Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 (Tek) 9/28/84 based on 9/17/84; site teklds.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!teklds!kene From: kene@teklds.UUCP (Ken Ewing) Newsgroups: net.religion.christian Subject: Spirit, Soul, Body, and Salvation (1 of 2) Message-ID: <1082@teklds.UUCP> Date: Mon, 30-Sep-85 12:03:02 EDT Article-I.D.: teklds.1082 Posted: Mon Sep 30 12:03:02 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 3-Oct-85 03:49:00 EDT Distribution: net Organization: Tektronix, Beaverton OR Lines: 60 [---------------------------------------------] I'd like to add some comments on the distinction between spirit, soul, and body. The original question from Peter Kim asked what is the difference between soul and mind, and how is this difference related to being "born again." Because I like to keep articles short, I have split this one into two parts. First, some brief introductory thoughts. All the historical interpretations that I have read indicate that the ancient Hebrews regarded a person as a unitive whole that was not separable into parts. "Body", "soul", and "spirit" exist together as a sort of continuum, each dependent on the other for existence, none having an independent existence of its own. God created all the "parts" (for lack of a better term), as well as the whole physical universe, and afterward pronounced them all as "very good" (Gen. 1:31). When a person dies, he/she either ceases to exist, or exists in a shadowy limbo realm referred to as Sheol. Immortality to the ancient Hebrew consisted generally of two things: 1) his progeny -- knowing that his descendants lived on after him, that these offspring had contributed to the future of the Chosen People, and that his name was recorded in the genealogies of the Hebrew race. (Hence, the stigma associated with barrenness in a woman). 2) a future physical resurrection. The Greeks, on the other hand, regarded a person as a two-part entity. The soul was the noble, good, non-material part; the body was the corrupt, evil, physical part. The soul came from the realm of the ideal and was imprisoned in the body. The soul was immortal: it pre-existed before a person was born, and continued on after a person died. The soul sought after noble pursuits like logic, truth, and intellectual development. (Hence, in many minds, the philosopher was the noblest of people). The body (or the whole physical universe, for that matter) sought after base pursuits, like drunkenness, gluttony, and orgies. The body inhibited the pursuits of the soul, and therefore must be subdued and controlled. Plato had a doctrine of reincarnation where a soul continued to be born into physical bodies until the it attained enough intellectual development to finally remain in the realm of the ideal when the body died. Therefore, immortality to the Greek consisted generally of two things: 1) a natural, inherent characteristic of the soul. 2) a final, permanent separation from the evil physical realm. As you can see, the ideas of soul, immortality, and the goodness or badness of the physical universe were quite divergent. With regard to the nature of Man, a book I once read compared the two views succinctly with the following statement: "The Hebrews thought of Man as an animated body, the Greeks thought of Man as an incarnated soul." Now, how does the mind differ from the soul? In my understanding, they are effectively the same, regardless of which of the above views you use. In the New Testament, the same Greek word usually translates to both "mind" and "soul". Most Christian interpretations that I have heard define the soul as "the mind, will, and emotions," (or something along that line). Therefore, I tend to equate the two. It is a distinction that I don't worry about too much. In my second article I will explain how the Hebrew concept of existence relates to salvation. Ken Ewing [decvax,ucbvax]!tektronix!teklds!kene