Sōma appears 142 times in the NT. In Greek thought, body and soul were often sharply divided — the soul was the true self trapped in an inferior body. The NT rejects this dualism: the body is God's creation, destined for resurrection, and the site of worship. Paul's shocking statement — 'your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit' (1 Corinthians 6:19) — elevates the sōma to sacred status. The resurrection of the body (not just the soul) is central to Christian hope (1 Corinthians 15; Romans 8:23). God's ultimate redemption includes the redemption of the sōma.
Paul uses sōma in a unique corporate sense to describe the church as 'the body of Christ' (sōma Christou, Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 4:12; Colossians 1:18). This is not mere metaphor — Paul treats the church's unity as genuinely organic and Christ's headship as real. Each member is a body part contributing their function to the whole. This corporate-sōma language has profound implications: to harm a fellow believer is to harm Christ's body (1 Corinthians 6:15; 12:26); to serve the community is to serve Christ. The Eucharist also uses sōma: 'This is my body [sōma]' (Matthew 26:26) — connecting the individual body of Christ offered on the cross with the corporate body gathered at the table.