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Bible Dictionaries
Soul
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or SOUL . The use of the term in the OT (Heb. nephesh ) for any animated being, whether human or animal ( Genesis 1:20 ‘life,’ Genesis 2:7 ), must be distinguished from the Greek philosophical use for the immaterial substance which gives life to the body, and from the use in the NT (Gr. psyche ) where more stress is laid on individuality ( Matthew 16:26 RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ). As the Bible does not contain a scientific psychology, it is vain to dispute whether it teaches that man’s nature is bipartite (body and soul or spirit) or tripartite (body and soul and spirit): yet a contrast between soul and spirit (Heb. rûach , Gr. pneuma ) may be recognized; while the latter is the universal principle imparting life from the Creator, the former is the individual organism possessed of life in the creature ( Genesis 2:7 ‘breath of life’ and ‘living soul’). In some passages the terms are used as equivalent ( Isaiah 26:9 , Luke 1:46-47 , Philippians 1:27 RV [Note: Revised Version.] ), in others a distinction is made ( Hebrews 4:12 , 1 Thessalonians 5:23 ). The distinction is this: ‘soul’ expresses man as apart from God, a separate individual; ‘spirit’ expresses man as drawing his life from God (cf. John 10:11 , ‘life’ = ‘soul,’ and John 19:30 ). This separate individuality may renounce its dependence and refuse its submission to God. Hence the adjective ‘psychical’ may be rendered sensual ( James 3:15 , Judges 1:19 [RVm [Note: Revised Version margin.] ‘Or, natural . Or, animal ’]), or natural ( 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Corinthians 15:44-46 ). Probably sensual in the two passages conveys more moral meaning than the term ‘psychical’ justifies, and natural is the better rendering, as expressing what belongs to the old unregenerate life in contrast with the characteristic of the new life in Christ, the spiritual ( pneumatic ). A parallel change in the use of the term ‘flesh’ and its corresponding adjective may be noted.
Alfred E. Garvie.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Soul'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/s/soul.html. 1909.
