THE ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF
HUMAN NATURE
T.P. Simmons
There are two theories with reference to the essential elements of
human nature. We note them in the following order:
I. THE TRICHOTOMOUS THEORY
The two following passages are held by some to teach a three-fold
division of human nature into body, soul and spirit, -these constituting three
distinct elements in man's nature:
"Me God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your
spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thess. 5:23).
"The word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any
two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the
thoughts and intents of the heart" (Heb. 4:12).
We reject this theory for the following reasons:
1. If the three-fold enumeration in 1 Thess.
5:23 must he taken as signifying three distinct elements in man, then Matt
22:37 must he taken as naming at least one additional element, making four in
all.
Matt. 22:87 reads: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind." It needs to be noted that this passage, in the light of the interpretation
of 1 Thess. 5:23 by the advocates of the trichotomous theory, makes the heart
and mind different elements in man's nature. Now it may be said that
"mind" in this passage is identical with "spirit" in 1
Thess. 5:23. But the "heart" cannot be identified with anything in 1
Thess. 5:23, since "soul," as well as heart, is mentioned in Matt.
22:37. So, for the advocates of the trichotomous theory, in the light
of their interpretation of 1 Thess. 5:23, there is no escape from the necessity
of holding a four-fold division of human nature.
2. Just as it is manifest from the Scripture that
"heart" and "mind" do not designate separate elements of
human nature, so this is also manifest of "soul" and
"spirit."
We presume all will agree that "heart" and
"mind" represent, not two distinct elements of human nature, but only
two faculties; the mind being specially the faculty of knowledge and the heart
the faculty of feeling. Later we will show that it is just as manifest that
soul and spirit are not distinct.
3. Heb. 4:12 need not be taken as referring to a division between
the soul and spirit, as though they are separable elements.
Rather we think it refers to "the piercing of the soul and of
the spirit, even to their very joints and marrow; i. e., to the very depth of the spiritual nature (A. H. Strong).
4. The terms "spirit" and "soul" are used
interchangeably in the Scripture.
See Gen. 41:8, as compared with Psa. 42:6; John 12:27, as compared
with John 13:21; and Heb. 12:23, as compared with Rev. 6:9.
This interchangeable use of the two terms is fatal to the trichotomous theory.
5. Only two elements of human nature are indicated in the creation
of man.
God first created man's body. Then into the
nostrils of that body He breathed the breath (spirit) of life, and man thus
became a living soul. Cf. Gen. 2:7. Man did not first come to be a living soul
or to possess a soul, and then receive the spirit in addition. It was the
reception of the spirit that made him a living Soul.
6. Jesus divided human nature into two elements
only.
In Matt. 10:28 Jesus said: "Be not afraid of them that kill the
body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him who is able to
destroy both soul and body in hell." If there are three elements in human
nature, what becomes of the third when the body and soul go to bell?
If Eccl. 12:7 is offered in answer to this question, we reply that
the Hebrew word translated "spirit" in this passage, cannot be taken
as meaning "spirit" in the sense that we are here using it; it merely
means breath. In reply to this, it may be said that, if the Hebrew word here means
only breath, then it means the same in Gen. 2:7, where we
have interpreted it to mean spirit. But since, after the departure of the
breath, man continues to be a living soul, as evidenced by his eternal
conscious suffering, in case he goes to hell (Gehenna), it must be understood
that the word in Gen. 2:7 means more than breath.
Let it not be understood that we are here
saying that there is never any distinction whatever made between soul and
spirit. While they are most frequently used synonymously, yet sometimes a vague
distinction is traceable. But this distinction is not between different
elements of human nature. When a distinction is made, the two terms merely
"designate the immaterial principle from different points of view"
(A. H. Strong). "We conclude that the immaterial part of man, viewed as an individual and conscious life, capable of possessing and
animating a physical organism, is called 'psuke' (soul); viewed as a rational
and moral agent, susceptible of divine influence and indwelling, this same
immaterial part is called 'pneuma' (spirit). The 'pneuma' (spirit), then, is
man's nature looking God-ward, and capable of receiving and manifesting the
'Pneuma Hagion' (Holy Spirit); the 'psuke' (soul) is man's nature looking
earthward, and touching the world of sense. The 'pneuma'
(spirit) is man's higher part, as related to spiritual realities or as capable
of such relation; the 'psuke' (soul) is man's higher part, as related to the
body, or as capable of such relation. Man's being is therefore not trichotomous
but dichotomous, and his immaterial part, while possessing duality of powers,
has unity of substance. Man's nature is not a three-storied house, but a
two-storied house, with windows in the upper story looking
in two directions- toward earth and toward Heaven. The 'lower story' is the
physical part of us- the body. But man's 'upper story' has two aspects; there
is an outlook toward things below, and a skylight through which to see the
stars" (Strong, Systematic Theology, p. 246). "Soul is spirit
modified by union with the body" (Hovey).
II. THE DICHOTOMOUS THEORY
In view of all the foregoing considerations we hold to the
dichotomous theory of human nature rather than the trichotomous theory. The
dichotomous theory views man as being composed of two parts, one material (body) and the other immaterial (either soul or spirit).
We have already justified this theory, at least to our own
satisfaction, against the trichotomous theory. It remains now only for us to
answer those who refuse even a two-fold division of man's nature and deny that
the soul is an actual element, distinct from the body. As proof that the body
and soul are two distinct elements, we offer the following
arguments:
1. Jesus said that man cannot kill the soul.
See Matt. 10:28. And in this same passage He also said that man
can kill the body. Therefore the body and soul are distinct elements.
2. Man continues to exist after the body is gone back to dust.
For proof of this see the chapter on "The Present State of
the Dead."
3. Physical death is spoken of as the departing of the soul from
the body and a coming to life again is spoken of as the soul's coming again
into the body.
See Gen. 35:18; 1 Kings 17:22. Sometimes the Hebrew word in these
passages for "soul" (nephesh) means merely life. But such a meaning does not make good sense in 1 Kings 17:22, for it
is stated there that "the soul of the child came into him again and he
revived" or lived again. To translate "nephesh" here as
"life" would make the words read: "The life of the child came
into him again and he lived again."
4. Paul calls the body merely our earthly
house, and says that we shall have another house after the dissolution of this
body.
See 2 Cor. 5:1-4. This other house is the spiritual body which
believers will receive in the resurrection. Thus the inner man or soul may move
out of this house and into another one, and is, therefore, as distinct in substance and separable in nature from the body as the human body
is from the house it lives in. The physical body is only the soul's earthly
dwelling-place.