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Body,
soul and spirit
Few
scriptures are so much misunderstood as the ones that refer to the fall
of Adam and Eve. Unfortunately, misunderstanding of these passages has
caused no end of confusion and misunderstanding in many other areas of
the Bible as well. Indeed, if we do not have a clear understanding of
what happened in Genesis: 1-3 then we will not also have a good
understanding of what Jesus Christ accomplished as saviour. Really, why
should we need a savior for? What did Jesus Christ restore? Many of us
know that Jesus Christ redeemed us from what Adam did. But do we know
what exactly happened when Adam did what he did? Also we know that today
after we believe in Jesus Christ we get holy spirit. But why do we need
holy spirit for and why it was not available before the day of
Pentecost? To answer to these and to many other questions, a clear
understanding of what is said in the first three chapters of Genesis is
more than necessary. That's why I consider what we are going to see in
this study as especially significant and I ask for your attention.
1. "In
the day that you eat of it you shall surely die"
To start approaching our
topic, let's go to the first book of the Bible, the Genesis. There,
after God made man, He imposed a restriction on him and He also made
known the penalty, for the case that this restriction was violated. So
let's read:
Genesis 2:16-17
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying "Of every tree of
the garden you may freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you
shall surely die".
The
restriction that God imposed on Adam was that he should not eat from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil1.
The penalty for the case that this restriction was violated was that:
"in the day (pay attention: that very day) that you eat of
it you shall surely die". Two very significant things have to be
noted in that penalty. The first is that if Adam ate from the tree death
would happen immediately, in that very day. The second is
that this would happen surely. The phrase "you shall SURELY
die" has exactly the purpose to put emphasis on the fact that death
would happen 100%, surely, in that day.
Now let's go to chapter 3 of Genesis
to see if Adam and Eve kept what God told them:
Genesis 3:1-6
"Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which
the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, "Has God indeed
said "you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?" And the
woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the
garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the
garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch
it, lest you die." Then the serpent said to the woman "You
shall not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your
eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and
evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for
food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one
wise, she took of its fruit and ATE. She also gave to her husband
with her and he ATE."
This
passage describes how the serpent, which is another name for Satan2,
deceived Eve. We have already seen in issue 1 of this journal that Satan
succeeded in his purposes, because Eve didn't know the Word of God accurately.
It is the accurate knowledge of the Word of God that gives
terrible headaches to Satan. So finally, Adam and Eve ate from the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. Having done that, according to what
God had said, they should have died at that moment. The problem here is
that Genesis 5:5-6 says:
Genesis 5:5-6
"After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years;
and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine
hundred and thirty years; and he died."
Therefore,
according to the Bible, Adam continued to have life in his body for many
many years after he ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
On the other hand, God had said that if he ate from that tree he would
surely die in the same day. At first glance, here there is a problem
about what finally happened in the day that Adam and Eve ate from that
tree. Did they die as God said, or they didn't die? Who will solve us
this "problem"? Man's ideas, theories, religion and tradition?
No! Only one can give us answers, and this is no other than the Word of
God. And if you want this Word to give you answers, you have to leave it
to speak for itself (self interpretation).
In our case, since God cannot lie (Numbers
23:19) in the day that Adam and Eve ate from that tree they
really died. Actually, it was Devil that said, when he deceived Eve,
"you shall not surely die". Thus, if they didn't die that day,
as God said, then Satan was right and God was wrong which is simply
impossible. However, that's exactly what many teach today when they say
"actually when God said that they would surely die He meant that
just the sperm of death would be planted". The Word of God does not
need such kind of defense. Actually it does not need any defense at all
for it is truth and truth can stand by itself. What the Word needs is to
be rightly divided and then boldly proclaimed. Returning to our topic:
SINCE GOD SAID THAT THEY WOULD SURELY DIE THAT VERY DAY, THEY INDEED
DIED THAT DAY. However, since they continue to have life in their bodies
even after they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it
is self-evident that they must have had another form of life, in
addition to the life of their bodies, that was lost in the day that they
ate and for this reason it was death (absence of a form of life). So, we
have to search the Scriptures to see how man was created and what were
the parts of his being. Knowledge of what composed the life of the first
man will also enable us to see what was lost in that day.
2. "For
dust you are"
To start our research
regarding the first man let's go to Genesis 2:7. There it says:
Genesis 2:7
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the
ground........"
