Immanuel.at-Forum for Discussion Discourse 22: Is there such a thing as the immortality of the soul?

(Texts enclosed in a black frame are quoted from visitors to the site or other authors.)

(Is there such a thing as the immortality of the soul? / Book HJT00, no. 123/124*)

The Old Testament knows nothing of the “immortal soul”. Human beings are “like grass, which grows up; in the morning it flourishes and grows, in the evening it is cut down and withers” (Ps 90,5.6; 102,12). They are “like the flower of the field” (Ps 103,15; 1 Ptr 1,24), or even to be compared with dust (Ps 104,14; 104,28). Existing apart from God, having no life in themselves, when they die there is nothing to distinguish them from the beasts: they have “a common fate”, and “all go unto one place: all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again” (Ecc 3,19-20). The human soul too – for which the Hebrew term is “nephesh” – will not escape from death (Num 23,10, Ps 143,7). Samson cried out: “Let my soul die with the Philistines” (Jdg 16,30). So if the soul can die (and if it sins, it must die), it cannot be described as “immortal”.

In many passages the Bible characterizes the entire human being as a “soul”. This attitude already finds expression in the story of creation (Gen 2,7)! See also Ezk 18,4.20 etc. In other passages the word “soul” has the same meaning as “life” (Isa 53,12, where “soul” is the actual word used: “that he has spilled his soul in death”). Finally, the Bible even attributes a “soul” to animals (Gen 1,20.24; 2,19).

Corresponding to the Hebrew word “nephesh”, the New Testament term “psyche” does not refer to a soul that can exist in separation from the body, by which human beings are distinguished from animals: it generally means the entire human being, consisting of the dust of the earth and the breath of life (body and spirit). According to Jesus’ words in Lk 17,33 and 9,24, if a human being seeks to save his life, he can actually “lose” it. According to Mt 10,28, God can destroy (or “put to death” – thus the concordance rendering) “both body and soul” in Gehenna. If God can destroy the soul or put it to death, then the soul cannot be immortal. (...) All attempts to attribute immortality to humanity – or to a component part of humanity – are countered by the New Testament, which praises God as the “king over all kings and lord over all lords, who alone possesses immortality...” (1 Tim 6,15-16).

If God alone possesses immortality, then any discussion of a supposedly “immortal soul” that belongs to humanity immediately becomes pointless. In that case all humanity’s hankering after eternity and all its longing for salvation can only meet with a single response: that which redirects it to God, the source of all life! God has already brought it about that life, in Our Lord Jesus Christ, has irrupted into this death-devoted world, and has put eternal life, immortality indeed, within our reach. This is not an intrinsic possession of ours, however: we will receive it on the Second Coming of Our Lord in the Resurrection of the dead.

* This extract is taken from the article by H. J. Twisselmann in “Life and Immortality without Christ?”

(H. J. Twisselmann, Brücke zum Menschen [A Bridge to Humanity] no. 123/124, Bruderdienst-Missionsverlag e. V. [Brotherly Service Missionary Publishing]).

The idea of the immortality is already to be found – on a philosophical basis – in antiquity, in the works of Plato (an Athenian philosopher who lived 427-347 BC). He was the first to make a distinction between the sense soul and the spirit soul (the “logistikon” or reasoning part), and to have postulated that the two were united in humanity. It was Aristotle (384-322 BC), however, who made the first and most productive attempt to grasp the human being metaphysically and in toto through the concept of the soul. In his view the soul was in the first instance a vivifying principle (the vital or vegetative soul), this served in its turn as a basis for the animal or sensitive soul, that is to say, the feeling, craving and feeling soul. This “lower” soul arises from the act of conception. In its turn, it is subject to a “formative influence” coming from the reasonable or spirit soul, so that the latter, in the last resort, determines the “form of the body”. In this higher soul, what was instinct on a lower level now becomes will, and what was sensuous presentation becomes conscious recognition. This spirit soul comes “from without”, according to Aristotle: this is the only component of humanity that pre-exists, is immortal and contradicts, by its very existence, a materialist and reductionist world view.

The teaching of the Catholic Church.

Within Christian teaching, it is only Catholic dogma that has made any attempt to develop this concept of the immortality of the soul as a metaphysically given fact. Here immortality, as referred to a human being, means that his personal center of identity cannot be annihilated – that this personal center survives death and the dissolution of physical existence. At a very early stage the Christian church took on influential conceptions derived from Plato and Neoplatonism, and from the 13^th century on was no less influenced by Aristotle. The basic idea was that the human soul participates in eternal values – the true, the good – and so is not, in the end, subject to the conditions of space and time; the spirit soul is simple in substance, and so not subject to dissolution from within or destruction from without – it lasts eternally. This doctrine was defined as dogma in the year 1515 at the Fifth Lateran Council, and has remained a basic dogma of the Catholic Church to the present day.

