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element, and the soul as the spiritual element, of human nature, in the Old Testament. This
distinction came into use later on under the influence of Greek philosophy. The antithesis —
soul and body — even in its New Testament sense, is not yet found in the Old Testament. In
fact, the Hebrew has no word for the body as an organism. The Old Testament distinction of the
two elements of human nature is of a different kind. Says Laidlaw in his work on The Bible
Doctrine of Man:[p. 60.] “The antithesis is clearly that of lower and higher, earthly and
heavenly, animal and divine. It is not so much two elements, as two factors uniting in a single
and harmonious result, — ‘man became a living soul.’” It is quite evident that this is the
distinction in Gen. 2:7. Cf. also Job 27:3; 32:8; 33:4; Eccl. 12:7. A variety of words is used in the
Old Testament to denote the lower element in man or parts of it, such as “flesh,” “dust,”
“bones,” “bowels,” “kidneys,” and also the metaphorical expression “house of clay,” Job 4:19.
And there are also several words to denote the higher element, such as “spirit,” “soul,” “heart,”
and “mind.” As soon as we pass from the Old to the New Testament, we meet with the
antithetic expressions that are most familiar to us, as “body and soul,” “flesh and spirit.” The
corresponding Greek words were undoubtedly moulded by Greek philosophical thought, but
passed through the Septuagint into the New Testament, and therefore retained their Old
Testament force. At the same time the antithetic idea of the material and the immaterial is now
also connected with them.
Trichotomists seek support in the fact that the Bible, as they see it, recognizes two constituent
parts of human nature in addition to the lower or material element, namely, the soul (Heb.,
nephesh; Greek, psuche) and the spirit (Heb., ruach; Greek, pneuma). But the fact that these
terms are used with great frequency in Scripture does not warrant the conclusion that they
designate component parts rather than different aspects of human nature. A careful study of
Scripture clearly shows that it uses the words interchangeably. Both terms denote the higher or
spiritual element in man, but contemplate it from different points of view. It should be pointed
out at once, however, that the Scriptural distinction of the two does not agree with that which
is rather common in philosophy, that the soul is the spiritual element in man, as it is related to
the animal world, while the spirit is that same element in its relation to the higher spiritual
world and to God. The following facts militate against this philosophical distinction: Ruach-
pneuma, as well as nephesh-psuche, is used of the brute creation, Eccl. 3:21; Rev. 16:3. The
word psuche is even used with reference to Jehovah, Isa. 42:1; Jer. 9:9; Amos 6:8 (Heb.); Heb
10:38. The disembodied dead are called psuchai, Rev. 6:9;20:4. The highest exercises of religion
are ascribed to the psuche, Mark 12:30; Luke 1:46; Heb. 6:18,19; Jas. 1:21. To lose the psuche is
to lose all. It is perfectly evident that the Bible uses the two words interchangeably. Notice the
parallelism in Luke 1:46,47: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God
my Saviour.” The Scriptural formula for man is in some passages “body and soul,” Matt. 6:25;
10:28; and in others, “body and spirit,” Eccl. 12:7; I Cor. 5:3,5. Death is sometimes described as