Word Study - The Old Man, the New Man


	Word Study - The Old Man, the New Man The Old Man Romans 6:6a Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled. Ephesians 4:22 That you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit. Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his practices. Most translators translate the Greek for "the old man," ton palaion anthropon, as "old nature" (Barclay, Moffatt, TCNT) or "old self" (Goodspeed, Knox, Phillips, NIV, NASB, Weymouth). Alford uses the "former unconverted self" or "former self before new birth"; Barclay, "the person (of) pre-Christian days"; Weymouth, "original evil nature"; and Meyer (Ephesians, 234), "unser alter Ich" ("our old ego"). Earle (4:309) observes that "the recent translations are to a certain extent interpretative" and not strict translations. Some, however, do translate it in a literal way as "the old man" (Authorized Version, New English Bible, Phillips, Recovery Version, Rotherham). The word palaios (old), according to Arndt and Gingrich (610), means "in existence for a long time, often with the connotation of being antiquated or outworn." Trench (Synonyms, 241) notes that the word palaios stresses the thought of being "old in the sense of more or less worn out." The other word for "old," archaios, was not used here. It "will often designate the ancient as also the venerable, as that to which the honour due to antiquity belongs" (Trench, 240). The New Testament uses the word palaios for the "old garment" (Matt. 9:16; Mark 2:21; Luke 5:36); "old wineskins" (Matt. 9:17; Mark 2:22; Luke 5:37); "old wine" (Luke 5:39); "old leaven" (1Cor. 5:7-8); and "the old covenant" (2Cor. 3:14). The word for "man" in Greek is anthropos, which refers to a human being. "It is the generic term referring to a person without distinction between male and female" (Earle, 3:115). The other word for "man" is aner, which is the man in distinction to the woman. Meaning of the Old Man "Perhaps the best definition of 'the old man,'" according to Earle (3:117), "is that given by Godet." He says, "The expression: our old man, denotes human nature such as it has been made by the sin of him in whom originally it was wholly concentrated, fallen Adam reappearing in every human ego that comes into the world under the sway of the preponderance of self-love, which was determined by the primitive transgression. This corrupted nature bears the name of old only from the view-point of the believer who already possesses a renewed nature" (Godet, Romans, 1:415). Westcott (Ephesians, 68) also emphasizes the place of the self in the old man when he says, "There is much in the general temper of the world - self-assertion, self-seeking - which answers to 'the old man.'" Moule (Ephesians, 118) notes, "'The old man' is thus not identical with 'the flesh,' which is an abiding element (Gal. 5:16, 17) in even the regenerate and spiritual, (but refers to the) unregenerate son of Adam, liable to eternal doom, and the slave of sin." Lee (Recovery Version, Rom. 6:6, fn. 2) says that the "old man" refers to the natural life in our soul. The old man is our very being, which was created by God but became fallen through sin, and it is the same as the "I" in Gal. 2:20. It is not the soul itself but the life of the soul, which has been counted by God as hopeless and has been put on the cross and crucified with Christ. Formerly, our soul acted as an independent person, with the old man as its life and personality; now since the old man has been crucified, our soul should act only as an organ of Christ and should be under the control of our spirit, having Christ as its life. The New Man Ephesians 2:15 Abolishing in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, so making peace. Ephesians 4:24 And put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality. Colossians 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him. There is uniform agreement to translate the Greek kainon anthropon in Ephesians 2:15 as "new man." However, in Ephesians 4:24 and Colossians 3:10, it is variously translated as "new self" (NASB, NIV, Phillips, TCNT, Weymouth) or "new nature" (Barclay, Moffatt). Both Marshall and the Recovery Version translate kainon (or neon) anthropon in both Ephesians (2:15, 4:24) and Colossians (3:10) with "new man." In Ephesians the word rendered "new" is kainos; in Colossians the word for "new" is neos. Trench (Synonyms, 209-210) notes the distinction between these two words. Neos is "the new under the aspects of time, as that which has recently come into existence." Kainos is "the new, not now under aspects of time, but of quality, the new, as set over against that which has seen service, the outworn." The "new man" refers "to the quality of life that comes with Christ's entrance into the human heart" (Earle, 4:310). Moule (Ephesians, 80), commenting on Ephesians 2:15, says of the "new man": Here the great organism of the saints, Jew and Gentile, is viewed as, so to speak, one person; a view closely akin to that of the "One Body" of Christ….The Old Race is solidaire with its Head, Adam, by solidarity of Nature in itself and of standing towards God. So the New Race is solidaire with its Head, Christ, in Whom, and at once, it both receives the standing of justified acceptance for His Merits, and derives "Divine Nature" by His Spirit. And solidarity with the Head seals the mutual solidarity of the members. As the Old Race is not only men, but Man, so the New Race is not only new men, but New Man. Bruce (Ephesians, 94) makes this comment on Ephesians 4:24: "If the old man is Adam, whose nature we inherit by birth, the new man is Christ, whose nature is imparted to His people by their new, heavenly birth." Witness Lee (L. S. Ephesians, 24:211) also describes the origin of the new man when he says, Christ created the one new man, the church, with God's nature wrought into humanity. This divine work was something new. In the old creation God did not work His nature into any of His creatures, not even man. In the creation of the one new man, however, God's nature has been wrought into man to make His divine nature one entity with humanity. -James Reetzke Bibliography Arndt, William F. and F. Wilbur Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1957. Bruce, F. F. The Epistle to the Ephesians. Old Tappan, NJ: Revell, 1961. Earle, Ralph. Word Meanings in the New Testament, Vols. 3, 4. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1974, 1979. Godet, F. Commentary on St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans. Vol. 1. Translated by A. Cusin. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1890. Lee, Witness. Footnotes. Recovery Version of the New Testament. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991. _____Life-Study of Ephesians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1984. Meyer, H. A. W. The Epistle to the Romans. Translated by William P. Dickson. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1889. Moule, H. C. G. The Epistle to the Romans. (CBSC). Cambridge: University Press, 1891. _____ Ephesians. (CBSC). Cambridge: University Press, 1906. _____The Epistle to the Colossians and to Philemon. (CBSC). Cambridge: University Press, 1902. Trench, Richard Chenevix. Synonyms of the New Testament. London: Macmillan, 1865. Westcott, Brooke Foss. Epistle to the Ephesians. London: Macmillan, 1906.