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m moved Soul sleep to Christian mortalism: Former name ("soul sleep") is somewhat ambiguous and somewhat pejorative, and insufficiently scholarly. Most works on the topic use the term "mortalism" or "Christian mortalism". The last term is least...
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Revision as of 20:05, 21 December 2010

Main article: Intermediate state

Soul sleep is an often pejorative term[1][2] for what in academic literature is now (since the 1970s) generally called by the more neutral term Christian mortalism[3][4][5][6][7][8][9] for the belief that the human soul is uncomprehending during the time between bodily death and Judgment Day resurrection. The term "soul-sleepers" was historically pejorative,[10] so the more neutral term materialists was also used in the 19th century.[11]

Historically the term psychopannychism was also used, despite problems with the etymology[12][13] and application[14] Some have identified a distinction between psychopannychism and thnetopsychism, for example Gordon Campbell (2008) identified Milton as believing in the latter[15] though in fact both De doctrina Christiana[16] and Paradise Lost[17] make reference to death as "sleep" and the dead being "raised from sleep". The difference is difficult to identify in practice.[18]

Etymology and terminology

Since the phrase "soul sleep" does not occur either in the Bible or in early Anabaptist materials, an explanation is required for the origin of the term. Additionally several other terms have been introduced relating to the view.

"Soul sleep"

The phrase soul sleep appears to have been popularised by John Calvin in the subtitle to his Latin tract Psychopannychia (manuscript Orléans 1534, Latin Strasbourg 1542, 2nd.ed. 1545, French, Geneva 1558, English 1581). The title of the booklet comes from Greek psyche (soul, mind) with pan-nychis (παν-νυχίς, all-night vigil, all-night banquet),[19][20] so Psychopannychia, originally, represents Calvin's view, the one he was defending; that the soul was conscious, active.

The title and subtitle of the 1542 Strasbourg 1st edition read:

They live to Christ and do not sleep those souls of the saints who die in faith of Christ. Assertion.[21][22]

The title and subtitle of the 1545 2nd Latin edition read:

Psychopannychia - Or a refutation of the error entertained by some unskillful persons, who ignorantly imagine that in the interval between death and the judgment the soul sleeps.[23]

The 1558 French edition was a translation of that of the 1545 2nd edition:

Psychopannychie - traitté par lequel est prouvé que les âmes veillent et vivent après qu'elles sont sorties des corps ; contre l'erreur de quelques ignorans qui pensent qu'elles dorment jusque au dernier jugement..

"Psychopannychism"

In the Latin it is clearer that Psychopannychia is actually the refutation of, the opposite of, the idea of soul sleep. The French version, Psychopannychie - La nuit ou le sommeil de l'âme ("Psychopannychia - the night or the sleep of the soul", Geneva 1558), may have may have caused the confusion that by -pannychis Calvin meant sleep (in Greek -hypnos not -pannychis, vigil).[24] The French subtitle "le sommeil de l'âme" was taken up in German as Seelenschlaf ("soul-sleep").[25] The tract first appeared in English, translated by T. Stocker, as An excellent treatise of the Immortalytie of the Soule by John Calvin (London, 1581).

Luther's use of similar language (but this time defending the view) appears in print only a few years after Calvin:

"so the soul after death enters its chamber and peace, and sleeping does not feel its sleep" (Commentary on Genesis - Enarrationes in Genesin, 1535-1545).[26]

"Thnetopsychism"

A possibly contrasting phrase is thnetopsychism (from Greek thnetos (mortal) + psyche (soul, mind)).[27] This phrase appears in the 1960s, in reference to the belief in death of the soul c.200AD.[28] In the 1960s also this phrase was applied also to the views of Tyndale, Luther and others engaged in mortal introspection, from awareness that Calvin's term Psychopannychia originally described his own belief, not the belief he was calling error[29] as well as in view of the Anabaptists, since their own writings held that the soul dies and the dead sleep. Their view is that the soul dies, with the body to be recalled to life at the resurrection of the dead, or that the soul is not separate from the body and so there is no "spiritual" self to survive bodily death. In both cases, the deceased does not begin to enjoy a reward or suffer a punishment until Judgment Day.

Immortality of the soul

The more common Christian belief about the intermediate state between death and Judgment Day is immortality of the soul followed immediately after death of the body by particular judgment. Most Protestants believe the soul is judged to go to heaven or hell immediately after death. In Catholicism most souls temporarily stay in purgatory (where Purgatory is the Latin translation of the Greek Hades found in the New Testament, and the Hebrew Sheol in the Old Testament) to be purified for heaven.(Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, 1030–1032) In Eastern Orthodoxy, the soul waits in the abode of the dead until the resurrection of the dead, the saved resting in light and the damned suffering in darkness.[30] According to James Tabor this Eastern Orthodox picture of particular judgment is similar to the 1st-century Jewish and early Christian[31] concept that the dead either "rest in peace" in the Bosom of Abraham or suffer in Hades. This view was also promoted by John Calvin in his treatise attacking "soul sleep".[32]

Historic proponents of the mortality of the soul

The mortality of the soul has been held throughout the history of both Judaism and Christianity.[33][34][35][36]

Judaism

Belief in an immortal soul going to bliss or torment after death entered mainstream Judaism after the exile[37] and existed throughout the Second Temple era, though both ‘soul sleep’ and ‘soul death’, were also held,[38][39][40]

Mortalism is present in certain Second Temple Period pseudepigraphal works,[41][42] later rabbinical works,[43][44] and among medieval era rabbis such as Isaac of Nineveh (d.700),[45]Abraham Ibn Ezra (1092–1167),[46] Maimonides (1135–1204),[47] and Joseph Albo (1380–1444).[48]

Some authorities within Conservative Judaism, notably Neil Gillman, also support the notion that the souls of the dead are unconscious until the Resurrection.[49]

Christian views

Second to eighth centuries

Some Syriac writers such as Aphrahat , Ephrem and Narsai believed in the dormition, or "sleep", of the soul, in which "souls of the dead are largely inert, having lapsed into a state of sleep, in which they can only dream of their future reward or punishments."[50] Variations of thnetopsychism (‘soul death’) and hypnopsychism (‘soul sleep’) "existed alongside the views of the official church until the sixth century when they were resoundingly denounced by Eustratios."[51] The issue was connected to the that of the Intercession of saints. Contas notes that John the Deacon attacked those who "dare to say that praying to the saints is like shouting in the ears of the deaf, as if they had drunk from the mythical waters of Oblivion."[51]

Ninth to sixteenth centuries

After a brief hiatus, mortalism emerged in Christianity during the Late Middle Ages, and was promoted by some Reformation as well as some minor Protestant denominations.[52][53] Conti has argued that during the Reformation both psychosomnolence (the belief that the soul sleeps until the resurrection) and thnetopsychism (the belief that the body and soul both die and then both rise again) were quite common.[54]

