Watchman Nee & Witness Lee — Creation
b6 — The Spiritual Man
Creation of Man — Gen. 2:7 and the Tripartite Constitution
In Part I, Chapter 1 (“Spirit, Soul and Body”), section “The Creation of Man,” Nee analyzes Gen. 2:7 as the foundational text for the tripartite structure of man:
“And Jehovah God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7 ASV). When God first created man He formed him of dust from the ground, and then breathed “the breath of life” into his nostrils. As soon as the breath of life, which became man’s spirit, came into contact with man’s body, the soul was produced. Hence the soul is the combination of man’s body and spirit. The Scriptures therefore call man “a living soul.”
(Part I, ch. 1, section “The Creation of Man”; Gen. 2:7)
“The breath of life became man’s spirit; that is, the principle of life within him.”
(Part I, ch. 1, section “The Creation of Man”)
“‘Formed man of dust from the ground’ refers to man’s body; ‘breathed into his nostrils the breath of life’ refers to man’s spirit as it came from God; and ‘man became a living soul’ refers to man’s soul when the body was quickened by the spirit and brought into being a living and self-conscious man.”
(Part I, ch. 1, section “The Creation of Man”; Gen. 2:7)
“A complete man is a trinity — the composite of spirit, soul and body.”
(Part I, ch. 1, section “The Creation of Man”)
Interpretation: The tripartite constitution spirit-soul-body is for Nee not merely an anthropological scheme but a creation-theological explanation: Gen. 2:7 describes in three verbs three distinct elements of man, each with its own origin and function.
The Breath of God as Origin of the Human Spirit
Nee carefully distinguishes between the human spirit (derived from God’s breath) and God’s own life:
“We must recognize, though, that this spirit is not God’s Own life, for ‘the breath of the Almighty gives me life’ (Job 33:4). It is not the entrance of the untreated life of God into man, neither is it that life of God which we receive at regeneration.”
(Part I, ch. 1, section “The Creation of Man”; Job 33:4)
“What we receive at new birth is God’s Own life as typified by the tree of life. But our human spirit, though permanently existing, is void of ‘eternal life.‘”
(Part I, ch. 1, section “The Creation of Man”)
Nee also cites Zech. 12:1 as confirmation of the divine origin of the human spirit:
“The Lord … formed the spirit of man within him.”
(Part I, ch. 2 “Spirit and Soul”; Zech. 12:1)
Interpretation: Nee draws a sharp distinction: the human spirit is of divine origin (the breath breathed out by God), but it is not God’s own life — that is only received at regeneration. Creation therefore produces a spirit that is capable but empty.
Purpose of Creation — God’s Original Intention for Man
In Part I, Chapter 3 (“The Fall of Man”) Nee articulates the purpose of creation:
“The original purpose of God is that the human soul should receive and assimilate the truth and substance of God’s spiritual life. He gave gifts to men in order that man might take God’s knowledge and will as his own.”
(Part I, ch. 3 “The Fall of Man”)
“If man’s spirit and soul would maintain their created perfection, healthiness and liveliness, his body would then be able to continue forever without change. If he would exercise his will by taking and eating the fruit of life, God’s Own life undoubtedly would enter his spirit, permeate his soul, transform his entire inner man, and translate his body into incorruptibility.”
(Part I, ch. 3 “The Fall of Man”)
“The man god fashioned was notably different from all other created beings. Man possessed a spirit similar to that of the angels and at the same time had a soul resembling that of the lower animals. When God created man He gave him a perfect freedom.”
(Part I, ch. 3 “The Fall of Man”)
Interpretation: The purpose of creation is for Nee teleological: man was created as a tripartite constitution so that he could receive God’s own life through the tree of life. Creation is incomplete without this salvation-historical goal — a theme that runs parallel to the container concept in The Economy of God (b2).
The Fall and Creation — The Reversed Order
Nee describes the fall as a disruption of the God-intended order spirit → soul → body:
“Before the fall of man, however, the soul, in spite of its many activities, was governed by the spirit. And this is the order God still wants: first the spirit, then the soul, and lastly the body.”
(Part I, ch. 1 “Spirit, Soul and Body”)
“Before man committed sin the power of the soul was completely under the dominion of the spirit.”
(Part I, ch. 1 “Spirit, Soul and Body”)
“‘The fruit of the knowledge of good and evil’ uplifts the human soul and suppresses the spirit. God does not forbid man to eat of this fruit merely to test man. He forbids it because He knows that by eating this fruit man’s soul life will be so stimulated that his spirit life will be stifled. This means man will lose the true knowledge of God and thus be dead to Him.”
(Part I, ch. 3 “The Fall of Man”; Gen. 2:17)
Interpretation: For Nee, the fall is not primarily a moral transgression but a cosmic-structural reversal: the spirit-soul-body hierarchy established at creation is inverted to soul-body-spirit. In this way man loses the organ of contact with God.
Not Found in This Work
The following creation subthemes were not found in this work:
- Creatio ex nihilo (no explicit treatment)
- Imago Dei as a theological category (no explicit passage)
- Dominion mandate
- Stewardship and ecology
- Providence of creation
- Theodicy
- New creation / apokatastasis