by Ken Ewing

Ken Ewing was an engineer at Tektronix in Beaverton, Oregon. In September 1985, responding to a question about the difference between soul and mind and how that difference relates to being "born again," he posted a carefully reasoned two-part essay to net.religion.christian. The first part contrasts the ancient Hebrew view of the human person — a unified, indivisible whole — with the Platonic Greek view of an immortal soul imprisoned in a corrupt body. The second part applies this distinction to the doctrine of salvation, showing how the three New Testament tenses of salvation (past, present, future) correspond to three aspects of the whole person (spirit, soul, body) in the Hebrew mode. The resulting diagram — neat, symmetrical, theologically careful — is a small gem of systematic lay theology from the early Usenet era.

Part One — Hebrew and Greek Understandings of Human Nature

I'd like to add some comments on the distinction between spirit, soul, and body.

The Ancient Hebrew View

All the historical interpretations that I have read indicate that the ancient Hebrews regarded a person as a unitive whole that was not separable into parts. "Body," "soul," and "spirit" exist together as a sort of continuum, each dependent on the other for existence, none having an independent existence of its own. God created all the "parts" (for lack of a better term), as well as the whole physical universe, and afterward pronounced them all as "very good" (Gen. 1:31).

When a person dies, he or she either ceases to exist, or exists in a shadowy limbo realm referred to as Sheol. Immortality to the ancient Hebrew consisted generally of two things:

1. His progeny — knowing that his descendants lived on after him, that these offspring had contributed to the future of the Chosen People, and that his name was recorded in the genealogies of the Hebrew race. (Hence, the stigma associated with barrenness in a woman.)
2. A future physical resurrection.

The Ancient Greek View

The Greeks, on the other hand, regarded a person as a two-part entity. The soul was the noble, good, non-material part; the body was the corrupt, evil, physical part. The soul came from the realm of the ideal and was imprisoned in the body. The soul was immortal: it pre-existed before a person was born, and continued on after a person died. The soul sought after noble pursuits like logic, truth, and intellectual development. (Hence, in many minds, the philosopher was the noblest of people.) The body — or the whole physical universe, for that matter — sought after base pursuits, like drunkenness, gluttony, and orgies. The body inhibited the pursuits of the soul, and therefore must be subdued and controlled.

Plato had a doctrine of reincarnation where a soul continued to be born into physical bodies until it attained enough intellectual development to finally remain in the realm of the ideal when the body died. Therefore, immortality to the Greek consisted generally of two things:

1. A natural, inherent characteristic of the soul.
2. A final, permanent separation from the evil physical realm.

As you can see, the ideas of soul, immortality, and the goodness or badness of the physical universe were quite divergent. With regard to the nature of Man, a book I once read compared the two views succinctly with the following statement: "The Hebrews thought of Man as an animated body; the Greeks thought of Man as an incarnated soul."

The Mind and the Soul

Now, how does the mind differ from the soul? In my understanding, they are effectively the same, regardless of which of the above views you use. In the New Testament, the same Greek word usually translates to both "mind" and "soul." Most Christian interpretations that I have heard define the soul as "the mind, will, and emotions" (or something along that line). Therefore, I tend to equate the two. It is a distinction that I don't worry about too much.

Part Two — Salvation in the Hebrew Framework

In my first article I briefly compared the differences between the ancient Hebrew and Greek ideas on the nature of Man. Now I would like to talk about how salvation (i.e., being "born again") relates to the Hebrew concept, since Christianity originally began from that perspective.

The New Testament speaks of salvation in three tenses: past, present, and future. Examples:

• For by grace you have been saved through faith... (Eph. 2:8) — PAST
• ...work out your salvation in fear and trembling... (Phil. 2:12) — PRESENT
• ...we shall be saved by His life. (Rom. 5:10) — FUTURE

The concept of salvation is multifaceted, and each of these tenses illustrates a different but related aspect of salvation.

PAST — This refers to the aspect called Justification. This is where the guilt of our sin is dealt with. It is described as past because Jesus paid the debt for our fallenness once and for all on the cross. It's over and done with, and we can do nothing to add or detract from it. This aspect is also associated with the Regeneration of the Spirit.

PRESENT — This refers to the aspect called Sanctification. This is where our mind and being are renewed. It is described as present because it is a continuing, life-long process. As we respond to the work of Christ and seek guidance and growth, the Holy Spirit brings about a continual, gradual renewal of mind (soul). This aspect is also associated with wholeness and healing.

FUTURE — This refers to the aspect called Glorification. This is the full, final renewal of our physical bodies. It is described as future because it is yet to come. At that time the goodness in which we — mankind, the universe — were created will be restored, and the fallenness and sin that we now struggle with will be removed. This aspect is also associated with the Redemption of Our Bodies.

Summary

Even though we discuss these ideas separately, we must remember that from the Hebrew perspective, a person is not separable into parts. Each "part" coexists with the others and intimately affects the others. Justification opens a channel of the spirit to God and allows the power of the Holy Spirit into the soul and body as well. The fallenness of the body wages war against the renewal of the mind. People into wholistic health recognize that when there is disease in the body, the mind and spirit are affected as well.

Colophon

Written by Ken Ewing (Tektronix, Beaverton, OR) and posted in two parts to net.religion.christian on September 30, 1985 (Article-IDs: teklds.1082 and teklds.1083). The two posts are preserved here as a single essay, as Ewing intended. The question that prompted this response was originally asked by a "Peter Kim" in an earlier thread. The concise summary chart in Part Two is reproduced exactly as Ewing formatted it.

Preserved from the Usenet archive for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Original Message-IDs: <[email protected]> and <[email protected]>.

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