Man

"Man" in Scripture most often translates the Hebrew ʾadam and the Greek anthrōpos, words for the human being as such — the individual and the race together — rather than for the male sex, which the Hebrew ʾish and the Greek anēr more precisely name. This is an established point of lexical fact, and it matters for reading the English word. The concept the Bible works with is creaturely and relational: Psalm 100:3 grounds human identity in being made by Yahweh and belonging to him — "It is he who has made us, and we are his" — so that being human is first a matter of derivation and possession, not of autonomy.

Scripture speaks of the human person as both outwardly and inwardly constituted. Matthew 10:28 sets body and soul side by side as both liable to destruction, and 2 Corinthians 4:16 describes an outward person decaying while the inward person is renewed — the text's own vocabulary. Ephesians 3:16 prays for strength in the inner person, and 1 Thessalonians 5:23 names spirit, soul, and body together in a single blessing. Hebrews 4:12 speaks of the word dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. The text uses these terms fluidly rather than as a fixed technical anatomy, and readers have long differed over whether Scripture assumes two parts or three.

The concept is also moral and corporate. The human being is fallen and needs ransom and rebirth: the Son of Man comes "to give his life as a ransom for many" (Matthew 20:28), and entry into God's Kingdom requires being "born of water and Spirit" (John 3:5; compare John 3:3). Yet the same humanity is gathered into one: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). Knowledge of God comes to this creature as light in the heart, "in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6), received by faith rather than sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

Traditions read the concept differently. Eastern Orthodox teaching characteristically emphasizes the whole person as called to transformation and union with God, and treats the inner person as a site of ongoing renewal. Reformed and evangelical theology has debated dichotomist and trichotomist readings of passages like 1 Thessalonians 5:23 and Hebrews 4:12, with most confessional statements settling on body and soul while granting the terms are not used systematically. Roman Catholic teaching has classically defined the human person as embodied soul, with the body essential rather than incidental. On the English word itself, some traditions read generic "man" language as inclusive of all humanity and adjust translation accordingly, while others retain it as the inherited rendering of ʾadam and anthrōpos; Galatians 3:28 is cited on both sides of the wider discussion about men and women in the church.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.