What is the difference between the soul and spirit of man?
Hebrews 4:12
ESV - 12 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.
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Asked July 01 2013
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Anonymous (via GotQuestions)
For follow-up discussion and general commentary on the topic. Comments are sorted chronologically.
Dick van Teeseling
do non believers have a spirit, if yes to where is it connected with
Gary Patton
Some teach that the human soul is our 'emotions', 'mind', and 'will'. In 1 Thes. 5:23, in the context of Paul's 'close' of his letter, the Apostle of Jesus does seem to refer to our soul as a third dimension of us...not a description for the combination of the other two. He mentions there, "spirit, soul, and body".
Note however, that Genesis 1:27 records clearly that "in the beginning" God created both 'man' and 'woman' in His image, at the same time. This verse also makes clear that, initially, His creation were only disembodied spirits.
In that form, there was "no one to till the ground", which God had previously created, as 2:5 says.
Because of the latter, therefore, God "formed" (KJV) 'adam' (mankind, a species) from dirt. He then breathed "the breath of life" ('spirit' or 'Spirit') into God's new, but inanimate, created body.
This made mankind/humankind a "living soul". God, only then, added the vital life principal, the prior inanimate spirit of a unique individual, to animate what, previously, had been only a lifeless body.
Therefore, might it not be reasonable to suggest, that our 'soul' is our physical body containing our animating spirit...not a dimension of us separate from our bodies?
Subsequently, Gen. 2:18 says God didn't want adam (mankind) to be lonely, by not having a physical relationship with another animate 'being'. Therefore, the Scripture says, He created Eve out of adam (Gen. 2:21-23).
God made Eve by 'embodying' her previously 'disembodied' spirit into a body and created a second soul, in my opinion.
These now living souls, the first ancestors of us all, thereafter were called Adam and Eve in Scripture. They are described no longer as a 'species', adam, but by human names.
And time for us all began!
But, might our unique spirits have preexisted with God in heaven before our soul started to grow in our mothers' wombs?
Blessings in Jesus all...'till next we connect!