Nouns Sui Generis and Individual.
By E. S. Brooks
FROM the Latin Vulgate down to the present time, our translations of the Bible do not discriminate between nouns sui generis and nouns individual. The noun sui generis is used in the singular number to give the idea of a species or kind of thing without regard to individual things. For example, in the Greek Testament we have two words for life: Zoe is sui generis, is always in the singular number, and means life without regard to individual life. Zoe is God-life. When Zoe is added to Psuche, individual life, then the Psuche, or soul, becomes immortal. Psuche, or soul—individual life,—is in both numbers. The Lord Jesus did not say that He came to give His life a ransom for many. He came to give His Psuche, His soul, His individual life, a ransom for many. Our Lord looked forward to His resurrection when His life would be renewed by Zoe, the God-life. The same word is sometimes used in the sui generis sense, and at other times in the individual sense. In 2 Corinthians 5, the words "tabernacle" and "house" are both used in the sui generis. "For we know that if the earthly [kind of] house of our [species of] tabernacle be dissolved, we have a [kind of] building from God, a [kind of] house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For verily in this [species of tabernacle] we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our [species of] habitation which is [to come] from heaven; if so be that being clothed [with the heavenly kind of body] we shall not be found naked [bodiless]." See 1 Cor. 15: 44, 48, 49, 53, 54.