Of body, soul and spirit, and more.

this article is a response to a reply in a post, an attempt to shed some light on the subject, if you're gonna read this one, i'm gonna go far, because it's got to do with the worm, snakes, seraphim and cherubim, a bunch of stuff...

why do i include that? because we're talking about the soul and the spirit, and to really understand them, we do need to look deeper.

i'm going to just lay it out as i understand it currently. then rely on replies questioning me to a) explain why i think this, when i know, and b) goad me to find the explanation, when i don't know. because so often questions thrown point me to the places where the answers can be found.

i need questioners, because obviously where i don’t know i am not asking the right questions, and then we can find the answers.

(if i may, the real genius of being ‘clever’ does not lie in right answering. It lies in right questioning. The answers come by themselves from the questions.)

Here goes.

Some stuff i’ve mentioned before, i’m tying the string together.

Gen 2:7

Then YHWH Elohim formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

Now, it is the Spirit, Ruach, which actively breathed the breath of life, Neshamah, into the dead dust that is the body of man, to have the man become nephesh chay, a soul inhabiting a dead physical body to bring it to life. 

Why do i say it is the Spirit, Ruach which breathed the breath of life?

Eze 37:9

Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and tell the breath that this is what Adonay YHWH says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, so that they may live!”

Here the breath itself is identified as Ruach.

So, two things.

Firstly, we, to even be able to contemplate ourselves, are consciousness, soul, inhabiting a body. We are not a body with soul, we are a soul with body.

Secondly, although Neshamah and Ruach are ‘used interchangeably’ as the commentaries say, to denote the Spirit, there is a difference.

Ruach is the Spirit, Neshamah is but a PART of the Spirit, the breath of the Breath, and our nephesh soul emanates from the Neshamah breath of the Breath that is the Ruach Spirit. And that nephesh soul here below heaven animates the dead dust of our bodies to become nephesh chay, the living being that we are.

Right, so that’s body and soul sorted out.

So what’s this talk of naughty bodies and souls consigned to the eternal torment of burning in the lake of fire (hell/gehenna) forever?

Well, just talk.

Where does it come from?

Matt 10:28

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Instead, fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Now, note, body and soul are destroyed, not consigned to eternal torment.

To be clear, and brief, because this is not the focus of what i’m explaining, we’ve died, bodies returning to dust, souls sleeping in sheol, resurrection has occurred, our souls are woken from sleep and given resurrected bodies, and we’ve gone through judgement. And we’re talking about the rebellious souls here.

but still, where does the eternal torment come from?

Mark 9

47And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48where ‘their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.’

Referring to isaiah 66, how isaiah ends…

24“As they go forth, they will see the corpses

of the men who have rebelled against Me;

for their worm will never die,

their fire will never be quenched,

and they will be a horror

to all mankind.”

And so isaiah is also saying the living beings are now dead corpses, but the worm of those beings is subject to horror.

So, what’s the worm, then?

Our spirit.

In its rebellious form, that is. The mini-me of that great serpent, the adversary.

Temporal living beings can die, eternal spirit beings don’t.

Time to talk snakes.

Exodus 4

2And YHWH asked him, “What is that in your hand?”

“A staff,” he replied.

3“Throw it on the ground,” said YHWH. So Moses threw it on the ground, and it became a snake, and he ran from it.

Now, that snake is a nachash. Aaron’s, in exo 7:10 is a tannin.

Nachash also has to do with divination, and though that (uncondoned) is forbidden, both joseph and moses have to do with divination, condoned in their cases.

Do note that pharaoh’s sorcerers were able to emulate aaron’s tannin, not moses’ nachash. Why i say that is go look at leviathan, levi’s tannin…the beast from the sea.

Aaron, even the first high priest, is not in whose ear YHWH spoke, that’s moses the prophet. And, as we all do, aaron went wrong and cast the golden calf, ear open to the people.

Back to nachash.

Numbers 21

6So YHWH sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.

These snakes were seraphim! Now skip to verse 8 and 9

8Then YHWH said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and mount it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks at it, he will live.” 9So Moses made a bronze snake and mounted it on a pole. If anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze snake, he would live.

