Biblical references to Mind, Body, Spirit and Soul

One way to discover the Biblical view of a person is to examine the various words which are used in Scripture to describe aspects of the human person and to look at the contexts in which these words occur. However it needs to be borne in mind that as Joel Green points out, “The Bible is about God and not us” and “knows nothing of a speculative or a philosophical interest in the definitions of the human person”[147,p15]. That is not its purpose. Moreover, many of the words used to describe different aspects of a person are polysemous [147,p17], therefore it can be unhelpful to try to read too much precision into them, or to back fit modern ideas of the mind on to them. Nevertheless, we are given enough information to give an idea of the nature of the different aspects of a person.

Key words which are used and how they are most often translated:

Biblically, the view of a person as being a unity rather than as having a separable soul is the predominant one. A possible exception is the case where the soul is transferred from the Earthly body to the resurrection body although there is no reason to think that the soul is conscious during the transfer.

1 Cor 15:35-38 “But someone will ask,“How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?”You foolish person!What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.”

The totality of a person can be seen in the “greatest commandment” which, in the original Hebrew version translates as:

Deut 6:5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart (lev) and with all your soul (nephesh) and with all your might (meod).

and when quoted by Jesus and rendered in Greek translates as:

Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart (kardia) and with all your soul (psyche) and with all your mind (dianoia) and with all your strength (ischus).’

Both of these verses indicate loving God with every aspect of our being. The difference between them is a reflection of the fact that the Hebrew word “lev”, unlike the greek word, kardia, is used to refer to the thought processes as well as the core of a person and so a separate word for “mind” is not needed. In both cases, “strength” or “might” refers to physical strength and therefore represents the body.

The continuity of humans with the rest of creation as well as their uniqueness is shown in the Genesis creation stories. It is only humanity which was created in the image of God and by the personal breathing of the breath of life however, in common with everything else, Adam was created from the dust of the ground. It is interesting that the word for ground is “Adamah” which is the feminine form of “Adam”.

Genesis 1:27 “So God created mankind (Adam) in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Genesis 2:7 “then the Lord God formed the man (adam) of dust from the ground (adamah) and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (nishmat hayyaim), and the man (adam) became a living creature (nephesh hayyah).”

Even though Humanity was created in this unique way, they are not the only creatures to have souls as is shown in:

Genesis 1:30 “And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life (nephesh hayyah), I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.”

Also, God Himself has a soul even though there seems to be a reluctance to translate nephesh as soul in this context.

1 Samuel 2:35 And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart (lev) and in my mind (nephesh). And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed for ever.

Jeremiah 6:8 Be warned, O Jerusalem, lest I turn [my soul (nephesh) depart] from you in disgust, lest I make you a desolation, an uninhabited land.”

The following word study is intended to shed some light on the overall Biblical view of a human person.

10.1Soul (Nephesh, Psyche)

In Hebrew the word nephesh is usually translated “soul” but can simply mean “living being”, something which breathes and has vitality.

Basically a creature with a “nephesh” is one which breathes, including animals. What makes Mankind different is their relationship to God and the way in which they were created by God breathing the “breath of life” (nishmat khayyim) into them. Nevertheless there is no indication that Adam is anything other than a unified creature nor any indication of his being a soul-body duality. Neither is there any such indications anywhere else in the Old Testament. [101 page 159].

As Joel Green writes: “In Israel’s Scriptures, the Hebrew term nephesh is used with reference to the whole person as the seat of desires and emotions, not to the “inner soul” as though this is something separate from one’s being” [73 p54].

Nephesh can sometimes be translated simply by the personal pronoun. For example:

Lev 2:1 When anyone (nephesh) brings a grain offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour.

The soul is sometimes spoken to by the person whose soul it is. For example:

Psalm 42:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul (nephesh), and why are you in turmoil within me?

Scripture affirms that the soul belongs to God who can, and will, retrieve it. For example:

Ezekiel 18:4 Behold, all souls (nephesh) are mine; the soul (nephesh) of the father as well as the soul (nephesh) of the son is mine: the soul (nephesh) who sins shall die.

In the New Testament, the Greek word “psyche” is usually translated “soul” and has similar connotations to the Hebrew “nephesh”.

Luke 12:20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul (psyche) is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’

Acts 27:37 We were in all 276 persons (psyche) in the ship.

In Rev 18:13, the apposition, “that is, human souls”, is an affirmation that the Christian view was that slaves were people and more than just “bodies” which is how the Romans generally viewed them.

