Contents
Ruach in the Bible, when coupled with neshama, generates the most dominant species on Earth, Humankind.
Spirit, ruach in the Bible parallels power and ability to do. We saw ALL living beings are so endowed. However, as with software, there are various levels. BIOS and firmware are the minimum requirements, and they animate all animals with their diverse instincts.
(Mind-Body Problem Solved, Chapter 25 – Table of Contents)
Let’s see the higher levels of computer software that accomplish astounding feats and put lower-level firmware to shame. Of course, that is a manner of speaking, but we must realize the vast chasm separating these two types of software just as the abyss separates animals from humans.
The critical feature of firmware is its design to do ONLY ONE specific task. For example, firmware for a wristwatch can NOT run cookware and, of course, vice versa. Such software is beneficial for one particular assignment, but it stops there; it is totally limited with practically no modification of its essential functions.
- BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) performs hardware initialization.
- Firmware provides low-level control for a device’s specific hardware.
However, the following types of software are open to unlimited exploitation.
Human Software
3. An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources and provides standard services for computer programs. You have at least one of the three on your computer, Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. Mobile phones have Android and IOS (Apple).
4. A computer program is a collection of instructions that performs a specific task when executed by a computer. A computer requires programs to function. The best known are Microsoft Office and Apple iWork. They include word processors, game programs, spreadsheets, database systems, graphics programs, and web browsers.
There’s one operating system, the neshama. We add multiple individual programs representing the skills, the ruach-programs, each human acquires and develops.
Neshama – Human operating system software
Now, we come to you and me. Not only do we have more than 32 symbols of prehistoric beings, but we have language(s) to make words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, books, series, and encyclopedias. Considering the subjects humans have researched, learned, and written about, it is safe to say humans are limitless in their mental capacities. I’m not saying humans can do anything and everything, but they’re unlimited in their imagination to do anything and everything.
What confers on human beings this limitless imagination?
Humans have a different Operating System than any other beings, including prehistoric beings that have walked this planet. God breathed this human operating system into Adam’s nostrils in Genesis 2:7. It is the neshama. Never before and never since has any other type of physical being been endowed with neshama, contrary to ruach, which animated prehistoric beings and now energizes animals. That’s why it’s the neshama, and NOT the ruach God breathes into Adam’s nostrils as indicated in Genesis 2:7; this is a preeminently historic moment.
Adam is the first (hu)man, the precursor of the Second man, Jesus Christ Himself. Breathing neshama into Adam’s nostrils is a unique, awe-inspiring moment that initiated the Plan of God and the Story of Humankind.
The neshama, the human consciousness, confers on each human being born into this world, HUMAN SINGULARITIES. The Explanation defined those five fundamental characteristics of purpose, function, socialization, rulership, and reasoning; this is the operating system that God breathed into Adam.
Rule number 2:
Regarding software, we must make a crucial distinction between computer software and human neshama. Computer software is mechanistic. (Read Andrei Sorin’s information, it is vital to understand the fundamental limitations of computers.) It is limited to mechanically calculating possibilities and combinations based on data that has been input into that machine. You can stuff, even force-feed a computer with data. Its own sensors can gather information but the device is ONLY capable of handling that data, which it can do very well, even better than humans. Computers are LIMITED to mechanically managing acquired data.
On the contrary, humans have limitless imagination. Data input does not limit humans. I’m not talking about memory or capacity to retain and recall encyclopedic facts and figures; I’m talking about the human ability to add data to their ruach, their minds, by themselves. To innovate, find new solutions, invent, and create. That is the prerogative of the human mind and only the human mind. That is the open-source operating system God breathed into Adam.
The firmware that endows all NON-human beings can only activate their possessor to that software’s specific and distinct level. That firmware cannot be inserted in any other device and cannot transmit its capacities to any other firmware/device. Each non-human species/being that possesses ruach in the Bible is a unique species/being, and they cannot go beyond the instinct or capacity conferred on them via their ruach.
Humans are a different and unique species. They alone have neshama, analogous to an OPEN-SOURCE operating system characterized by imagination and creativity. Humans can write the computer code, the firmware, to send a human into space. They can install the code on a dedicated computer and use it to send Neil Armstrong to the moon. In a billion years, a computer could never write the code; this is the difference between possessing neshama, open-source operating systems, and simple firmware-ruach.