The serpent in verse 8 is still a seraph. But verse 9 is different. Even though moses was told to make a seraph, he made a nachash. He couldn’t make a seraph, i’ll talk about that in a moment, but even more interestingly, it usually says ‘anyone who was bitten looked at the bronze nachash’, but it actually says ‘anyone who was bitten by a nachash looked at the bronze nachash’.

So we see verse 6 saying seraphim bit, verse 8 saying make a bronze seraph, but verse 9 saying a bronze nachash was made, and anyone bit by a nachash looking at the bronze nachash would live.

Huh?

This is what i call a pay attention moment. Not a scribes must have made an error moment. Were it an error somewhere along the line this would have been pulled straight, so that either the whole time seraphim are written, or nachash.

To load this even more, the connect with Yeshua raised on the cross ups the ante.

Go look at seraphim, is what it’s saying.

So let’s do that. Isaiah 6

1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw YHWH seated on a throne, high and exalted; and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2Above Him stood seraphim, each having six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

How many seraphim is not mentioned, i want to remind you that the seraphim in Numbers are called ‘fiery serpents’, and now look at where else seraphim are mentioned. Not.

Now i never go extra-biblical, that’s conjecture territory. And it helps that my head is not filled with misconceptions because of it.

So i think, ok, what can i find out from their location? Bingo.

The throne.

Rev 4:5

From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and peals of thunder. Before the throne burned seven torches of fire. These are the seven spirits of God.

Or, the seven-fold Spirit of God, the Spirit.

Here, in a more complete form, is described what surrounds the throne.

24 elders (which i admit i have not yet fully studied in depth)

Seven torches of fire

4 living creatures.

And of course, the Lamb. who gets given full authority of the throne.

And so i make a case for the seven torches being seven ‘fiery’ Seraphim, or the Spirit has another name, Seraphim. And a Seraph is one of His seven aspects…

The spirit world is in heaven, above the glass ceiling. That’s why moses could not make a seraph down here. The veil had not yet been torn. Yeshua still had to come.

Do note, if i’m correct here, the Spirit is serpentine. ‘Good’ serpentine, not like the dragon. ‘bad’ serpentine spirit that he is. duality.

Hehe, the Spirit serpent still has His legs!

And so, that worm is the mini-me spirit engendered by the adversary in rebellious living creatures, destined, as is the adversary, for the lake of fire.

And we who are born again in the Spirit, are born as a mini-me of the Spirit, a seven fold menorah of a lamp.

And that, people, the spiritual aspect, is what all the occurrences of seven are referring to.

Now, this contemplation forces a question. What’s with the four living creatures then?

The cherubim.

Ezekiel again chapter 1.

I’m not gonna extract the quote here. We’re talking about the whole description.

Slightly different, in that each of the four creatures has the four different faces, down here. Still need aligning, they do.

they’re not seraphim ‘cos seraphim have 6 wings.

And they have cloven hooves. And wheels with eyes that see everything.

And above the glass ceiling was the likeness of a man…

Now, FIERY things moved between them, and the SPIRIT of the LIVING CREATURES was in the wheels, dictating where they move.

So the cherubim, these four creatures, do move below the glass ceiling.

What are we looking at?

The soul.

The four fold soils that comprise the world  in which the seven fold spirit moves and grows to fruition.

(now i know it’s 2 cherubim above the mercy seat, and in eze 11 the description is different, but everything is described differently at different phases of the process of life, it’s a moving target, guys, unless you’re a static couch potato)

The (7x) Ruach is of the spiritual world. His (4x)Neshamah breath animates our dead clay to make us Nephesh soul living beings down here under the ceiling.

And this, the soul aspect, is what all the occurrences of four are referring to.

He sees everything in our hearts? How?

He moves us to do as He wishes? how?

Leaves just the 24 elders.

I do already see the twelve tribes involved, but without having looked at it yet,   

A first thought says, if the seven torches of fire are spirit, and the four living creatures are soul, could that not make the 24 elders being body? Hmm…

This is as far as i am currently, it’s a work in progress. 

Now, i’ve noticed nobody comments on articles.

Please make posts therefore, referring to this article.

Remember, i need questions.

And, especially on the subject matter of this article, if you’ve reached here, give yourself a gold star.

Thank you for your attention.