Dichotomy and Trichotomy.
The assumption that man consists of three essentially different parts, of the σώμα, as the material part, of the ψυχή, as the lower or animal principle of life, which man has in common with the animals, and of the πνεύμα, as the higher or spiritual principle of life, by which man differs from the animals, is not sufficiently supported by scriptural passages such as Luke 1:46-47 and 1 Thess. 5:23. In the first place ("My soul, ψυχή, exalts the Lord, and my spirit, πνεύμα, rejoices in God my Savior") soul and spirit obviously stand in factual parallelism. The thought: "my lower life principle" exalts the Lord, and "my higher life principle" rejoices God, my Savior, is far from the context. In the words 1 Thess. 6:23: τό ολόκληρον υμών τό πνεύμα και ή ψυχή και τό σώμα is the address of the continued sanctification of Christians in view of the Last Day, and there it is advisable not to take πνεΰμα at all as a natural part of
litatem. Etsi enim omnia reliqua opera Dei plena admirationis et valde magnifica sunt, tamen hominem hoc arguit esse praestantissimam creaturam, siquidem Deus in eo condendo consilium adhibet et novo modo utitur. Non relinquit eum fingendum terrae, sicut bestiae et arbores. Sed ipse eum format ad imaginem sui, tamquam participem Dei et qui fruiturus sit requie Dei. Itaque Adam, antequam a Domino formatur, est mortua et iacens gleba; eam apprehendit Deus et format inde pulcherrimam creaturam, participem immortalitatis. [Google] Haec si Aristoteles audiret, solveretur in cachinnum et iudicaret, esse, etsi non insuavem, tamen absurdissimam fabulam, quod homo quoad originem suam primam fuisset gleba, formatus autem sit divina sapientia et sic conditus, ut esset capax immortalitatis. Nam etiamsi qui ex philosophis, ut Socrates et alii, asseruerunt immortalitatem animorum, tamen a reliquis philosophis irrisi et tantum non explosi sunt. Sed annon magna est fatuitas, sic offendi rationem, cum videat adhuc hodie plenam admirationis esse hominis generationem? An enim non absurdum iudi-cabis, hominem, qui in aeternum victurus est, nasci quasi ex ima guttula seminis in lumbis patris? Maior in hoc fere absurditas est, quam quod Moses dicit, de gleba digitis Dei formata. Sed ratio hoc modo ostendit, se plane nihil scire de Deo, qui sola cogitatione ex gleba facit non semen hominis, sed ipsum hominem, et, quod postea Moses dicit, ex costa viri facit feminam. Haec prima hominis origo est. Creato autem sic masculo et femina postea ex eorum sanguine divina benedictione generatur homo. [Google] Quamquam autem haec cum brutis communis generatio est, non tollit tamen illam gloriam originis nostrae primae, quod sumus vascula Dei ab ipso Deo ficta, quod ipse est figulus noster, nos autem lutum eius, sicut Iesaias sexagesimo quarto loquitur. [Google]
582 ><w:t xml:space="preserve">The Creation of the World and of Man. [English ed. 477]
man, but as a designation of the whole spiritual essence of the born-again man, in which case καί ή ψνχη καί το σώμα is a post-determined approximation to όλόκληρον υμών το πνεύμα and subordinate to it. The dichotomy is decisively supported by passages like Matt. 10:28: "Do not fear those who kill the body and may not kill the soul; but rather fear him who may destroy both body and soul into hell." Here man is described according to his whole being (according to his "totality"), and yet only "body" and "soul" are mentioned next to each other. Here also belongs Matt. 6:25. That soul and spirit are the same or alternate concepts according to their essence, is also evident from the fact that those who have departed from this life after laying aside the body are called spirits (πνεύματα) as well as souls (ψνχαί).1460) Recent theologians are divided;1461) Lutheran dogmatists are almost unanimous dichotomists. )1462