The Bible and Spirit

[catholictiger]

alright just a simple question what does the bible mean when it is talking about spirit. I ran into these couple of bible quotes some protestant handout that was given to me.

but the two passages are

[BIBLEDRB]1 thessalonians 5:23[/BIBLEDRB]

and

[BIBLEDRB]John 4:24[/BIBLEDRB]

this booklet claims that we have 3 parts to our person

the body physical realm

the soul mental capabilities

and the spirit the innermost part of man were God is to lay.

to my knowledge the church doesn’t hold this view. I think we just have a body and a soul, but what is the spirit.

thanks

 

[mark_avery]

Like the wind,is it giving or taking your breath!!

 

[Huiou_Theou]

Mark, I aspire to be like you.

CatholicTiger,

I’m see your quotes didn’t come out, so I am not sure which passages are in question.
The spirit is not compartmentalized, though, and a “person” is a difficult thing to grasp. We are composite beings made of body and spirit, with the spirit in-forming the body. So, when we say “person”, it isn’t a “single” atomic thing. Just so, the second “person” of the trinity, can become the “person” Jesus Christ (one person) precisely because man is a composite being – which means body and life principle. (And also left and right brain…etc. and hand, finger, etc.).
We too, though different from Jesus, are to be incorperated (corpus=body) in the trinity through union with the son, (Something truly mysterious to be grasped at), and this in-somnia is through the resurrected body. The book of revelation speaks of us as the “bride” of Christ, which by the understanding of Genesis is the flesh of the husband, the head of the body.

In Scripture, close blood relatives are called “my flesh and bones” whether they are liked especially well or not. These souls, (whole persons) are family. When Scripture starts speaking of spirit, it is that which gives life to the body. The DSS writings, which are of the same age as scripture, talk about the “spirit” rushing to and fro in the blood. Literally, they are comparing the heavy breathing of an excited person and the raised heart rate and pulse as one an the same thing. That person, seen today as merely another aerobics workout, is the icon of what it means to be “ALIVE”, a vibrance, in the language of scripture as opposed to a wind bag shooting off their mouth, which is someone who would need to become “poor in spirit”.

The spirit is the life principle of the body. It is whatever really makes the body “alive”. In a simple situation, we usually think of a person being dead meaning that they are no longer breathing. But you might imagine exceptions… that is why I say “principle” instead of “force”, because the word spirit is understood mostly by elimination of impossibilities, which is what “principle” is in a mathematical sense.

I hope this helped some.

 

[MarcoPolo]

to my knowledge the church doesn’t hold this view. I think we just have a body and a soul, but what is the spirit.

Here are the pertinent Catechism paragraphs. Particularly review 367 on body, soul, and spirit. II. “BODY AND SOUL BUT TRULY ONE”

362 The human person, created in the image of God, is a being at once corporeal and spiritual. The biblical account expresses this reality in symbolic language when it affirms that "then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."229 Man, whole and entire, is therefore willed by God.

363 In Sacred Scripture the term “soul” often refers to human life or the entire human person.230 But “soul” also refers to the innermost aspect of man, that which is of greatest value in him,231 that by which he is most especially in God’s image: “soul” signifies the spiritual principle in man.

364 The human body shares in the dignity of “the image of God”: it is a human body precisely because it is animated by a spiritual soul, and it is the whole human person that is intended to become, in the body of Christ, a temple of the Spirit:232

Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity. Through his very bodily condition he sums up in himself the elements of the material world. Through him they are thus brought to their highest perfection and can raise their voice in praise freely given to the Creator. For this reason man may not despise his bodily life. Rather he is obliged to regard his body as good and to hold it in honor since God has created it and will raise it up on the last day. 233
365 The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the “form” of the body:234 i.e., it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.

366 The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God - it is not “produced” by the parents - and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection.235

367 Sometimes the soul is distinguished from the spirit: St. Paul for instance prays that God may sanctify his people “wholly”, with “spirit and soul and body” kept sound and blameless at the Lord’s coming.236 The Church teaches that this distinction does not introduce a duality into the soul.237 “Spirit” signifies that from creation man is ordered to a supernatural end and that his soul can gratuitously be raised beyond all it deserves to communion with God.238

368 The spiritual tradition of the Church also emphasizes the heart, in the biblical sense of the depths of one’s being, where the person decides for or against God.239