Of Soul and Spirit
By John R. Gavazzoni

This article concerns understanding the proper distinction between soul and spirit. "Soul," in the Greek of the New Testament is, "psuche," and "spirit is "pneuma." In the Hebrew of the Old Testament, "soul," is "nephesh," and "spirit" is "ruach." We find a distinction between the two often made often in scripture, such as from the KJV of Hebrews 4:12, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and sprit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

A more fleshed-out rendering of the Greek from JMT, "For the Word of God (or: God's thought, idea and message, or: the expressed Logos from God; or: the Word which is God) [is] living (or: alive) and active (working; operative; energetic; at work; productive) and more cutting above every two-mouthed sword, even passing through (penetrating) as far as a dividing (or: parting; partitioning) of soul and spirit (or: of inner self-life and breath-effect) both of joints and marrows, even able to discern (separate; judge; decide) concerning thoughts (ponderings; reflections; in-rushings; passions) and intentions (notions; purposes) of heart (= core of the being)."

In 1 Thes. 5:23, Paul lists spirit, soul, and body, being preserved (kept; guarded; watched-over) within the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Within the presence" is the more accurate rendering of the Greek, rather than, "unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" as the KJV has it. (Again, reference JMT).

Both words, from the Hebrew appear early in Genesis. I suspect it is unknown to many....as it was for me for a long time....that it's not just man who is described as a "soul" in the Hebrew text, but also all the previously created air-breathing creatures. In the original Hebrew, man is a soul as is all the animals of God's creation, but the KJV, and others likewise following, chose "creatures" instead of "souls"

The uniqueness of man being made a living soul, is vividly portrayed with God, in such a personal intimate way, breathing the breath of life into the man's nostrils. This clearly indicates a special quality of soul by God's infusion of the breath of life. Also, it is only man who is singularly created, with all humanity within his loins, whereas, evidently from the text, God started out creating in-mass multitudes of the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, the creeping things, and the swarming fish of the sea as souls.

All humanity, of the earth, earthly, existed in the loins of that one man of God's creation, but that one man was created in Christ. Therefore, we are all in Adam, in Christ, which is why Paul could write, "For as in Adam all die, so also, in Christ, all shall be made alive." All of mankind's earthly, natural destiny was in, and to come forth from, the first man/first Adam, but our heavenly destiny was/is in the Second Man/Last Adam. In the latter, the former has its ultimate destiny. Christian theology's direction of inspired extrapolation is set on an accurate course if we understand that Adam was/is in Christ.

Now note, that it is as formed from the dust of the ground (actually, the wet soil as Jonathan Mitchell has it more precisely in translating the LXX), and receiving the breath of life, that man became a living soul. Man, as a soul, pertains to his creaturely state: special indeed among all the souls God created, but, with all the others, "of the earth, earthly." But man is not only earthly, not only having a physical/material being. For man is first, before becoming a soul, a spirit born of Spirit. ("That which is born of Spirit is spirit" and God is "the Father of spirits.") If God is your Father, you are spirit, as God is Spirit. God made us souls from the spirit-substance of our divine origin: born of God.

Being souls/having souls, pertains to an interim existence, as we journey in Christ, forth from out of the midst of God, born of His Spirit, through our earthly sojourn, returning from whence we came. Having suffered an inevitable existential, experiential disconnect from our essential being, we must, as those in the state of being of the earth, earthly, be reborn from above. Taking into consideration all the nuances of the Greek text, conventionally translated as "born again," or "born from above," all the nuances as found in Jonathan Mitchell's translation of John 3:3, and 3:7, the full sense of what Jesus said to Nicodemus was that "unless anyone (or someone) may be born back up again, from above, to a higher place, he cannot see (perceive) the Kingdom of God."

The necessity of rebirth that Jesus pressed upon Nicodemus, is not to be understood as compared to our physical birth. Jesus was not saying to Nicodemus, "look, you were born the first time physically, now you must be born a second time spiritually." No, no! "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." Understandingly, Nicodemus, asked how a man could enter his mother's womb and be physically born again. He couldn't at that stage understand that, AS born of God, He needed that primal birth renewed, because, in his earthly, soulish state of existence, he had suffered a loss of remembering from whence he came as born of God. In the darkness and ignorance of our hearts, we have lost...at the deepest levels of our consciousness...the knowledge that, "in Him, we live, and move, and have our BEING."

