What is the difference between man’s spirit and soul?

QUESTION:

“What is the difference between man’s spirit and soul?”

RESPONSE:

This question is one that is laced with nuances when viewed through a clearer lens that the original languages of the Bible were written. However, the majority of the population does not count Hebrew and Greek as two of their fluent languages. Even those who do will likely tell you that although there are differences, they are very subtle. The Hebrew language of the Old Testament and Greek language of the New Testament do indicate that there is a difference that may get a bit lost in translation when read in English. Without getting swamped in too much religious smart guy talk, there is a pretty good explanation that speaks to your question from a biblical resource book called Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words that is helpful when dealing with words in the Bible in the original languages. Hopefully this will help give a bit more of a handle to the posted question and be a trusted resource for consultation in the future.

As it pertains to these words from a primarily New Testament perspective:

“The language of a passage like Hebrews 4:12 suggests the extreme difficulty of distinguishing between the soul and the spirit, alike in their nature and in their activities. Generally speaking the spirit is the higher, the soul the lower element. The spirit may be recognized as the life principle bestowed on man by God, the soul as the resulting life on man by God, the soul as the resulting life constituted in the individual, the body being the material organism animated by soul and spirit…

Body and soul are the constituents of the man according to Matthew 6:25, Matthew 10:28, Luke 12:20, Acts 20:10; body and spirit according to Luke 8:55, 1 Corinthians 5:3, 1 Corinthians 7:34, James 2:26. In Matthew 26:38 the emotions are associated with the soul, in John 13:21 with the spirit; cf. also Psalm 42:11 with 1 Kings 21:5. In Psalm 35:9 the soul rejoices in God, in Luke 1:47 the spirit.

Apparently, then, the relationships may be thus summed up ‘Soma, body, and pneuma, spirit, may be separated, pneuma and psuche, soul, can only be distinguished.”