Here is what former Bishop John Spong says in his book, This Hebrew Lord (pages 18-21, words in bold for emphasis and words in brackets are my own):
Our English words soul or spirit are our attempts to translate the Greek word psyche into English. In Greek psyche means the mind or the spirit; that is, the nonphysical aspect of our being. It is the word from which we get psychology, psychopathic, psychiatrist, etc. However, Christianity was not born in a Greek world, but in a Hebrew world. The Greek language was a resting place between the Hebrew original and our contemporary languages.
Behind the Greek word for psyche, we find two Hebrew words, nephesh and ruach; and by no stretch of the imagination did these Hebrew words mean the nonphysical aspect of our being. Indeed, had we translated nephesh and ruach directly into English, it is quite obvious that our words soul or spirit would be very inadequate vehicles to carry their meanings. Only the intermediate way station of the Greek language has in it the traditional connotations we read into our words.
Nephesh literally means "breath"-- more particularly, the "breath of God." Ruach literally means "wind"-- the "wind of God." The primary purpose of breath and wind was to animate, to make vital, to bring alive the whole person, body and mind. In a Hebrew context, a biblical context, to be spiritual was to be animated, vital, alive physically, all of which is quite different from its traditional religious meaning.[1]
In the Yahwist[2] writer’s story of creation (Gen. 2:4ff), which is approximately four hundred years earlier than the more familiar seven-day account of the priestly[3] writer (Gen. 1 :1-2:4), we find a rather anthropomorphic God who created man by molding him out of the dust of the earth, much as we might make a mud pie. But man was dead, inert, until God breathed his nephesh into him, and man -- Adam -- came alive. To be indwelt by the spirit, the breath of God, was not to be pious but to be alive, to be vital. The sign of the presence of the spirit was the presence of life. The function of spirit [the vitalizing breath of God] was to bring life. How different! How fresh! Again and again in the biblical story we find this insight confirmed. When Elijah’s spirit rested on Elisha, the result was the coming to full power, to live and be for Elisha.
In 597 B.C., Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians, and the Hebrew people were carried off into exile. Among those who joined the long march to captivity was a priest named Ezekiel, whose prophetic career was pivotal in the history of Judah. Ezekiel had a vivid imagination. He constantly had dreams and visions of very exaggerated proportions and always in color. He knew that his nation was prostrate, his holy city occupied, his temple defiled, his people in captivity. Judah’s future seemed bleak; she was a dead nation. So Ezekiel had a dream. In this dream he saw a valley, and in that valley there was nothing but dead, dry bones -- a symbol of Judah. The voice of the Lord said, "Ezekiel, can these bones live again?" and Ezekiel answered, "Lord, only you know that."
Then the Lord caused his ruach -- his life-giving wind, his spirit --to blow over that valley, and there was a shaking, rattling, and rolling of bones the likes of which no vision has since produced. And that which had been dead was brought to life by the wind, the ruach, the spirit of God blowing over it. When the people of Judah responded to the spirit of God, the result was not that they became pious or religious, but that they became alive. Wherever you meet spirit [divine breath] biblically, it is announced by the presence of life.
In the Book of Acts, Luke portrays the disciples as waiting in the upper room for the empowerment they had been promised. Despite the resurrection, they were still fearful, still in hiding, not yet in possession of their life. Then, says Luke, there came a mighty rushing wind -- God’s ruach -- with tongues of fire, and they were filled with the spirit [divine breath]! They became self-possessed men, free of fear, alive to God and to each other. With the power and energy of whole people, they took on the world and turned it upside down for their Lord. The Holy Spirit [Sacred Breath] came at Pentecost and gave them life -- life that was to become the light of the world. That is the function of spirit, biblically: to give life.
We still have echoes of the biblical meaning of the word spirit in our language, but somehow we never seem to hear them when we are thinking theologically. We refer to a "spirited horse," alive and vital, as opposed to a "dispirited nag," swayback and inert. We hear of a "spirited address" or a "spirited debate," which means lively and animated, not tedious and boring. We refer to good Scotch whiskey as a "spirited beverage," by which we mean that it has punch and power that we fail to respect at our own risk. Our young people, under the influence of the music of black America, have begun to talk of "soul music"; that is, music into which the whole of life is thrown -- mind, body, and spirit; music that has the beat of a heart throbbing with life and emotion. Appropriately, the word soul was chosen to describe it.
Biblically then the function of the spirit [divine breath] is to make vital, to call into being, to free, to make whole, to establish community based on life. To be spiritual means to be alive. To be filled with the spirit means to be free to live. It does not mean to be turned toward the nonphysical, to be pious, to cultivate the virtues of the soul. Yet this has become its religious meaning. I yearn to be a spiritual man in the biblical sense. I am not at all eager to be a spiritual man in a religious sense.
James 1:21 (Expanded Bible):
… ·accept [welcome] God’s ·teaching [word] that is planted in your hearts, which can save ·you [L your souls; C referring to the whole person].
