The Distinction of Soul and Spirit

[...of] the fish of the sea and the winged ones of the heaven and the beasts and all the earth and all the creeping things creeping upon the earth. And God made the man; according to the image of God He made him, male and female He made them. And God blessed them, saying: 'Increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and the winged ones of the heaven and all the beasts and all the earth and all the creeping things creeping upon the earth' (Gen 1:28).

The word 'man' signifies also the composite living thing which is composed of soul and body, and especially the soul. Therefore, the wise Peter the apostle calls the hidden part of the heart 'man', and the blessed Paul: 'For I consent according to the law of God according to the inner man' (Rom 7:22), that is, according to the mind, according to the soul. But when it is said: 'There was a certain man in the land of Assyria' (Gen 45:2), and: 'It happened when many men began to become' (Gen 6:9), it signifies the common meaning. If therefore we take the explicit meaning, the composite man signifies the 'And God said: Let us make man' (Gen 1:26).

And not only regarding the composite, but even regarding the visible and perceptible, that is, the body, the blessed Paul intends to extend the name of man, saying: 'Even if our outward man is being destroyed, but the inward is being renewed day by day' (2 Cor 4:16). And according to a first imposition, each of us was composed of soul and body, but there are those who say that man is composed of three, of soul and body and spirit, which they construct by joining themselves to the apostolic saying which says: 'And the God of peace sanctify you completely, and your whole spirit and soul and body' (1 Thess 5:23), not following the idea that it must be said concerning the Holy Spirit in order to be whole, which is not even destined to come into weakness. Therefore, they produce another proof from a different saying having this: 'The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit' (Rom 8:16); for they say our spirit is a different spirit from the Holy Spirit, being witnessed by the Holy Spirit when it is well. And that from Daniel: 'Spirits and souls of the righteous, bless the Lord' (Dan 4:35).

They think it is a mere assistant. But those who do not want there to be anything other than the spirit besides the soul say that it signifies the will through the spirit, or that he has shown even the soul by the designation of the spirit. But those renewing this argument say that, having used a connective conjunction, even in 'spirits and souls of the righteous' (cf. Heb 11:35), he shows the soul to be something other than the spirit.

And as a constructive argument for the composition of man from soul and body, they produce that which is said in the Gospel, broken out: 'Do not fear those who kill the body but are not able to kill the soul; but fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell' (Luke 12:4). And if it is the case that men kill one thing and not the other, then the body and the soul are two. We say, therefore, man and the body only, but not simply, but man with an addition; and the soul alone is man not simply, but man within; and the composite is man simply, without anything added.

Let it therefore be sought here concerning what is said regarding God of all things: 'Let us make man according to an image and in our likeness' (Gen 1:26). The man has not become according to an image of God in the composite sense; for God is not man-shaped. And the divine teaching confirms this; for it is said that God is spirit and light (1 John 1:5), and light and spirit do not have the form of man.

But the Scripture also discusses God having seven eyes, seeing all the earth (Rev 4:8), while man has two; so therefore the man will not be found to be according to the image of God in this way of our seeing. But these things we say not as if God has seven sensible eyes, but we are investigating how man is according to the image and likeness of God; for the Word has shown his perfect contemplative power through the seven, and through the virtues which the number seven has, as has already been foretold.

Again, God is said to have wings, just as the holy one says: 'In the shelter of your wings you will protect me' (Ps 17:8); but man is a wingless animal, and the wingless is not able to have the image and likeness of God, not through sensible things received by us, but through intuitions surpassing and carrying those who desire this upward. It must therefore be investigated how man is according to the image and likeness of God.