Psyche in Matthew: Sellers on the Soul—Part X

[Previous installments: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX]

As Sellers approaches the Greek Scriptures on the question of the soul, he’s eager to affirm the principle of interpretation he calls “divine interchange.” It is a theological principle, that is, it is based, not on an empirical study of linguistics, but rather from the worldview he derived from his study of the Bible.

On this blog we explored what Sellers means by this principle as it pertains to the Hebrew עוֹלָם‎ (olam) and the Greek αἰών (aion), both usually translated “eternal” or “everlasting”—which obscures the idea of flow at the root of both words. Those who wish to review that discussion should take the link to the first post in that three-part series. It was about olam’s “control” of aion, just as what follows is about nephesh’s “control” of psyche.

These words are identical in meaning in the Word of God. Whatever nephesh means, as gathered from divine usage in the Old Testament, is also the meaning of psyche. This is established by the fact that the Holy Spirit uses these two words interchangeably, a fact that would overrule the contrary opinion of any scholar. In Psalm 16:10 and Acts 2:27 we find the following:

For thou wilt not leave my soul (נַפְשִׁ֣י, naphshi) in sheol (לִשְׁא֑וֹל, leshowl).

Because thou wilt not leave my soul (ψυχήν, psychen) in hades (ᾅδην, haden).

As hades (ᾅδης) is the equivalent of sheol (שְׁאוֹל‎), so is psyche (ψυχή) of nephesh (נפש). Now, hades doesn’t translate ᾅδης, but transliterates it; the same is true of what sheol does for שְׁאוֹל‎. The English words carry over, not the meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words, but only the sounds into different symbols. And it’s the meaning we’re after.

Sellers continues:

Again, in Genesis 2:7 and 1 Corinthians 15:45 we find:

And man became a living soul (nephesh).

Adam was made a living soul (psyche).

In the Corinthian passage, Paul is quoting from the Old Testament, and he does not alter the truth in the least when he changes nephesh to psyche. Compare also 1 Kings 19:10 with Romans 11:3. These passages establish the absolute identity of nephesh and psyche.

So, we’ll compare them:

… the children of Israel have … thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life (נַפְשִׁ֖י, naphshi), to take it away. 1 Kings 19:10 KJV

Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life (ψυχήν, psychen). Romans 11:3

Perhaps by interpretation we might say they seek his “life,” but the Hebrew says soul and the Greek corresponds. Let’s look at the verses Sellers selected for special attention, all in the King James (Authorized) Version:

Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life ψυχὴν (psychen). Matthew 2:20 “The first occurrence of the word soul in the New Testament is in complete harmony with all that we discovered in the Old. They sought the young child’s soul. They would make an end of Him as a living soul. The term soul is used often in the New Testament as a figure of speech to denote the person when viewed from the standpoint of the sensations or experiences.”

Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life ψυχή (psyche), what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life ψυχή (psyche), more than meat, and the body than raiment? Matthew 6:25

In speaking of food and drink the Lord connects them with the soul. In speaking of raiment, He connects it with the body. Man would connect eating and drinking with the body, but, not so our Lord. The body would desire no food if it were not that man is a living soul. The soul craves food. This craving is so closely related to the soul that in the Old Testament the soul is used as a figure of speech when the appetite is meant. The disciples were urged to take no thought far their souls.

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul psychen (ψυχήν): but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul psychen (ψυχήν) and body in hell gehenne (γεέννῃ). Matthew 10:28.

This passage is an important one, for it is the great proof text of those who hold that the soul is some part of man (or, the true man) that continues to live after the body is dead. Those who hold this view insist that a soul that cannot be killed when the body is killed is deathless, therefore, immortal.

I readily admit that this verse seems to demonstrate that the soul is some part of man that lives an after men kill the body. For many years this passage and 1 Thessalonians 5:23 were my own favorite verses in dealing with the soul and were always quoted in connection with the subject. At that time these passages seemed to present all the truth and answer all questions in connection with the soul. They could also be used to silence every objection against my own position. But I was blissfully ignorant of and unacquainted with ninety percent of the Biblical references to the soul.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls (ψυχαῖς, psychais). Matthew 11:29

A problem usually ignored by those who separate this passage from its context, and quote it as a proof text, is that the Word of God not only speaks of the soul dying, but it also speaks of men killing the soul.

In evidence Sellers adduces Numbers 31:19, 35:11, 35:15, 35:30; Deuteronomy 27:25; Joshua 11:11, 20:3, 20:9. He continues:

In Numbers 35:30 God commanded: “Whoso killeth any soul (נֶ֔פֶשׁ, nephesh), the murderer shall be put to death ….” God speaks of man killing the soul (nephesh), and in Matthew 10:28 Christ speaks of men not being able to kill the soul (psyche). The translators have solved the problem by translating according to their views, but we can never allow ourselves such liberty with the Word of God.

We know that nephesh and psyche are identical. Therefore, if man is not able to kill the soul, then the command of God with its severe penalty in Numbers 35:30 is …

Nonsensical. It is as though a government were “to make it an offence punishable by death to interfere with the rising of the sun.”

