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Are our mind and soul one and the same entity?


Matthew 10:28


Clarify Share Report Asked April 20 2017 Mini Anonymous


Bible uniquely distinguishes soul and mind as separate. 

✿ They are so closely related that it is hard to distinguish the fine points of difference between them, but there is a difference. This is clear from Heb. 4:12 that WORD of God dividing asunder of soul and spirit. Piercing through the body and laying open the innermost recesses of the soul (feelings, passions, desires, appetites) and mind (thoughts and intents of the innermost being). "The mind and body communicate constantly. What the mind thinks, perceives, and experiences is sent from our brain to the rest of the body.” 

✿ Our soul is what gives us our personality and it’s through our soul that we live out our relationship with God, with other people and with our self. Our soul likely has three major components — our mind, will and emotions. Our mind has a conscious part and a subconscious part. The conscious mind is where we do our thinking and reasoning. The sub-conscious mind is where we hold our deep beliefs and our attitudes. It’s also where we have our feeling, our emotions and retain our memories. Our will is what gives us the ability to make choices. Through a very complex way, our mind, our will and our emotions are connected to the body through our endocrine, nervous and immune systems.

✿ Anna poured out her "soul" before the LORD. This is one of the best definitions of prayer in Scripture (1Sam. 1:15-16).

✿ We read about Fourfold state of Job's soul:
1. Weary of life(Job 10:1)
2. Full of complaints(Job 10:1)
3. Full of bitterness - Job mentioned this seven times (Job 10:1; 3:20; 7:11; 9:18; 13:26; 21:25; 23:2).
4. Full of accusations against God (Job 10:2-3)

✿ History records that Christ was limited as a baby and grew in body, "soul", and spirit ("mind", 1Cor. 2:11), grace, wisdom, stature, and favor with God and man (Lk. 2:40,52).

✿ Greek: psuche (G5590), life; soul or spiritual part in contrast to the material body; a departed soul; also the spirit which still retains the shape and size of its living owner; the seat of the desires, feelings, passions, appetites, and emotions. Psuche is the only word translated "soul" in the New Testament. It occurs 105 times. Translated "soul" 58 times; "life" 40 times; "mind" 3 times; and "heart," "heartily," "us," and "you" once each. Psuche corresponds to Hebrew: nephesh (H5315) in the Old Testament. (Job 14:22). For example, compare Acts 2:27 with Ps. 16:10; 1Cor. 15:45 with Gen. 2:7; etc. The soul is immortal (1Pet. 3:4). Psuche (G5590) is used of:
1. Lower animals (Rev. 8:9; 16:3) 
2. Man as an individual (Acts 2:41,43; 3:23; 7:14; 27:37; Rom. 2:9; 13:1; 1Cor. 15:45; Jas. 5:20; 1Pet. 3:20; 2Pet. 2:14; Rev. 6:9; 18:13; 20:4) 
3. The life of man, which can be lost, destroyed, saved, etc. And translated "life" (Mt. 2:20; 6:25; 10:39; 16:25; 20:28; Mk. 3:4; 8:35; 10:45; Lk. 6:9; 9:24,56; 12:22-23; 14:26; 17:33; Jn. 10:11-17; 12:25; 13:37-38; 15:13; Acts 15:26; 20:10,24; 27:10,22; Rom. 11:3; 16:4; Php. 2:30; 1Jn. 3:16; Rev. 12:11) 
4. The life of a man, which can be lost, destroyed, saved, etc. And translated "soul" (Mt. 10:28; 16:26; Mk. 8:36-37 Lk. 12:20; 21:19; 1Th. 2:8; 5:23; Heb. 4:12; 6:19; 10:39; 13:17; Jas. 1:21; 1Pet. 1:9; 2:11, 25; 4:19) 
5. Man, to emphasize self, such as my soul, or myself (Mt. 11:29; 12:18; 26:38; Mk. 14:34; Lk. 1:46; 12:19; Jn. 12:27; Heb. 10:38; 1Pet. 1:22) 
6. The powers of one's being (Mt. 22:37; Lk. 2:35; 10:27; Acts 4:32; 3Jn. 1:2; Eph. 6:6; Php. 1:27)

✿ Bible admonishes, that we must love the Lord with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mt. 22:37; Lk. 10:27). Rational worship, because performed with the heart, mind, and soul of intelligent beings, and is in contrast to the worship of idols of Rom. 1:25.

✿ Mk. 12:33 gives the perfect meaning for all "understanding". Greek: sunesis (G4907), a putting together, meaning the whole of the intelligence, not only one part of it. Not Greek: dianoia (G1271), the mind, or thinking faculty of Mk. 12:30. It is noticeable that the first commandment demands complete consecration and obedience of the whole body, soul, and spirit--all the heart or the innermost being in general; all the mind or the intellectual powers consisting of will, intelligence, and conscience; all the soul or the feelings, emotions, passions, and desires; and all the strength or bodily faculties, deriving its powers from the soul and spirit. Quite a contrast to many modern religionists who hold to serving God with the mind or thoughts only and who claim one can be holy only in spirit and not in body and soul.