William Tyndale argued against Thomas More in favour of soul sleep:

And ye, in putting them [the departed souls] in heaven, hell and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection...And again, if the souls be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good a case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of the resurrection?"[55][56]

Morey suggests that William Tyndale (1494-1536) and John Wycliffe (1320-1384) taught the doctrine of soul sleep "as the answer to the Catholic teachings of purgatory and masses for the dead."[57]

Many Anabaptists in this period, such as Michael Sattler (1490-1527),[58][59] were Christian mortalists.[60]

However, the best known advocate of soul sleep was Martin Luther (1483-1546).[61] In writing on Ecclesiastes, Luther says

Salomon judgeth that the dead are a sleepe, and feele nothing at all. For the dead lye there accompting neyther dayes nor yeares, but when they are awoken, they shall seeme to have slept scarce one minute.[62]

Elsewhere Luther states that

As soon as thy eyes have closed shalt thou be woken, a thousand years shall be as if thou hadst slept but a little half hour. Just as at night we hear the clock strike and know not how long we have slept, so too, and how much more, are in death a thousand years soon past. Before a man should turn round, he is already a fair angel.[63]

John Polkinghorne and Michael Welker conclude from this that "Luther conceived the state of the dead as a deep, dreamless sleep, removed from time and space, without consciousness and without feeling."[64] That Luther believed in soul sleep, at least at one stage, is also the view of Watts,[65] Ellingsen,[66] Hindson,[67] and Gbnenu.[68]

Gottfried Fritschel (1867) noted that quotes from Luther's Latin works had occasionally been misread in Latin or in German translation to contradict or qualify specific statements, and Luther's overall teaching that the sleep of the dead was unconscious:[69] These readings can still be found in some English sources.[70][71]

The two most frequently cited passages are:

  • "It is certain that to this day Abraham is serving God, just as Abel, Noah are serving God. And this we should carefully note; for it is divine truth that Abraham is living, serving God, and ruling with Him. But what sort of life that may be, whether he is asleep or awake, is another question. How the soul is resting we are not to know, but it is certain that it is living." [72]
  • "A man tired with his daily labour...sleeps. But his soul does not sleep (Anima autem non sic dormit) but is awake (sed vigilat). It experiences visions and the discourses of the angels and of God. Therefore the sleep in the future life is deeper than it is in this life. Nevertheless, the soul lives to God. This is the likeness to the sleep of life."[73][74]

Others included Camillo Renato (1540)[75] Mátyás Dévai Bíró (1500-1545)[76] Michael Servetus (1511-1553)[77] Laelio Sozzini (1562)[78] Fausto Sozzini (1563)[79] the Polish Brethren (1565 onwards)[80] Dirk Philips (1504-1568)[81] Gregory Paul of Brzezin (1568)[82] the Socinians (1570-1800)[83] John Frith (1573)[84] George Schomann (1574)[85] Simon Budny (1576)[86]

Seventeenth to eighteenth centuries

Soul sleep was a significant minority view from the eighth to the seventeenth centuries,[87] and soul death became increasingly common from the Reformation onwards.[88]

Soul sleep has been called a "major current of seventeenth century protestant ideology."[89] John Milton wrote in his unpublished De Doctrina Christiana,

Inasmuch then as the whole man is uniformly said to consist of body, and soul (whatever may be the distinct provinces assigned to these divisions), I will show, that in death, first, the whole man, and secondly, each component part, suffers privation of life.[90]

Gordon Campbell (2008) identifies Milton's views as "thnetopsychism", a belief that the soul dies with the body but is resurrected at the last judgment.[91] however Milton speaks also of the dead as "asleep".[92]

Those holding this view include: 1600s: Sussex Baptists[93] d. 1612: Edward Wightman[94] 1627: Samuel Gardner[95] 1628: Samuel Przypkowski[96] 1636: George Wither[97] 1637: Joachim Stegmann[98] 1624: Richard Overton[99] 1654: John Biddle (Unitarian)[100] 1655: Matthew Caffyn[101] 1658: Samuel Richardson[102] 1608-1674: John Milton[103][104] 1588-1670: Thomas Hobbes[105] 1605-1682: Thomas Browne[106] 1622-1705: Henry Layton[107] 1702: William Coward[108] 1632-1704: John Locke[109] 1643-1727: Isaac Newton[110] 1676-1748: Pietro Giannone[111] 1751: William Kenrick[112] 1755: Edmund Law[113] 1759: Samuel Bourn[114] 1723-1791: Richard Price[115] 1718-1797: Peter Peckard[116] 1733-1804: Joseph Priestley[117] Francis Blackburne (1765)[118] (1765).

Nineteenth to twentieth centuries

Belief in conditional immortality and the annihilation of the unsaved became increasingly common during the nineteenth century,[119][120]][121] entering mainstream Christianity in the twentieth century.[122][123] From this point it is possible to speak in terms of entire groups holding the belief, and only the most prominent individual nineteenth century advocates of the doctrine will be mentioned here.

Others include: 1833: Millerites[124] 1846: Edward White[125] 1855: Thomas Thayer[126] d.1863: François Gaussen[127] 1865: Christadelphians[128] 1873: Henry Constable[129] d. 1878: Louis Burnier[130] 1878: Conditionalist Association[131] 1888: Cameron Mann[132] 1895: Miles Grant[133] 1897: George Gabriel Stokes[134]

Modern Christian groups

Present-day defenders of mortalism include many Anglicans, such as N. T. Wright and Nicky Gumbel, some Lutherans, the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Christadelphians, the Church of God (Seventh Day), the Church of God Abrahamic Faith, and various other Church of God organizations including most Related Denominations which adhered to the older teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God and the Bible Student movement.

Jehovah's Witnesses also teach a form of mortalism[135] but represent a special case since 144,000 either were raised to received "immortality" in heaven in 1918, or since 1918 upon death,[136] while others are raised to receive "eternal life" on earth as conventional mortalist belief.[137]

Opponents

Opponents of psychopannychism and thnetopsychism include the Roman Catholic Church, most mainline Protestant denominations, and most conservative Protestants, Evangelicals, and Fundamentalists.

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church has called soul "mortality" a serious heresy.

Whereas some have dared to assert concerning the nature of the reasonable soul that it is mortal, we, with the approbation of the sacred council do condemn and reprobate all those who assert that the intellectual soul is mortal, seeing, according to the canon of Pope Clement V, that the soul is [...] immortal [...] and we decree that all who adhere to like erroneous assertions shall be shunned and punished as heretics. Fifth Council of the Lateran (1513)

Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church affirms a conscious interim state, denying that the interim state of rest or suffering is the final state of 'heaven' or 'hell'.

