Numbers 27:16

JOSHUA PUBLICLY CONSECRATED AS THE SUCCESSOR OF MOSES, Numbers 27:15-23.

16. The spirits of all flesh The distinction between mind and matter is here clearly taught by Moses. In answer to the objection that the Hebrew word ruach signifies only breath, we quote the following from Sir W. Hamilton: “The term soul, (and what I say of the term soul is true of the term spirit,) though in this country less employed than the term mind, may be regarded as another synonyme for the unknown basis of the mental phenomena. Like nearly all words significant of the internal world, there is here a metaphor borrowed from the external; and this is the case not merely in one, but, as far as we can trace the analogy, in all languages. You are aware that ψυχη , the Greek term for soul, comes from ψυχω , I breathe or blow, as πνευμα , in Greek, and spiritus, in Latin, from verbs of the same signification. In like manner, anima and animus are words which, though in Latin they have lost their primary signification, and are only known in their secondary or metaphorical sense, yet in their original physical meaning are preserved in the Greek ανεμος , wind or air. The English soul, and the German seele, come from a Gothic root saivala, which signifies to storm. Ghost, the old English word for spirit in general, and so used in our English version of the Scriptures, is the same as the German geist, and is derived from gas or gescht, which signifies air. In like manner the two words in Hebrew for soul or spirit, nephesh and ruach, are derivatives of a root which means to breathe; and in Sanscrit the word atma (analogous to the Greek ατμος , vapor or air) signifies both mind and wind or air.” Jehovah is here styled the God of all human spirits, to intimate his perfect acquaintance with the mental, moral, and spiritual characteristics of all men, and hence his ability to select the man who should succeed to the leadership of Israel, soon to be made vacant by the death of Moses.