Well, I searched the scriptures, searched the internet (found a thorough blog by Dr. Tim White), and talked to one of the elders at my church. I have converted to a dichotomistic view of man. Man is essentially two parts – a body and an immaterial, essential identity. Parsing the spirit and soul into two distinct entities is being overly mathematical.
Turns out that “spirit” and “soul” are used interchangeably and both perform the same functions throughout both Old and New Testaments. (e.g. departing at death, feeling pain, thinking, interacting with God’s Spirit…) That’s really the linchpin – no man’s speculation is worth as much as what the Bible seems to say about it.
The only exceptions are Hebrews 4:12, 1 Corinthians 14:14 and 1 Thessalonians 5:23. These can be explained as synonymic redundancy, for emphasis (in 1 Thess. 5:23, cf. Mark 12:30), or for literary style (in Hebrews 4:12; note the repeating of the synonymous pairs: “living and active” “soul and spirit” “joints and marrow” “thoughts and intentions”). 1 Corinthians 14:14 refers to the “mind” which is a component of the soul, not the same thing as the soul. It is easily arguable that the rational mind can be excluded from some functions of the inner self – “I suddenly found myself doing…”. Therefore, in light of the general trend of overlap throughout scripture, I assimilate these possible exceptions using the above explanations, and hold to the dichotomy perspective.
Ben Taylor 