Spirit and Soul

On a very interesting note this week, I was asked to explain the difference between "spirit" and "soul"...tough question.

I think I tend to line up on the triune structure of the human being (body/mind (soul)/spirit (animus) question because of my YMCA upbringing...but it wasn't up to the task.

I was caught in the Medieval-Renaissance definition of vegetable soul, sensible soul, and rational soul, but that didn't help either, really (maybe in defining different kinds of aliveness, but not really their properties).

So I turned back to the psyche/pneuma dichotemy (which is close to the anima/spiritus Latin one...kind of, and the Hebrew nephesh/ruah dichotomy. Problem is they don't quite all correlate.


Old Testament nephesh/ruah is fairly easy. Nephesh (soul) is just being alive, along with emotions and passions. Ruah (spirit) is that which possesses counsel, will, and purpose.

But see William Chomsky's article on the Hebrew language for a linguistic relation between the two from a Jewish perspective.

In the Greek (Platonic tradition), the psyche (soul) possesses reason (logos), emotion (thymos), and desire (eros). And the pneuma is the "alive part."

Both Ruah and Pneuma mean breathe or wind, but breath or wind that moves.

For an interesting and quite possible interpretation of soul, look at this article on the Immortality of the Soul

And for an interesting look at all four concepts see this article on Spiritual Souls: Nephesh and Psuche

Paul's use of the terms in juxtaposition shows the difference between the two in the New Testament:

I Corinthians 15:45 "And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living "soul" ("psuche"); the last Adam was made a quickening 'spirit' (pneuma)."

Philippians 1:27 "...whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in on 'spirit' (pneuma) with one 'mind' (psuche) striving together for the faith of the gospel."

1 Thessalonians 5:23 "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole 'spirit' (pneuma) and 'soul' (psuche) and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."

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' (psyche) and 'spirit' (pneuma), and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."


The two are as closely aligned as bones and the marrow in them and by construction of the last, the spirit is in the body (marrow in the bone), and the soul is how it "moves and connects." (joints).

If the human spirits died with Adam (became incapable of relationship with God as Spirit, except by God's efforts), then Christ's Spirit, enlivened (or potentially enlivened) the spirits of humans.

It is this spirit (the numenous part of the human?) that will be able to live (and pull the purified soul with it) after death, and will be given a "spiritual" body. I tend to think that Paul's use of psyche, is the Greek one, and so not only "bios" (life) is involved, but that which makes us who we are (our individualism). Our spirit (our transcendent portion, angel-like stuff), is made alive and ultimately will "will" and "purpose" what God will's and purposes.

So ultimately, those who do not know God have spirits that will not live...and their souls will inhabit in the same lake of fire that the spirits-creature fallen angels inhabit. Although there is debate on this.

See this article: The Use of "Hell" in the New Testament and also Christian beliefs on Hell and for a different take (also held by many Christians) see Heaven and Hell, What does the Bible Really Teach

It could be said that the lack of spirit is what separates from God, and the knowledge of this by a human soul, is the context of a Hell, but this flies in the face of creatures of spiritual composition (fallen angels/demons) inhabiting the same "place" even though they have or are spirit.

With regard to those who go to heaven see What does the Bible say about Death, Eternal Life, and Heaven

I don't feel too bad about not having a ready made answer on spirit and soul...and I think there is a lot of room for discussion about this. But, it certainly is interesting stuff.