Reformed opponents

Modern scholarship

A scholarly consensus has been reached that the canonical teaching of the Old Testament is unconsciousness subsequent to death, until resurrection.[138][139][140][141][142][143][144][145] Furthermore, the majority of standard scholarly Jewish and Christian sources today describe the Biblical view of the state of the dead in terms identical or very close to the mortalist view.[146][147][148][149][150][151][152][153][154][155]

References

  1. ^ Wulfert De Greef The writings of John Calvin: an introductory guide‎ 2008 - Page 152 "In the foreword of 1534, Calvin says that at the insistence of friends he had given in to the request to dispute the "heresy of soul sleep."
  2. ^ The term is also common in the works of the Trinitarian Christian countercult movement e.g. the Calvinist Anthony A. Hoekema The four major cults: Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism Seventh-Day Adventism 1963 - Page 136 and Walter Ralston Martin The truth about Seventh-Day Adventism‎ 1960 Page 117
  3. ^ e.g. Norman T. Burns Christian mortalism from Tyndale to Milton‎ 1972 etc.
  4. ^ Jürgen Overhoff Hobbes's theory of the will p 193 2000 "The term "Christian mortalism," which I have borrowed from the title of Norman T. Burns's masterly book on that topic "
  5. ^ The Mennonite quarterly review Goshen College - 1969 -The tradition of Christian mortalism
  6. ^ Mark Johnston Surviving Death 2010 p24 "The same dynamic can be found in John Milton's Christian Doctrine, another spirited defense of Christian mortalism.
  7. ^ Douglas Kries Piety and humanity: essays on religion and early modern political 2001 p1997 "Christian mortalism is thus a convenient "middle ground," which, by not departing wholly from possibly genuine ... The advantage Hobbes's change to Christian mortalism appears to bring to his teaching is that it attenuates the cord that ..."
  8. ^ Leonard Napoleon Wright Christian mortalism in England (1643-1713) 1939
  9. ^ James E. Force, Richard Henry Popkin The books of nature and Scripture: recent essays on natural Philosophy, Theology, and Biblical Criticism in the Netherlands 1994 p.xvii "Force then goes on to show how Newton's Christian mortalism fits with Newton's core voluntarism, ie, his essentially ... Force finds Newton's adoption of Christian mortalism clearly stated in Newton's manuscript entitled "Paradoxical ..."
  10. ^ The Rainbow, a magazine of Christian literature‎ 1879 p523: "the term "soul-sleeper" is used today only as a term of reproach"
  11. ^ Rev. James Gardner The faiths of the world: an account of all religions and religious sects 1858 p860 "SOUL-SLEEPERS, a term sometimes applied to MATERIALISTS (which see), because they admit no intermediate state between death and the resurrection."
  12. ^ pannychis in Greek means an all night party, e.g. Robert Parker Polytheism and Society at Athens‎ 2007 p166 "The mood of a pannychis was often one of gaiety, but this was also a form of religious action.. The pannychis was marked, according to one charming definition, by 'la bonne humeure efficace' (Borgeaud)"
  13. ^ The term pannychis is used correctly in the classical Greek sense in Calvin's original Latin publication Psychopannychia.
  14. ^ George Huntston Williams The Radical Reformation‎ 1962 p581 "It will be recalled that we have allowed the etymologically ambiguous word "psychopannychism" to serve as the generic term for the two variants "soul sleep".. "
  15. ^ Milton and the manuscript of De doctrina Christiana by Gordon Campbell, Thomas N. Corns, John K. Hale, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-19-929649-9, 9780199296491, page 117, "The belief that the soul dies with the body but is resurrected at the last judgment is known as thnetopsychism; the belief that the soul sleeps from the moment of death until the last judgment is known as psychopannychism"
  16. ^ citing 1Thess4:17 etc.
  17. ^ "such a peal shall rouse their sleep"
  18. ^ Milton Studies, Volume 45 by Albert C. Labriola, Univ of Pittsburgh Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8229-4267-4, 9780822942672, page 17, "Milton tends to espouse the variation of vital introspection known as Thnetopsychism, which holds that the body and soul die, though certain passages in De Doctrina Christiana seem to support the alternative type, Psychopannychism, which states that soul and body merely sleep until the Last Day."
  19. ^ Liddle Scott Lexicon entry night-festival, vigil.
  20. ^ Barth K. The theology of John Calvin 1995 p161
  21. ^ Vivere apud Christum non dormire animis sanctos qui in fide Christi decedunt. Assertio.
  22. ^ Wulfert de Greef. The writings of John Calvin: an introductory guide p152
  23. ^ Psychopannychia - qua refellitur quorundam imperitorum error qui animas post mortem usque ad ultimum iudicium dormire putant.
  24. ^ Jean Henri Merle d'Aubigné. Histoire de la réformation en Europe au temps de Calvin
  25. ^ Ernst Staehelin ed. Johannes Calvin: Leben und ausgewählte Schriften, Volume 1‎ 1863 p 36
  26. ^ "sic anima post mortem intrat suum cubiculum et pacem et dormiens non sentit suum somnum" M.Luther Exegetica opera Latina Vol.5&6 p.120 Elsberger edition 1830.
  27. ^ Donald K. McKim Westminster dictionary of theological terms
  28. ^ Ludwig Ott Fundamentals of Catholic dogma‎ 1964 p98 "The doctrine of the death of the soul (Thnetopsychism)... Origen defends it against Thnetopsychism which was widely current in Arabia."
  29. ^ George Huntston Williams The Radical Reformation‎ 1962 p582 "to designate both the doctrine of the death of the soul (Thnetopsychism) and the unconscious sleep of the soul"
  30. ^ "Because some have a prevision of the glory to come and others foretaste their suffering, the state of waiting is called 'Particular Judgment'" What Are the Differences between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism?, 11
  31. ^ "Several places in the New Testament we clearly find the notion that the dead are conscious, dwelling somewhere in the heavenly realms beyond, and awaiting, either in torment or comfort, the final judgment (Luke 16:19–31, 23:43; 1 Pet. 3:18–20; 4:6; Rev. 6:9–1 l; 7:9–12)." James Tabor What the Bible Says About Death, Afterlife, and the Future
  32. ^ a b "As long as (the soul) is in the body it exerts its own powers; but when it quits this prison-house it returns to God, whose presence, it meanwhile enjoys while it rests in the hope of a blessed Resurrection. This rest is its paradise. On the other hand, the spirit of the reprobate, while it waits for the dreadful judgment, is tortured by that anticipation. . .", John Calvin, Psychopannychia, @ lgmarshall.org
  33. ^ 'In the first place, there have not been a few, both in ancient and modern times, who have maintained the truth of a "Conditional Immortality".', McConnell, ‘The Evolution of Immortality’, p. 84 (1901).
