The Bible is not a psychology book, but God is the Creator of humankind and Bible psychology. He outlines mental health fundamentals for all.
Two Greek words compose Bible psychology; psyche, meaning consciousness, and logos, meaning study. In English. We use psyche with other significations like spirit and soul.
Consciousness and Mind
At the base of the mind is consciousness. As defined by Genesis 2:7, this is the neshama, the understanding and awareness that God places in each human being. Consciousness is present from birth and is the fundamental makeup of every human. Neshama identifies what a human is.
(Transform Your Mind, Upgrade Your Life – Chapter 19)
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Each human possesses the five elements: Purpose, Conduct, Reasoning, Socialization, and Rulership, and interaction is permanent and continuous from the start of life to the end. It is portrayed as a circle to show the equal presence of these five traits.
The mind, the spirit-ruach encompasses this circle on all sides; the neshama and ruach are inseparable. The Explanation has already clarified that the mind is ruach, the spirit in (hu)man(s) (Job 32:8) placed there by God. So if we want to use the term spirit, no problem. This power activates, mobilizes, triggers, switches on, calls on, and stimulates; specifically, the spirit in humans energizes our consciousness, the neshama.
The mind is continuously active regarding consciousness. Bible psychology involves both working together.
Everything the mind does, thinking mentally, or accomplishing physically, is associated with the five elements of consciousness. For instance, take purpose. Each person thinks about their purpose in life; some, even many, depending on culture and other circumstances, have no say in their life destiny. Others may follow their whims. Many might not know and take time to figure it out. Based on their talents and likes, some might know at an early age what they want to accomplish and set a plan in motion to reach that goal.
All the thinking, hesitation, fortitude, planning, effort, or not to do something with one’s life is mind activity around the conscious concept that humans have a purpose.
What about the Brain?
You’ve noticed that whereas practically all psychology books focus on the brain and neuroscience, Transform Your Mind has not broached this subject. Genesis 2:7 says God formed man from the dust of the earth. That includes the visible measurable brain. Neshama, consciousness, and ruach, mind, are spirits; hence, they are invisible and outside the material body. The physical brain is the transducer that converts mind waves to brainwaves and vice-versa. It allows our mind to interact with our body to transmit our physical sensations (from our five senses) to our non-physical thoughts and vice versa.
The brain is an extremely important part of our body but emotions, thoughts, feelings, etc. do not originate there. Please read The Human Brain. Its Surprising Agile Role in Body and Mind in Mind-Body Problem Solved for a full explanation.
Internal and external influences
Our consciousness and minds are subject to every influence around us. So these effects need to be added to the definition of the psychology diagram. To different degrees, each person has intuition, personal experiences, subconscious activity, dreams, emotions, and feelings. These are very powerful because they are vivid personal events we have lived in our minds and bodies. They are real and authentic. There’s no point in denying them and no point in trying to convince someone of their non-existence.
There are external events over which we have no or little control. We are born into conditions beyond our control. The first influence we undergo is socialization. Do parents, mother, and father cuddle us? Does Mom breastfeed us? Is Dad present, and does he play with us? These simple questions have everlasting effects on babies to be, children to be, adults to be, and the next generation of leaders responsible for the generation of babies after us. And the circle goes round and round.
This is the nurture aspect of human make-up each of us bears and, in adolescence and adulthood, brings into our decisions, relationships, and way of life. These influences can be negative, neutral, or positive. We all have a personal mixture of these traits representing our personality and character. This whole combination of components makes us an individual like no other on this planet.
It is the combination of all these influences on our consciousness and mind that results in the state of our mental health. When we are in control and mastering these elements in line with proper Purpose, Conduct, Reasoning, Socialization, and Rulership, we benefit from mental health. When these conditions are non-existent or out of kilter, when Bible psychology is out of focus, we can suffer from mental ill-health.
