Psychikos describes what is natural or unspiritual within the contrast a passage supplies. First Corinthians 2 speaks of the natural person not receiving what comes from God's Spirit in an argument centered on Christ crucified and God's freely given gifts.
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Full entry for ψυχικός (G5591) · Open the biblical lexicon
Psychikos describes what is natural or unspiritual within the contrast a passage supplies. First Corinthians 2 speaks of the natural person not receiving what comes from God's Spirit in an argument centered on Christ crucified and God's freely given gifts.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include a natural (2), [The] natural (1), [who are] worldly (1), natural (1), unspiritual (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at 1 Corinthians 2:14. Its strongest book concentrations include 1 Corinthians (4), James (1), Jude (1).
Psychikos describes what is natural or unspiritual within the contrast a passage supplies. First Corinthians 2 speaks of the natural person not receiving what comes from God's Spirit in an argument centered on Christ crucified and God's freely given gifts. Chapter 15 uses the same adjective for the natural body that is sown before the spiritual body is raised, explaining resurrection through Adam and Christ.
Natural bodily life is not thereby called morally worthless. James instead calls jealous, selfish wisdom earthly and unspiritual, while Jude describes divisive people as worldly and without the Spirit. These contexts require different objects and evaluations. The adjective does not sort human beings into permanent ranks of intelligence, dignity or access to care.
Nor does spiritual resurrection mean bodies are discarded. It directs readers to the particular relation between natural life, the Spirit and the argument being made.
Six direct BSB adjective tokens in five verses contrast reception of the Spirit's gifts, natural and raised bodies, jealous wisdom and divisive people without the Spirit. First Corinthians 15:44 uses the adjective twice.
The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The natural person does not accept the Spirit's gifts within Paul's Christ-crucified argument, which locates understanding in God's revelation rather than rhetorical prestige.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.
The sown natural body and raised spiritual body remain bodies in an argument about resurrection, imperishability and transformation through Christ.
The spiritual, however, was not first, but the natural, and then the spiritual.
Natural before spiritual belongs to Paul's Adam-and-Christ sequence, not a claim that ordinary embodied life has no value.
Such wisdom does not come from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
The unspiritual wisdom is specifically marked by bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, contrasted with humble conduct, mercy and peaceful good fruit.
These are the ones who cause divisions, who are worldly and devoid of the Spirit.
Divisive intruders are described as worldly and without the Spirit; believers are then told to build faith, pray and have mercy on doubters.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. Describes humanity operating from soulish nature alone, opposed to Spirit-empowered spiritual maturity.
Describes humanity operating from soulish nature alone, opposed to Spirit-empowered spiritual maturity.
(ψυχή) [in LXX: 4Ma.1:32 * ;] of the ψυχή (as the lower part of the immaterial in man), EV, natural: opposite to πνευματικός, 1Co.2:14 15:44 15:46; πνεῦμα μὴ ἔχοντες (EV, sensual; R, mg., natural or animal; better perhaps, of the mind; see infr.), Ju 19; with ἐπίγειος, δαιμονιώδης, opposite to ἄνωθεν κατερχομένη (σοψία), of the mind (Hort, in l), Jas.3:15
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
animal, natural, sensuous
Read verseanimal, natural, sensuous
Read verseanimal, natural, sensuous
Read verseanimal, natural, sensuous
Read verseanimal, natural, sensuous
Read verseanimal, natural, sensuous
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 4 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
ψυχικός is built from this root:
Indicates absence of the Holy Spirit’s transforming presence.Jude 1:17–19
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Paul's resurrection account answers a question about the body, not how believers can escape embodiment. He describes what is sown and what God raises, moving from weakness and perishability toward power and imperishability through the last Adam. Calling the first body natural therefore does not declare it evil or deny the value of care now. In the wisdom passages, evaluation is different: James names jealousy, ambition and disorder, then contrasts them with gentleness, mercy and sincere peace.
Jude's divisive people are followed by an appeal to build faith, pray in the Spirit and show mercy toward doubt. A teacher should keep these arguments intact. Dependence on the Spirit invites humility and truthful conduct rather than claims of privileged intuition, rejection of learning or contempt for those who ask for reasons.
1Cor.15.44
This adjective agrees with a person, body, wisdom or group according to the sentence. Its connection with natural life does not independently settle a theory of human composition, and grammatical gender does not create a spiritual hierarchy.
Genesis 2:4-9 describes God forming the human from dust and giving breath so the human becomes a living being. First Corinthians quotes that creation witness in its Adam-and-Christ argument; the supporting story honors God-given creaturely life without deciding every question of body and soul terminology.