The Biblical Perspective on the Mind/Body Problem, Part Two
This article first appeared in the Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine
We come now to the question which is the heart of it all—what is the relationship of spirit to body? Remember, I said that I want to talk about spirit more than about mind because that is where the real issue is. And, we’ll see why, I hope, as we observe the relationship of spirit to body in normal activities.
In Gen. 2:7, we read about the creation of man. God first shaped man’s body. It was a lifeless lump until He breathed into its nostrils, and man became a living nephesh (soul). The spirit that He breathed into man constituted him a living soul. Before that time the body was mindless. Don’t miss that point. Mind was not originally part of the body, but when the body was given life, it began to operate rationally. Mind began functioning; this was man in the fullness of what man is. Man was not truly man prior to that time. Mind entered when life entered, and mind leaves when life leaves. When I look at a corpse lying in a casket as
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