In my last post on biblical anthropology, I left you with three questions: 1. What about Old Testament thinking about the "heart"? Does this point to a third part of a human being, or does it overlap with nephesh and ruach? 2. What about the OT Shema statements ("You...
Ruach
Biblical Anthropology, Part 5
In my last biblical anthropology post, I posed these three questions. Here they are again with some proposed answers: 1. When nephesh is described as being in sheol, does the term refer to only the inner part, the body, or the totality? It seems that if Sheol refers...
Biblical Anthropology, Part 4
I've posted prelimianry notes on both ruach and nephesh in the previous two posts. Now it's time to merge those files and observations. It's pretty interesting that the terms are used so often in the same ways and to describe the same things. Here's a list: 1. The...
Biblical Anthropology, Part 2
I've read through the two smaller PDFs now - the ones dealing with "spirit" (ruach). I've been taking notes and trying to categorize the semantic range of the term (only as it pertains to humans). I've attached these notes, preliminary as they are, here in PDF form....
Biblical Anthropology, Part 1
I've been thinking about getting into this topic for some time. The issue can be cast in two ways. 1. In terms of biblical theology, is a human being composed of two parts (flesh/body + immaterial soul) or three parts (flesh/body + soul + spirit)? 2. In terms of...