Creation Series #5
June 19, 2007
“then God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being.”
Many of you probably know this already, but the Hebrew word which is usually translated as “soul”, i.e. nephesh, doesn’t really mean that at all. Biblical Hebrew, in fact, doesn’t even have a word for “soul.” Yep, you heard me right - all of those beloved passages like “Bless the Lord, oh my soul,” and “You shall love the Lord with all your strength, all your mind, and all your soul” don’t actually mean what you thought they mean.
Take this passage from Genesis, for example. When God breathes the breath of life into Adam, he becomes a “living being,” a nephesh chayah. Some people would interpret this to mean that God put a soul into the clay, but that word is also used for all the animals in creation, as in Genesis 1:24, “Let the earth bring forth every kind of living nephesh: cattle, creeping things, and wild beasts of every kind.” So either we make like the Hindus and believe that every dog, cat, and tapeworm has a soul or we are forced to call into question the central basic soul/body dichotomy which is so prevalent in our culture.
Genesis 2 gets it right; we are earthly creatures, physical creatures, and I mean “creature” in the literal sense of “that which has been created.” As I mentioned earlier, the word used for humanity in this passage, adam, is a variation on the word for soil, adamah. This word used to be translated as “man” or “mankind” and was later translated as “humanity,” but the most literal translation would be something more like “earth creatures.” As much as I love Origen, there’s no evidence here for the preexistence of souls.
Why does this matter? Ever since Descartes (or some might say, Aristotle), we’ve been taught to view pursuits of the mind and of the soul as higher than pursuits of the body. We’re taught that it’s what’s on the inside that counts, that sexuality is purely procreative and not spiritual, that only shallow people care about their appearances, and that people who work with their bodies should earn less than those who work with their minds.
And yet Genesis seems to tell us that we are our bodies. Suddenly the fact the average American spends 90% of his or her time indoors seems not only unnatural, but sinful. Suddenly obesity, alcoholism, and violence are not only physical problems, they are spiritual problems. Suddenly, taking care of our sisters and brothers with physical disabilities is a spiritual ministry.
Ultimately, it’s important to realize that divisions like “mind, body, and spirit” are completely artificial. All of those things make up who we are: our nephesh.
So at tomorrow’s Transmission, we’ll be celebrating creation and exegeting Genesis through movement, blessing the Lord with our entire integrated beings. Come join us in Sheep Meadow, 7pm.
2 Responses to “Creation Series #5”
I think Plato (rather than aristotle) would be more representative of the dichotomy between body and soulAristotle put an emphasis on matter, being, etc as being important and not altogether unspiritual, whereas Plato kind of popularized the split between the physical and spiritual. Also, in catholic theology, via St. Thomas Aquainas, not only animals, but also plants have souls as well…but St. Thomas sees the human soul as being distinct from both animal and plant souls, via human characteristics not found in the other two. Also, in Jewish theology, there is a soul, but the soul and body are not seperate in any way…Judaism wasn’t influenced as much in this particular case as was christianity towards platonic thought. So, they recognize a soul, but not as somehow different from the body, which has something to do with the Jewish emphasis on the here and now, as opposed to the christian emphasis on the afterlife.
“We must no more ask whether the soul and body are one than ask whether the wax and the figure impressed on it are one.” Aristotle
By AllenCKM on Jun 24, 2007
Wow, I had no idea about Aquinas thinking that animals and plants had souls - that’s really interesting. I mentioned this to a friend yesterday and her first response was, “Whoa, then what did he eat?” which I found pretty amusing.
Anyway, great, thought-provoking comments; I really can’t wait for you guys to move to New York. Peace!
By Isaac on Jun 27, 2007