In the following texts, spirit and soul are distinguished from each other: _1 Thess. 5:23_—“_And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ_”; _Heb. 4:12_—“_For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart._” Compare _1 Cor. 2:14_—“_Now the natural_ [Gr. “_psychical_”] _man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God_”; _15:44_—“_It is sown a natural_ [Gr. “_psychical_”] _body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural_ [Gr. “psychical”] _body, there is also a spiritual body_”; _Eph. 4:23_—“_that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind_”; _Jude 19_—“_sensual_ [Gr. “_psychical_”], _having not the Spirit._”
For the proper interpretation of these texts, see note on the next page. Among those who cite them as proofs of the trichotomous theory (trichotomous, from τρίχα, “in three parts,” and τέμνω, “to cut,” = composed of three parts, _i. e._, spirit, soul, and body) may be mentioned Olshausen, Opuscula, 134, and Com. on _1 Thess., 5:23_; Beck, Biblische Seelenlehre, 81; Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology, 117, 118; Göschel, in Herzog, Realencyclopädie, art.: Seele; also, art. by Auberlen: Geist des Menschen; Cremer, N. T. Lexicon, on πνεῦμα and ψυχή; Usteri, Paulin. Lehrbegriff, 384 _sq._; Neander, Planting and Training, 394; Van Oosterzee, Christian Dogmatics, 365, 366; Boardman, in Bap. Quarterly, 1:177, 325, 428; Heard, Tripartite Nature of Man, 62-114; Ellicott, Destiny of the Creature, 106-125.
The element of truth in trichotomy is simply this, that man has a triplicity of endowment, in virtue of which the single soul has relations to matter, to self, and to God. The trichotomous theory, however, as it is ordinarily defined, endangers the unity and immateriality of our higher nature, by holding that man consists of three _substances_, or three component _parts_—body, soul and spirit—and that soul and spirit are as distinct from each other as are soul and body.
The advocates of this view differ among themselves as to the nature of the ψυχή and its relation to the other elements of our being; some (as Delitzsch) holding that the ψυχή is an efflux of the πνεῦμα, distinct in substance, but not in essence, even as the divine Word is distinct from God, while yet he is God; others (as Göschel) regarding the ψυχή, not as a distinct substance, but as a resultant of the union of the πνεῦμα and the σῶμα. Still others (as Cremer) hold the ψυχή to be the subject of the personal life whose principle is the πνεῦμα. Heard, Tripartite Nature of Man, 103—“God is the Creator _ex traduce_ of the animal and intellectual part of every man.... Not so with the spirit.... It proceeds from God, not by creation, but by emanation.”