In our previous post, we explored Paul’s use of the “naked” metaphor in 2 Corinthians 5:1-4. We discovered that rather than referring to a disembodied soul, Paul was using “nakedness” to describe our current earthly existence – incomplete compared to our future glorified state. But this interpretation raises a question: How does it fit with Paul’s words about being “absent from the body” and “present with the Lord” later in the same chapter? At first glance, these phrases seem to support the traditional view of souls existing apart from the body after death.
The task before us now is to study 2 Corinthians 5:6-8 to unravel this apparent contradiction. It is impossible to correctly understand this passage if we fail to respect the Bible’s definition of “soul.” Whatever we conclude about this passage, it must align with the broader biblical teaching about the human constitution and the resurrection.
Absent from the body
How can we reconcile our analysis of 2 Corinthians 5:1-4 with vv. 6-8?
6 Therefore we are always confident, although we know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Cor. 5:6-8 BEREAN)
At first glance, this seems to wreck our analysis of vv. 1-4. Paul’s words in vv. 6-8 appear to indicate that our soul can exist apart from our body and also that it is immediately present with the Lord at the moment of death.
What is assumed about being “absent”
What the traditional interpretation of these verses assume is that we exist as a soul living inside a human body. This is the very idea that the rest of the Bible denies. The Bible teaches us that we are not souls inhabiting a body. Instead, our body and inner being together comprise a soul. Our soul therefore is our total identity or whole being – we are a soul.
So, what are we to make of Paul’s words in v. 6? Whatever our conclusion, it must harmonize with the rest of the Scriptures. The NET Bible helps us to see something that is otherwise hidden from us. Here is the NET Bible’s translation along with the translator’s note:
Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord— (2 Cor. 5:6 NET)
“Grk ‘we know that being at home in the body’; an idiom for being alive (L&N 23.91).”1 (emphasis added)
“At home in the body” is an idiom
The NET Bible translators are giving us a major clue: “at home in the body” is a first century idiom that refers to being alive here on the earth. They reference Louw & Nida’s “Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains.” Here is the complete entry from Louw & Nida that the NET Bible translators referred to:
“23.91 ἐνδημέω ἐν τῷ σώματι (an idiom, literally ‘to be at home in the body’); εἶναι ἐν σκηνώματι (an idiom, literally ‘to be in a dwelling’; see 7.8): to be alive, with special emphasis upon physical existence on earth — ‘to be alive.’
ἐνδημέω ἐν τῷ σώματι: ὅτι ἐνδημοῦντες ἐν τῷ σώματι ‘as long as we are alive here on earth’ 2Cor 5:6.
εἶναι ἐν σκηνώματι: ἐφ̓ ὅσον εἰμὶ ἐν τούτῳ τῷ σκηνώματι ‘as long as I am alive’ 2Pe 1:13.
Most languages have rather generic expressions for ‘life’ or ‘to live,’ but sometimes there are idiomatic expressions which may readily fit the types of contexts illustrated by 2Cor 5:6 and 2Pe 1:13, for example, ‘to have strength,’ ‘to have one’s eyes,’ and ‘to walk about on the earth.”2 (emphasis added)
Not a soul living inside a human body
Therefore, “to be at home in the body” is not speaking about a soul living inside a human frame. Instead, it is a reference to being alive here on the earth which, of course, means we are not with the Lord! Based on the previous verses, the only way to be physically present with the Lord is in our resurrection bodies.
We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. (2 Cor. 5:8 BEREAN)
Consequently, the meaning of v. 8 is that we would much rather be with the Lord (in our resurrection bodies) than to remain here in our earthly bodies. Recognizing that this phrase is an idiom allows us to reconcile Paul’s teaching with the rest of the Scriptures. Paul is not endorsing Platonic dualism, nor is he suggesting that our souls are in the presence of God at the moment we die.
“Paul does not here think of ‘immortality of the soul’. Neither does he proclaim a resuscitation of dead bodies that might serve as receptacles for souls that had escaped the body in death. Instead, he sets before his audience the promise of the transformation of their bodies into glorified bodies (cf. Phil 3:21).”3
Plato dominates
Before unpacking this further, we should acknowledge something honestly. Greek dualism has so thoroughly saturated our thinking through centuries of church teaching, hymns, funeral sermons, and cultural assumptions that it is genuinely difficult to read Paul any other way. When we see the words “absent from the body,” our minds immediately supply the rest: a soul ascending to heaven. That assumption feels so natural that it barely registers as an assumption at all. It feels like plain reading.
