The Genesis text in chapter 2 is very forthright. God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul. The “soul” constitutes the totality of our personhood. It appears the soul is part physical in our body and part non-physical in our spirit. Spirit plus body comprises the soul. A distinction between them is made in the Magnificate of Mary in Luke 1. Upon hearing the angel Gabriel tell her she was to be the mother of Israel’s long-awaited Messiah and Savior of mankind, the virgin Mary exclaimed, “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.” Her usage of these terms in a separated fashion leads us to think of them as being different. Some would say Mary meant the same thing with the terms being synonymous. Yet, in Greek, the words for “spirit” and “soul” are decidedly different. “Pneuma” and “psuché”. Many times, the spirit and soul are used quite differently in both Testaments. Yet, in all fairness, there do appear to be instances where they seem interchangeable. We think it preferable to appeal to the clear and different meaning of each word, and, doing so, we will see spirit (“pneuma” in Greek and “ruach” in Hebrew) as referring to the non-physical essence that is an essential component of every human being. All humans possess a human spirit. The soul we refer to as the totality of our humanity. The formula, then, would be the physical body plus the non-physical spirit constitutes the soul, the totality of our being.
Should the physical body die from any cause, the spirit leaves that body. As James 2 tells us, “the body without the spirit is dead.” Genesis 2 tells us that, at least in Adam’s case, his body was inert, unanimated, until God breathed into his lifeless but newly formed body the breath of life. Then it was that Adam’s body came alive. It almost sounds like Adam was “jump-started”, doesn’t it? What was that scenario precisely? God could have spoken Adam alive as He did in so many of His creative acts, by simply saying, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God merely spoke it into existence by the word of His mouth. God could do that, and did that. But this text says God breathed into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life. If this was not literal, why is it so described in such literal terms, especially when surrounded by other things brought into being merely by God’s spoken word?
The physical details given with the creation of Adam appear to very deliberately set his creation apart from that of others God created. All this points to a special characteristic imbued in Adam, not present in any others of God’s creation. Adam alone was made in the image and likeness of God. “Surely,” said the psalmist, “we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and that my soul knoweth right well.”
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