Which
part of man did God form of the dust of the ground? His body. That's why
the elements of the human body can be found in the ground. So one part
of the first human being was the body. But let's continue:
Genesis 2:7
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living
soul (soul = nephesh in Hebrew)"
(KJV)
We
saw that God formed man's body of the dust of the ground. However, this
body didn't have life. It was just formed, without life. Then, the Word
of God tells us that God "breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life and man became a living soul". Therefore, what is soul? Soul
is what gives life to the body. The fact that people do not understand,
the simple truths of the Word of God described at that point has caused
no end of confusion. Here, the Word of God tells us, that soul is what
gives life to the body. Without soul the body is dead. Where is the
soul, the life of the body, the life of the flesh? The Word of God again
is very accurate:
Leviticus 17:11, 13-14
"For the life (nephesh in Hebrew) of the flesh is
in the blood.....Whatever man of the children of Israel, or of the
strangers who dwell among you, who hunts and catches any animal or bird
that may be eaten, he shall pour out its blood, and cover it with dust; For
it (i.e. the blood) is the life (nephesh) of
all flesh; the blood of it is for the life (nephesh) of it:
therefore I said to the children of Israel "You shall not eat the
blood of any flesh: for the life (nephesh) of all flesh is its
blood"
(NKJV-KJV)
We
saw in Genesis 2:7 that soul (nephesh) is what gives life to the body.
Here in Leviticus we see that "the life of the flesh is in the
blood". In the above passage the word life is a translation of the
Hebrew word "nephesh" that is translated as soul in Genesis
2:7 as well as in 471 out of the 753 other places where it occurs.
Therefore, what is nephesh or soul? According to Genesis 2:7 soul is
what gives life to the body. Where is the nephesh, the life of the body,
the soul? According to Leviticus 17:11-14 it is in the blood: "For
the life (nephesh, soul) of the flesh is in the blood". How this
soul life passes from generation to generation? Through the blood.
That's why Acts 17:26 says:
Acts 17:26
"And He has made from ONE BLOOD every nation of men to dwell on all
the face of the earth".
The
"one blood" of this passage is the blood of Adam which passes
from generation to generation and actually is the blood that all of us
have.
Actually, soul is not something that
only man has. Animals have also soul which again is in the blood.
Although this is immediately understood from the above passage of
Leviticus, where we are told that the life of all flesh is in the blood
let's go to Genesis 1:20-21, 29-30 to see it there as well:
Genesis 1:20-21
"And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving
creature (nephesh, soul; see also KJV-margin) that has life (nephesh,
soul) and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament
of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature (nephesh,
soul) that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after
their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it
was good"
(KJV)
Genesis 1:29-30
"And God said "Behold I have given you every herb bearing
seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree whose
fruit yield seed; to you it shall be for food. And to every beast of the
earth, and to every bird of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon
the earth , wherein there is a living soul (KJV margin - nephesh
in Hebrew) I have given every green herb for meat:" and it
was so."
(NKJV-KJV)
Therefore,
not only man but also the animals have "nephesh" i.e.
"soul". This is not strange at all, if we understand that soul
is what gives life to the body. When you die there is no more life, no
more soul. The same happens with the animals. Soul is for them the same
that is for man i.e. what gives life to the body. Although, there is no
problem about what is defined as soul in the Bible, the problem is
created when we go to the Bible with the preconceived idea that soul is
immortal. If soul was immortal, then really the souls of the various
animals would also be immortal, since they have "nephesh" as
man has "nephesh". Soul is not something immortal. It just
gives life to the body. When you stop having life in your body, you have
no more soul.
By now, we have seen that the Bible
teaches that God formed the body of man of the dust of the ground, and
that He gave to that body life i.e. soul. The same is also true for the
animals. They also have body and soul. Every man in the world, believer
or unbeliever, has body and soul. It can therefore be concluded that
since Adam died 930 years old, when he ate from the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil he obviously didn't loose neither his body
nor his soul. Thus, since something had to die for Adam that day, he
must originally have had at least one more part, which was lost, died,
when he ate. So, let's continue searching the Scriptures to see what
they say about that.
3. "So
God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created
him"
To continue our enquiry
let's go to Genesis 1:26-27. There it says:
Genesis 1:26-27
"Then God said "let us make man in our image, according to our
likeness.... So God created man in His own
image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He
created them"
According
to this passage, God created man "in His own image". Here is a
very critical point, a key point, if we want to understand not only what
happened in the day that Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, but also other passages of the Bible, where what is
said here has reflections upon. Reading the above passage, the question
that has to be asked is what is the image of God? What does He look
like? John 4:24 tells us:
John 4:24
"God is Spirit"
God
is not flesh but Spirit. That is His image. Therefore, when the
Word of God tells us that God created man according to His image, it
means that in addition to body and soul man also had that which is the
image of God i.e. spirit. In order to understand better the usage of the
phrase "in his image" in the above critical passage, let's see
another place where this phrase occurs.
