* ' The real Christian looks at sorrow not from without, but from within, and does not approach its speculative difficulty till he is aware by experience of its practical power ' (Lux Mundi^^, p. 89).
t See James, Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 80 fT.
nothing of the sentimental attitude, which looks on suft'ering with complacency, as though it were good in itself. To Him evil is evil, and suffering is suffering ; He came as the Saviour to destroy them.* Here Christianity is in strong contrast to Buddhism, and to all forms of morbid asceticism. Bacon's aphorism that ' prosjierity is the blessing of the OT, adversity the blessing of the NT,' is true only when it is understood that beneath the adversity, and the sorrow of heart which it brings, there is even here and now the peace which passeth understanding, the joy which comes of union with Christ, of sympathy with man, and of work for God.
Literature. — Davidson, OT Prophecy (ch. 22) ; Stanton, Jewish and Christian Messiah ; G. A. Smith, Isaiah, vol. ii. ; Moberly, Sorrow, Sin, and Beauty ; Du Bose, Gospel in the Gospels ; Lux Mundi, ' The Problem of Pain ' ; Workman, The Servant of Jehovah. C. W. Emmet.
SOUL. — In every act of thinking, a distinction exists between the thinker and his thought, or, as it is otherwise expressed, between the self and the not-self, the ego and the non-ego, the thinking subject and the object of thought. This ego, self, or thinking subject, is denominated the soul (fvxv, ^Sh '''?'f'^)> 01" spirit (Trvevfxa, niT ; see Spirit) ; often also, botli in the OT and NT, the heart {KapBia, i"?, 2nh ; see HEART). In the OT the soul is sometimes confused with the blood or with some important physical organ, but in the NT it is clearly distinguished from the body as an im- material principle, the seat of conscious person- ality, and essentially immortal (Mt 10-* etc. ; see Immortality). There was much speculation in our Lord's time, and had been for some two cen- turies, on the mysterious questions of the soul's origin and destiny. Some, following Plato and Philo, believed in its eternal pre-existence (cf. Wis 8^9 RV) ; others (mainly orthodox Rabbis) in its creation at the creation of the world (cf. 2 Es 4^5ff-) ; others in its premundane creation (Slavonic Enoch 23^) ; others (perhaps the majority) in its con- creation with the body, which is apparently the doctrine of the OT (Is 442- 24 49" ^ Job SP^). A few supported the Platonic speculation of metem- psychosis (so apparently Josephus ; see BJ ill. viii. 5). The disciples of Jesus were aware of tliese discussions, and on one occasion asked Him whether a certain man had been born blind as a penalty for sins committed by him in a previous state of existence. It is a significant illustration of the economy of revelation that Jesus avoided entering upon the discussion (Jn 92).+
1. The use of ^vxr\ in the Gospels. — In the Pauline Ejiistles, as is well known, there is frequently a decided difference of meaning be- tween i/vxv and nvev/j.a. There i^vxri is used for the principle of life of the natural man, while TTvevfia is the principle of supernatural life which manifests itself in the regenerate Christian. Hence the derivative i/'uxtK6s (literally ' soulish ') comes to be used in a depreciatory, and even in a bad sense (1 Co 12" 15«, Ja 3l^ Jude '«). But in the Gospels there is no such distinction of usage. As applied to the human soul, iyvxv and irvevtia are synonyms throughout the range of their meaning. Thus in the sense of natural life, we have Mk 3^ cf. Jn \?P {fvx-n); and Mt 2T\ cf. Lk 234«, Jn W (wvedfia). (For the lower sense of irvevfj-a, cf. also Mk 8^^^ Lk 8^5 2437-39, Jn ips i32i)_ ^^^^, as well as ^^v€v^la, is used quite normally for the soul in its highest religious activities (see, e.g., Lk 1^^, where
* So Harnack most admirably, in What is Christianity ? ch. vi.
t The Creationist view of the soul's origin was held by all Jews in our Lord's time. The Traducianist hypothesis first appears in TertuUian (a.d. 200).
the identity of xf^vxv and TrveviJ.a is especially ap- parent ; Mt 11-9 2237 II ; cf. IP 2"- 25 4'", 2 P 2* etc. ; and even in the Pauline Epp. see 2 Co P^, Eph 66, Ph 127 ; cf. He G^'-* 13i7). In one passage (Jn 102^) ^vxv seems even to stand for the rational or deliberating faculty (\6yos, vovs). There is, however, between xpvxv and irvivfia, as used in the Gospels, one slight distinction, fvxv emphasizes more strongly than Trvedfia the idea of individual personality. Hence ^vx^l- (not TrvevfiaTa) is used for ' individuals ' or ' persons ' (Ac 2V', 1 P 320) ; and it is usual to speak of the salvation or loss of the ipvxv rather than of the Trveu/xa (Mt 62^ 103^ 1625-26, Mk 8"«, Lk 9-^ 1733 2V\ Jn 1225, He 1039, Ja pi g-2u^ I p p) Yet the salvation of the irvedfia is alluded to (1 Co 5^ 1 Th 523). Trpevfj-a, however, is not by any means a strictly impersonal term (see Mt 5^^ He 1"). It is used like r^vxv to denote a disembodied soul (Lk 2437-39, He 1223, 1 P 318, Rev 69 20*). In Mt 1218 (^ quotation from Is 42^) God is said to possess a ^vxv- In Jn 42^ He is said to be spirit (irviv/xa).