The Evangelical point of view.

The majority of the Evangelical churches rely, quite properly, not on a philosophical set of ideas but on the Holy Scriptures, and argue much as H. J. Twisselmann does in the article quoted above.

The “total death theory”.

We can see from the last sentences of this article that the author is not concerned to deny the promise of eternal life granted to the faithful after the Resurrection; rather he is concerned here with the time between death and Resurrection, and with the question whether the human being – or a component part of the human being – continues to exist in death or not.

Here we reach the opposite extreme of the possible range of opinion on this issue: the “total death theory”. This is the view that postulates that the human being is totally annihilated in death and so absolutely ceases to exist for the time in question. At all events, those who support this thesis hasten to allow for the possibility of the human being’s being newly created by God (as a result of his “eternal memory”) in the Resurrection.

The analysis.

The realm of the dead.

We intend now to proceed step by step, testing one theory after another to see how far it appears plausible. Let us begin with the “total death theory”. Now, we have clear indications, both in the Old and the New Testament, that human beings have consciousness during the time that they are dead – that is, that they exist in the realm of the dead.

1Sam 28,8 Then Saul disguised himself by putting on other clothes, and went, he and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night; and he said, “Conjure up for me, please, and bring up for me whom I shall name to you.” 28,9 But the woman said to him, “Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who are mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you then laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?” 28,10 Saul vowed to her by the LORD, saying, “As the LORD lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing.” 28,11 Then the woman said, “Whom shall I bring up for you?” And he said, “Bring up Samuel for me.” 28,12 When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, “Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul.” 28,13 The king said to her, “Do not be afraid; but what do you see?” And the woman said to Saul, “I see a divine being coming up out of the earth.” 28,14 He said to her, “What is his form?” And she said, “An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped with a robe.” And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and did homage. 28,15 Then Samuel said to Saul, “Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?” And Saul answered, “I am greatly distressed; for the Philistines are waging war against me, and God has departed from me and no longer answers me, either through prophets or by dreams; therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I should do.” 1Sam 28, 8-15;

This text tells us how King Saul, with the help of a witch who is a necromancer, makes the prophet Samuel come up from the realm of the dead, and how Samuel prophesies the destruction of the king’s host on the day following, the king’s death and the death of his sons. This could not have occurred if Samuel, after his death, had been totally obliterated. Seeing that Samuel on this occasion did not come back to life, but clearly returned to the realm of the dead, we cannot call this a Resurrection.

Furthermore, we have a whole string of passages in the Old Testament where the realm of the dead is mentioned.

Ps 86,12 I will give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with all my heart, And will glorify Your name forever. 86,13 For Your lovingkindness toward me is great, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of the realm of the dead. Ps 86,12-13;

Ps 30,3 O LORD, You have brought up my soul from the realm of the dead; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit. Ps 30. 3;

Prv 1,11 If they say, Come with us, Let us lie in wait for blood, Let us ambush the innocent without cause; 1,12 Let us swallow them alive like the realm of the dead, Even whole, as those who go down to the pit. Spr 1,11-12;

Prv 5,5 Her feet go down to death, Her steps take hold of the realm of the dead. 5,6 She does not ponder the path of life; Her ways are unstable, she does not know it. Spr 5, 5-6;

Prv 7,27 Her house is the way to the realm of the dead, descending to the chambers of death. Spr 7,27;

Three things will not be satisfied, four that will not say, “Enough”: the realm of the dead.

Prv 30,15 The leech has two daughters, “Give,” “Give.” There are three things that will not be satisfied, Four that will not say, “Enough”: 30,16 the realm of the dead, and the barren womb, Earth that is never satisfied with water, And fire that never says, “Enough.” Spr 30,15-16;

Job 14,13 Oh that You would hide me in the realm of the dead, That You would conceal me until Your wrath returns to You, That You would set a limit for me and remember me! Job 14,13;

Job 26,6 Naked is the realm of the dead before Him, And Abaddon has no covering. Job 26,06;

Isa 5,14 Therefore the realm of the dead has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure; And Jerusalem’s splendor, her multitude, her din of revelry and the jubilant within her, descend into it. Isa 5,14;

The realm of the dead from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come.