The human neshama, an open-source operating system is the five fundamental characteristics of:
- Purpose
- Function
- Socialization
- Rulership
- Reasoning
At birth each human is endowed with with unlimited bounds in these areas. Unlimited is tongue in cheek, because, of course, we’re limited by our nature and nurture, our genetics and environment-education. We shall see this aspect, but the fact is ALL types of rulership operate, revealing this open-source diversity.
Ruach – Human computer programs
For humans, it doesn’t stop with an open-source operating system; that’s just the starting point. That’s why I refer to it as consciousness. Just like a computer, an OS manages the computer itself and provides standard services for the various computer programs that you upload to the machine. The most common applications are email, word processing, spreadsheets and databases, graphics, and messaging.
But the breakdown is multitudinous, and there are thousands, even hundreds of thousands of computer applications on the market today. I have developed a specific one for the internet, a Bible Concordance that you can find at UnlockBibleMeaning.com. Human ruach, the mind, can access, choose, and download-acquire any of these ruach-programs into their compatible ruach-mind through learning and practice. Each person can write, do math, draw, converse, and do many other occupations.
The OS and programs work together, one is of no real practical value without the other. Similarly, in humans, neshama and ruach combine, consciousness and mind work in cohorts. Everyone has the five capacities of purpose, function, socialization, rulership, and reasoning conferred by the neshama. We then individualize and personally weave each of those characteristics with a choice of ruach-programs we add and develop as part of our minds; that’s the ruach in the Bible for all humans.
A baby is born with consciousness, but it has no skills, no competencies, and no capabilities. Yes, it has genetic nature passed on via its parental genealogy. As the baby grows, progressing through critical learning periods, the parents and the nurture upload programs which work in conjunction with the neshama, the toddler’s consciousness. Those programs express themselves through the brain, sending signals to the rest of the body. So, for example, there’s a program for learning about sights and sounds, feeling mom’s skin, and relishing dad’s care (there are physical and mental programs).
Later there are applications of how to eat, walk, and speak. No two babies receive the same education or the same programs; this explains why each human being is an individual with their particular ruach-applications.
All human beings have neshama, consciousness, an open-source operating system PLUS ruach, their mind and mind-power to choose and activate countless learning, skill, social, art, professional, life, and other ruach-programs. The knowledge and skills each of us uploads into our minds become part of our individual nature and nurture. Add, mix, and stir all these components together, and you have a distinctive human being; the ruach in the Bible refers to this individuality when it relates, “…every (hu)man according to his several ability.” Therefore, we have a unique mixture of various levels and abilities.
14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.
15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.
I can’t go into all the details here, but later in life, or rather, more than ever, quite early in life, the child begins to upload its OWN programs (hence the need for parental control!). Youngsters, teenagers, and adults have likes and dislikes, talents, and aptitudes. Each, in function of their physical and mental makeup, will be drawn to particular experiences, studies, and professions.
There is a choice of hundreds of thousands, even millions of ruach-programs. Some humans will even create new programs. Human ruach in the Bible is manifold. They’ll discover, design, or invent something no one has ever done. That’s the open-source neshama with open-source ruach-programs producing unique individuals, which we all are. But some are more outstanding than others—different abilities.
We will continue to build out the relationship between God, humans, animals, neshama, and ruach in the Bible. Here is a diagram with consciousness, mind, instinct, and human software. It will be modified and added to; for instance, we need to include the role of the brain and body.
In Genesis 2:7, God breathed neshama into Adam and formed the spirit in him, launching the story of humankind. Human imagination, creativity, purpose, behavior, socialization, rulership, and reasoning are open-source. We shall ever be amazed at what human beings can and will do. Both good and evil. Humans have free choice to conceive and upload any ruach-program they want. Their imagination is limitless. The question is, where is this heading? The Explanation narrates this story of humankind, the profound story of ruach in the Bible.
Dig Deeper into The Explanation
Join The Explanation Newsletter to stay informed of updates. and future events. No obligations, total privacy, unsubscribe anytime, if you want.
Online Study Courses to Unlock Bible meaning via Biblical Hebrew… with no fuss. Free video courses that put you in the driver’s seat to navigate the Bible as never before. Join now
The Explanation series of seven books. Free to read online or purchase these valuable commentaries on Genesis 1-3 from your favorite book outlet. E-book and paperback formats are available. Use this link to see the details of each book and buy from your favorite store.
Since you read all the way to here… you liked it. Please use the Social Network links just below to share this information from The Explanation, Ruach in the Bible Part 2. Creates Amazing Human Superiority