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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
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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