Mortify
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [1]
This word translates (Authorized Versionand Revised Version) θανατοῦν ( Romans 8:13) and νεκροῦν ( Colossians 3:5). Elsewhere in the NT the former word is applied only to the infliction of physical death (by the Greek medical writers to ‘mortification’ in the pathological sense), the latter to senile decay of the vital powers ( Romans 4:19, Hebrews 11:12). In the passages cited the words are synonymous, and are used, as the contexts plainly show, in an ethical sense. Although St. Paul is far from disparaging the necessity of wholesome self-discipline ( 1 Corinthians 9:27), the idea, readily suggested by the associations of the word ‘mortify,’ of a gradual subjugation of the bodily appetites by the practice of bodily austerities, is here foreign to his thought. His exhortation is to ‘put to death the (evil) practices of the body’ ( Romans 8:13), and this is to be done, not by physical means, but by the ‘spirit’; and again to put to death ‘the members which are upon the earth’ ( i.e. the impure and selfish lusts of which the bodily members are the natural instruments-fornication, uncleanness, etc.), and for this end the rules of an arbitrary asceticism are of no value ( Colossians 2:16-23).
The main emphasis of St. Paul’s doctrine of sanctification is ever on the positive issue of the believer’s vital union with Christ-that ‘newness of life’ which by its native force expels and excludes the lustings of the lower nature ( Romans 13:14, Galatians 5:18, Ephesians 5:18, 2 Timothy 2:22); yet necessarily the negative principle is also involved. By man, in his present state, spiritual life is realizable only through the slaying of sin; union with the Crucified implies crucifixion of the passions and lusts ( Galatians 5:24). While ‘raised together with Christ,’ we ‘seek the things that are above’ ( Colossians 3:1), the converse fact that in Christ ‘we died’ ( Colossians 3:3) carries with it the converse requirement, as it does also the power, to kill out what is base and sensual and to hold all natural appetites in rigid subordination to the highest ends of life.
Robert Law.
Vine's Expository Dictionary of NT Words [2]
"to put to death" (from thanatos, "death," akin to thnetos, "mortal," see above), is translated "mortify" in Romans 8:13 (Amer. RV, "put to death"); in Romans 7:4 , "ye were made dead" (Passive Voice), betokens the act of God on the believer, through the death of Christ; here in Romans 8:13 it is the act of the believer himself, as being responsible to answer to God's act, and to put to death "the deeds of the body." See Death , C, No. 1.
"to make dead" (from nekros, see Dead , A), is used figuratively in Colossians 3:5 and translated "mortify" (Amer. RV, "put to death"). See Dead , B, No. 1.
King James Dictionary [3]
Mor'Tify, L mors, death, and facio, to make.
1. To destroy the organic texture and vital functions of some part of a living animal to change to sphacelus or gangrene. Extreme inflammation speedily mortifies flesh. 2. To subdue or bring into subjection, as the bodily appetites by abstinence or rigorous severities.
We mortify ourselves with fish.
With fasting mortified, worn out with tears.
3. To subdue to abase to humble to reduce to restrain as inordinate passions.
Mortify thy learned lust.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. Colossians 3
4. To humble to depress to affect with slight vexation.
How often is the ambitious man mortified with the very praises he receives, if they do not rise so high as he thinks they ought.
He is controlled by a nod, mortified by a frown, and transported with a smile.
5. To destroy active powers or essential qualities.
He mortified pearls in vinegar--
Quicksilver--mortified with turpentine.
I believe this application is not now in use.
MOR'TIFY, To lose vital heat and action and suffer the dissolution of organic texture, as flesh to corrupt or gangrene.
1. To be subdued. 2. To practice severities and penance from religious motives.
This makes him give alms of all that he hath, watch, fast and mortify.
Webster's Dictionary [4]
(1): ( v. t.) To destroy the organic texture and vital functions of; to produce gangrene in.
(2): ( v. t.) To destroy the active powers or essential qualities of; to change by chemical action.
(3): ( v. t.) To deaden by religious or other discipline, as the carnal affections, bodily appetites, or worldly desires; to bring into subjection; to abase; to humble.
(4): ( v. t.) To affect with vexation, chagrin, or humiliation; to humble; to depress.
(5): ( v. i.) To lose vitality and organic structure, as flesh of a living body; to gangrene.
(6): ( v. i.) To practice penance from religious motives; to deaden desires by religious discipline.
(7): ( v. i.) To be subdued; to decay, as appetites, desires, etc.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [5]
MORTIFY . ‘To mortify’ is in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] metaphorically ‘to put to death.’ Early writers could use it literally also, as Erasmus, Commune Crede , 81, ‘Christ was mortified, and killed in dede, as touchynge to his fleshe; but was quickened in spirite.’
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [6]
môr´ti - fı̄ ( Romans 8:13 the King James Version and the English Revised Version, θανατόω , thanatóō , the English Revised Version margin "make to die," and Colossians 3:5 , νεκρόω , nekróō , the English Revised Version margin "make dead"): This sense of mortify is obsolete in modern English, and the American Standard Revised Version in both places substitutes "put to death," with great advantage. The context in both passages goes to the heart of Paul's doctrine of the union of the believer with Christ. This union has given the soul a new life, flowing (through the Spirit) from Christ in the heavenly world, so that the remnants of the old corrupt life-principle are now dangerous excrescences. Hence, they are to be destroyed, just as a surgeon removes the remnants of a diseased condition after the reestablishment of healthy circulation. The interpreter must guard against weakening Paul's language into some such phrase as "subdue all that is inconsistent with the highest ideals," for Paul views the union with Christ as an intensely real, quasi-physical relation.