Genesis 5:1-3
"This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day
that God created man, In the likeness of God made He him; Male
and female created He them ; and blessed them, and called their name
Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived an hundred and
thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his
image; and called his name Seth"
(KJV)
This
passage says that Adam begat a son "in his own likeness, after his
image". What does it mean? It means that as Adam was, so his son
was i.e. as Adam had hands so Seth had hands. As Adam had feet so Seth
had feet etc. As Adam was body and soul so Seth was body and soul.
Similarly, when the Word says that God created man "in his
image", "in the likeness of God", what it means is that
as God is, so Adam was. God is not flesh. He does not have feet, hands,
head. He is spirit. So as God is spirit so Adam had spirit. One could
ask, why did God make Adam apart from body and soul, spirit as well? The
simple reason is that without spirit Adam could not communicate with God
Who is spirit. God being spirit, cannot communicate with the body and
soul. They are different things. You see, you cannot receive the
messages of the radio station unless you have a radio receiver. You may
have a washing machine. But the fact that you have a washing machine
does not make possible for you to receive the messages of the radio
station. You necessarily need a radio receiver. Similarly, God is spirit
and to communicate with Him you must have spirit. Body and soul are
enough for things of the five senses. But when it comes to the things of
God, what you need is spirit. This truth is also explained in I
Corinthians 2:14:
I Corinthians 2:14
"But the natural (psuchikos in the Greek) man does not receive the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him: nor can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
In
this passage, the word translated "natural" is the Greek
adjective "psuchikos", which comes from the noun "psuchi"
which means soul. So, psuchikos means "a soul man" i.e. a man
with body and soul only3.
According to that passage a man who is only body and soul "does not
receive the things of the Spirit of God". As it was said above to
receive "the things of the spirit of God", to communicate with
God you need the appropriate receiver i.e. spirit. That's why the
passage says: "nor can he (the man of body and soul) know them
because they are spiritually discerned". The man of body and soul
is impossible to know the things of God for the simple reason that such
things have to do with the spirit, "they are spiritually
discerned", and since he lacks spirit he cannot know them. Summarizing
all the above, Adam had body, formed from the dust of the
ground, soul that gives life to the body and spirit to communicate with
God. He was body, soul and spirit. Having established that, there is no
question about what happened in the day that Adam and Eve ate from the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God had told them that in the
day that they would eat, they would surely die. Bearing in mind that
death means the absence of a form of life, we can now see what died that
day. Adam was body, soul and spirit and his body died many years after
the day that he ate. Now since what permits to a body to live is soul,
Adam had body and soul even after he ate from that tree. On the other
hand, since God is always right in what He says, something had to die
that day. Since Adam was body, soul and spirit before he ate and since,
as we saw, he continued to have body and soul after he ate what was lost
for him that day, was the spirit that God gave him. He continued to have
body and soul but he didn't have spirit. The spirit departed from him
and this was death for him since spirit, a form of life that he had
before he ate, was no more there.
You see, how clearly the Bible
settles the things when you leave it to interpret itself. It was
actually this loss of the spirit that was restored in the day of
Pentecost where holy spirit was made available, so that today after
believing in Jesus Christ you are again body soul and spirit. However,
this as well as other very interesting points on this topic will be
examined in a next issue.
Tassos Kioulachoglou
Footnotes
1. Tradition has made
many of us to think an apple when we read this passage. Well, the Bible
does not say apple. Does it? What it says is "of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil". Therefore, the so-called
"apple" is just a human invention (press here
to return where you stopped).
2. As in the case of
the "apple", tradition has made us to think of a snake that
speaks here. However, the Bible explains what it means when it says
"serpent". So, Revelation 20:1-2 tells us: "Then I (John)
saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless
pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, THAT OLD
SERPENT, WHO IS THE DEVIL AND SATAN, and bound him for a thousand
years." (NKJV-KJV). Can it be clearer that the "serpent"
of Genesis 3 is the Devil? (press here to return where
you stopped).
3. The same word,
phuchicos (soul man, a man of body and soul) is also used in I
Corinthians 15:44, 46, James 3:15 and Jude
19. (press
here to return where you stopped).
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