Post by Radrook Admin on Jul 18, 2024 13:00:45 GMT -5
Destroying the Body but not the Soul
That expression of destroying the body but not the souls seem to be saying that Jesus believed in the immortally of the human soul doctrine as taught by Greek philosophers who invented the concept.
Plato's theory of soul
Plato's theory of the soul, which was inspired various by the teachings of Socrates, considered the psyche (Ancient Greek: ψῡχή, Romanized: psūkhḗ, lit. 'breath') to be the essence of a person, being that which decides how people behave.
Plato considered this essence to be an incorporeal, eternal occupant of a person's being. Plato said that even after death, the soul exists and is able to think. He believed that as bodies die, the soul is continually reborn (metempsychosis) in subsequent bodies. Plato divided the soul into three parts: the logistikon (reason), the thymoeides (spirit, which houses anger, as well as other spirited emotions), and the epithymetikon (appetite or desire, which houses the desire for physical pleasures)
Now all this might seem fine and well and one might imagine that Jesus held that same belief. However, the question that we should be asking is whether it harmonizes with what the Bible tells us that the soul really is. The answer is found in the Genesis creation account of mankind. .
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the spirit of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7.
One thing to notice is that Adam was merely a lifeless body until God used his spirit to turn Adan into a living soul. It doesn't say that Adam was provided with a soul or had a soul infused into him. It tells us that Adam himself became a soul.
So Adam's body was not a soul. If you destroyed Adam's body before it had been made a soul via God's spirit, you were not destroying a soul or destroying Adam's potential to become a soul since God could simply provide Adam with another body which could itself become a soul. You were merely destroying a body.
So that's what Jesus meant when saying that there are those who can kill the body but not the soul. That's exactly how he expected to be understood by the Jewish listeners since they had not adopted the Greek false ideas of the immortal soul yet as they would centuries later.
To the Jews of Jesus day, a person died and waited for the resurrection of the body in the grave. In reference to Lazarus who had just died, and whom Jesus said would awaken or rise again, his sister Martha said:
So Adam's body was not a soul. If you destroyed Adam's body before it had been made a soul via God's spirit, you were not destroying a soul or destroying Adam's potential to become a soul since God could simply provide Adam with another body which could itself become a soul. You were merely destroying a body.
So that's what Jesus meant when saying that there are those who can kill the body but not the soul. That's exactly how he expected to be understood by the Jewish listeners since they had not adopted the Greek false ideas of the immortal soul yet as they would centuries later.
To the Jews of Jesus day, a person died and waited for the resurrection of the body in the grave. In reference to Lazarus who had just died, and whom Jesus said would awaken or rise again, his sister Martha said:
John 11:24-26
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Daniel 12:2
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Thst's why the Bible refers to death a sleep.
24 Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Daniel 12:2
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Thst's why the Bible refers to death a sleep.
Deuteronomy 31:16: “The Lord said to Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.”
II Samuel 7:12: “When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.""
I Kings 1:21: “When my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers.”
I Kings 2:10: “David slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 11:21: “David slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 11:43: “Solomon slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 14:20: “Jeroboam...slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 14:31: “Rehoboam slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 15:8: “Abijam slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 15:24: “Asa slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 16:6: “Baasha slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 16:28: “Omri slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 22:40: “Ahab slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 22:50: “Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers.”
II Kings 8:24: “Joram slept with his fathers”
www.fulcrum7.com/apologetics/2021/1/29/fifty-four-texts-that-describe-death-as-sleep
II Samuel 7:12: “When thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers.""
I Kings 1:21: “When my lord the king shall sleep with his fathers.”
I Kings 2:10: “David slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 11:21: “David slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 11:43: “Solomon slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 14:20: “Jeroboam...slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 14:31: “Rehoboam slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 15:8: “Abijam slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 15:24: “Asa slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 16:6: “Baasha slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 16:28: “Omri slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 22:40: “Ahab slept with his fathers.”
I Kings 22:50: “Jehoshaphat slept with his fathers.”
II Kings 8:24: “Joram slept with his fathers”
www.fulcrum7.com/apologetics/2021/1/29/fifty-four-texts-that-describe-death-as-sleep
So Jesus was definitely not contradicting this Jewish concept, but was assuming that they perfectly understood what he meant.