  34. ^ 'At the same time there have always been isolated voices raised in support of other views. There are hints of a belief in repentance after death, as well as conditional immortality and annihilationism.', Streeter, et al., ‘Immortality: An Essay in Discovery, Co-Ordinating Scientific, Psychical, and Biblical Research’, p. 204 (1917)
  35. ^ 'Many biblical scholars down throughout history, looking at the issue through Hebrew rather than Greek eyes, have denied the teaching of innate immortality.’, Knight, 'A brief history of Seventh-Day Adventists', p. 42 (1999)
  36. ^ 'Various concepts of conditional immortality or annihilationism have appeared earlier in Baptist history as well. Several examples illustrate this claim. General as well as particular Baptists developed versions of annihilationism or conditional immortality.’, Pool, ‘Against returning to Egypt: Exposing and Resisting Credalism in the Southern Baptist Convention’, p. 133 (1998)
  37. ^ ‘A second doctrine of the afterlife enters Judaism not in the Bible itself but in the intertestamental period, i.e., the first century B.C.E.-first century C.E. This doctrine teaches that every human being is a composite of two entities, a material body and a non-material soul; that the soul pre-exists the body and departs from the body at death; that, though the body disintegrates in the grave, the soul, by its very nature, is indestructible; and that it continues to exist for eternity. Not even a hint of this dualistic view of the human being appears in the Bible.’, Gillman, ‘Death and Afterlife, Judaic Doctrines Of’, in Jacob Neusner, ‘The Encyclopedia of Judaism’, volume 1, p. 200 (2000)
  38. ^ ‘As good creational monotheists, mainline Jews were not hoping to escape from the present universe into some Platonic realm of eternal bliss enjoyed by disembodied souls after the end of the space-time universe. If they died in the fight for the restoration of Israel, they hoped not to ‘go to heaven’, or at least not permanently, but to be raised to new bodies when the kingdom came, since they would of course need new bodies to enjoy the very much this-worldly shalom, peace and prosperity that was in store.’, N. T. Wright, ‘The New Testament and the People of God’, p. 286
  39. ^ ‘Some sages believed that the soul remains quiescent, with those of the righteous “hidden under the Throne of Glory”; others viewed the souls of the dead as having full consciousness.’, Eisenberg, ‘The JPS Guide to Jewish Traditions’, p. 116 (1st ed. 2004)
  40. ^ ‘Two independent doctrines of the afterlife for the individual emerged in Judaism, probably during the last two centuries B.C.E.: the doctrine of the resurrection of bodies and that of the immortality of souls. In time (probably the first century C.E.), these two doctrines became conflated so as to yield the theory that, at the end of days, God will resurrect dead bodies, rejoin them with their souls, which never died, and the individual human being, reconstituted as he or she existed on earth, will come before God in judgment.’, Gillman, ‘Death and Afterlife, Judaic Doctrines Of’, in Neusner, ‘The Encyclopedia of Judaism’, volume 1, p. 196 (2000)
  41. ^ 'However, Strack and Billerbeck, noted authorities on Rabbinic literature, suggest that the pseudepigraphal references to eternal punishment simply denote everlasting annihilation. See Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch (Munchen: C.H. Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Oskar Beck, 1928), 2:1096.', Fudge, ‘The Old Testament’, in Fudge & Peterson, ‘Two views of hell: a biblical & theological dialogue’, p. 210 (2000)
  42. ^ 'Psalms of Solomon 3:11-12; Sybilline Oracles 4:175-85; 4 Ezra 7:61; Pseudo-Philo 16:3. Other presumed annihilation texts may be found in Fudge, The Fire That Consumes, 125-54’, Walvoord, ‘The Metaphorical View’, in Crockett & Hayes (eds.), ‘Four Views on Hell’, p. 64 (1997)
  43. ^ ‘Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish as well as his colleague Rabbi Yannai, said that there is no such thing as the popular concept of a hell, gehinnom, lasting a long time, but that at the time when G'd passes out judgment the wicked will be burned’, Chananel, et al., 'Hut ha-meshulash', p. 183 (2003)
  44. ^ ‘Thus we have one Rabbi denying the very existence of hell. "There is no hell in the future world," says R. Simon ben Lakish.’, Darmesteter, ‘The Talmud’, p. 52 (2007)
  45. ^ '"Isaac," too, is convinced that the final reward and punishment for human deeds awaits the resurrection (e.g., Bedjan 724.4 from bottom). Then those who died in "peace and quiet" with the lord will find eternal peace (Bedjan 276.15), while sinners will be banished to a darkness far away from God (Bedjan 117f.). Gehenna, the kingdom of the demons (Bedjan 203.4 from bottom), is a place of fire, and on the day of judgment this fire will burst forth from the bodies of the damned (Bedjan 73.4.; 118.3-7). Until the resurrection, the dead must wait in Sheol, which the author seems to imagine as a collective grave (Bedjan 366.3 from bottom; 368.5; 369.4). Some passages in the corpus suggest that the dead continue to act, in Sheol, as they have during life (e.g., Bedjan 90.13; 366.10-18). Others declare that action for good or ill is no longer possible after death (e.g., Bedjan 392.4 from bottom), and even envisage Sheol, before the judgment, as a place of fire ruled over by Satan (Bedjan 93.4f.).', Daley, ‘The hope of the early church: a handbook of patristic eschatology’, pp. 174-175 (1991)
  46. ^ 'But Ibn Ezra held that the souls of the wicked perish with their bodies.', Davidson, ‘The Doctrine of Last Things Contained in the New Testament, Compared With Notions of the Jews and the Statements of Church Creeds’, p. 139 (1882)
  47. ^ 'Maimonides claims that since the greatest punishment would be to lose one's immortal soul, the souls of the wicked are destroyed along with their bodies.', Rudavsky, 'Maimonides', p. 105 (2010)
  48. ^ ‘Maimonides’ views are reasserted by Joseph Albo (1380–1444) in his Book of Principles.’, ibid., p. 206.
  49. ^ Gillman, Neil. The Death of Death: Resurrection and Immortality in Jewish Thought. Jewish Lights, 1997
  50. ^ Contas, Nicholas (2001). Talbot, Alice-Mary (ed.). "To Sleep, Perchance to Dream": The Middle State of Souls in Patristic and Byzantine Literature" (PDF). Dumbarton Oaks Papers. 55: 92–124. Retrieved 28 November 2010.
  51. ^ a b Constas, p. 111.
  52. ^ 'Mortalism, in some form or other, had been around quite a while before the seventeenth century.’, Brandon, 'The coherence of Hobbes's Leviathan: civil and religious authority combined', p. 65 (2007)
  53. ^ ‘The status of the dead was among the most divisive issues of the early Reformation; it was also arguably the theological terrain over which in the reign of Henry VIII official reform travelled furthest and fastest.’, Marshall, ‘Beliefs and the Dead in Reformation England’, p. 47 (2002)
