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For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Soul and spirit, here, are psuche and pneuma.

In the text, they are likened to joints, harmos, and marrow, muelos.

Harma is a chariot. It is mechanical. It is structural. It is a conveyance. The writer does not just refer to bone, itself, but to the joint, harmos, where bones interact together to form structure and to provide function. The whole skeleton is under consideration, with all its composite parts and processes.

Marrow, muelos, is the living tissue within the bone that produces red blood cells (which are the carriers of oxygen to all the cells in the body) and that causes the bone to be a living thing rather than just a calcified stick.

The skeleton, the functioning structure, is a containment for the living tissue of the marrow. So the distinction is between a mechanical structure that conveys; and a living thing that suffuses the whole structure with life.

Thus the material parts of the body are shown to be counterparts to the immaterial parts of humanity :

• the soul being a structured thing, with function; albeit that it is non-material and non-substantial, yet it is a conveyance.

• the spirit being that which pervades and suffuses the entire structure of the soul with life; it is the living being.

The expression 'body, soul and spirit' is actually confusing.

What is more helpful is Paul's order of things in I Thessalonians 5:23 where he puts spirit first, then soul then body; for the living spirit is the primary feature of humanity. That living spirit suffuses the immaterial structure of the soul. And the whole of that immaterial part of humanity is closely integrated with, and strictly localised to, the human body.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Soul and spirit, here, are psuche and pneuma.

In the text, they are likened to joints, harmos, and marrow, muelos.

Harma is a chariot. It is mechanical. It is structural. It is a conveyance. The writer does not just refer to bone, itself, but to the joint, harmos, where bones interact together to form structure and to provide function. The whole skeleton is under consideration, with all its composite parts and processes.

Marrow, muelos, is the living tissue within the bone that produces red blood cells (which are the carriers of oxygen to all the cells in the body) and that causes the bone to be a living thing rather than just a calcified stick.

The skeleton, the functioning structure, is a containment for the living tissue of the marrow. So the distinction is between a mechanical structure that conveys; and a living thing that suffuses the whole structure with life.

Thus the material parts of the body are shown to be counterparts to the immaterial parts of humanity :

• the soul being a structured thing, with function; albeit that it is non-material and non-substantial, yet it is a conveyance.

• the spirit being that which pervades and suffuses the entire structure of the soul with life; it is the living being.

The expression 'body, soul and spirit' is actually confusing.

What is more helpful is Paul's order of things in I Thessalonians 5:23 where he puts spirit first, then soul then body; for the living spirit is the primary feature of humanity. That living spirit suffuses the immaterial structure of the soul. And the whole of that immaterial part of humanity is closely integrated with, and strictly localised to, the human body.

The material counterpart to this is :

• muelos, the marrow : the inner living thing that suffuses all
• harmos, the joint : mechanical, structural, conveyance
• melos, the limb (or member) : the living, moving entirety.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Soul and spirit, here, are psuche and pneuma.

In the text, they are likened to joints, harmos, and marrow, muelos.

Harma is a chariot. It is mechanical. It is structural. It is a conveyance. The writer does not just refer to bone, itself, but to the joint, harmos, where bones interact together to form structure and to provide function. The whole skeleton is under consideration, with all its composite parts and processes.

Marrow, muelos, is the living tissue within the bone that produces red blood cells (which are the carriers of oxygen to all the cells in the body) and that causes the bone to be a living thing rather than just a calcified stick.

The skeleton, the functioning structure, is a containment for the living tissue of the marrow. So the distinction is between a mechanical structure that conveys; and a living thing that suffuses the whole structure with life.

Thus the material parts of the body are shown to be counterparts to the immaterial parts of humanity :

• the soul being a structured thing, with function; albeit that it is non-material and non-substantial, yet it is a conveyance.

• the spirit being that which pervades and suffuses the entire structure of the soul with life; it is the living being.

The expression 'body, soul and spirit' is actually confusing.

