What then does the Church speak of when it uses the word ‘body’? For example, in the epistles of Apostle Paul, ‘body’ means ‘person,’ ‘individual,’ i.e., the body – is a person in her objective reality, that is, a person as an object. In this perspective, we have: ‘my body’ = me, ‘his body’ = him. (Similarly: ‘my soul’ = me, ‘your souls’ = you. The soul, like the body, does not indicate a substance, but denotes the force of natural life, life itself, and a person as a being who has sensations and will). Man and body – are the same. It is interesting that such a concept of ‘body’ is reflected not only in the Greek language, but, for example, in English: anybody (anyone, an important person), everybody (everyone, all of them), somebody (some person, dear, darling), where body – is the body.
Thus, σώμα (body) – is a person as a whole (a whole personality), indivisible. (As a synonym, you can specify the Greek άτομος, Latin individuum. Σώμα is ά-τομος (indivisible), negation of anyone – τομη (division), including dichotomy or trichotomy (philosophical teaching about the substantial dual-component nature of man: soul+body or three-component: spirit+soul+body). Thus, σώμα=άτομος=individuum=indivisible=whole). The body – is what does not divide. (All objects are divided into two groups: bodies and non-bodies. A body is called what cannot be divided into several bodies. For example, a laptop is a body – it cannot be broken and get two laptops; glasses – a body, because they cannot be disassembled and get two pairs of glasses; a pile of sand – is not a body, because it can be divided into several piles of sand (a pile is divided into piles); a puddle – is not a body, because this water can be made into several puddles). But in the reality of this world (‘leather robes’) man is ‘divisible’: she gets sick, suffers, ages (decays, decay), decomposes in death (in each death-birth from I to II, from II to III f. existence). That is, she does not possess the real σώμα (wholeness, body), the real body, wholeness. ‘Healing’ (healing), restoration of the whole-body is called σωτηρία. Σωτηρία means: I become σώς, become whole, healthy. This word σωτηρία is translated as ‘salvation,’ although it actually means ‘healing’ (acquisition of wholeness, true body). Accordingly, the word Σωτήρ (Savior) actually means – ‘Healer.’ (Note that in the tradition of the Church, a corpse is never called a body. It is not in theological language that we speak at a funeral: ‘carrying out the body at such and such a time,’ but in Greek a corpse is πτώμα (ptóma), and σώμα (body) – is a person. Therefore, when it comes to the body, atoms and molecules have nothing to do with it).
On occasion, it is very important to point out the specific meaning of the word ‘body’ in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, spoken at the Last Supper: ‘This is My Body.’ (Note that in the Apostle John in that context the word σάρξ (sárx) – ‘flesh’ is used. But John’s dictionary differs from the dictionary of Apostle Paul and other Evangelists (i.e., they indicate the same reality, experience with different words), and in him (John) ‘flesh’ means the same thing that, for example, in Paul ‘body’). How much evil happens because of misunderstanding of the Church – how much evil sometimes leads to the fact of changing (or substituting) the semantics (meaning) of this word, when ‘body’ is understood unilaterally, as material flesh, almost as a corpse. People simply leave communion and the Church, arguing their departure by the fact that they cannot drink blood and eat raw meat (as once the disciples left the Savior, when He spoke to them about the Eucharist; they, not understanding what the Lord was talking about, said: ‘This is a hard saying! Who can listen to it’; although the Lord said: ‘The Spirit gives life; the flesh profits nothing,’ letting them know that it is not about muscles and veins, but about His Hypostasis, the Holy Spirit, but they did not want to listen, ask – whether they understand correctly. It happens now – they leave, not having known the essence, and not having bothered to know the truth).
And now we will say something about the word ‘resurrection.’ In Greek Ἀναστασία (Anastasía) ‘resurrection’ (returned to life), comes from ἀνάστασις (anástasis) ‘rise, standing up; raising’; etymology of the word: from ἀνά (aná) ‘up, upward, back’+ στάσις (stásis) ‘arrangement, establishment,’ from ἵστημι (ístēmi) ‘to put, to arrange; to build; to stand.’ Thus, resurrection, to resurrect, to rise means: standing up, awakening, returning to life, becoming alive, transitioning from a dead state, lifeless (unlively) to a living state (soulful), revival, gaining strength, being filled with strength; antonym to the word resurrection – death, and to ‘to resurrect’ – to die (for example, nature revives in spring – resurrects from winter death; to get up from sleep – to resurrect from the dead, where death – the image of biological death; when strength returns to the relaxed (living ‘dead’) or to the one tired from hard work, after rest – this is also resurrection; resuscitation – is also resurrection…).