  54. ^ Conti, 'Religio Medici's Profession of Faith', in Barbour & Preston (eds.), Sir Thomas Browne: the world proposed, p. 157 (2008)
  55. ^ William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue (1530)
  56. ^ Watts, ‘The Dissenters: From the Reformation to the French Revolution’, p. 119 (1985)
  57. ^ Robert A. Morey, Death and the Afterlife (1984), p. 200.
  58. ^ Williams, Petersen, & Pater (eds.), ‘The contentious triangle: church, state, and university: a festschrift in in Honor of Professor George Huntston Williams’, Sixteenth Century Essays and Studies, volume 2, p. (1999)
  59. ^ Snyder, The life and thought of Michael Sattler’, p. 130 (1984)
  60. ^ Finger, ‘A contemporary Anabaptist theology: biblical, historical, constructive’, p. 42 (2004)
  61. ^ Froom, ‘The Conditionalist Faith Of Our Fathers’, volume 2, p. 74 (1966)
  62. ^ Martin Luther, An Exposition of Salomon's Booke, called Ecclesiastes or the Preacher (translation 1573)
  63. ^ Martin Luther, WA 37.191.
  64. ^ John Polkinghorne and Michael Welker, The end of the world and the ends of God: science and theology on eschatology (2000), p. 348.
  65. ^ "‘The belief that the soul goes to sleep at the death of the body to await eventual resurrection was held by both Martin Luther and William Tyndale", Watts, "The Dissenters: From the Reformation to the French Revolution", p. 119 (1985).
  66. ^ "Luther's more characteristic view, however, was to conceive of death as sleep — as a kind of "soul sleep" (Letter to Hans Luther, in LW 49:270). The Reformer tried to take into account those New Testament texts suggesting that the dead have an active life with God (Luke 16:22ff.; Rev. 4-5); consequently, he claimed that in the sleep of death the soul experiences visions and the discourses of God. It sleeps in the bosom of Christ, as a mother brings an infant into a crib. The time flies in this sleep, just as an evening passes in an instant as we sleep soundly (Lectures on Genesis, in LW 4:313)."", Ellingsen, "Reclaiming Our Roots: Martin Luther to Martin Luther King", p. 64 (1999).
  67. ^ "In church history, adherents of soul-sleep have included orthodox believers such as Martin Luther (at one stage in his life) and many Anabaptists, and heretical groups such as Jehovah Witnesses.", Hindson, et al, "The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics: Surveying the Evidence", p. 166 (2008).
  68. ^ "Tyndale, Wycliffe and Luther all wrote to support the idea of soul sleep, although Luther changed his mind slightly later.", Gbenu, "Back to Hell", p. 118 (2003).
  69. ^ Gottfried Fritschel in Zeitschrift für die gesammte lutherische Theologie und Kirche "Denn dass Luther mit den Worten "anima non sic dormit, sed vigilat et patitur visiones, loquelas Angelorum et Dei" nicht dasjenige leugnen will, was er an allen andern Stellen seiner Schriften vortragt" in p657
  70. ^ e.g. Mark Ellingsen, Reclaiming Our Roots: Martin Luther to Martin Luther King (1999), p. 64.: where the author claims that "consequently, he claimed that in the sleep of death the soul experiences visions and the discourses of God. It sleeps in the bosom of Christ, as a mother brings an infant into a crib. The time flies in this sleep, just as an evening passes in an instant as we sleep soundly (Lectures on Genesis, in LW 4:313)" but no edition is cited, and Luthers Werke 4:313 does not say this.
  71. ^ Harold A. Schewe What Happens to the Soul After Death? Western Conference Pastoral Conference, McIntosh, South Dakota, October 3, 1978
  72. ^ Ewald Plass - translation of (Weimarer Ausgabe 43, 480 — E op ex 6, 329 — SL 2, 216) Ewald M. Plass, What Luther Says - An Anthology, Vol. 1. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1950.
  73. ^ "Differunt tamen somnus sive quies hujus vitae et futurae. Homon enim in hac vita defatigatus diurno labore, sub noctem intrat in cubiculum suum tanquam in pace, ut ibi dormiat, et ea nocte fruitur quiete, neque quicquam scit de ullo malo sive incendii, sive caedis. Anima autem non sic dormit, sed vigilat, et patitur visiones loquelas Angelorum et Dei. Ideo somnus in futura vita profundior est quam in hac vita et tamen anima coram Deo vivit. Hac similitudine, quam habeo a somno viventia." Exegetica opera Latina, Volumes 5-6 By Martin Luther, Christopf Stephan Elsperger (Gottlieb) p120
  74. ^ J Pelikan, ed., Luther's Works, Vol. 4. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1964. p. 313.
  75. ^ Simmonds, ‘Milton Studies’, volume 8, p. 193 (1975)
  76. ^ Vauchez, ‘The History of Conditionalism’, Andrews University Seminary Studies (4.2. 198-199), 1966
  77. ^ ibid., p. 115
  78. ^ Ball, ‘The Soul Sleepers: Christian Mortalism from Wycliffe to Priestley’, p. 36 (2008)
  79. ^ 'Ibid., p. 37 (2008)
  80. ^ Snobelen, ‘Revelation and Reason: The Development, Rationalization and Influence of Socinianism’, honors thesis, p. 46 (1993)
  81. ^ Finger, ‘A contemporary Anabaptist theology: biblical, historical, constructive’, p. 536 (2004)
  82. ^ Williams, 'The Radical Reformation', p. 739 (1962)
  83. ^ Jolley, ‘The relation between theology and philosophy’, in Garber & Ayres (eds.), ‘The Cambridge history of seventeenth-century philosophy’, volume 1, p. 383 (2003)
  84. ^ Marshall, ‘Beliefs and the dead in Reformation England’, p. 223 (2002)
  85. ^ Snobelen, ‘Revelation and Reason: The Development, Rationalization and Influence of Socinianism’, honors thesis, p. 34 (1993)
  86. ^ Ball, ‘The Soul Sleepers: Christian Mortalism from Wycliffe to Priestley’, p. 37 (2008)
  87. ^ ‘Harold Fisch calls it 'a major current of seventeenth century protestant ideology'.', Thomson, ‘Bodies of thought: science, religion, and the soul in the early Enlightenment’, p. 42 (2008)
  88. ^ 'Mortalism, in some form or other, had been around quite a while before the seventeenth century, but for our purposes we can begin to investigate mortalism as it appeared at the time of the Reformation.’, Brandon, 'The coherence of Hobbes's Leviathan: civil and religious authority combined', p. 65 (2007)
  89. ^ Harold Fisch, cited in Thomson, Bodies of thought: science, religion, and the soul in the early Enlightenment, p. 42 (2008).
  90. ^ John Milton, A Treatise on Christian Doctrine: Compiled from the Holy Scriptures Alone, p. 280.
  91. ^ Milton and the manuscript of De doctrina Christiana by Gordon Campbell, Thomas N. Corns, John K. Hale, Oxford University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-19-929649-9, 9780199296491, page 117.
  92. ^ De Doctrina Christiana citing 1Thess 4:17, Daniel 12:2 etc.
  93. ^ Burrell, ‘The role of religion in modern European history’, p. 74 (1964)
  94. ^ Vedder, ‘A Short History of the Baptists’, p. 197 (1907)
  95. ^ Marshall, ‘Beliefs and the dead in Reformation England’, p. 213 (2002)
