, the moment we consider that physical death itself is implicit in the Adamic sin that human beings inherit and is thus embedded in their fallen nature. Moreover, the sin to which Paul, in the voice of Everyman, refers is specifically that of his fleshly members, and it further indicates the inextricability of spirit and flesh. Not surprisingly, the sins of the flesh that Paul describes also infect, or perhaps simply override, his rational will: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (7:19, 23). 2
