Corpse
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [1]
see Body , No. 3.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(1): (n.) A human body in general, whether living or dead; - sometimes contemptuously.
(2): (n.) The dead body of a human being; - used also Fig.
King James Dictionary [3]
Corpse, n. L., a body. The dead body of a human being.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [4]
kōrps : This word in the King James Version is the translations of two Hebrew words, פגר , pegher , and גּויּה , gewı̄yāh , while נבלה , nebhēlāh , and גּוּפה , gūphāh , which mean the same, are translated "body," with which the English word "corpse" (Latin, corpus ) was originally synonymical. Therefore we find the now apparently unnecessary addition of the adjective "dead" in 2 Kings 19:35 and Isaiah 37:36 . The Greek equivalent is πτῶμα , ptō̇ma , literally, "a fallen body," "a ruin" (from πίπτω , pı́ptō , "to fall"), in Mark 6:29; Revelation 11:8 , Revelation 11:9 .
Corpses were considered as unclean and defiling in the Old Testament, so that priests were not to touch dead bodies except those of near kinsfolk ( Leviticus 21:1-3 ), the high priest and a Nazirite not even such ( Leviticus 21:11; Numbers 6:6-8 ). Nu 19 presents to us the ceremonial of purification from such defilement by the sprinkling with the ashes of a red heifer, cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet.
It was considered a great calamity and disgrace to have one's body left unburied, a "food unto all birds of the heavens, and unto the beasts of the earth" ( Deuteronomy 28:26; 2 Samuel 21:10; Psalm 79:2; Isaiah 34:3; Jeremiah 7:33 , etc.). Thence is explained the merit of Rizpah ( 2 Samuel 21:10 ), and of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead, who protected or recovered and buried the mutilated bodies of Saul and his sons ( 1 Samuel 31:11-13; 2 Samuel 2:4-7; compare 1 Chronicles 10:11 , 1 Chronicles 10:12 ). See Burial .
Even the corpses of persons executed by hanging were not to remain on the tree "all night," "for he that is hanged is accursed of God; that thou defile not thy land which Yahweh thy God giveth thee for an inheritance" ( Deuteronomy 21:23 ).
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [5]
(גְּוַיָּה, geviyah' , Nehemiah 3:3, a carcase , as rendered in Judges 14:8-9, elsewhere "body; פֶּגֶר pe'ger , 2 Kings 19:35; Isaiah 37:6, a "carcase" or "body" [usually dead], as elsewhere rendered; πτῶμα, Mark 6:29, a dead "body" or "carcase," as elsewhere rendered), the dead body of a human being. (See Carcase).