✿ One of many scriptures that plainly states that God has a soul. The soul of God, man, or any other being, is the seat of the emotions, passions, appetites, desires, and feelings. (Jud.10:16). God Himself has a personal soul with feelings of grief (Gen. 6:6), anger (1Ki. 11:9), repentance (Gen. 6:6), jealousy (Ex. 20:5), hate (Pr. 6:16), love (Jn. 3:16), pity (Ps. 103:13), fellowship (1Jn. 1:1-7), pleasure and delight (Ps. 147:10), and other soul passions like other beings (Gal. 5:22-23).

✿ Job plainly expressed the often repeated doctrine of the material and spiritual natures of man. (Job 14:22). The flesh was upon him and his spirit within him. Only the body is material and of dust and will return to dust (Gen. 2:7; 3:19; Eccl. 3:19-21). The inner man, which is made up of soul and spirit, is spiritual; it was created to live inside the body (Gen. 2:7). At death the body dies and the inner man leaves it, going to heaven or hell depending on the way the individual lived in his lifetime--whether he accepted God's provision of salvation and conformed to the righteousness taught in the Bible. All souls are fully conscious between death and the resurrection, the righteous souls being conscious in heaven (2Cor. 5:8; Php. 1:21-24; Heb. 12:22-23; Rev. 6:9-11), and the wicked souls in hell (Isa. 14:9; Lk. 16:19-31; Rev. 20:11-15).

April 22 2017 4 responses Vote Up Share Report

Mini Aurel Gheorghe
The short answer is NO, the mind and soul are two very different things. 

Scripture gives a simple equation for the nature of humans: 
Body (dust of the ground) + Breath of life (God’s spirit of life) = living person (a soul). We often refer to a living person as a soul: "Uncle Jim is such a kind soul." 

The lifeless body infused with the God's breath, (neshamah), of life became a living creature (Gen. 2:7). Nowhere does the Bible speak of soul as an immortal entity capable of living apart from the body. We are not made of independent parts temporarily connected - the body, soul, and spirit are one indivisible whole. 

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word “ruach“ occurs 377 times and is translated wind, breath, or spirit (Gen 8:1), life principle (Gen. 6:17; 7:22), courage (Josh 2:11), strength (Judg 15:19), disposition (Isa 54:6), and moral character (Ezek 11:19).

In the OT, the Hebrew word “nephesh” occurs 755 times and is translated in various ways depending on the context, but most frequently is translated life (Gen 9:4, 5; 1 Sam 19:5; Job 2:4, 6; Ps 31:13) and person (Gen 14:21; Num 5:6; Deut 14:22). It is also translated dead body (Num 9:6) and appetite (Eccl 6:7). In other places it is translated as personal pronouns (Gen 12:13; Lev 11:43, 44; Ps 3:2; Jer 37:9). 

In the NT, the Greek word “psuche” is similar to the Hebrew “nephesh” and is translated life or lives over 40 times. The spirit or breath of a person is identical with the spirit or breath of animals (Eccl 3:19). This spirit or breath of a person returns to God at the time of death, and the body returns to the dust where it came from (Job 34:14; Eccl 12:7). In Isaiah 63:10 psuche is translated Spirit of God. 

Furthermore, in the NT the Greek word pneuma is similarly translated as spirit or to breathe. It is also translated as mood, attitude, or state of feeling (Rom 8:15; 1 Cor 4:21; 2 Tim 1:7; 1 John 4:6). Like ruach, it is sometimes translated Spirit of God (1 Cor 2:11, 14; Eph 4:30; Heb 2:4; 1 Peter 1:12; 2 Peter 1:21).

Neither in the OT or the NT does ruach or pneuma refer to a thinking, intelligent, reasoning entity capable of awareness or existence apart from the body. The idea that the soul can exist apart from the body cannot be found in the Bible. The concept originated in the ancient pagan religious and philosophical systems of Egypt and Greece which made its way into Christianity. 

In conclusion, in Scripture, the word soul generally means the whole person as when Adam started living or when Jesus said that His soul, (or His whole person), was sorrowful (Matt 26:38).

Conversely, the mind refers to our brain, our thinking, reasoning, or planning - activities that takes place in the frontal lobe of the brain. 

The NT uses two major word groups that are translated “mind.” One is nous translated in English noetic - meaning intellect or reflective consciousness.

The other one is phronema, a word that denotes what one has in the mind; it has to do with the thought - it means to think, to be minded in a certain way, or to bear in mind. It implies moral interest or reflection, 

In Philippians 2:5-8 Paul is using the word phroneō to invite us to have the mind of Christ, meaning that we are to think as Christ thinks.

April 22 2017 0 responses Vote Up Share Report

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