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Soul; Spirit
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Boyd’s Bible Dictionary
:
The
Hebrew
ideal of
man
was threefold:
(1) The body, or material part. (2) The vital part, seat of sensations, passions. (3) The sentient, thinking, or
spiritual
part (
Gen. 1:20; 2:7
20
And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. (Genesis 1:20)
7
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)
;
Num. 16:22
22
And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation? (Numbers 16:22)
;
1 Thess. 5:23
23
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
;
Heb. 4:12
12
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)
).
Concise Bible Dictionary
:
Man
is composed of soul and body, though in certain cases the term “spirit” is added. Both soul and spirit are
put
in contrast to the body, as signifying the incorporeal part of man; but there is a distinction between soul and spirit. Soul is often employed to express the moral undying part of man’s being, and it is used
sometimes
to signify the
person
; as “all the souls that came with
Jacob
into
Egypt
” (
Gen. 46:26
26
All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six; (Genesis 46:26)
); “eight souls” were saved in the ark (
1 Pet. 3:20
20
Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. (1 Peter 3:20)
). “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (
Ezek. 18:4, 20
4
Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die. (Ezekiel 18:4)
20
The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:20)
).
The
Hebrew
word commonly translated “soul” is
nephesh
: in many instances this is translated “
life
” in the AV, as in
Jonah 1:14
14
Wherefore they cried unto the Lord, and said, We beseech thee, O Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish for this man's life, and lay not upon us innocent blood: for thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee. (Jonah 1:14)
: “Let us not perish for this man’s life,” or soul. In the
New
Testament
the word
ψυχή
stands for both “life” and “soul:” “Whosoever will save his ‘life’ shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his ‘life’ for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own ‘soul’? or what shall a man give in exchange for his ‘soul’?” (
Matt. 16:25-26
25
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26
For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:25‑26)
).
The soul, as distinguished from the spirit, is the seat of appetites and desires. The rich man said, “I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (
Luke 12:19
19
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. (Luke 12:19)
). That
night
his “soul” was required of him. The
salvation
of the soul cannot be distinguished from the salvation of the person.
The SPIRIT is distinctively the higher part of man, it marks the conscious individuality, and distinguishes man thus from the inferior
creation
.
God
breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and by this man was set in relation with God, and cannot be really happy separated from Him, either in present existence or eternally. The words are
ruach
and
πνεῦμα
, and are the same as constantly used for God’s Spirit,
the
Holy Spirit
, or
Holy
Ghost
, and for the
angels
as spirits, and for evil spirits.
The word of God is sharp, and able to divide asunder the soul and spirit of a man, though it may not be easy for the human mind to see the division. The
apostle
prayed for the
Thessalonians
that spirit (which is probably viewed as the seat of God’s work), as well as soul and body might be sanctified (
1 Thess. 5:23
23
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
). In the
Epistle to the Hebrews
we read of the “spirits” of just men made
perfect
: their place is with God through
redemption
. Here “spirits” apparently signifies the persons apart from their bodies.
The Holy Spirit being given to the
Christian
, as the
spring
in him of life in Christ, he is exhorted to pray with the spirit, sing with the spirit, walk in the Spirit, so that in some cases it is difficult to distinguish between the Spirit of God and the Christian’s spirit.
From
Manners and Customs of the Bible
:
John 11:17
17
Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. (John 11:17)
. Then when
Jesus
came, he found that he had lain in the
grave
four days already.
The
three
days after
death
were called “days of weeping,” which were followed by four “days of lamentation,” thus making up the
seven
“days of
mourning
.” See note on
Genesis 27:41
41
And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob. (Genesis 27:41)
(#47). According to the rabbinical notion the
spirit
wanders about the
sepulcher
for three days seeking an opportunity to return into the body; but when the aspect of the body changes it hovers no more, but leaves the body to itself. The friends of the deceased were in the habit of visiting the sepulcher for three days after death and
burial
, (see note on Acts 5:6, 826) probably because they supposed they would thus be nearer to the departed
soul
. When the fourth
day
came and decomposition took place, and the soul, as they supposed, went away from the sepulcher, they beat their breast and made loud lamentations. This explains the allusion to the “four days” in this text and in verse 39. To say that one had been in the grave four days was equivalent to saying that bodily corruption had begun.
Related Books and Articles:
808. Rabbinical Notions of Soul and Body
From:
Manners and Customs of the Bible
By:
James M. Freeman
Body, Soul and Spirit
From:
Body, Soul and Spirit
By:
John Ruskin Gill
Man: a Tripartite Being
From:
Man a Moral Creature: August 2013
By:
Herbert Chisholm Anstey
Soul and Spirit
From:
Present Testimony: Volume N2, 1869-1870
Call: 1-630-543-1441
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, … rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).
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