Rev 18:13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves (soma), that is, human souls (psyche).

The soul is the most important aspect of the person. If that is lost then all is lost. It has been compared to the king on the chess board in the sense that it has little power or autonomous action and relies on the other pieces for protection and sustaining, but once the king is captured, the game is over.

Matt 10:39 Whoever finds his life (psyche) will lose it, and whoever loses his life (psyche) for my sake will find it.

Matt 16:26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul (psyche)? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul (psyche)?

The soul has been described as the integrating aspect of the whole person.[148] A “double souled” man is divided, disintegrated, within himself and not capable of receiving wisdom.

James 1:8 he is a double-minded (dipsychos) man, unstable in all his ways.

10.2Spirit (Ruah, Lev, Pneuma)

Ruah and Pneuma, meaning “spirit” or “wind”and Lev meaning “heart” all have a range of meanings but they are consistently used to represent the inner core of a person, the source of their will, their consent, their intentions.

Particularly in the OT, the meaning of “heart” and “spirit”, “lev” and “ruach” are very similar and are often used in parallelisms such as the following:

Ps 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Ps 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Ps 77:6 I said, “Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.” Then my spirit made a diligent search:

Ps 78:8 and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

Prov 15:13 A glad heart makes a cheerful face, but by sorrow of heart the spirit is crushed.

Prov. 17:22 A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

Ezek. 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,

Ezek 18:31 Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel?

Ezek 36:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

The spirit is at the core of the person, it the source of what is good and bad and it is this aspect of a person, not the mind or the body, which God looks at when judging or assessing them. This is illustrated by the following Scriptures:

1 Sam 16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

Prov. 16:2 [All the ways] of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit (ruach).

Eccles. 12:7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit (ruah) returns to God who gave it.

Isaiah 66:2 All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit (ruach) and trembles at my word.

Jer 29:13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart (lev).

Dan 4:16 Let his mind (lev) be changed from a man’s, and let a beast’s mind (lev) be given to him; and let seven periods of time pass over him.

Mark 7:20-23 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart (kardias) of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

1 Cor 2:11 For who knows a person’s [thoughts] except the spirit (pneuma) of that person, which is in him?

The Scripture also affirms that God is spirit and it is through our spirits that He communicates with and relates to us in the deepest way.

John 4:24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

2 Cor 3:18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

10.3Body (Soma, Sarx, Basar)

“Body” and “flesh” seem to be used largely interchangeably and can refer to the physical body, to natural parentage or to that part of our humanity which we share with the animals. In the New Testament it sometimes refers to that part of us which represents our lower or sinful nature.

The following are examples of the use of flesh/body to the physical body, sometimes contrasted with God or the spirit.

Psalm 56:4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?

Psalm 73:26 My flesh (sheer) and my heart (levav) may fail, but God is the strength of my heart (levav) and my portion for ever.

Isaiah 31:3 The Egyptians are man (adam), and not God, and their horses are flesh (basar), and not spirit (ruach). When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.

Jeremiah 9:25“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised {merely} in the flesh (lit: foreskin)

John 1:13 who were born, not of blood (haematon) nor of the will of the flesh (sarx) nor of the will of man (andros), but of God.

John 8:15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.

Rom 1:3 concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh

Rom 4:1 What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh?

Eph 5:29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,

The New Testament indicates that our bodies/flesh have a propensity for evil and sin but that it can nevertheless be redeemed and transformed. This contrasts with a common Greek idea that the body is irredeemably bad and is something to be escaped from. This idea does not appear in the Old Testament.

Rom 6:6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body (soma) of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Rom 6:12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body (soma), to make you obey its passions.

Rom 7:16-18 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh (sarx). For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

1 Cor 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body (soma) is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (soma).

The body can be transformed by training and spiritual disciplines.

1 Cor 9:27 But I discipline my body (soma) and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

1 Thess 4:4 that each one of you know how to control his own body (skeuos) in holiness and honour,

The New Testament view is that the present body of flesh is associated with our lives on Earth. There will be a new, different type of body in Heaven.

1 Cor 15:35-38 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?” You foolish person! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

1 Cor 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

Phil 3:20-21 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Phil 1:22-24 If I am to live in the flesh (sarx), that means fruitful labour for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh (sarx) is more necessary on your account.