You, dear reader, are not only of the earth, earthly, you are first and primally "from above," in union with the One who is from above. Please realize, that being in Christ, goes all the way back to being included in Him being sent into this world. We are included in His incarnation, so that in union with Him, in us, Deity and humanity are joined together as One. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." We came, in Him, from being born of God to needing the renewal of that primal origin of our being. Note exactly what Jesus said about becoming a son of God: "....but as many as received Him, to them He gave the right/authority to become the sons of God......" which WERE (already) born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." (Jn. 1:12)

He was revealing that, having been born of God, upon the authority/right of that being, in receiving Him, we become, in the here and now, what we (always) WERE....or maybe better, always ARE. That's why when that which is perfect is come, "we shall know as we are known." Get grounded in this principle: we can only become what we are, in the face of all opposition to that reality. "Right" or "Authority," means, out from being, or according to the nature of. In, and according to, the being which we have in His Being, we have the authority/right to become what we are. On The Way in and with Christ, we are journeying out of the land of who we are not, and returned home to Father, where we are who we are.

We are known by God, and have always been known by God within, and from, the timeless/eternality (without beginning, and without end) of God, as His children, born of Him, known by Him, before we were in our mother's womb, needing to be born back up again, from above, to that higher place of our Origin. That higher place is the place of our birthed-being, before we became souls. Our earthliness is circumscribed within our heavenliness. That's what being lost and then found is all about. Our lostness is a matter of ignorance at the deepest level of our hearts. "The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked, who can know it." (Instead of "wicked," the Hebrew text is "sick.") We are sick with spiritual loneliness for home. Where is home? "I am the way, the truth, and the life," no man cometh unto the Father but by Me." Jesus is taking us to the Father of spirits, to know Him as the Father of the spirits that we are.

Stuart Hamblen caught something of this truth with the lyrics from his song, Until Then: "This weary world, with all its toil and struggle, may take its toll of misery and strife. But the soul of man, is like a waiting falcon, when it's released it's destined for the skies. But until then, my heart shall go on singing; until then with joy I'll carry on. Until the day my eyes behold that city, until the day, God calls me home."

Our soul will not be left behind in this odyssey. Our experience of the earthly, the soulical, including especially the element of death, will be swallowed up in our spirit's victorious ascent above all the heavens with Christ. We descended in and with Him, and we ascended in and with Him. That "in Christ" Reality shall become experiential by the Reality of Christ in us. That which we are objectively in Him, and all that we have objectively in Him, becomes our subjective, experiential reality by Him in us.

Back to the third chapter of the Gospel of John: Few Bible students connect vss. 3, 5, and 12. In vss. 3 and 5, our Lord was explaining to Nicodemus what his need was then, at that time, in his earthly life, i.e., to be born back up again, from above to a higher place. His existential state was earthen, of the earth, earthly, needing to be born back up again, from above to a higher place. In verse 12, Jesus explained that He had been speaking to Nicodemus....as the KJV has it...."of earthly things," and he, Nicodemus wasn't even able to believe things pertaining to that level, so how could he believe if the Lord were to tell Him of "heavenly things"?

In connecting those verses, not believing "earthly things" as per vss. 3 and 7 pertains to the earthly need to be born from above, while "heavenly things," in vs 12, pertains to our heavenly birth to which we are returned by being born back up, from above. Again, Jonathan Mitchell's translation of vs. 12 adds clarification to the King James rendering:

So, you see, Jesus is acknowledging all "folks" being born of God, while raising the issue of needing to be born back up again, from above, to a higher place. The "higher place," is the dimension of all humanity being God's offspring, or born ones, or bairns as Paul explained to the philosophers on Mars Hill. He that is born of the flesh, has within him the Seed of him who is born of the Spirit, while he who is born of the Spirit, by God's design, must for a season endure being a pilgrim and stranger in this land below.

Peter explained that the experience of being born back up again, from above, to a higher place, will consummate in our fully sharing Jesus' resurrection from the dead. From the KJV: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Until then, our experience of being born from above, in those who have been so blessed, is best understood as the conception stage of our total transformation and transfiguration.

Translating the same verse, I dare to say Jonathan Mitchell's translation of the same passage makes my case for me: "Well-spoken of (or: eulogized; Blessed; or, Well-gathered, laid out with ease, and deserving of praise) is the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ (or: Who is our Owner, Jesus Christ), the One [Who], corresponding to and down from His abundant mercy (or: much-existing mercy which is Him), [was/is] - through Jesus Christ's resurrection out of the midst of dead folks - bringing us to birth again (regenerating us; begetting us back up again, causing us to be born again): into a progressively living expectation (or: into the midst of continuously living hope)...."

In the meantime, dear brethren, a blessed, spiritual, pre-natal experience to you all.