Immortality of the Soul - 1 Thessalonians 5:23

Immortality of the Soul

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  Genesis 35:18
  1 Sam. 28:8-15
  1 Kings 17:21
  Ecc. 12:7
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  1 Thess. 5:23
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1 Thessalonians 5:23: "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Problem:: It is inferred from this verse that one has a soul and spirit.
Solution:

The words, "spirit" ("pneuma") and "soul" ("psuche") are used in a variety of ways in Scripture. However, they are never referred to as conscious immortal entities within man.
It is likely that in the passage under consideration by "spirit" is meant "mind"¹, and by "soul" is meant "life". The expression, "spirit and soul and body" is synonymous with the whole person. Consider the following:
1. Spirit, soul and body are synonymous with the whole person since the preceding words, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly" imply a parallelism between the two expressions.
2. The word "spirit" is used elsewhere by the Apostle Paul as synonymous with the "mind". For example:
  1. "For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit . . . " (1 Cor. 5:3).
  2. "That ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind . . . " (Phil. 1:27).
  3. See also 1 Cor. 7:34; 2 Cor. 7:1.
3. The word "soul" is used elsewhere by the Apostle for "life". For example:
  1. "So being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us." (1 Thess. 2:8).²
  2. "Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul . . . " (2 Cor. 1:23).
A corpse is a body without life. An idiot is a body with a soul (life), but with only an improperly functioning spirit (mind). It is the person with spirit and soul and body - the whole person, which Paul prays may be "preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
If the body is destroyed, then necessarily the life and mind cease to function. In death there is a dissolution of being. (Ecc. 9:5,6; Psa. 146:4).

Footnotes:

J. B. Phillips in his translation renders the Greek word "pneuma" (translated "spirit" A.V.) in this verse by "mind". J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English, (London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960). Return
Benjamin Wilson translates the Greek word "psuche" (translated "soul" A.V.) in this verse by "lives". Benjamin Wilson, The Emphatic Diaglott: Containing the Original Greek Text of What is Commonly Styled the New Testament, (Brooklyn, New York: International Bible Students Ass., 1942). Return