The Great Physician IX: We Are Self

Self…not meaning selfish. Actually just the opposite. Sort of. In Hebraic thought it is more an identity or one’s persona. What makes me...me. Am I me or am I more? 

...and down the rabbit hole we go.

The noun in the Hebrew Bible frequently translated “soul” or “person” is the Hebrew word ‘nepes’. Sometimes it is said that the ancient Hebrew did not have a soul but was a soul. Also ironically we need to understand the Hebraic idea of what constitutes one's self. Job 12:10 offers a distinct dissimilarity between רוח (ruah, breath or spirit) and נפש (nephesh, of or relating to sentience of thought) [Kind of like René Descartes: "I think therefore I am" kind of thing but not in the case of animals as they are not self-aware the way people are. Which, therein lies the differences in soul between man and beast]. I told you this would be a rabbit hole.

“In His hand is the life (nephesh) of every living thing and the spirit (ruah) of every human being.” ~ Job 12:10

The Hebrew term, nephesh ‘chayyah’ is often translated "living soul". Chayyah alone is often translated living thing or animal. In Greek the word ψυχή (psyche) is the closest equivalent to the Hebrew nephesh.

This is a misleading over-simplification. To be sure, ancient Hebrews did not think of the human being as a union of two disparate elements, a physical body and a spiritual soul, or even of three parts—body, soul, and spirit. It would be more accurate to say that the ancient Hebrews employed a variety of whole-body terms to convey their understanding of the human person as a totality, and that the word ‘nepes’ was only one of many such terms. Other words used are figures of speech to the same effect like heart, bones, breath and even tongue referring to speech.

Possibly 'nepes' did come closest to being the one special word so used because unlike

the other words nepes did not have a precise physical correspondent in the body itself, as the other terms did, except for its explicit connection with blood in Leviticus 17:11 explaining why a life needed to be given as atonement for sin.

The ‘nepes’ referred to what was alive and vital in a person. Nepes described the Hebrew person in his or her needs both emotive and physical. It is here we see the holistic nature of balance and treatment medicinally of a human as a whole. Essentially the Hebrew God acted more as a DO or doctor of osteopathy that treated the human as a whole rather than an MD or medical doctor who more often treats the human as disparate elements. The Old Testament even speaks quite often of God’s Nepes (Judges 10:16; Zechariah 11:8; Jeremiah 12:7; Amos 6:8).

The Hebrew concept of self was furthermore not a self by itself. The true self in the Hebrew mind was that of an individual who found purpose and meaningfulness in relationship to other individuals (community) and God (communal). In the Old Testament no person was ‘an island to themselves’. Part of individual self-health was clearly part of something communal/community or a ‘corporate personality’. Hebrew people would oscillate back and forth between group and self. This is in direct opposition to contemporary Western culture and rugged American individualism. 

Realize what was just state here. The Jewish/Hebraic concept of what constituted 'self' was interwoven/intertwined in community. In Jewish thought you could not be self-whole without others in community. Intrinsically linked and indivisible from community. Part of the Israelites self identity was others. Communal. Nation. A covenant nation. All networked. All linked. That is why sin in one individual was an affront to all Jews. Hence the death penalty for what appeared on the surface to be minor infractions. It wasn't just an affront to others it was an affront to everyone AND God. You screwed with everybody within you own selfish sin. In Hebraic thought there are no victimless crimes. No petty thefts. No little white lies. All sin is worthy of a death penalty. Hence the need of a system of atonement. A system of sacrifice (Leviticus 17:11).

The individual Israelite ‘self’ did not truly exist in isolation. It could only exist in concert with God and other men and women. A nation. A Covenant Nation. The Jewish/Hebrew world was not our world of defiant individuality or insensitivity. This is why I believe western civilization and America in particular are dying via political division. It is not healthy or wholesome to the corporate whole of America. This is also why I believe the Devil works overtime on the destruction of the family unit. It again distills down to the idea of wholeness (or lack thereof). Wholeness not just within one’s self but wholeness in community. Just as it will be in the Kingdom of God/Heaven. All are one in Christ.

Conversely, we now live in a world where individuals and communities tend to live and care only for themselves, where the sick, the aged and infirm, the disadvantaged, and the poor and homeless are marginalized, abused and forgotten. The battle cry of divisions in 1 Corinthians 3 from Paul still rings true in todays world. Only the names change. I am of Trump. I am of Clinton. I am of Obama. I am of Pentecostalism. I am of Presbyterianism. I am of Planned Parenthood. I am of the NRA. The result is the same. Division. Conflict. Disharmony. Illness. Unholiness. The exact opposite of what God intended. The system of the world in full power ruled by the prince of the power of the air. An absolute demarcation and destruction of wholeness of self/community (Ephesians 2) which should’ve been one and the same.

We cannot be fully whole and healthy without God and others. It's not how we were created to function. Anything less is a corruption of the intended order for mankind. In a weird spiritual way...we really are Spiritual Borg. Not in an evil malignant way but rather in a benevolent, purposeful, meaningful, wholesome and holy way. Like a family not just a collective of emotionless drones (although I imagine there are quite a few spiritually dead churches out there as Revelation refers to). That sentience and corporal whole based in the Trinity. In Christ. Now you understand why Christians and Jews were commanded to joined together to one another. Now you understand Hebrews 10:25. You're not a whole person without that.