Hebrew thought, and therefore the Hebrew way of speaking, is concrete and realist. Greek thought, which has influenced to some degree all our western civilization, is abstract, speculative, analytic. For example, by reflection and analysis Greek philosophy arrived at the notion of man composed of two elements—the one visible and material, the other invisible and spiritual; and for most of us it has become almost instinctive to speak of man as composed of ‘body and soul’, without realising that we are speaking in terms of Greek philosophy.

But the Hebrews took man as they found him—he is just a man, a single thing, a living being endowed with movement and intelligence and speech. of Course, they did distinguish different aspects of this single being, they could look at him from different points of view; but these different aspects were simply aspects of the same single whole— not separate parts which were really different things and only accidentally united.