We regard the trichotomous theory as untenable, not only for the reasons already urged in proof of the dichotomous theory, but from the following additional considerations:
(_a_) Πνεῦμα, as well as ψυχή, is used of the brute creation.
_Eccl. 3:21_—“_Who knoweth the spirit of man, whether it goeth_ [marg. “_that goeth_”] _upward, and the spirit of the beast, whether it goeth_ [marg. “_that goeth_”] _downward to the earth?_” _Rev. 16:3_—“_And the second poured out his bowl into the sea; and it became blood, as of a dead man; and every living soul died, even the things that were in the sea_” = the fish.
_Amos 6:8_—“_The Lord Jehovah hath sworn by himself_” (lit. “_by his soul_”) LXX _42:1_—“_my chosen in whom my soul delighteth_”; _Jer. 9:9_—“_Shall I not visit them for these things? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged?_” _Heb. 10:38_—“_my righteous one shall live by faith: And if he shrink back, my soul hath no pleasure in him._”
(_c_) The disembodied dead are called ψυχαί.
_Rev. 6:9_—“_I saw underneath the altar the souls of them that had been slain for the word of God_”; _cf._ _20:4_—“_souls of them that had been beheaded._”
(_d_) The highest exercises of religion are attributed to the ψυχή.
_Mark 12:30_—“_thou shalt love the Lord thy God ... with all thy soul_”; _Luke 1:46_—“_My soul doth magnify the Lord_”; _Heb. 6:18, 19_—“_the hope set before us: which we have as an anchor of the soul_”; _James 1:21_—“_the implanted word, which is able to save your souls._”
_Mark 8:36, 37_—“_For what doth it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life_ [or “_soul_,” ψυχή]? _For what should a man give in exchange for his life_ [or ‘_soul_,’ ψυχή]?”
(_f_) The passages chiefly relied upon as supporting trichotomy may be better explained upon the view already indicated, that soul and spirit are not two distinct substances or parts, but that they designate the immaterial principle from different points of view.
_1 Thess. 5:23_—“_may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire_” = not a scientific enumeration of the constituent parts of human nature, but a comprehensive sketch of that nature in its chief relations; compare _Mark 12:30_—“_thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength_”—where none would think of finding proof of a fourfold division of human nature. On _1 Thess. 5:23_, see Riggenbach (in Lange’s Com.), and Commentary of Prof. W. A. Stevens. _Heb. 4:12_—“_piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow_” = not the dividing of soul _from_ spirit, or of joints _from_ marrow, but rather the piercing of the soul and of the spirit, even to their very joints and marrow; _i. e._, to the very depths of the spiritual nature. On _Heb. 4:12_, see Ebrard (in Olshausen’s Com.), and Lünemann (in Meyer’s Com.); also Tholuck, Com. _in loco_. _Jude 19_—“_sensual, having not the Spirit_” (ψυχικοί, πνεῦμα μὴ ἔχοντες)—even though πνεῦμα = the human spirit, need not mean that there is no spirit existing, but only that the spirit is torpid and inoperative—as we say of a weak man: “he has no mind,” or of an unprincipled man: “he has no conscience”; so Alford; see Nitzsch, Christian Doctrine, 202. But πνεῦμα here probably = the divine πνεῦμα. Meyer takes this view, and the Revised Version capitalizes the word “_Spirit_.” See Goodwin, Soc. Bib. Exegesis, 1881:85—“The distinction between ψυχή and πνεῦμα is a _functional_, and not a _substantial_, distinction.” Moule, Outlines of Christian Doctrine, 161, 162—“Soul = spirit organized, inseparably linked with the body; spirit = man’s inner being considered as God’s gift. Soul = man’s inner being viewed as his own; spirit = man’s inner being viewed as from God. They are not separate elements.” See Lightfoot, Essay on St. Paul and Seneca, appended to his Com. on Philippians, on the influence of the ethical language of Stoicism on the N. T. writers. Martineau, Seat of Authority, 39—“The difference between man and his companion creatures on this earth is not that his instinctive life is less than theirs, for in truth it goes far beyond them; but that in him it acts in the presence and under the eye of other powers which transform it, and by giving to it vision as well as light take its blindness away. He is let into his own secrets.”