Soul (ψυχή)
1. While ψυχή primarily denotes the animal soul or vital principle (Lat. anima), and hence is equivalent to life, ‘soul’ is not used in the NT outside of the Gospels (the AV [Note: V Authorized Version.] of Matthew 16:26, Mark 8:36 f.; but cf. the RV [Note: V Revised Version.]) to render ψυχή in this meaning of the word, ‘life’ being always employed instead (Acts 20:10, Acts 20:24, Philippians 2:30 etc.). Occasionally, however, ‘soul’ is employed of the subject, whether man (1 Corinthians 15:45, Revelation 18:13 or lower animal (Revelation 16:3; cf. 8:9), in which the principle of life inheres. Cf. art. [Note: rt. article.] Life and Death.
2. Frequently ‘soul’ denotes the subject in the distinctness of his existence as an individual, and so is only an emphatic designation of the man himself. ‘Every soul’ (Acts 2:43, Acts 3:23, Romans 13:1) is equivalent to ‘every one’; and the plural ‘souls’ is often used in cases of enumeration as a synonym for persons (e.g. ‘three thousand souls,’ Acts 2:41; ‘eight souls,’ 1 P 3:20).
3. While in its original meaning ‘soul’ refers to the physical or animal life, in its ordinary use it denotes the inner and higher as distinguished from the bodily nature of man-that in him which is the seat of thought, feeling, and will, and especially that which is the subject of the Christian salvation (1 Thessalonians 2:8, Hebrews 6:19, Hebrews 10:39, Hebrews 13:17, James 5:20, James 5:1 P 1:9, 3 John 1:2). In this meaning the word is frequently associated with ‘spirit’ (πνε ῦ μα), but usually in such a way as to show that there is no intention of so distinguishing between the two as to imply that man is possessed of a tripartite nature-body, soul, and spirit-or that the soul is concerned with earthly things while the spirit relates itself to God and heaven. When St. Paul writes, ‘Stand fast in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the gospel’ (Philippians 1:27 RV [Note: V Revised Version.]), it seems evident that he is using the terms in a manner analogous to the parallelism of Hebrew poetry (cf. Luke 1:46 f.). And when St. James (2:26) declares that ‘the body without the spirit is dead’ (cf. Matthew 10:28, ‘which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul’), he is certainly not making use of ‘spirit’ in a more exalted sense than that in which ‘soul’ is employed when he speaks of the word ‘which is able to save your souls’ (1:21), or declares that he who converts a sinner from the error of his ways ‘shall save a soul from death’ (5:20).
4. In a few cases ‘soul’ denotes the inner and higher part of man’s being as disembodied, but still living a life of its own after it has been separated from the physical part which is subject to corruption (Acts 2:27, Revelation 6:9, Revelation 20:4).
5. There is another use of ‘soul,’ however, in which it appears to be definitely distinguished from ‘spirit’ (1 Thessalonians 5:23, Hebrews 4:12). These passages might seem to lend some support to trichotomist views, if it were not that the use of the derived adjectives ψυχικός (lit. [Note: it. literally, literature.] ‘soulish’; AV [Note: V Authorized Version.] ‘natural,’ ‘sensual’) and πνευματικός (AV [Note: V Authorized Version.] ‘spiritual’) points not to any psychological distinction in the elements of human nature, but to a theological distinction between two stages of religious experience. This distinction of soulish and spiritual, which is especially characteristic of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 2:11-16,15:42-47; cf. James 3:15, Jude 1:19), is evidently, as the contexts show, one between the natural or unregenerate man and the regenerate man who is living through grace under the power of the Divine Spirit. And so when St. Paul, in the passage above referred to, writes, ‘And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire’ (1 Thessalonians 5:23), he probably means by ‘soul’ the human individuality with all its natural powers, and by ‘spirit’ that individuality as charged with the new Divine potencies of the Christian life. And when the author of Hebrews (4:12) describes the word of God as ‘piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit,’ this should perhaps be taken not as ‘a mere rhetorical accumulation of terms’ (A. B. Davidson, Hebrews, 1882, in loc.), much less as suggesting a psychological distinction between the sensuous soul and the rational spirit, but rather as pointing to a power possessed by the Divine word of discriminating between the natural and the regenerate heart and of bringing conviction to both alike. See, further, art. [Note: rt. article.] Spirit, Spiritual.
Literature.-H. Cremer, Bib.-Theol. Lex. of NT Greek 3, 1880, p. 582; J. Laidlaw, The Bible Doctrine of Man, 1895, pp. 87 ff., 135 f.; W. P. Dickson, St. Paul’s Use of the Terms Flesh and Spirit, 1883, p. 193 ff.; ExpT [Note: xpT Expository Times.] x. [1898-99] 2.
J. C. Lambert.