In chapter 3 of Salvation of the Soul by Arlen Chitwood, in section "2 In the Spiritual Realm," we read:
The Neshamah[:]
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath [the Neshamah] of life; and man became a living soul. (Genesis 2:7)
The roots of all biblical doctrine have been established in the book of Genesis. This is the book of beginnings; and all Scripture beyond this point must, after some fashion, reach back and draw from this book.
In the account of the creation of man, insight is given into certain truths concerning “life” derived from God. …. Creation itself did not produce life in this form. Rather, God imparted life to man following his creation. This life was produced by means of the breath of God, and it is here that “life” in relation to man is first mentioned in Scripture.
The Hebrew word translated “breath” in Genesis 2:7 is Neshamah. The Neshamah of God produced “life.” The word “God” in this verse is a translation of the plural noun, Elohim ….
… A first-mention principle has been established in Genesis 2:7, and life that man derives from God must always be in complete keeping with that set forth in this verse. God alone initially “imparts” and subsequently “continues” and “sustains” life; and this entire sequence, having to do with God’s revealed work as it pertains to life, is always accomplished, in its entirety, through the Neshamah[/Breath] of God.
1. Impartation of Life ….
[The Holy Breath/The Spirit] breathes life into the one having no life, and through this work of the Spirit [Breath of God] man passes “from death to life” (John 5:24).
… The word “Spirit” in the Greek text is pneuma, a word that also means “breath.” It is used in the latter sense in the New Testament to show life being produced through a “breathing in,” or death being wrought through a “breathing out.” In Luke 8:55, life was restored to a young girl by her “spirit [breath]” returning; and in Luke 23:46, Christ terminated His life on the Cross by giving “up the spirit [lit. from the wording of the Greek text, He ‘breathed out’].”)
Thus, the Holy Spirit [Set-apart Breath] is the One who generates life in lifeless man ... in this manner is a “breathing in.” God, through the instrumentality of the Holy [Breath] “breathes life into” ... man …. Or, in James 2:26, the same principle is seen relative to the physical body, as previously seen in Genesis 2:7: “. . . the body without the spirit [‘breath’] is dead.”
… The Spirit [Breath] of God moved in the first chapter of Genesis, effecting a beginning of the earth’s restoration. And the first thing recorded immediately following the Spirit’s [Breath’s] movement was the placement of light alongside the previously existing darkness, with a division established between the light and the darkness.
The [Breath] of God, in like manner, moves today, effecting a beginning of man’s restoration… And the first thing that God does for man is to place light alongside the previously existing darkness — place a new nature alongside the old nature, a new man alongside the old man — with a division established between the two (cf. Hebrews 4:12).
…. Complete restoration is not accomplished through the birth from above. Rather, the person, through the birth from above, is brought into a state where a continued work can be accomplished. And, over time, this continued work will complete man’s restoration.
Note the words of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:6; 5:17 in this respect:
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ . . . Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [‘new creation’] . . . .”
2. Impartation of Life...
…. Life is generated through “breathing in” (initial work of the Spirit [Holy Breath]), retained through “the breath remaining” (a subsequent work of the Spirit [The Holy Breath]), and sustained through a “continued breathing in.” Sustenance for life, “a continued breathing in,” is what is involved in 2 Timothy 3:16 [which reads from the EXB: “All Scripture is ·inspired by God [breathed out by God; L God-breathed] and is useful for teaching, for ·showing people what is wrong in their lives [refuting error; rebuking], for correcting faults, and for ·teaching how to live right [training in righteousness].” This verse, studied in the light of Genesis 2:7, is the key … The word “God-breathed” in 2 Timothy 3:16 is a translation of the compound Greek word theopneustos, which is simply the word for “God” (theos) and the word for “breath,” or “Spirit” (pneuma) added. Thus, the translation “God-breathed” is not only a very literal translation, but, in the light of Genesis 2:7, it can only be the best of all possible translations.
The “Word of God,” through comparing Genesis 2:7 and 2 Timothy 3:16, is identified with the Neshamah of God — the breath of God. The Word of God was given through the instrumentality of the Holy [Breath] (2 Peter 1:21), and is the element — the living organism — that the indwelling Holy [Breath] uses to sustain the life …
Thus, in a full Scriptural respect, the Neshamah of God can only refer to both the Spirit and the Word [i.e. the Logos revealed in Scripture]. “Life” emanates from both (2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 4:12; James 2:26), and they are inseparably linked through one common denominator — Breath.
... the Holy [Breath], who gave the Word,... The Word of God alone is able to make one “wise unto salvation” (2 Timothy 3:15[:Expanded Bible: “... you have known the ·Holy Scriptures [or sacred writings] which are able to make you wise. And that wisdom leads to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus”]. That is to say, the Word of God [Scripture] alone can be used by the Holy [Breath] to bring about the Christian’s walk by faith (cf. Romans 10:17)....
Source: http://bibleone.net/theimplantedword.htm. Retrieved 2/21/18