2 Peter 1:14 since I know that the putting off of my body (skenoma) will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

10.4Mind (Nous, Dianoia, Phronema)

Several words are used in the NT which are translated “mind”

Nous: mind, reason, reasoning faculty, intellect.

Dianoia: understanding, intellect, mind, insight, reasoning from both sides, critical thinking

Phronema: thought, purpose, aspirations.

In the Old Testament, mind is usually the translation either of lev or nephesh or a translation of some other idiom such as “face” or “repent” for “change of mind”. There is no word specifically for “mind” in the Greek or the modern sense.

Here are some examples of their use.

Genesis 37:11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.(lit: heard the saying)

Exodus 10:10 But he said to them, “The Lord be with you, if ever I let you and your little ones go! Look, you have some evil purpose in mind (lit: before your faces).

Exodus 36:2 And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind (lev) the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart (lev) stirred him up to come to do the work.

Deuteronomy 28:28 The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, (lev)

1 Samuel 2:35 And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart (lev) and in my mind (nephesh). And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed for ever.

Rom 11:34 For who has known the mind (nous) of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?

Rom 12:2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind (nous), that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Phil 2:5 Have this mind (phronema) among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

1 Cor 2:16 “For who has understood the mind (nous) of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind (nous) of Christ.

10.5Contrast between spirit/heart and body/flesh

Whereas the body and flesh, (basar, soma, sarx) refer to the part of us which we share with the animals and which is very much associated with our time on Earth (1 Cor 15:50), “spirit” and “heart” (lev, ruach, pneuma) tend to refer to that part of us which is unique, which has its home in Heaven and which we share with God (Eccles 12:7). The body is something which can be destroyed without the spirit being harmed (1 Cor 5:5, 1 Peter 3:18) but not vice versa (James 2:26).

The following verses, which contain both terms, show this distinction.

Gen 6:3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit (ruach) shall not abide in man for ever, for he is flesh (basar): his days shall be 120 years.”

Psalm 16:9 Therefore my heart (lev) is glad, and my whole being (kvod) rejoices; my flesh (basar) also dwells secure.

Eccles. 12:7 and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Matt. 26:41 Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

1 Cor 5:5 you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

1 Cor 7:34 And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband.

The heart has an influence on the flesh

Prov 14:30 A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.

In the New Testament, the spirit and the flesh are described as being naturally in opposition to each other.

Rom 8:6-8 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds (phronema) on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind (phronema) on the flesh (sarx) is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit (pneuma) is life and peace. For the mind (phronema) that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Rom 8:10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

1 Cor 15:50 I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Gal 4:29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.

James 2:26 For as the body (soma) apart from the spirit (pneuma) is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh (sarx) but made alive in the spirit (pneuma),

There can be a progression from living according to the flesh to living according to the spirit.

Rom 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

1 Cor 3:1-3 But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way?

2 Cor 7:1 Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body (sarx) and spirit (pneuma), bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

2 Cor 10:2-4 I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

Gal 3:3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Gal 5:16-24 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

1 Peter 4:6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

10.6Parallelisms and Distinctions

1 Kings 8:48 if they repent with all their mind (lev) and with all their heart (nephesh) in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you towards their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city that you have chosen, and the house that I have built for your name,

Psalm 84:2 My soul (nephesh) longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart (lev) and flesh (basar) sing for joy to the living God.

Is 10:18 The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land the Lord will destroy, both soul (nephesh) and body (basar), and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

Matt 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body (soma) but cannot kill the soul (psyche). Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell (gehenna).

Mark 12:30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart (kardia) and with all your soul (psyche) and with all your mind (dianoia) and with all your strength.’

Luke 1:46b-47a: “My soul (psyche) magnifies the Lord, and my spirit (pneuma) rejoices in God my Saviour,” cf. 1 Samuel 2:1: “My heart (lev) exults in the Lord; my strength (keren)[lit: horn] is exalted in the Lord.”

Rom 7:22-25 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being (anthropos), but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind (nous) and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body (soma) of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind (nous), but with my flesh (sarx) I serve the law of sin.

Rom 8:23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Eph 2:3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh (sarx), carrying out the desires of the body (sarx) and the mind (dianoia), and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

1 Cor 15:45 Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being (psyche)”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (pneuma).

1 Cor 14:14-15 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit (pneuma) prays but my mind (nous) is unfruitful.What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit (pneuma), but I will pray with my mind (nous) also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind (nous) also.

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

1 Peter 2:11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.