In the New Testament [Sellers continues] there is a word for murder which is phoneuo (φονεύω). This word is found twice in Matthew 5:21. The word for “kill” in Matthew 10:28 is apokteino (ἀποκτείνω). It is a stronger form of the word κτείνω (kteino). The word apokteino means to kill outright, to condemn to death as by a judge; to put to death, as by an executioner. It is somewhat flexible in its meaning, and its exact meaning is regulated by the context….

In verse 17 He tells His disciples that they will be delivered up to councils and scourged in the synagogues; they shall be brought before governors and kings; brother shall betray brother to death; and children shall testify against their own parents and cause them to be put to death. They will be hated of all men and sorely persecuted. But, He insists, they are at no time to cease or silence their testimony. What He told them in darkness they are to speak in the light, and what He whispered in their ears they are to proclaim from the housetops. Then He says to them:

And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.

The context of this passage thus far demonstrates that the word “kill” here refers to the judicial sentencing of a man to death, that is, by legal processes making an end of the man, his testimony, his labors, his influence.

The context, as Sellers explains elsewhere, is

the Great Tribulation. The man of sin has seized the government of the earth, and the unbelieving Gentiles and apostate Jews heartily support his rule. He claims that he is the Christ. He sets himself in the [not yet rebuilt] temple and claims that he is God, and the world as a whole accepts his claims…. But certain faithful men reject his claims … and with the Word of God refute the pretensions of the man of sin. The world is horrified that any should dare to blaspheme in this manner the one they regard so highly, so these faithful men become the objects of intense persecution. Let us follow the case of one.

He is arrested, thrown into jail, and in due time he comes to trial.… The judge castigates him as a base, depraved criminal, and laments that he can do no more than order him to be put to death. And so it is done. He dies as a criminal.

But, thank God, that judgment is not the final one. There will yet be for that man another tribunal where hidden things will be brought to light, and covered things shall be revealed, where perfect justice and righteousness shall prevail. Man can sit in judgment on the body, but he cannot sit in judgment on the man himself…. He can order man put to death, but he cannot decree that he shall never rise again. No human court can settle man’s eternal destiny. (My emphasis.—A.G.F.)

There is a judgment where the entire man, the man himself, man as a living soul is to be judged. But this will never be done by man, for it will be done by the Lord Jesus to whom all such judgment has been committed….

[M]an’s judgments are limited to the body and cannot touch the man himself, the soul; but God’s judgments are not limited to the body, they extend to the soul. Man’s judgment cannot be final, but God’s judgments are final. Man’s judgments do not settle a man’s destiny, but God’s judgments do settle a man’s destiny….

Sellers elaborates upon his biblical anthropology.

Man as a living soul is a distinct individuality and personality. All men alike have two eyes, two ears, two arms, two legs—so no man can claim to be unique in the possession of these things. But there is something that each man has that no other man has. He has a distinct individuality and personality. Even so-called identical twins are never identical in personality. God has made all men living souls, but He has so varied the pattern that no two living souls are the same. Two dead bodies, in time, will be identical, just dust. The personality of man is not in his body, neither is it in his spirit, but it rests in the fact that he is a living soul. (My emphasis.—A.G.F.)

If I am to be raised, God must bring back my individuality, my personality, or it will not be me that he raises from the dead. And He must raise me, my very self, this living soul. I believe that if a man dies that that man shall live again. And how will God do this? He will do it by keeping in His memory my exact identity, my exact personality, my exact individuality, my memory, my hopes, yes, even my soul….

The Lord Jesus said: “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.” Matthew 10:30.

By these words our Lord tells his disciples of the preservation of their personalities. Man may think it is the end, but they will not lose as much as one hair from what men do to them…. When the body is killed or destroyed, resurrection is always in view. This is true of the lost as well as the saved. But if the soul is destroyed, then the personality, the memory, the individuality of that man

That is, everything that makes him that man

is gone from the mind of God. It is possible for God to forget and remember no more, and if a soul is destroyed by God’s decree, then it ceases to exist in the mind of God. For such there will be no resurrection.

I’ve already gone on too long, without having covered every occurrence of psyche in Matthew. But Sellers makes one point I would not skip over. He cites Matthew 16:25-26 (KJV):

For whosoever will save his life (ψυχήν, psychen) shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life (ψυχήν, psychen) for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul (ψυχήν, psychen)? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul (ψυχήν, psychen)?

“In these verses,” Sellers comments, “the word psyche appears four times.”

It is translated [in the KJV] “soul” twice and “life” twice. No translator of the writings of any human author would dare to do this, yet these translators have taken the words of Christ and given to the same word two different meanings conveying different ideas. This is very serious for the Lord said of the words He used: “The words which ye hear are not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.” John 14:24.

The word psyche appears fifty times in the four gospels, and forty-five of these occurrences are when it came from the lips of our Lord. There is no intimation anywhere that our Lord uses this one word to mean two things, and to translate it by two words is to do great violence to His language.