I was doing some reading about the soul, for no real reason at all, and in my study, I learned that Aristotle believed “the soul is imparted to the body in stages as each part is formed, and the specific soul is not actually present until the form is complete.” According to Aristotle, the final form of the soul is achieved upon the fortieth day after conception (if the soul is male) and upon the eightieth day after conception(if the soul is female).
Now, I would not expect to find any agreement with Aristotle, who was a pagan ancient Greek philosopher, especially in matters of the non-physical realm. So it’s no shocking thing that I read his quote and immediately dismissed it. The ancients were just guessing since they had no hard science or math to fall back on when it came to philosophy (though guys like Pythagoras could determine the shape and curvature of the earth, so…credit where it’s due). On the other hand, it was more surprising for me to read so-called “church scholars,” like Thomas Aquinas and Augustine endorse Aristotle’s idea. Apparently, the issue of when life begins was debated as rigorously then as it is today.
What does the Bible say?
The inspired Moses says that man became a living soul when God breathed life into Adam (Genesis 2:7). While you might be tempted to read that and take the position that a person is not endowed with a soul until they are born, I would caution against that interpretation. For one, if you take the text to mean that, you would have to conclude that the soul is not given until a person becomes an adult, when is what Adam was when he was created. Additionally, I wouldn’t use the Genesis account to make too many observations about life and procreation in general since God’s creation in the beginning was supernatural, and the procreation of all things (man, beast, plant) afterward happened naturally. God made a chicken that later laid eggs, etc.
Actually, the point I would derive from Moses’ words is the idea that the soul God breathed into man was not tied to his physical development at all. God formed man from the dust (an instantaneous process) and then, separately, breathed a soul into him. The soul is spiritual in nature, not physical. When humanity procreates, that is a physical process, but the giving of a soul to a body is, by nature, a spiritual process. Man and woman can produce an offspring, but only God can give life (a soul) to flesh. The soul is spiritual, which means it does not age or develop. It does not grow old. On the contrary, the body around it grows old, and when it dies, the soul leaves the body.
At the moment of conception, the body immediately begins to develop as it ages, and it will continue to develop and age first within the womb, and then later outside of the womb, for the next two decades or so. After that, the body will stop developing, but it will continue aging until death finally takes it. The soul, on the other hand, just “is.” From the beginning of the development of a body, God has given it as much life (a soul) as it is ever going to have.
At the moment of conception, the soul is complete.
~Matthew
(note: I wrote this for our Sunday bulletin about 6 months ago, but I wanted to publish it here so it could be read for more than a day as well as be stumbled-across by people searching about the subject online)