CARCASS; CARCASE

kar'-kas: The dead body of a beast; used sometimes in a contemptuous way of the dead body of a human being. The use of the word as applied to a living body is not found in either Old Testament or New Testament.

(1) It occurs as a translation of the Hebrew pegher, in Genesis 15:11; this Hebrew word is also translated "dead body" in Numbers 14:29 1 Samuel 17:46; Isaiah 34:3; Isaiah 66:24 Ezekiel 6:5; Ezekiel 43:7:9, and "corpse" in Nahum 3:3.

(2) The Hebrew nebhelah, is also translated "carcass" in Leviticus 5:2; Leviticus 11:8, 11 Jeremiah 16:18, but as "dead body" in Deuteronomy 28:26 ("body," Joshua 8:29 1 Kings 13:22, 29 2 Kings 9:37); Isaiah 5:25 Jeremiah 7:33; Jeremiah 16:4; Jeremiah 19:7.

(3) In Judges 14:8 the word mappelah, from naphal, "to incline" or "fall," is also translated "carcass."

(4) In Matthew 24:28 the word "carcase" (not "carcass") is used to render the Greek ptoma, the reference probably being here to the dead body of an animal For the body of a human being the Greek is translated "corpse" (Matthew 14:12 Mark 6:29; Mark 15:45), and "dead bodies" (Revelation 11:8, 9).

W. N. Stearns