Meaning of Psuche in the New Testament
When we say that ψυχή sometimes, according to the definition of the term, means breath, it appears to us like quite an unnecessary, though it is a very common, misapprehension, to suppose us to say that it always has that meaning. Its leading signification is life, which it is forty times rendered, out of the one hundred and five times of its occurrence in the New Testament. It sometimes means the whole person, as in 1 Pet. 3:20, where, speaking of the ark built by Noah, he says, “Wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” As Robinson, in his Gr. Lexicon of the New Testament states, under πνεῦμα, that “body, soul, and spirit,” as used in 1 Thess. 5:23, is a “periphrasis for the whole man, so in Rom. 2:9, the “every soul of man,” “of the Jew,” and “of the Gentile,” must evidently be understood in the same way. It brings to view the persons as a whole, and does not single out any of their separate parts. We doubt not that Homer, and other profane writers of antiquity, spoke of the bodiless and intangible souls of men; and this too plainly reveals the origin of such a doctrine. But that Paul bolstered up the pagan Romans in this notion we cannot concede. For to whom did Paul address this epistle to the Romans? See the answer in his first chapter. Verse 1: “Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,” verse 7, “To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, CALLED TO BE SAINTS.” Ah! Paul was addressing those in Rome who had been converted to Christianity. If from Jewish residents, they were of course acquainted with the teachings of Moses and the prophets on this subject; if they were from native Romans, they had been rescued from the errors of heathendom, and were instructed in the doctrines of Christianity. In either case, they would not understand when Paul spoke of every soul of man that doeth evil, Jew and Gentile, that he meant the immaterial spirit of heathen mythology, but just what the Scriptures mean in such instances, the whole person.