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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, July 16, 1867

FromReview and Herald, Vol. XXX, No. 5

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Angel and Spirit. Acts xxiii, 8.

“For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.”
BOTH what? There are three things mentioned in the first part of the text, but only two in the last. What explanation can be given of this language?
“On Acts xxiii, 8,” says Parkhurst, “Chrysostom remarks, ‘Here are three things mentioned: why then does the historian say (ἀμφότερα) both? Either as reckoning angel and spirit for one, or because that word is catachrestically and improperly used, not only for two, but for three.’”
The idea of an improper use of the word, will not, of course, be contended for, at least by believers in the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. The conclusion therefore remains that the terms angel and spirit mean one and the same thing. This text therefore furnishes no support for the idea of a separate entity or spirit in man, capable of conscious existence independent of the body.