  96. ^ Snobelen, ‘Revelation and Reason: The Development, Rationalization and Influence of Socinianism’, honors thesis, p. 54 (1993)
  97. ^ Ball, 'The Soul Sleepers: Christian Mortalism from Wycliffe to Priestley', p. 73 (2008)
  98. ^ Méchoulan (ed.), ‘La formazione storica della alterità: studi di storia della tolleranza nell'età moderna offerti a Antonio Rotondò’, Secolo XVI, p. 1221 (2001)
  99. ^ Watts, ‘The Dissenters: From the Reformation to the French Revolution’, p. 119 (1985)
  100. ^ Young, ‘F. D. Maurice and Unitarianism’, p. 249 (1992)
  101. ^ Froom, ‘The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers’, volume 2, p. 144 (1966)
  102. ^ Richardson, ‘A discourse of the torments of hell: The foundation and pillars thereof discovered, searched, shaken and removed. With many infallible proofs, that there is not to be a punishment after this life for any to endure that shall never end’ (1658)
  103. ^ "Inasmuch then as the whole man is uniformly said to consist of body, and soul (whatever may be the distinct provinces assigned to these divisions), I will show, that in death, first, the whole man, and secondly, each component part, suffers privation of life...The grave is the common guardian of all till the day of judgment." — John Milton, De Doctrina Christiana (never published)
  104. ^ Lewalski, ‘The life of John Milton: a critical biography’, p. 431 (2002)
  105. ^ Jolley, ‘The relation between theology and philosophy’, in Garber & Ayres (eds.), ‘The Cambridge history of seventeenth-century philosophy’, volume 1, p. 383 (2003)
  106. ^ Brandon, 'The coherence of Hobbes's Leviathan: civil and religious authority combined', p. 66 (2007).
  107. ^ Almond, ‘Heaven and Hell in Enlightenment England’, p. 62 (1994)
  108. ^ Ibid., p. 62
  109. ^ Nuvo (ed.), ‘John Locke: Writings on Religion’, p. xxxiii (2002)
  110. ^ Wood, 'Science and dissent in England, 1688-1945', p. 50 (2004)
  111. ^ Suttcliffe, ‘Judaism and Enlightenment’, p. 207 (2005)
  112. ^ Johns, ‘Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars from Gutenberg to Gates’, p. 141 (2010)
  113. ^ Outler, ‘John Wesley: Folk-Theologian’, Theology Today (34.2.154), 1977
  114. ^ Buck, ‘A theological dictionary: containing definitions of all religious terms’, p. 115 (1823)
  115. ^ Stephen, 'History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century', p. 429 (1901)
  116. ^ Ingram, ‘Religion, reform and modernity in the eighteenth century: Thomas Secker and the Church of England’, Studies in Modern British Religious History, p. 101 (2007)
  117. ^ Priestley, ‘A free discussion of the doctrine of materialism, and philosophical necessity’, p. 82 (1778)
  118. ^ Blackburne, ‘A short historical view of the controversy concerning an intermediate state and the separate existence of the soul between death and the general resurrection, deduced from the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, to the present times’ (1765)
  119. ^ ‘It emerged seriously in English-language theology in the late 19th century’, Johnston, ‘Hell’, in Alexander & Rosner (eds.), ‘New dictionary of biblical theology’ (electronic ed. 2001).
  120. ^ ‘Yet many abandonments of the traditional view are to be noted, including F. W. Newman (the Cardinal’s brother who took refuge in Unitarianism), S. T. Coleridge, Thomas Erskine of Linlathen, F. W. Robertson of Brighton, F. D. Maurice, Bishop Colenso of Natal, T. R. Birks of the Evangelical Alliance, Andrew Jukes, Samuel Cox, and others who took up the cudgel for conditional immortality like the redoubtable R. W. Dale of Birmingham and F. J. Delitzsch of Leipzig.72 Dale himself indicated he was drawn to Moody because of Moody’s great compassion for the lost, but ultimately he came to deny everlasting punishment. The defections were on the other side of the Atlantic also and included such a household name as the Quaker writer and preacher, Hannah Whitall Smith, whose The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life was so popular.’, Larsen, ‘Heaven and Hell in the Preaching of the Gospel: A Historical Survey’ Trinity Journal (22.2.255-256), 2001.
  121. ^ ‘In the 1900s, the United States saw a minimal emergence of annihilationism, primarily in new fringe groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh-Day Adventists. But during that century England saw the rise of several books defending this doctrine, such as Archbishop of Durham Richard Wately's A View of the Scripture Revelations Concerning a Future State (1892), Congregationalist Edward White's LIfe in Christ (1846), English Baptist Henry Dobney's The Scripture Doctrine of Future Punishment (1858), and Anglican priest Henry Constable's Duration and Nature of Future Punishment (1868).’ , Morgan & Peterson, 'Hell Under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents Eternal Punishment', p. 197 (2004)
  122. ^ 'In Germany Richard Rothe, in France and Switzerland Charles Lambert, Charles Byse, and E. Petavel, in Italy Oscar Corcoda, and in America C.F. Hudson and W.F. Huntington have been prominent advocates of conditionalist views, and have won many adherents. Thus Conditionalism has at length, in the 20th cent., taken its place among those eschatological theories which are to be reckoned with.', Fulford, 'Conditional Immortality', in Hastings & Selbie, 'Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics', volume 3, p. 824 (1908)
  123. ^ ‘R. A. Torrey, H. A. Ironside, Paul Rood, John R. Rice, Robert G. Lee, and many others preached on heaven and hell, but they were a vanishing breed.’, Larsen, ‘Heaven and Hell in the Preaching of the Gospel: A Historical Survey’ Trinity Journal (22.2.257), 2001
  124. ^ The original group following the teachings of William Miller, who began preaching his distinctive beliefs in 1833; Miller himself did not believe in conditional immortality, but it was one of a number of beliefs held among the group.
  125. ^ Wilson, ‘STOKES, George Gabriel’, Bebbington & Noll (eds.), ‘Biographical dictionary of evangelicals’, p. 633 (2003)
  126. ^ Thomas Baldwin Thayer, ‘The Origin and History of the Doctrine of Endless Punishment’ (1855); no relation to Joseph Henry Thayer lexicographer
  127. ^ Vauchez, ‘The History of Conditionalism’, Andrews University Seminary Studies, volumes 4-5, pp. 199-200 (1966)
  128. ^ Thomas, ‘Tour in the United States and Canada.—Letter from Dr. Thomas’, The Christadelphian (2.7.105), 1865
  129. ^ Constable, ‘The Intermediate State of Man’, p. 88 (1873)
  130. ^ Vauchez, ‘The History of Conditionalism’, Andrews University Seminary Studies, volumes 4-5, p. 199 (1966)
  131. ^ Pool, ‘Against returning to Egypt: Exposing and Resisting Credalism in the Southern Baptist Convention’, p. 134 (1998)
  132. ^ Mann, ‘Five Discourses On Future Punishment’ (1888)
  133. ^ Grant, ‘Positive Theology’ (1895)
