What's the difference between spirits and souls? I don't even know the Christian answer, though the Bible sorta implies they aren't the same thing.
Hebrews 4:12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Unless that's hyperbole, used to illustrate just how freaking sharp the word of God is.
Anyway, the dictionary.com definitions for "soul" and "spirit" are pretty similar: "The animating and vital principle in humans, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity." The main difference appears to be that spirits can be noncorporeal beings (like ghosts), whereas souls always exist with a body; but that difference doesn't really help distinguish between what is meant by a human's soul and spirit.
Maybe both soul and spirit inhabit the body, but then when the body dies the soul stays attached to to the spirit; that way ghosts fit right into the paradigm. A body without a spirit to animate it becomes a corpse; a spirit without a soul becomes... what? What's a soul without a spirit?
Or maybe souls and spirits are really the same thing? "Soul" is from Old English, and "spirit" is from Old French, which makes me think they're just different words for the same idea.
It's kind of like comparing a knife with a utensil used for cutting. I agree that they're most likely the same thing.
Ask OJ. He knows all about that stuff.
Michael,
This is one of the great debates in Church history. Are humans tripartite or bipartite beings? I tend to lean heavily on the side that claims that the soul and spirit are the same thing. I actually have some information on this if you're really interested. Let me know.
Megan
M: Sure I'm interested, send me a link.
are links all that matter to you?
other places in Scripture use the greek words for soul and spirit interchangeably, as in john 12:27 and 13:21. the point of hebrews 4:12, considering the context of the passage, is that the Word of God is the most discerning tool one could use, so strong that it could even divide what cannot be divided. man consists of body and soul and the two are separated at death until the soul receives a new body.
There seems to be some indication in the old testament that animals have souls, but only people have spirits.
In Genesis 1:20 the term translated "living creatures" is Nephesh which means literally "living souls" or "souls of life". And I think there is more to the soul than just animation as some say. I base this on Gen 8:5, where God says he will hold animals accountable for the blood of man.
But there definitely seems to be a higher kind of accountability and relationship between God and man. I think our intelligence is linked to our spirits and not our souls.
I also think there is a difference in how the Hebrew looked at spirit and soul and how the Greeks did. So trying to reconcile a lot of the greek focused literature of the NT with the Hebrew can cause semantic problems. And Hebrews was written to people with the Hebrew worldview.
'Spirit' shares a root with 'respire.' It's associated with breathing. It's more animalistic and doesn't imply as much theology. Spirit is simply whatever distinguishes a living body from a dead one, whatever makes it breathe.
'Soul' is more theological. Souls go to heaven or hell. They don't die. Humans have them, but animals probably don't. 'Soul' is the better word in discussions of afterlife or any context that associates personal identity with life force. Your soul goes to heaven or hell, not your spirit.
The exception is in ghost stories, where 'spirit' seems to be mandatory.
At a deeper level, using 'spirit' implies a finality of death. Spirits can die, even the ghosts in ghost stories. 'Soul' implies the opposite view: We never really die because we have this magical thing inside of us that goes on living in some afterlife after our bodies die.
I wouldn't use both words in the same context. Their frames of reference are too incompatible. And the Bible won't help much with such a subtle distinction.
steve: Verse references are the same as links! Thanks.
Ron: Yea, I agree.
Actually, Michael, the information I have on this is from books. I was going to copy the information and send it you via snail mail. I know, I know, tech-savvy young men such as yourself shudder at the thought of it, but even though this information isn't available online, it's still useful and relevent.
Megan: I'm definitely interested! I need to take you and Daniel out to dinner sometime though, I owe him for all the hosting services he's been providing.
Sounds good. Give my ball and chain a call and he'll set it up. :)
Here's a mystery for you:
Man is essentially bipartite - spirit and body. What we call 'soul' is the product of spirit and body. i.e. when a spirit enters a body, the joining of the two gives rise to what we call 'soul'. It is the interaction between spirit and body (mental reasoning, mood swings, the five senses...). Thus it follows that when we die, the spirit separates from the body and the soul ceases to be.
This view also neatly obviates some theological problems like the problem for the immutability of God at the incarnation (There is no 'human nature' in Christ except to say that the spirit of the Logos entered a human body and thus gave rise to a human 'soul'/ nature.)
I'm gonna do a PhD on this if I can get funding.
MO: Interesting... but the common conception of the "soul" is that it persists after death, right? Christians want to "save souls" (not spirits!) from Hell, and so forth.