Anthropology

Biblical anthropology addresses the questions of human origin, nature, constitution, purpose, and destiny as Scripture presents them. The foundational text is Genesis 1:26-27, declaring that human beings are made in the image and likeness of God (imago Dei) — a dignity shared by no other earthly creature. Genesis 2:7 describes God forming man from the dust of the ground and breathing into him the breath of life, making him a 'living being' (nephesh chayyah) — a unity of physical matter and divine animation rather than a body merely inhabited by a soul. The OT's psychosomatic unity means that body, soul (nephesh), spirit (ruach), heart (lev), and conscience function as aspects of a whole person rather than separable components.

The NT carries forward this integration while adding eschatological dimensions: Paul's language of body, soul, and spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 does not define three ontological parts but emphasizes the total sanctification of the whole person. The fall (Gen. 3) introduced the disruption of the imago Dei through sin, though the image was not obliterated — it remains the basis of the prohibition against murder (Gen. 9:6) and the source of human dignity. Redemption in the NT is presented as restoration of the image: believers are being renewed 'in knowledge after the image of its creator' (Col. 3:10) and will ultimately bear 'the image of the man of heaven' (1 Cor. 15:49). Biblical anthropology thus frames human existence between creation in God's image and eschatological conformity to the image of Christ.