![]() ![]() Until recent decades Christian theology of the soul has been more reflective of Greek (compartmentalized) than Hebrew (unitive) ideas.’, Moon, ‘Soul’, in Benner & Hill (eds.), ‘Baker encyclopedia of psychology & counseling, p. Although Greek concepts of the soul varied widely according to the particular era and philosophical school, Greek thought often presented a view of the soul as a separate entity from body. A person did not have a body but was an animated body, a unit of life manifesting itself in fleshly form-a psychophysical organism (Buttrick, 1962). While the Hebrew thought world distinguished soul from body (as material basis of life), there was no question of two separate, independent entities. 1999) Modern scholarship has underscored the fact that Hebrew and Greek concepts of soul were not synonymous. ![]() 1996).īaker Encyclopedia of Psychology & Counseling (2nd ed. 15:35ff.).’, Cressey, ‘Dualism’, in Cressey, Wood, & Marshall (eds.), ‘New Bible Dictionary’, p. But to the Bible man is not a soul in a body but a body/soul unity so true is this that even in the resurrection, although flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, we shall still have bodies (1 Cor. The aim of the sage was to achieve deliverance from all that is bodily and thus liberate the soul. Greek thought, and in consequence many Hellenizing Jewish and Christian sages, regarded the body as a prison-house of the soul: sōma sēma ‘the body is a tomb’. ![]() avoidance of dualism is the biblical doctrine of man. Biblical anthropology is not dualistic but monistic: human being consists in the integrated wholeness of body and soul, and the Bible never contemplates the disembodied existence of the soul in bliss.’, Myers (ed.), ‘The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary’, p. 1985).Įerdmans Bible Dictionary (1987) Indeed, the salvation of the “immortal soul” has sometimes been a commonplace in preaching, but it is fundamentally unbiblical. See also Flesh and Spirit Human Being.’, Neyrey, ‘Soul’, in Achtemeier, Harper, & Row (eds.), ‘Harper’s Bible Dictionary’, pp. A moderate dualism exists in the contrast of spirit with body and even soul, where ‘soul’ means life that is not yet caught up in grace. Although the Greek idea of an immortal soul different in kind from the mortal body is not evident, ‘soul’ denotes the existence of a person after death (see Luke 9:25 12:4 21:19) yet Greek influence may be found in 1 Peter’s remark about ‘the salvation of souls’ (1:9). ‘Soul’ may refer to the whole person, the self: ‘three thousand souls’ were converted in Acts 2:41 (see Acts 3:23). Death occurs when God ‘requires your soul’ (Luke 12:20). 2:20) one might save a soul or take it (Mark 3:4). Soul refers to one’s life: Herod sought Jesus’ soul (Matt. In the nt, ‘soul’ retains its basic Hebrew field of meaning. Such dualism might imply that soul is superior to body. This perishable body is opposed by an immortal soul (3:1-3). A dualism of soul and body is present: ‘a perishable body weighs down the soul’ (9:15). This Hebrew field of meaning is breached in the Wisdom of Solomon by explicit introduction of Greek ideas of soul. Harper’s Bible Dictionary (1985) For a Hebrew, ‘soul’ indicated the unity of a human person Hebrews were living bodies, they did not have bodies. 99 (1976) note that this was written over 30 years ago, and the academic consensus has only strengthened on the issue and little to no suggestion of any support in the New Testament. Only the latest stratum of the Old Testament asserts even the resurrection of the body, a view more congenial to Semites’, Donelley, ‘Calvinism and Scholasticism in Vermigli’s doctrine of man and grace’, p. ![]() Immortality of the soul was a typically Greek philosophical notion quite foreign to the thought of ancient Semitic peoples. Twentieth century biblical scholarship largely agrees that the ancient Jews had little explicit notion of a personal afterlife until very late in the Old Testament period. In particular, it is typically held by modern scholarly commentary that the traditional doctrine of the ‘immortal soul’ has no place in the Hebrew Bible. Mortalism is the belief that human beings are not naturally immortal, and that at death they are unconscious rather than continuing to exist consciously as an ‘immortal soul’. The majority of standard scholarly sources today describe the state of the dead in terms identical or very close to the mortalist view. ![]()
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