What is man? There are two generally accepted answers to this question as to what is man. The first answer people might give is that man is a physical being, a product or by-product of evolution. He is something that occurred over billions of years. Man is just another animal and when man dies that is the end of his life and his existence. When people who believe this are asked about the purpose of life, they may say that there is no purpose of life! Or they may say that the purpose of life is just to be happy or to make other people happy during this short existence.
The second concept of what is man is believed by many people as well, that man has an immortal soul trapped in a physical body.
What is the truth? Is either of these correct? In this Bible study I will answer the question “What is Man?”
First let us talk a little bit more about what man is not. The concept of an immortal soul began about 6,000 years ago in the Garden of Eden. Turn to Genesis chapter 2. This is the incident of the two trees: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life.
Genesis chapter 2 starting in verse 15: “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'” These are very clear instructions from God. If they ate of that tree, they would die.
Go on Genesis chapter 3 verse 1: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?' And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”'” Eve understood her instructions very well.
Verse 4: “Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die.'” Satan was saying that she was immortal and implying, in a sense, that she had this immortal soul. This is where the first concept of man's immortality came about, from Satan the devil himself.
This concept of an immortal soul was well known throughout the ancient world, well known in ancient Egypt and ancient Babylon. Socrates went to Egypt where he learned it. He taught Plato. Plato wrote that death is the separation of the soul and body. Also other philosophers like Aristotle and Virgil believed this as well. This idea continued on even into what we call Christian times. For example, there was Origen, a Catholic teacher, in Alexandria Egypt who taught about an immortal soul. Also Tertullian taught about an immortal soul and even quoted Plato, and there were also Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and others. Martin Luther wrote there was not an immortal soul, although it is interesting that most who attend churches that have his name do believe in an immortal soul.
William Tyndale, the first printer of the New Testament in English, asked a very profound question. He said that if a soul is in heaven why do you need a resurrection? So he understood there was no immortal soul as well.
Let us see what the Bible says. After all, the Bible is the source of spiritual knowledge.
Turn to Genesis chapter 2 verse 7: “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Here we have man made of the dust of the ground, something physical. He became a living being and in the King James Version it says, “a living soul”. It says, “he became a living soul.” It does not say he “has” an immortal soul. It did not say that. In fact this word “soul” is coming from the Hebrew word “nephesh”. In Strong's Concordance it is number 5315. It is a breathing creature. It means the life of animals. Elsewhere it is translated differently.
Turn to Genesis chapter 1, verse 20. “Then God said, 'Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.'” In the phrase, “living creatures”, creatures is the same word “nephesh” which is translated “soul” elsewhere. In fact, I am reading from a New King James Version and my marginal reference there gives an alternate translation of that word creature as “souls”. That is interesting. It is the same word. Basically it is proving there are two ways of translating it, and neither one means immortal soul. So it is not stated here that man has an immortal soul.
Turn to Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 4: “'Behold, all souls are Mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is Mine; the soul who sins shall die.'” This is proving that the soul is not immortal. Go on to verse 20 where it is repeated. “The soul who sins shall die.” This is showing again that we do not have an immortal soul.
What else does the Bible say about what is man? If we go to Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 we are going to find that man is created in the image of God. To be created in the image of the Creator means man is very special. Genesis 1:26 “Then God said, 'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'” We see that we are made in God's image. In another study on “Who and What Is God” we will explain this further.
Another thing the Bible says about man is that there is a spirit in man. Turn to I Corinthians chapter 2. It is Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians. I Corinthians 2:11 “For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.” It is talking about the spirit of the man. It is telling us here that by the spirit of man we know the things of a man, in other words physical things. That is how we know them because of this spirit of the man that is in us.
This spirit in man is a term that is used several times in the Bible. Let us look at Job chapter 32 verse 8: “'But there is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.'” Again that term spirit in man is associated with receiving understanding.
Turn to Zechariah chapter 12 where the term is used there, too. Zechariah 12:1 “The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him.” Again, it is talking about the spirit in man and that God forms it in us.
Another verse is Ezra chapter 1 verse 1 where something additional is stated besides just talking about the spirit of man. “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying…” and it gives his proclamation. It is talking about the spirit of a particular man, Cyrus the king of Persia. It is the way God led him to give the decree that the Jews should return to Jerusalem and Judah after their captivity. Again, it is talking about the spirit in man.
Let us look at one more use of that spirit in man in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 23-24: “…and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.” It is talking about the spirit of your mind.
We start putting all of these together and we realize that, yes, there is a spirit in man and there is a spirit of your mind. Now we begin to understand that the human mind is this human spirit, this spirit in man, plus the brain, of course. It is the brain because as people think and their thoughts change, you can detect certain electrical patterns that change. So we know the brain has something to do with the thinking. What we are learning here is that this spirit in man, this non-physical essence, also has something to do with it.
Many animals have brains that are almost as big as man, and some are bigger, in fact. They do not have the intelligence. It is the spirit essence that makes the difference. Man has material and physical knowledge because of the brain and that spirit essence in him. He can work with things, he can build a building, plan and build computers and cell phones. All these things men know how to do while working with physical things. They learn science, they learn to understand the laws of physics of the universe, the laws of chemistry, physics, biology. They apply it as technology to make our lives easier and more convenient.
Man will develop his culture, his art, some of the most beautiful music that you can listen to. We really enjoy that, and we marvel at how some of these people have such beautiful minds that they will compose such beautiful pieces of music or paint such beautiful pictures and make such beautiful sculptures. Again, it is the human mind composed of the brain and the spirit in man. It is not instinct! I worked on a dairy farm years ago, and I would watch the calves being born. The ones who were strong enough the first thing they wanted to do was just get right up and stand up. Within a minute or two some were up! Most children it takes a whole year to learn to walk. So we do not have the instinct. Instead we have to be taught everything. So this spirit in man is certainly not instinct by any means.
The spirit in man enables man to be self aware. He knows that he exists. He knows those around him. Man also realizes that he needs to make an attempt at morality and try to understand ethics, to understand what is right and wrong. He thinks about why he does things, and he makes choices. We call it free moral agency. He chooses right and wrong. He wonders why he was born and what is his purpose in life. He tries to have a relationship with other people and sometimes fails because it is a spiritual relationship, when you learn more about it. The Bible will teach us more about that.
Man wants a relationship with God or a god. He can figure out that much at least, although he does not really understand all of the details of who and what God is for example, which will be another Bible study. He tries to understand some of the beautiful thoughts of God.
The spirit essence records the memory of a person, and then it returns to God when he dies. Turn to Ecclesiastes 12 verse 7. Ecclesiastes is thought to be written by Solomon, and he did have a lot of wisdom. Ecclesiastes 12:7 “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.” This shows that our spirit, the human spirit, does return to God and He keeps it there. At some point there is a resurrection; and when that happens, God will use that spirit. It will record the memories of what we had, that is, our personality, everything about us.
Man with his mind, which is the brain plus the spirit essence, is really not complete. Some would say he is only half there! There is more to it than that, because this spirit essence is able to combine with God's Holy Spirit to beget us as members of the God family. We will have more on that in another Bible study, as well as what our potential is.
So what is man? Man is a physical being made of dust, temporary and chemical in nature. He is created in the image and likeness of God. In other words, he looks like God. We have a mind that consists of a brain and a spirit essence that gives us our intelligence and our self awareness. God's Holy Spirit will combine with our human spirit to beget us as a member of God's family. This is knowledge that the evolutionists and many traditional Christians simply do not have.