What is more helpful is Paul's order of things in I Thessalonians 5:23 where he puts spirit first, then soul then body; for the living spirit is the primary feature of humanity. That living spirit dwells in the immaterial structure of the soul. And the whole of that immaterial part of humanity is closely integrated with, and strictly localised to, the human body.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Soul and spirit, here, are psuche and pneuma.

In the text, they are likened to joints, harmos, and marrow, muelos.

Harma is a chariot. It is mechanical. It is structural. It is a conveyance. The writer does not just refer to bone, itself, but to the joint, harmos, where bones interact together to form structure and to provide function. The whole skeleton is under consideration, with all its composite parts and processes.

Marrow, muelos, is the living tissue within the bone that produces red blood cells (which are the carriers of oxygen to all the cells in the body) and that causes the bone to be a living thing rather than just a calcified stick.

The skeleton, the functioning structure, is a containment for the living tissue of the marrow. So the distinction is between a mechanical structure that conveys; and a living thing that suffuses the whole structure with life.

Thus the material parts of the body are shown to be counterparts to the immaterial parts of humanity :

• the soul being a structured thing, with function; albeit that it is non-material and non-substantial, yet it is a conveyance.

• the spirit being that which pervades and suffuses the entire structure of the soul with life; it is the living being.

The expression 'body, soul and spirit' is actually confusing.

What is more helpful is Paul's order of things in I Thessalonians 5:23 where he puts spirit first, then soul then body; for the living spirit is the primary feature of humanity. That living spirit suffuses the immaterial structure of the soul. And the whole of that immaterial part of humanity is closely integrated with, and strictly localised to, the human body.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Soul and spirit, here, are psuche and pneuma.

In the text, they are likened to joints, harmos, and marrow, muelos.

Harma is a chariot. It is mechanical. It is structural. It is a conveyance.

Marrow, muelos, is the living tissue within the bone that produces red blood cells (which are the carriers of oxygen to all the cells in the body) and that causes the bone to be a living thing rather than just a calcified stick.

So the distinction is between a mechanical structure that conveys; and a living thing that suffuses the whole structure with life.

Thus the material parts of the body are shown to be counterparts to the immaterial parts of humanity :

• the soul being a structured thing, with function; albeit that it is non-material and non-substantial, yet it is a conveyance.

• the spirit being that which pervades and suffuses the entire structure of the soul with life; it is the living being.

The expression 'body, soul and spirit' is actually confusing.

What is more helpful is Paul's order of things in I Thessalonians 5:23 where he puts spirit first, then soul then body; for the living spirit is the primary feature of humanity. That living spirit dwells in the immaterial structure of the soul. And the whole of that immaterial part of humanity is closely integrated with, and strictly localised to, the human body.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

Soul and spirit, here, are psuche and pneuma.

In the text, they are likened to joints, harmos, and marrow, muelos.

Harma is a chariot. It is mechanical. It is structural. It is a conveyance. The writer does not just refer to bone, itself, but to the joint, harmos, where bones interact together to form structure and to provide function. The whole skeleton is under consideration, with all its composite parts and processes.

Marrow, muelos, is the living tissue within the bone that produces red blood cells (which are the carriers of oxygen to all the cells in the body) and that causes the bone to be a living thing rather than just a calcified stick.

The skeleton, the functioning structure, is a containment for the living tissue of the marrow. So the distinction is between a mechanical structure that conveys; and a living thing that suffuses the whole structure with life.

Thus the material parts of the body are shown to be counterparts to the immaterial parts of humanity :

• the soul being a structured thing, with function; albeit that it is non-material and non-substantial, yet it is a conveyance.

• the spirit being that which pervades and suffuses the entire structure of the soul with life; it is the living being.

The expression 'body, soul and spirit' is actually confusing.

What is more helpful is Paul's order of things in I Thessalonians 5:23 where he puts spirit first, then soul then body; for the living spirit is the primary feature of humanity. That living spirit dwells in the immaterial structure of the soul. And the whole of that immaterial part of humanity is closely integrated with, and strictly localised to, the human body.