Psychology 101 – Its Biblical Meaning
Let’s look at the meaning of the two Greek words that compose psychology, psycho and logos. Please understand an important point. Practically nobody knows that breath is neshama in Genesis 2:7. And nobody besides The Explanation has revealed that neshama is the equivalent of consciousness. I’m not saying this to boast, because God revealed this. I’m stating it because nobody has this theology of the Old Testament. So, when we come to New Testament psycho, we can’t expect any better theology or translations. This is the origin of total confusion.
Psyche
The number of translations in Hebrew and Greek reveals the difficulty with the concepts of spirit, and mind. The translation consciousness is not to be found anywhere in the Bible.
In Hebrew, mind is translated by the words: zimma (plan – H2154), yetzer (purpose – H3336), lev (heart – H3820), nefesh (soul – H5315), peh (mouth – H6264), ruach (spirit – H7307)
There are 15 Greek words rendered mind or derivatives like bring to mind. The principal words are noos (understanding – G3563), and phroneo (understanding – G5426). The primary Greek word is psuche (G5990) from which we get psycho, the first part of Bible psychology. It appears 109 times and is rendered mind a mere 3x, life 40x, and soul 58x. Do you see the confusion?
ψυχή psuchē psoo-khay’; From G5594; breath that is (by implication) spirit abstractly or concretely (the animal sentient principle only; thus distinguished on the one hand from G4151 which is the rational and immortal soul; and on the other from G2222 which is mere vitality even of plants: these terms thus exactly correspond respectively to the Hebrew [H5315] [H7307] and [H2416]:
KJV – heart (+ -ily), life, mind, soul + us + you.
The following verse points us in the right direction of understanding.
Only let your conversation be as it becomes the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit (G4151 pneuma), with one mind (G5590 psuche) striving together for the faith of the gospel;
We have no difficulty understanding the English translations spirit and mind. However, I would offer you an alternative; ruach (pneuma – spirit) and neshama (psuche – consciousness). Do a study at UnlockBibleMeaning.com, find G5590 (psuche), display all the the verses using Greek Concordance for G5590, and substitute the translation consciousness for psuche.
Paul tells the Philippians to think (with their minds-pneuma) like Christ based on their five-fold God-given consciousness (psuche). In other words, they are to think as Christ thinks about Purpose, Conduct, Reasoning, Socialization, and Rulership. That they should be God-Bible aligned.
Logos
In dictionary terms, logos, the logy of Bible psychology, means a study or research of consciousness. To understand the confusion that reigns in the study and research of this subject, I suggest you peruse this article. I leave you with a partial quote: “…there is still a lot of difference of opinion concerning what the exact nature of mind is, and various competing definitions have been proposed.” A similar article about consciousness states “Opinions differ about what exactly needs to be studied or even considered consciousness.” That says it all.
Logos has other meanings, like logic or reasoned discourse, as well as logo, which can identify companies and organizations we see around us all the time. In Biblical terms, Logos is of the utmost importance, translated as the Word and used as the name of God (Revelation 19:13) and Scripture (Luke 8:11).
Logos means sound reasoning and proper science dealing with the rules and processes used in accurate thinking and reasoning—the logic, reflection, and meditation that come from God’s Word. So, the definition of Bible psychology is NOT about humankind’s research of the psyche; Bible psychology is the psuche and pneuma under the benevolence of God’s Logos.
From Creation, we have neshama and ruach, with God informing Adam and Eve how to use them. In the next chapter, we shall see the Old Testament teachings on mental health well-being for ALL humans, which, we will see are still valid today.
The definition of Bible psychology: God’s Word applied to the neshama and ruach.
The Logos as the basis for mastering our psuche and pneuma.
The diagram reveals the psuche-consciousness and the pneuma-mind under the caring umbrella of God’s Logos, God’s Word: practical, efficient Bible psychology.
From the confusion of science and philosophy, we come to the simplicity of Christ. Frankly, Bible Psychology 101 is not rocket science. We now know what a human being is and how we can function for optimum mental health.
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