But that is precisely the problem. What feels like plain reading is actually Plato reading Paul. The biblical framework in which death is sleep, the soul is the whole person, and resurrection is the hope requires a paradigm shift. That shift is difficult precisely because Greek philosophy has dominated our imagination far more deeply than most of us realize. With that acknowledged, let us look at what Paul actually presents in this passage.
Plato requires three states, Paul only mentions two
Notice that Paul presents only two states in this passage: (1) at home in the body, or (2) at home with the Lord. The traditional interpretation, however, requires three states: (1) alive in the body, then (2) disembodied between death and resurrection, then finally (3) present with the Lord in a resurrection body. That middle state, the disembodied soul consciously existing between death and resurrection, is not in this text. Paul never mentions it. It is not hiding between the lines. It is imported from Greek philosophy and read back into Paul’s words.
The contrast Paul draws is not between having a body and having no body. It is between our current earthly body and our future resurrection body. To be away from this present earthly existence is to be at home with the Lord in the glorified body that is to come. This is precisely what Paul described in the previous verses: putting on our heavenly dwelling over our earthly one. The two passages are telling the same story.
Two modes of existence, not two moments in time
With the meaning of the idiom established, let us think through what Paul is actually saying. He is not describing two moments in time – alive, then dead. He is describing two modes of existence: our current earthly existence, and our future existence with the Lord in glorified bodies. The first mode is temporary and incomplete. The second is eternal and glorious.
Paul is not expressing a desire to die and exist as a disembodied soul. He is expressing a longing for resurrection. With that in mind, here is what his words actually communicate:
6 Therefore we are always full of courage, and we know that as long as we are alive here on earth we are absent from the Lord—
7 for we live by faith, not by sight.
8 Thus we are full of courage and would prefer to move from our current earthly existence into the presence of the Lord in our glorified bodies.
“Absent from the body” does not suggest a disembodied state
E. W. Bullinger asserts that this passage has historically been misunderstood:
“These words are usually misquoted ‘absent from the body, present with the Lord,’ as though it meant that the moment we are absent from the body we are present with the Lord. But this is exactly what it does not say: and the Anacoluthon4 calls our attention to this.
The whole subject is resurrection, starting from iv. 14. Our two bodies are contrasted in v. 1-5: viz.: ‘the earthly house of this tabernacle (ie., this mortal body)’ is contrasted with ‘our οἰκητήρων (oikeeteerion), our spiritual or resurrection body’ (see Jude 6): viz.: ‘our house which is from heaven,’ the future body of glory being called a house,’ as compared with the present body in which we groan, which is called a ‘tabernacle’ or tent. The argument is that, while we are in this ‘tabernacle’ we cannot have that ‘house’; and that while we are in this tent we are away from our real eternal home, which is with the Lord. There is no thought (here or elsewhere) of our being at home, or ‘with the Lord,’ apart from resurrection and our resurrection bodies.”5 (emphasis added)
Jamison, Fausset, and Brown concur with Bullinger and with the NET Bible translators:
“whilst . . . at home . . . absent — Translate as Greek, ‘While we sojourn in our home in the body, we are away from our home in the Lord.’ The image from a ‘house’ is retained.”6 (emphasis in original)
Our hope isn’t to become disembodied spirits
Paul’s words about being “absent from the body” and “present with the Lord” are not describing a disembodied soul departing to heaven at death. Instead, Paul is using common sayings of his time to talk about life and death. When he says “at home in the body,” he simply means being alive on earth.
His real point is that he longs to be with Jesus in our future resurrection bodies rather than remain in our current, mortal bodies. This view fits much better with the rest of what Paul and the Bible teach about death and resurrection. It reminds us that our hope isn’t to become disembodied spirits, but to receive new, glorified bodies in the presence of the Lord. Paul’s message is one of transformation and hope, not escape from our physical existence.
References
- W. Hall Harris, eds. The NET Bible Notes. 2nd ed. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2019), paragraph 83171.
- Louw, J. P., and Eugene A. Nida, eds. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains. 2nd ed. New York: United Bible Societies, 1989. 23.91.
- Green, Joel B. “Eschatology and the Nature of Humans: A Reconsideration of Pertinent Biblical Evidence.” Science & Christian Belief 14, no. 1 (2002): 48.
- A figure of speech which indicates a breaking off of a sequence of thought. Bullinger argues that this grammatical break in verses 6-8 signals that Paul is not making the point most readers assume — namely, that the moment we leave the body we are present with the Lord.
- Bullinger, E. W. Figures of Speech Used in the Bible: Explained and Illustrated. 16. print. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker Book House, 1991. 722.
- Jamieson, Robert, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible. 1871, Accordance electronic ed. Altamonte Springs: OakTree Software, 1996.