Lexicon

G5590 - psyche

Strong's: G5590 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: psoo-khay' Part of speech: feminine noun LXX equivalent: renders Hebrew nephesh (soul / life, H5315) NT occurrences: 103

Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG / TDNT)

Life / breath of life, the animating principle that distinguishes living from dead
Soul / inner self, the seat of feelings, desires, affections, mental life
Person / self, the whole-personal-individual ("how many psychai perished" = "how many people died")
Mind / intellectual life in some contexts
Eternal soul, the immortal aspect (esp. in Mt 10:28)

The semantic range mirrors Hebrew nephesh (see H5315 - nephesh pending) and Latin anima. A psychē is essentially the living-self, the principle of life and inner-personal existence.

Theological force

Psychē and the body

NT anthropology presents psychē in close relation to sōma (body):

Matthew 10:28, "do not fear those who kill the sōma but cannot kill the psychēn; rather fear Him who can destroy both psychēn and sōma in hell", explicit body / soul distinction; soul survives bodily death; both face final judgment
Matthew 6:25, "do not be worried about your psychē, what you will eat… is not the psychē more than food, and the sōma more than clothing?"
1 Thessalonians 5:23, "may your spirit (pneuma) and psychē and sōma be preserved complete, without blame"
Hebrews 4:12, Word divides "psychēs and pneumatos"
3 John 2, "be in good health, just as your psychē prospers"

The pattern: the psychē is the inner self / life, distinguishable from but integrated with the sōma.

The intermediate state

Several NT passages indicate the psychē survives bodily death:

Revelation 6:9; 20:4, "the psychas of those who had been slain… under the altar"
Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:19-20, psychē as that which can be lost/saved beyond bodily life
Acts 2:27, 31, "His psychēn was not abandoned to Hades"

This grounds the doctrine of the intermediate state, between bodily death and bodily resurrection, the psychē / pneuma exists consciously with the Lord (2 Cor 5:1-10; Phil 1:23, "to depart and be with Christ").

Saving the soul

A key NT pattern, the salvation of the psychē:

Matthew 16:25-26, "for whoever wishes to save his psychēn will lose it; but whoever loses his psychēn for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole kosmos and forfeits his psychēn?"
Mark 8:35-37; Luke 9:24-25, parallel
James 1:21; 5:20, "save his psychēn from death"
1 Peter 1:9, 22; 2:11, 25; 4:19, psychē as the object of salvation

The pattern: salvation includes the eternal destiny of the psychē, beyond bodily life.

Psychē and pneuma, overlap and distinction

The Bible distinguishes psychē (soul) and pneuma (spirit) but does not always sharply separate them:

Psychē, life-principle, inner-self, mind, will, emotion
Pneuma, spirit, the deepest immaterial faculty, capacity for relation with God

Trichotomism (body / soul / spirit as three components) sees these as distinct (1 Thess 5:23; Heb 4:12). Dichotomism sees them as facets of the one immaterial part (Calvin; Berkhof). Both are defensible NT readings.

The psychē is what a human shares with all living beings (animals also have psychē in some passages, Rev 8:9; 16:3); the pneuma is more closely tied to God-relating capacity.

Anti-Greek-philosophical pattern

NT anthropology uses Greek vocabulary (psychē is the Greek philosophical term) but transforms it. The Greek tradition often saw the soul as:

Naturally immortal, soul is divine, body is prison
Pre-existent / reincarnating, Plato; Pythagoras
Separable as goal, escape the body to liberate the soul

Christianity transforms:

Conditionally / contingently immortal, the soul exists by God's gift, not its own nature
Created, at conception, not pre-existent (mainstream view)
Embodied destiny, the soul reunites with a glorified body in resurrection (1 Cor 15)

Connection to Hebrew nephesh

The OT nephesh is rendered psychē in the LXX. The Hebrew nephesh spans similar semantic range:

Genesis 2:7, Adam becomes a "living nephesh"
Leviticus 17:11, "the nephesh of the flesh is in the blood"
Psalm 23:3, "He restores my nephesh"
Psalm 42:1-2, "as the deer pants… so my nephesh pants"

The pattern: nephesh / psychē spans life-principle, inner-self, and personal-individual, never strictly identical with body but never wholly separate either.

Notable verses

Soul / personal life

Matthew 16:26, what shall a man give in exchange for his psychēn?
Mark 12:30, love the Lord with all your psychēs
Luke 1:46, Mary: "my psychē exalts the Lord"
John 12:27, "now My psychē has become troubled"

Soul / life

John 10:11, 15, 17, Christ lays down His psychēn for the sheep
Acts 2:41-43, "psychai added… every psychē kept feeling a sense of awe"
Romans 11:3; 16:4, "they have laid down their psychas"

Salvation / final destiny

Matthew 10:28, fear Him who can destroy psychē and sōma in hell
James 1:21, logon able to save your psychas
1 Peter 1:9, "obtaining as the outcome of your faith the salvation of your psychōn"
Hebrews 10:39, "those who have faith to the preserving of the psychēs"

Patristic / scholarly note

Patristic anthropology engages psychē extensively:

Tertullian (De Anima), first sustained Christian treatise on the soul
Origen, pre-existence-of-souls (controversial; later condemned)
Augustine (De Trinitate; Confessions), soul as image of God
Aquinas (Summa Theologica I, qq. 75-89), comprehensive soul-treatment

Modern: J. P. Moreland & Scott Rae (Body and Soul, 2000); Stewart Goetz & Charles Taliaferro (A Brief History of the Soul, 2011); William Hasker (The Emergent Self, 1999).

Notes

Lexical workspace for psychē.