  134. ^ Wilson, ‘STOKES, George Gabriel’, Bebbington & Noll (eds.), ‘Biographical dictionary of evangelicals’, p. 633 (2003)
  135. ^ "Not even one part of us survives the death of the body. We do not possess an immortal soul or spirit." online "Where Are the Dead?", What Does the Bible Really Teach?, Watch Tower, 2008.
  136. ^ "The Mystery Solved!", Awake!, ©Watch Tower, July 8, 1988, page 8, "Nowhere in the Bible do we read of an “immortal soul.” The two words are never linked. The words “immortal” and “immortality” occur only six times, all in the writings of the apostle Paul. When applying to humans, immortality is described as a prize to be given only to the 144,000, who are redeemed from the earth to reign with Christ Jesus in heaven."
  137. ^ "Letters", The Watchtower, January 15, 1950, page 32, "The Watchtower maintains its position that immortality will not be bestowed upon faithful men and women on earth in the new world, but only everlasting life for their loyalty and unbreakable devotion will be given them as a reward. They will always be fleshly mortals. Only the faithful church [of 144,000] taken from among men will be immortal with their Head and Savior Jesus Christ, who is in heaven."[added]
  138. ^ 'Twentieth century biblical scholarship largely agrees that the ancient Jews had little explicit notion of a personal afterlife until very late in the Old Testament period. Immortality of the soul was a typically Greek philosophical notion quite foreign to the thought of ancient Semitic peoples. Only the latest stratum of the Old Testament asserts even the resurrection of the body, a view more congenial to Semites.', Donelley, 'Calvinism and Scholasticism in Vermigli's doctrine of man and grace', p. 99 (1976)
  139. ^ ‘Indeed, the salvation of the “immortal soul” has sometimes been a commonplace in preaching, but it is fundamentally unbiblical. Biblical anthropology is not dualistic but monistic: human being consists in the integrated wholeness of body and soul, and the Bible never contemplates the disembodied existence of the soul in bliss.’, Myers (ed.), ‘The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary’, p. 518 (1987)
  140. ^ ‘Modern scholarship has underscored the fact that Hebrew and Greek concepts of soul were not synonymous. While the Hebrew thought world distinguished soul from body (as material basis of life), there was no question of two separate, independent entities. A person did not have a body but was an animated body, a unit of life manifesting itself in fleshly form—a psychophysical organism (Buttrick, 1962). Although Greek concepts of the soul varied widely according to the particular era and philosophical school, Greek thought often presented a view of the soul as a separate entity from body. Until recent decades Christian theology of the soul has been more reflective of Greek (compartmentalized) than Hebrew (unitive) ideas.’, Moon, ‘Soul’, in Benner & Hill (eds.), ‘Baker encyclopedia of psychology & counseling, p. 1148 (2nd ed. 1999)
  141. ^ ‘There is no suggestion in the OT of the transmigration of the soul as an immaterial, immortal entity. Man is a unity of body and soul—terms that describe not so much two separate entities in a person as much as one person from different standpoints. Hence, in the description of man’s creation in Genesis 2:7, the phrase “a living soul” (kjv) is better translated as “a living being.”’, Elwell & Comfort (eds.), ‘Tyndale Bible dictionary, p. 1216 (2001)
  142. ^ ‘Barr is surely right to stress that the Genesis story as it now stands indicates that humans were not created immortal, but had (and lost) the chance to gain unending life.’, Wright, ‘The Resurrection of the Son of God’, p. 92 (2003); Wright himself actually interprets some passages of Scripture as indicating alternative beliefs, ‘The Bible offers a spectrum of belief about life after death’,Wright, ‘The Resurrection of the Son of God’, p. 129 (2003)
  143. ^ ‘In contrast to the two enigmatic references to Enoch and Elijah, there are ample references to the fact that death is the ultimate destiny for all human beings, that God has no contact with or power over the dead, and that the dead do not have any relationship with God (see, inter alia, Ps. 6:6, 30:9–10, 39:13–14, 49:6–13, 115:16–18, 146:2–4). If there is a conceivable setting for the introduction of a doctrine of the afterlife, it would be in Job, since Job, although righteous, is harmed by God in the present life. But Job 10:20–22 and 14:1–10 affirm the opposite.’, Gillman, ‘Death and Afterlife, Judaic Doctrines Of’, in Neusner, ‘The Encyclopedia of Judaism’, volume 1, p. 176 (2000)
  144. ^ ‘ “Who knows whether the breath of human beings rises up and the breath of an animal sinks down to the earth?” (Eccles 3:21). In Qohelet’s day there were perhaps people who were speculating that human beings would enjoy a positive afterlife, as animals would not. Qohelet points out that there is no evidence for this.’, Goldingay, ‘Old Testament Theology’, volume 2, p. 644 (2006)
  145. ^ ‘The life of a human being came more directly from God, and it is also evident that when someone dies, the breath (rûaḥ, e.g., Ps 104:29) or the life (nepeš, e.g., Gen 35:18) disappears and returns to the God who is rûaḥ. And whereas the living may hope that the absence of God may give way again to God’s presence, the dead are forever cut off from God’s presence.241 Death means an end to fellowship with God and to fellowship with other people. It means an end to the activity of God and the activity of other people. Even more obviously, it means an end to my own activity. It means an end to awareness.’, ibid., p. 640
  146. ^ ‘For a Hebrew, ‘soul’ indicated the unity of a human person; Hebrews were living bodies, they did not have bodies. This Hebrew field of meaning is breached in the Wisdom of Solomon by explicit introduction of Greek ideas of soul. A dualism of soul and body is present: ‘a perishable body weighs down the soul’ (9:15). This perishable body is opposed by an immortal soul (3:1-3). Such dualism might imply that soul is superior to body. In the nt, ‘soul’ retains its basic Hebrew field of meaning. Soul refers to one’s life: Herod sought Jesus’ soul (Matt. 2:20); one might save a soul or take it (Mark 3:4). Death occurs when God ‘requires your soul’ (Luke 12:20). ‘Soul’ may refer to the whole person, the self: ‘three thousand souls’ were converted in Acts 2:41 (see Acts 3:23). Although the Greek idea of an immortal soul different in kind from the mortal body is not evident, ‘soul’ denotes the existence of a person after death (see Luke 9:25; 12:4; 21:19); yet Greek influence may be found in 1 Peter’s remark about ‘the salvation of souls’ (1:9). A moderate dualism exists in the contrast of spirit with body and even soul, where ‘soul’ means life that is not yet caught up in grace. See also Flesh and Spirit; Human Being.’, Neyrey, ‘Soul’, in Achtemeier, Harper, & Row (eds.), ‘Harper’s Bible Dictionary’, pp. 982-983 (1st ed. 1985)
