Body, Soul and Spirit

There are only two verses in the New Testament that mention all three aspects of humankind:

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Thess 5:23 (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. Heb 4:12 (ESV)

As you can see, the word “body” does not appear in Heb. 4:12, but the phrase “joints and marrow” allude to the human body, I think.

There are at least two schools of thought about the human make-up, that we are three-part (tri-chotomous), or we are two-part (di-chotomous). (It sounds like an African animal, or perhaps a sinus condition.)

Dr. Charles Solomon’s “Wheel” Diagram #1

The Greek word for “spirit” is pneuma, and for “soul” the word is psuche, and for “body” the word is soma. None of this is conclusive proof that man is “di” or “tri,” but I am pretty much settled with the tri-chotomous, or tri-unity, the term that Dr. Solomon preferred when he first published the Wheel diagrams.

Well, so what?

Understanding Truth, and thinking Truth is what sets us free from a former way of thinking.

Next posting I’ll try to get into the functions of the pneuma aspect of our makeup.