Isa 14,9 The realm of the dead from beneath is excited over you to meet you when you come; It arouses for you the spirits of the dead, all the leaders of the earth; It raises all the kings of the nations from their thrones. 14,10 They will all respond and say to you, ‘Even you have been made weak as we, You have become like us.’ Isa 14, 9-10;

We have made a covenant with death, and with the realm of the dead we have made a pact.

Isa 28,15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with the realm of the dead we have made a pact. The overwhelming scourge will not reach us when it passes by, For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have concealed ourselves with deception.” Isa 28,15;

You have sent your envoys a great distance and made them go down to the realm of the dead.

Isa 57,9 You have journeyed to the king with oil And increased your perfumes; You have sent your envoys a great distance And made them go down to the realm of the dead. Isa 57, 9;

Hos 13,14 Shall I ransom them from the power of the realm of the dead? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight. Hos 13,14;

The mention of the realm of the dead, taken on its own, is sufficient proof that it is a place of abode for the dead. And how could there be a place of abode if there were no one to populate it?

In the New Testament, as well, we find references to the realm of the dead which confirm to us that a human being cannot, when he dies, be “totally dead” or “completely obliterated”.

So will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Mt 12,38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” 12,39 But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; 12,40 for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Mt 12,38-40;

1Ptr 3,18 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; 3,19 in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, 3,20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. 1Ptr 3,18-20;

1Ptr 4,6 For the gospel has for this purpose been preached even to those who are dead, that though they are judged in the flesh as men, they may live in the spirit according to the will of God. 1Ptr 4,6;

What does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth?

Eph 4,8 Therefore it says, “when He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.” 4,9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? 4,10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) Eph 4, 8-10;

Most especially the indication in 1Ptr 4,6, quoted above, that the Lord preached the gospel to the dead during those three days which he spent in the realm of the dead is clearly enough to reduce the “total death theory” to absurdity.

The soul.

We may now turn to that Evangelical point of view which asserts that there can be no such thing as the immortality of the soul, because the soul – as revealed in many scriptural passages – “does not escape from death”, “dies” or can be “destroyed and put to death”.

And of course we must give our entire consent to these assertions. The immortality of the soul is really not a biblical concept. On the contrary, the Hebrew word “nephesh” in the Old Testament stands for the God-given life of any creature – of a human being, or of an animal too, for that matter.

I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with every living soul that is with you.

1Mo 9,9 “Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you; 9,10 and with every living soul that is with you, the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you; of all that comes out of the ark, even every beast of the earth. 9,11 I establish My covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth.” 1Mo 9, 9-11;

Jos 10,28 Now Joshua captured Makkedah on that day, and struck it and its king with the edge of the sword; he utterly destroyed it and all the souls that were in it. He left no survivor. Thus he did to the king of Makkedah just as he had done to the king of Jericho. Jos 10,28;

In Jos 10,28, quoted above, where Joshua condemns to death all souls that are in the city and leaves no survivors, we can again see plainly that the Old Testament regards the soul as perishable.

Moreover “nephesh” in the Old Testament is also used for life, creature, human being, person, heart etc. – so that the term “nephesh” or soul is again seen to fall in the category of perishable existents. And in the following texts we are told, quite definitely, what and where the soul is.

I will require your lifeblood; from every man’s brother I will require the soul of man.

1Mo 9,5 Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the soul of man. 1Mo 9, 5;

3Mo 17,10 ‘And any man from the house of Israel, or from the aliens who sojourn among them, who eats any blood, I will set My face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people.

17,11 For the soul of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’ 17,12 Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, ‘No person among you may eat blood, nor may any alien who sojourns among you eat blood.’

17,13 So when any man from the sons of Israel, or from the aliens who sojourn among them, in hunting catches a beast or a bird which may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. 17,14 For as for the soul of all flesh, its blood is identified with its soul. Therefore I said to the sons of Israel, ‘You are not to eat the blood of any flesh, for the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.’ 3Mo 17,10-14;

5Mo 12,23 Only be sure not to eat the blood, for the blood is the soul, and you shall not eat the soul with the flesh. 12,24 You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the ground like water. 12,25 You shall not eat it, so that it may be well with you and your sons after you, for you will be doing what is right in the sight of the LORD. 5Mo 12,23-25;

So the soul is in the blood, or the blood actually is the soul; and in consequence the blood should not – according to the commandments of the Old Testament – be eaten along with the flesh, but must be poured out on the ground.

But we also find a similar commandment, relating to the blood, in the New Testament. In the New Testament the soul is represented by the Greek word “psyche”, corresponding to the Hebrew “nephesh”. And the prohibition on the eating of the blood applies here both to the believing Christians who comes of Jewish stock and to those who are of the Gentiles.

