Spirit and Flesh

Biblical Texts

• Genesis 2:7: God formed man of the dust and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, "and man became a living soul."
• Ecclesiastes 12:7: "Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."
• Matthew 26:41: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."
• John 3:6, 6:63: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit," and "It is the spirit that quickeneth."
• Romans 8:5-13, Galatians 5:16-21: "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh."
• 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3: Distinguishes "the natural man," "he that is spiritual," and those who are "carnal."
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23: A prayer that "your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless."
• Hebrews 4:12: The word of God is "piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow."

Original Languages and Background

In the Old Testament, ruach, translated "spirit," means wind or breath; nephesh, translated "soul" or "life," refers to one's life or to the living being itself; and basar means flesh or body. Rather than dividing the human person into parts, the Old Testament often uses these words to describe different aspects of a single person. The New Testament Greek terms pneuma (spirit), psychē (soul, life), sarx (flesh), and sōma (body) carry forward these Old Testament terms. Unlike the dualism of Greek philosophy, which regarded the body as the prison of the soul, the Bible regards the body as something good, created by God.

Paul's "Spirit" and "Flesh"

In the Pauline epistles, "flesh" (sarx) often means more than the physical body; it refers to the human condition under the dominion of sin, in which a person turns away from God and relies on self. In such passages, "spirit" chiefly refers to God's Holy Spirit or to the life that follows the Spirit. Because Paul himself calls the body the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19) and teaches the resurrection of the body, interpreters broadly agree that he does not regard the body itself as evil. This opposition is connected with the themes of flesh (Paul), the old man and the new man, and sanctification.

Interpretations and Issues

Dichotomy and Trichotomy

There are two views concerning the constitution of the human person.

• Dichotomy: This view holds that the human person consists of two elements, soul and body, and that the biblical terms "spirit" and "soul" designate the same entity viewed under different aspects. It is widely accepted in the Presbyterian and Reformed traditions and was defended by Reformed theologians such as Louis Berkhof. The Westminster Confession of Faith confesses that after death the body returns to dust while the soul returns to God.
• Trichotomy: On the basis of 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrews 4:12, this view holds that the human person consists of three elements: spirit, soul, and body. It was held by some Church Fathers and, from the nineteenth century onward, by some evangelical circles. The Chinese church leader Watchman Nee systematized this framework in The Spiritual Man, a book that was also widely read in Korea. Nee was also a leader of the Local Church movement.

Proponents of dichotomy criticize trichotomy on the grounds that it can be used to rank believers by distinguishing "spiritual" people from "soulish" people. Some also note that the fourth-century Christology of Apollinarius relied on trichotomy. Proponents of trichotomy counter that the texts do in fact distinguish between spirit and soul. More recently, some have argued that both views read the Bible as though it were an anatomy textbook, emphasizing instead the human person as an undivided whole. A fuller discussion is found in theological anthropology.

Common Misunderstandings

Many point out that understanding "flesh" solely as the body or as matter, and thereby despising the body and the material world, departs from the meaning of the texts. The early church regarded such thinking as characteristic of Gnosticism and guarded against it.

In Korean Churches

In Korean churches, the words "spiritual" and "fleshly" are part of the everyday vocabulary of devotional life. In representative prayers (public prayers offered on behalf of the congregation), the petition "make us strong in both spirit and body" is frequently heard. In the Full Gospel tradition, the "threefold blessing" taught by Pastor David Yonggi Cho, based on 3 John 1:2, emphasizes together the prospering of the soul, prosperity in all things, and health of the body. This teaching has received both support and criticism in discussions of prosperity theology.