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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - Romans 11:3 - 11:3
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
They have killed thy prophets - and digged, etc.
Paul gives the first two clauses in reverse order from both Septuagint and Hebrew.
Digged down (κατέσκαψαν)
Sept., καθεῖλαν pulled down. The verb occurs only here and Act 15:16. Compare on Mat 6:19.
Altars (θυσιαστήρια)
See on Act 17:23.
Alone (μόνος)
Sept. has the superlative μονώτατος utterly alone.
Life (ψυχήν)
From ψύχω to breathe or blow. In classical usage it signifies life in the distinctness of individual existence, especially of man, occasionally of brutes. Hence, generally, the life of the individual. In the further development of the idea it becomes, instead of the body, the seat of the will, dispositions, desires, passions; and, combined with the σῶμα body, denotes the constituent parts of humanity. Hence the morally endowed individuality of man which continues after death.
Scripture. In the Old Testament, answering to nephesh, primarily life, breath; therefore life in its distinct individuality; life as such, distinguished from other men and from inanimate nature. Not the principle of life, but that which bears in itself and manifests the life-principle. Hence spirit (ruach, πνεῦμα) in the Old Testament never signifies the individual. Soul (ψυχή), of itself, does not constitute personality, but only when it is the soul of a human being. Human personality is derived from spirit (πνεῦμα), and finds expression in soul or life (ψυχή).
The New-Testament usage follows the Old, in denoting all individuals from the point of view of individual life. Thus the phrase πᾶσα ψυχή every soul, i.e., every person (Rom 2:9; Rom 13:1), marking them off from inanimate nature. So Rom 11:3; Rom 16:4; 2Co 1:23; 2Co 12:15; Phi 2:30; 1Th 2:8, illustrate an Old-Testament usage whereby the soul is the seat of personality, and is employed instead of the personal pronoun, with a collateral notion of value as individual personality.
These and other passages are opposed to the view which limits the term to a mere animal life-principle. See Eph 6:6; Col 3:23; the compounds σύμψυχοι with one soul; ἰσοψύχον like-minded (Phi 1:27; Phi 2:20), where personal interest and accord of feeling are indicated, and not lower elements of personality. See, especially 1Th 5:23.
As to the distinction between ψυχή soul and πνεῦμα spirit, it is to be said:
1. That there are cases where the meanings approach very closely, if they are not practically synonymous; especially where the individual life is referred to. See Luk 1:47; Joh 11:33, and Joh 12:27; Mat 11:29, and 1Co 16:18.
2. That the distinction is to be rejected which rests on the restriction of ψυχή to the principle of animal life. This cannot be maintained in the face of 1Co 15:45; 1Co 2:14, in which latter the kindred adjective ψυχικός natural has reference to the faculty of discerning spiritual truth. In both cases the antithesis is πνεῦμα spirit in the ethical sense, requiring an enlargement of the conception of ψυχικός natural beyond that of σαρκικός fleshly.
3. That ψυχή soul must not be distinguished from πνεῦμα; spirit as being alone subject to the dominion of sin, since the πνεῦμα is described as being subject to such dominion. See 2Co 7:1. So 1Th 5:23; 1Co 7:34, imply that the spirit needs sanctification. Compare Eph 4:23.
4. Ψυχή soul is never used of God like πνεῦμα spirit. It is used of Christ, but always with reference to His humanity.
Whatever distinction there is, therefore, is not between a higher and a lower element in man. It is rather between two sides of the one immaterial nature which stands in contrast with the body. Spirit expresses the conception of that nature more generally, being used both of the earthly and of the non-earthly spirit, while soul designates it on the side of the creature. In this view ψυχή soul is akin to σάρξ, flesh, “not as respects the notion conveyed by them, but as respects their value as they both stand at the same stage of creatureliness in contradistinction to God.” Hence the distinction follows that of the Old Testament between soul and spirit as viewed from two different points: the soul regarded as an individual possession, distinguishing the holder from other men and from inanimate nature; the spirit regarded as coming directly from God and returning to Him. “The former indicates the life-principle simply as subsistent, the latter marks its relation to God.” Spirit and not soul is the point of contact with the regenerating forces of the Holy Spirit; the point from which the whole personality is moved round so as to face God.
Ψυχή soul is thus:
1. The individual life, the seat of the personality.
2. The subject of the life, the person in which it dwells.
3. The mind as the sentient principle, the seat of sensation and desire.