That they abstain from idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood.

Acts 15,19 Therefore it is my judgment that we do not trouble those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles, 15,20 but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols and from fornication and from what is strangled and from blood. Acts 15,19-20;

That you abstain from idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication.

Acts 15,28 “For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay upon you no greater burden than these essentials: 15,29 that you abstain from things sacrificed to idols and from blood and from things strangled and from fornication; if you keep yourselves free from such things, you will do well. Farewell.” Acts 15,28-29;

The Gentiles should abstain from idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.

Acts 21,25 “But concerning the Gentiles who have believed, we wrote, having decided that they should abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication.” Acts 21,25;

The New Testament also gives us direct indications referring to the soul of human beings or to the “soul-directed” human being.

But a natural (literally: psychical) man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God.

1Cor 2,13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. 2,14 But a natural (literally: psychical) man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. 2,15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. 1Cor 2,13-15;

Jud 1,18 that they were saying to you, “In the last time there will be mockers, following after their own ungodly lusts.” 1,19 These are the ones who cause divisions, worldly- (literally: psychical-) minded, devoid of the Spirit. 1,20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Jud 1,18-20;

So this “natural”, “earthly” or “soul-directed” (psychical) human being does not accept the things that are of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. And it is also people like this, devoid of the Spirit, who cause divisions.

The spirit

We seem to have offered sufficient proof that it cannot be the soul – as the Catholic Church supposes – which after the death of a human being awaits the Resurrection in the realm of the dead. But in that case, what is it?

Here we must again refer back to Plato. Plato already made a distinction between the “sense soul” and the “spirit soul” (the “logistikon” or “reasoning part” in man). And this is also the impression we receive if we look at things in an unprejudiced way – that two “powers” dwell within human beings. It is not just brought to our attention by the frequently quoted line “Two souls, alas, are lodging in my breast” - it is also the inner struggle well known to each and every one of us, the struggle between emotion and thinking, or between the feelings and the reason, which points to, and actually confirms the fact that the human being, quite apart from the “living soul” he possesses (feelings, heart, blood) and which he actually is (as creature, human being, flesh), is yet controlled by a second power: namely, conscience, reason and morality.

And as our analysis hitherto shows, this second power in the human being, the spirit, most definitely has nothing in common with that definition of the soul that we find in the Holy Scriptures. Otherwise all other creatures with souls, that is to say, all animals as well, whose metabolism is carried on by means of a network of blood vessels, would have to be endowed with the gift of reason. But that is patently not the case.

The presence of this second power can be demonstrated from the Scriptures.

Rom 8,16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God. Rom 8,16;

1Cor 2,11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. 1Cor 2,11;

In this passage as well Paul refers to the spirit in man and compares it with the Spirit of God. He tells us here that just in the same way as the spirit of a man alone knows what is within him, so too only the Spirit of God knows what is within God. And this now seems to be a pointer to this second power in human beings, separate from the soul: the spirit of the human being.

But we have a still more detailed statement in a passage where the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews actually refers to both powers – the soul and the spirit – quite explicitly:

Hbr 4,12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 4,13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Hbr 4,12-13;

This indwelling of the spirit and the soul in our physical body is likewise confirmed by Paul in 1The 5,23.

1The 5,2 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1The 5,23;

This seems then to confirm that two powers are present in the human being: the soul and the spirit. Whereas the soul dies and is dissolved when death occurs – as does the “flesh”, the biological and corporeal part – the spirit cannot be annihilated, but returns to God, who gave it in the first place, as a passage in Ecclesiastes (Ecc 12,7) tells us.

Ecc 12,7 then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. Ecc 12, 7;

We must however avoid confusing this God-granted spirit of the human being with the Holy Spirit. Although both come from God, it is only the former which accompanies the human being in his passage from birth to death. The Holy Spirit – that is, the Spirit of God Himself – may also dwell within the believing Christian. One of many scriptural examples of this is Acts 7,54-57:

But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God.

Acts 7,54 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and they began gnashing their teeth at him. 7,55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; 7,56 and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 7,57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse. Acts 7,54-57;

Just before he was stoned, Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit, and saw the Lord Jesus standing at the right hand of God in heaven. We can recognize from this that at moments like this both powers, the human spirit as well as the Spirit of God, are present in human beings.

And Paul speaks of just the same thing when he says, in Rom 8,16, that the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, Himself is present in us and testifies together with our human spirit that we are children of God.

Rom 8,16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, 8,17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Rom 8,16-17;

But the conclusion that the “ordinary” spirit of a human being comes from God can also be confirmed from other scriptural passages.

