SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:24
¡Miserable hombre de mí! ¿Quin me librar del cuerpo de esta muerte?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Romans 7:24
Verse 24. O wretched man that I am, &c.] This affecting account is finished more impressively by the groans of the wounded captive. Having long maintained a useless conflict against innumerable hosts and irresistible might, he is at last wounded and taken prisoner; and to render his state more miserable, is not only encompassed by the slaughtered, but chained to a dead body; for there seems to be here an allusion to an ancient custom of certain tyrants, who bound a dead body to a living man, and obliged him to carry it about, till the contagion from the putrid mass took away his life! Virgil paints this in all its horrors, in the account he gives of the tyrant Mezentius. AEneid, lib. viii. ver. 485. Quid memorem infandas caedes? quid facta tyranni? MORTUA quin etiam jungebat corpora VIVIS, Componens manibusque manus, atque oribus ora; Tormenti genus! et sanie taboque fluentes Complexu in misero, longa sic morte necabat.
What tongue can such barbarities record, Or count the slaughters of his ruthless sword? 'Twas not enough the good, the guiltless bled, Still worse, he bound the living to the dead: These, limb to limb, and face to face, he joined; O! monstrous crime, of unexampled kind! Till choked with stench, the lingering wretches lay, And, in the loathed embraces, died away! Pitt.
Servius remarks, in his comment on this passage, that sanies, mortui est; tabo, viventis scilicet sanguis: "the sanies, or putrid ichor, from the dead body, produced the tabes in the blood of the living." Roasting, burning, racking, crucifying, &c., were nothing when compared to this diabolically invented punishment.
We may naturally suppose that the cry of such a person would be, Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this dead body? And how well does this apply to the case of the person to whom the apostle refers! A body-a whole mass of sin and corruption, was bound to his soul with chains which he could not break; and the mortal contagion, transfused through his whole nature, was pressing him down to the bitter pains of an eternal death. He now finds that the law can afford him no deliverance; and he despairs of help from any human being; but while he is emitting his last, or almost expiring groan, the redemption by Christ Jesus is proclaimed to him; and, if the apostle refers to his own case, Ananias unexpectedly accosts him with-Brother Saul! the Lord Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way, hath sent me unto thee, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. He sees then an open door of hope, and he immediately, though but in the prospect of this deliverance, returns God thanks for the well-grounded hope which he has of salvation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 24. O wretched man that I am , etc..] Not as considered in Christ, for as such he was a most happy man, being blessed with all spiritual blessings, and secure from all condemnation and wrath; nor with respect to his inward man, which was renewing day by day, and in which he enjoyed true spiritual peace and pleasure; nor with regard to his future state, of the happiness of which he had no doubt: he knew in whom he had believed; he was fully persuaded nothing could separate him from the love of God; and that when he had finished his course, he should have the crown of righteousness laid up for him: but this exclamation he made on account of the troubles he met with in his Christian race; and not so much on account of his reproaches, persecutions, and distresses for Christ's sake; though these were many and great, yet these did not move or much affect him, he rather took delight and pleasure in them; but on account of that continual combat between, the flesh and spirit in him; or by reason of that mass of corruption and body of sin he carried about with him; ranch such a complaint Isaiah makes, ( Isaiah 6:5), which in the Septuagint is, w talav egw , O miserable I. This shows him to be, and to speak of himself as a regenerate man; since an unregenerate man feels no uneasiness upon that score, or makes any complaint of it, saying as here, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? or this body of death; by which some understand, this mortal body, or the body of flesh subject to death for sin; and suppose the apostle expresses his desire to quit it, to depart out of it, that he might enjoy an immortal life, being weary of the burden of this mortal body he carried about with him: so Philo the Jew f137 represents the body as a burden to the soul, which nekroforousa , it carries about as a dead carcass, and never lays down from his birth till his death: though it should be observed, that when the apostle elsewhere expresses an earnest longing after a state of immortality and glory, some sort of reluctance and unwillingness to leave the body is to be observed, which is not to be discerned here; and was this his sense, one should think he would rather have said, when shall I be delivered? or why am I not delivered? and not who shall deliver me? though admitting this to be his meaning, that he was weary of the present life, and wanted to be rid of his mortal body, this did not arise from the troubles and anxieties of life, with which he was pressed, which oftentimes make wicked men long to die; but from the load of sin, and burden of corruption, under which he groaned, and still bespeaks him a regenerate man; for not of outward calamities, but of indwelling sin is he all along speaking in the context: wherefore it is better by this body of death to understand what he in ( Romans 6:6) calls the body of sin; that mass of corruption that lodged in him, which is called a body, because of its fleshly carnal nature; because of its manner of operation, it exerts itself by the members of the body; and because it consists of various parts and members, as a body does; and a body of death, because it makes men liable to death: it was that which the apostle says slew him, and