At ERC, where I fellowship, preach, and teach, we have a question and answer time once a month where people can submit their questions anonymously and then either Thang Bwee or I answer them. For the questions that I have the privilege of answering I’m posting the answers here for your edification and general discussion. If you think there’s room for correction then you’re more than welcome to do that publicly using the comment feature below this post. I look forward to our interactions.
The Question(s)
Ecclesiastes 3:19-21
19 For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity.
20 All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.
21 Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?
I believe that all animals or beasts do not have spirit. But vs. 21 speaks about the spirit of the beast and it even says the spirits of man and beasts are the same (v19). I want to understand what does this passage mean?
The Response(s)
- I’ll answer the second part first, that being “what does this passage mean?” Verses 19-21, like the rest of the book of Ecclesiastes (with exception of the last 2 verses of the final chapter), are to be understood that the author is writing as if imagining or pretending that we are living without consideration of the influence of God. He is saying that life without God is meaningless. So these 4 verses say to us that if there is no God we don’t know what happens to either man or animal and their outcome could very well be the same.
- However, we know that that is not true when we look at other parts of the Bible that tell us we are different to animals and we do know what happens after death (Heb. 9:27; Mat. 25:31-46). Most notably, humanity is made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26-27), while animals are not. Both biblical and scientific evidence demonstrate this. Man alone has the capacity to know and worship God because he has been made in Gods image after Gods likeness.
- See also:
- 1Cor 15:39 For not all flesh is the same, but there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish.
- Prov 15:24 The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol beneath.
- Regarding animal spirits, the original word in the Old Testament parts of the Bible translated as ‘spirit’ can also be translated as breath or wind. (Cf. Gen. 6:3 against Gen. 6:17. The same Hebrew word is translated spirit in one case and breath in the other.) Such verses are teaching that it is God’s Spirit or breath that keeps every creature alive. The same “breath of life” or spirit that keeps each person alive also keeps each animal alive. What happens at death is described in Ecclesiastes 12:7:
“and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.”
- So animals do indeed have a spirit. And the spirit, or better, the breath, that both them and us have is the same thing and that it is from God (Eccl. 12:7).
This answer refers neither to New Testament references to spirit nor the Holy Spirit.
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What are your thoughts on these answers? Agree? Disagree? A bit of both? Please use the comments section to share what you think.
Blessings,
Martin
