Reading Time: 5 minutes

I have recently been studying the words spirit and soul as found in the Bible. In the US, in English, we seem to often use the word soul to mean the incorporeal “body” of a human being, and use spirit basically interchangeably, though in my experience, spirit is usually reserved for “the dead,” “angels,” and “God,” more than with living humans. The Bible also seems to sometimes use the terms with a bit of overlap, yet also clearly identifies them as distinct. For example,

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. —Hebrews 4:12

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. And may your spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. —1 Thessalonians 5:23 (spirit, soul, and body distinct)

This is only a quick post, but the respective words for spirit and soul are used hundreds of times throughout what we call the Old and New Covenant writings. In Greek, spirit is pneuma , while soul is mostly psuchē, while in Hebrew, the terms are respectively rauch and nephesh. Reading the terms used in the more literal translations revealed that translators typically chose to:

In the passage from Hebrews we saw that the wordplay indicates the relation between the two being somewhat similar to that of joints and marrow. Marrow supplies life to the bones and body, without which joints would be pointless. Marrow also is alive, while a joint speaks more to a physical apparatus. We probably can’t take that too far, so at least for me, it was important to move on.

Looking at these terms, I found the following:

1.) Both animals and humans have souls. 

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.  —Gen 2:7 (Being, nephesh. Breath here is a different word from above.)

God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. —Genesis 1:21-23

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood (Life, nephesh, soul). —Gen 9:4

You can see also Revelation 8:9 and elsewhere to observe the same in Greek.

2.) Both animals and humans have spirits.

For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. —Gen 6:17

They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. —Gen 7:15

3.) As a side note, “mind,” when used in the Bible, mostly seems to indicate intentionality. I did not observe in my reading animals ever being discussed as having “mind.” It is often translated as “heart,” though not in the cardiac sense. 

4.) Souls can be damaged and decay. 

 “Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” (Lives, souls, psuchē )—Acts 27:10

“won’t abandon my SOUL to hades, nor allow your holy one to undergo decay.” —Acts 2:27

5.) Souls can eat:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?” —Matthew 6:25

6.) Souls can be threatened with death:
“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” —Rev 12:11

7.) People can kill the body (soma), but God can kill off the soul. (No mention of God killing the spirit in my glancing around.)

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” —Matthew 10:28

8.) The spirit is invisible and remains just fine when the body is deceased:

And her spirit returned, and she got up at once. And he directed that something should be given her to eat. —Luke 8:58

9.) God takes the spirit back:

“And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” —Acts 7:59 (See also 1 Cor 5:5)

10.) The body is dead without the spirit.

For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. —James 2:26

11.) Spirit is also used somewhat like personality and attitude. I’ll let you chase them down (running out of time on this), but search up phrases such as:

Your spirit knows your thoughts…

A spirit of wisdom…

You are united in one spirit…

Gentle, quiet spirit…

12.) God compares the two:

So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living soul.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. —1 Cor 15:45

Ezekiel 37 should also be read to help understand this statement. 

13.) “Soul” is often used to describe the entirety of one’s life. 

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? —Matthew 6:25

​Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin! Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.—Job 2:4

14.) Both spirit and soul are mentioned in relation to emotion. (Search it up, as my eldest child says.)

So how can I boil it all down? I think I am relatively safe in saying that I give my entire soul to God, and that is as my spirit wills. The soul seems to be more of a physicality, and almost an animating force, whereas the spirit seems to be entirely intangible. I’ll end on an entirely unbiblical but interesting (to me) note. In “The Brain and Its Self: An Argument for Interactionism,” by Noble Prize winner Sir John Eccles (neurophysiology) and Sir Karl Popper (various metaphysics), who were respectively theist and agnostic, the two take turns writing chapters and discussing the “mind,” “will,” or “spirit.”  It’s a very dense, scientific read.  However, their conclusions, which one can term interactionary dualism, or just interactionism, are in line with Libet’s free will experiment, which I’ve rambled on elsewhere. The soul/mind/spirit does not act independently of the brain, but instead, as Eccles noted, the mind uses the brain as an instrument to think, in much the same way that a pianist uses a piano as an instrument to create music; if the piano is broken, no matter how great the musician, the music won’t come out as beautifully as purposed.

Oh, and as a gee-whizz terminal freebie, if you are familiar with Libet, I’d say that the spirit’s decisions would not be nor are simultaneous with the conscious awareness of them, nor could they be, given the spirit’s reliance on the brain as an instrument of thought. With the limited speed of neural-signal transmission, there is the necessity of an infinitesimal chronolag between the decisions of the mind and the awareness of them.

Feel free to correct me on everything. I’m likely wrong on a lot, not a scholar of anything, and have been noted in the past to “chitter endlessly.” But I am curious as a cat, and that’s why my friends call me Whiskers.