4Mo 16,22 But they fell on their faces and said, “O God, God of the spirits of all flesh, when one man sins, will You be angry with the entire congregation?” 4Mo 16,22;

Ps 104,29 You hide Your face, they are dismayed; You take away their spirit, they expire And return to their dust. 104,30 You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the ground. Ps 104,29-30;

As the psalmist here says, God has given the Spirit to human beings, but he can take it away again whenever he pleases. As the Scriptures tells us, before the Flood human beings lived to much greater age than in postdiluvian times. We have a proof that this change was intended by God in 1Mo 6,3.

1Mo 6,3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 1Mo 6, 3;

And here again we find that both life forces are referred to, on the one hand the spirit and on the other the flesh – that is, that which the Old Testament understands by “soul”. This polarity between the spirit and the flesh (or soul) is also mentioned by the Lord Jesus in Mt 26,41:

Mt 26,41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Mt 26,41;

This saying of the Lord’s shows us two things: first, that the human being is determined by the interaction of two rather contrasting inner powers, and secondly, that the one power, the spirit, is “willing” and so is also open to receive God’s commandments, while the other power, the soul, is less accessible to intellectual and rational arguments and is rather concerned to cater for the needs of the “flesh” – that is, the part of the human being which connects him, as “soul”, with all other creatures that have soul but do not possess the gift of reason.

The Lord does not leave us in any doubt, however, that in spite of the opposition of these inner forces it is the supreme command that must be taken as applying to both of them. In the following passage, Mt 23,37, the Lord quotes 5Mo 6,5, where it is written: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might”, and he replaces (or supplements, in Luke and Mark) this word “might” with the expression “mind”, which is another pointer to the God-given spirit in the human being. The commandment to love God therefore applies to both, to the soul as well as to the spirit, and so to the human being as a whole.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.

Mt 22,37 And He said to him, “‘you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 22,38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 22,39 The second is like it, ‘you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 22,40 On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” Mt 22,37-40;

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

5Mo 6,4 Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 6,5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6,6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 5Mo 6, 4- 6;

Now while the soul, as we have seen above, is present in the blood and so, clearly, in the whole human body (in the “flesh”), the physical location of the human spirit is not defined by the Scriptures in the same unambiguous way. It would of course be an obvious choice to see the brain as being the seat of the spirit. But here we need to be careful. In the first place, the bloodstream also supplies the brain, after all, so that in a purely physical sense it is present as “soul” in the brain as well; and secondly, we can make a distinction between the brain’s component parts – the upper brain (also known as the endbrain or cerebrum) and the brain stem. Whereas only human beings have an upper brain that is large and exhibits a considerable degree of complexity, constituting the foundation for their functioning on the spiritual level, the brain stem is there to serve the basic motor, sensitive and vegetative functions which are more or less common to all vertebrates in a like manner.

Seeing it from this angle, it would be wholly conceivable that both powers, soul and spirit, might have common use of the human “thinking apparatus”, the understanding, so as to steer the human being and his body in whatever direction – under the impulsion of feelings and drives, or the direction of conscience and reason. Paul too points to the same conclusion, in his Epistle to the Galatians:

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

Gal 5,17 For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Gal 5,17;

Just like “nephesh”, the soul, so too the Hebrew term for spirit “ruach” (“pneuma” in Greek) can be used in a number of different ways. The first association is with air, wind, breath (the breath of life), and so in a transferred sense we find the meaning “spirit”. We already have a nice illustration of this in Job 33,4:

Job 33,4 The Spirit of God has made me, And the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33, 4;

And it was this “breath” of the Almighty, too, that made the first man, Adam, to become a living being.

1Mo 2,7 Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. 1Mo 2, 7;

And this is precisely the scriptural passage (1Mo 2,7) to which Paul refers, in the passage below (1Cor 15,45). Whereas the first man, Adam, through the action of the breath of God became a living soul, the “last Adam”, the Lord Jesus that is, has become a life-giving spirit.

1Cor 15,45 So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 15,46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural; then the spiritual. 15,45 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 15,48 As is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly. 15,49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly. 1Cor 15,45-49;

And as this life-giving spirit, too, the Lord Jesus, after He died, went and preached the gospel to the spirits of the dead in the realm of the dead (see above, 1Ptr 3,18-19), so that they also – who, by contrast with humanity after the death of Jesus had heard nothing about it – might have the chance of being converted; and so that not a single one of them who should call on the love and forgiveness of God might be lost.

Discourse 22 – Is there such a thing as the immortality of the soul?