which itself is to a regenerate man, as a dead carcass, stinking and loathsome; and is to him like that punishment Mezentius inflicted on criminals, by fastening a living body to a putrid carcass f138 : and it is emphatically called the body of this death, referring to the captivity of his mind, to the law of sin, which was as death unto him: and no wonder therefore he so earnestly desires deliverance, saying, who shall deliver me? which he speaks not as being ignorant of his deliverer, whom he mentions with thankfulness in ( Romans 7:25); or as doubting and despairing of deliverance, for he was comfortably assured of it, and therefore gives thanks beforehand for it; but as expressing the inward pantings, and earnest breathings of his soul after it; and as declaring the difficulty of it, yea, the impossibility of its being obtained by himself, or by any other than he, whom he had in view: he knew he could not deliver himself from sin; that the law could not deliver him; and that none but God could do it; and which he believed he would, through Jesus Christ his Lord.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 23-25 - This passage does not represent the apostle as one that walked afte the flesh, but as one that had it greatly at heart, not to walk so. An if there are those who abuse this passage, as they also do the othe Scriptures, to their own destruction, yet serious Christians find caus to bless God for having thus provided for their support and comfort. We are not, because of the abuse of such as are blinded by their ow lusts, to find fault with the scripture, or any just and well warrante interpretation of it. And no man who is not engaged in this conflict can clearly understand the meaning of these words, or rightly judg concerning this painful conflict, which led the apostle to bemoa himself as a wretched man, constrained to what he abhorred. He coul not deliver himself; and this made him the more fervently thank God for the way of salvation revealed through Jesus Christ, which promised him in the end, deliverance from this enemy. So then, says he, I myself with my mind, my prevailing judgement, affections, and purposes, as regenerate man, by Divine grace, serve and obey the law of God; but with the flesh, the carnal nature, the remains of depravity, I serv the law of sin, which wars against the law of my mind. Not serving i so as to live in it, or to allow it, but as unable to free himself from it, even in his very best state, and needing to look for help an deliverance out of himself. It is evident that he thanks God for Christ, as our deliverer, as our atonement and righteousness i himself, and not because of any holiness wrought in us. He knew of n such salvation, and disowned any such title to it. He was willing to act in all points agreeable to the law, in his mind and conscience, but was hindered by indwelling sin, and never attained the perfection the law requires. What can be deliverance for a man always sinful, but the free grace of God, as offered in Christ Jesus? The power of Divin grace, and of the Holy Spirit, could root out sin from our hearts eve in this life, if Divine wisdom had not otherwise thought fit. But it is suffered, that Christians might constantly feel, and understan thoroughly, the wretched state from which Divine grace saves them might be kept from trusting in themselves; and might ever hold all their consolation and hope, from the rich and free grace of God in Christ __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
ταλαιπωρος 5005 A-NSM εγω 1473 P-1NS ανθρωπος 444 N-NSM τις 5101 I-NSM με 3165 P-1AS ρυσεται 4506 5695 V-FDI-3S εκ 1537 PREP του 3588 T-GSN σωματος 4983 N-GSN του 3588 T-GSM θανατου 2288 N-GSM τουτου 5127 D-GSM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
24. Wretched (talaipwrov). Originally, wretched through the exhaustion of hard labor.Who (tiv). Referring to a personal deliverer.
Body of this death (tou swmatov tou qanatou toutou). The body serving as the seat of the death into which the soul is sunk through the power of sin. The body is the literal body, regarded as the principal instrument which sin uses to enslave and destroy the soul. In explaining this much-disputed phrase, it must be noted:
1. That Paul associates the dominion and energy of sin prominently with the body, though not as if sin were inherent in and inseparable from the body.
2. That he represents the service of sin through the body as associated with, identified with, tending to, resulting in, death. And therefore,
3. That he may properly speak of the literal body as a body of death - this death, which is the certain issue of the abject captivity to sin.
4. That Paul is not expressing a desire to escape from the body, and therefore for death.
Meyer paraphrases correctly: "Who shall deliver me out of bondage under the law of sin into moral freedom, in which my body shall no longer serve as the seat of this shameful death?" Ignatius, in his letter to the Smyrnaeans, speaks of one who denies Christ's humanity, as nekroforov one who carries a corpse.
I myself. The man out of Christ. Looking back and summing up the unregenerate condition, preparatory to setting forth its opposite in ch. 8. Paul says therefore, that, so far as concerns his moral intelligence or reason, he approves and pays homage to God's law; but, being in bondage to sin, made of flesh, sold under sin, the flesh carries him its own way and commands his allegiance to the economy of sin.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
7:24 {O wretched man that I am} (talaipwros eg" anqrwpos). "Wretched man I." Old adjective from tlaw, to bear, and pwros, a callus. In N.T. only here and #Re 3:17. "A heart-rending cry from the depths of despair" (Sanday and Headlam). {Out of the body of this death} (ek tou swmatos tou qanatou toutou). So the order of words demands. See verse #13 for "death" which finds a lodgment in the body (Lightfoot). If one feels that Paul has exaggerated his own condition, he has only to recall #1Ti 1:15 when he describes himself a chief of sinners. He dealt too honestly with himself for Pharisaic complacency to live long.
