Kerwin Jr. Holmes

The term "soul" is best understood at base level to be the equivalent to what we in Modern English mean by the word "character." The living life of a person does not constitute all that the person chooses to do. For example, we all have breath of life, spirit, but that spirit is the same when we are angry, sad, and happy. Our character is what changes in those instances: what we actually experience and how we choose to respond according to our character/personality.
If you follow the examples that you gave out carefully, they all mostly relate to how God is responding according to His character to the situation at hand. A trustworthy summary is that the soul is "the seat of decision-making and identity."

So yes, Jesus, by being God and thus being Spirit, did have a soul/character/personality before becoming incarnated. When He was born, however, that character was limited to human standards according to the nature of the human body that He had in terms of its expression (Jesus grew in wisdom and stature as a young child to a grown man, yet being God in human form, He constantly chose to remain at a loss for His more divine attributes in order to remain perfectly human for the purpose of atonement-- the Bible calls this when "He emptied Himself").

So incarnate Jesus very much both has a human and divine soul, but it is one soul with both natures. Now, though, after being glorified in resurrection as the King of all kings, Jesus no longer needs to limit His divine attributes to the extent of us creature humans (Jesus by nature being the only Creator human) in order to be obedient. Jesus does have real local, bodily location, and that is in heaven. But Jesus also is able to hear all prayers at all times spoken to Him, something that requires the soul/character aka *characteristics/nature* of God.

This is a very technical answer, but the best way to put it forward is to read through the Gospel of John starting at that famous passage of John 1. You will notice that John tries his best to avoid calling Jesus "God" until after the resurrection has occurred, and then after that Peter, in speaking to Jesus while being restored back to fellowship after his denial, and this is after Jesus had demonstrated that He is no longer limiting Himself by normal human constraints of the body, says that Jesus knows all things. John is by no means saying that Jesus became God, but that it then became clear to Thomas and the disciples once Jesus received license from the Father to no longer restrain Himself as a man that Jesus really is God.

John, or the writer of the Gospel of John, was extremely careful to weave that bit of theology into the narrative. It certainly was something that many struggled with early on, as testified by the theological defenses of Jesus having a real human body in 1 John. 

Nowadays some people sometimes go into excess and say that beyond functionally having a human soul, Jesus somehow literally had in His body both a human soul and a divine soul as a dual unity of spiritual existence in the physical world. The error with that statement is that the soul is spirit, and God is not divisible by the Spirit or changing, God is immutable.

July 27 2017 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

James James Computer professional, post graduate

Jesus was perfect human and true God, complete human and complete God at the same time. The divinity and humanity of Jesus was distinct attributes in Him. When Jesus said on the cross " Father, into your hands I commit my spirit", his human soul went up to heaven similar to the soul of any good children of God when he/she die. 
The divine spirit/soul of Jesus always stayed with him before his human incarnation, during his earthly life, after his death on the cross, during the 40 days after resurrection on earth and now seated at the right hand of God the Father.
So, Jesus had a human soul and a divine soul since he was a perfect human and true God. This mystery is hard to fathom, similar to the mystery of Trinity. Father, Son & Holy Spirit - three persons, but one God!

April 24 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report