  147. ^ ‘A particular instance of the Heb. avoidance of dualism is the biblical doctrine of man. Greek thought, and in consequence many Hellenizing Jewish and Christian sages, regarded the body as a prison-house of the soul: sōma sēma ‘the body is a tomb’. The aim of the sage was to achieve deliverance from all that is bodily and thus liberate the soul. But to the Bible man is not a soul in a body but a body/soul unity; so true is this that even in the resurrection, although flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, we shall still have bodies (1 Cor. 15:35ff.).’, Cressey, ‘Dualism’, in Cressey, Wood, & Marshall (eds.), ‘New Bible Dictionary’, p. 284 (3rd. ed. 1996)
  148. ^ ‘Even as we are conscious of the broad and very common biblical usage of the term “soul,” we must be clear that Scripture does not present even a rudimentarily developed theology of the soul. The creation narrative is clear that all life originates with God. Yet the Hebrew Scripture offers no specific understanding of the origin of individual souls, of when and how they become attached to specific bodies, or of their potential existence, apart from the body, after death. The reason for this is that, as we noted at the beginning, the Hebrew Bible does not present a theory of the soul developed much beyond the simple concept of a force associated with respiration, hence, a life-force.’, Avery-Peck, ‘Soul’, in Neusner, et al. (eds.), ‘The Encyclopedia of Judaism’, p. 1343 (2000)
  149. ^ ‘‎Gn. 2:7 refers to God forming Adam ‘from the dust of the ground’ and breathing ‘into his nostrils the breath of life’, so that man becomes a ‘living being’. The word ‘being’ translates the Hebrew word nep̄eš which, though often translated by the Eng. word ‘soul’, ought not to be interpreted in the sense suggested by Hellenistic thought (see Platonism; Soul, Origin of). It should rather be understood in its own context within the OT as indicative of men and women as living beings or persons in relationship to God and other people. The lxx translates this Heb. word nep̄eš with the Gk. word psychē, which explains the habit of interpreting this OT concept in the light of Gk. use of psychē. Yet it is surely more appropriate to understand the use of psychē (in both the lxx and the NT) in the light of the OT’s use of nep̄eš. According to Gn. 2, any conception of the soul as a separate (and separable) part or division of our being would seem to be invalid. Similarly, the popular debate concerning whether human nature is a bipartite or tripartite being has the appearance of a rather ill-founded and unhelpful irrelevancy. The human person is a ‘soul’ by virtue of being a ‘body’ made alive by the ‘breath’ (or ‘Spirit’) of God.’, Ferguson & Packer (eds.),’New Dictionary of Theology’, pp. 28-29 (electronic ed. 2000)
  150. ^ ‘Far from referring simply to one aspect of a person, “soul” refers to the whole person. Thus, a corpse is referred to as a “dead soul,” even though the word is usually translated “dead body” (Lev. 21:11; Num. 6:6). “Soul” can also refer to a person’s very life itself 1 Kgs. 19:4; Ezek. 32:10).‎“Soul” often refers by extension to the whole person.’, Carrigan, ‘Soul’, Freedman, Myers, & Beck (eds.) ‘Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible’, p. 1245 (2000)
  151. ^ ‘It has been noted already that the soul, like the body, derives from God. This implies that man is composed of soul and body, and the Bible makes it plain that this is so. The soul and the body belong together, so that without either the one or the other there is no true man. Disembodied existence in Sheol is unreal. Paul does not seek a life outside the body, but wants to be clothed with a new and spiritual body (1 Cor. 15; 2 Cor. 5).’, Bromiley, ‘Psychology’, in Bromiley, ‘The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia’, volume 3, p. 1045 (rev. ed. 2002)
  152. ^ ‘Nor is any place left for dualism. Soul and body are not separate entities which are able to work in concert by virtue of a preestablished harmony (Leibniz).’ , ibid., p. 1045.
  153. ^ ‘All Christians believe in immortality, understood as a final resurrection to everlasting life. The majority have held that immortality also includes continuing existence of the soul or person between death and resurrection. Almost every detail of this general confession and its biblical basis, however, has been disputed. The debate has been fueled by the development of beliefs about the afterlife within the Bible itself and the variety of language in which they are expressed. The Hebrew Bible does not present the human soul (nepeš) or spirit (rûah) as an immortal substance, and for the most part it envisions the dead as ghosts in Sheol, the dark, sleepy underworld. Nevertheless it expresses hope beyond death (see Pss. 23 and 49:15) and eventually asserts physical resurrection (see Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2).’, Cooper, ‘Immortality’, in Fahlbusch & Bromiley (eds.), ‘The Encyclopedia of Christianity’, volume 2, p. (2003)
  154. ^ ‘soul. The idea of a distinction between the soul, the immaterial principle of life and intelligence, and the body is of great antiquity, though only gradually expressed with any precision. Hebrew thought made little of this distinction, and there is practically no specific teaching on the subject in the Bible beyond an underlying assumption of some form of afterlife (see immortality)., Cross & Livingstone, (eds.), ‘The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church’, p. 1531 (3rd rev. ed. 2005)
  155. ^ ‘The English translation of nepeš by the term “soul” has too often been misunderstood as teaching a bipartite (soul and body—dichotomy) or tripartite (body, soul, and spirit—trichotomy) anthropology. Equally misleading is the interpretation that too radically separates soul from body as in the Greek view of human nature. See body; spirit. N. Porteous (in IDB, 4:428) states it well when he says, “The Hebrew could not conceive of a disembodied nepeš, though he could use nepeš with or without the adjective ‘dead,’ for corpse (e.g., Lev. 19:28; Num. 6:6).” Or as R. B. Laurin has suggested, “To the Hebrew, man was not a ‘body’ and a ‘soul,’ but rather a ‘body-soul,’ a unit of vital power” (BDT, 492). In this connection, the most significant text is Gen. 2:7, “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [nišmat hayyîm], and the man became a living being [nepeš hayyâ]” (the KJV rendering “living soul” is misleading).’, Lake, ‘Soul’, in Silva & Tenney (eds.), ‘The Zondervan Encyclopedia of the Bible’, volume 5, p. 586 (rev. ed. 2009)

Further reading

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Christian_mortalism&action=historysubmit&diff=403584251&oldid=403459364

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