About the man

“Dr. Apostolos Makrakis (1831-1905) was a charismatic and controversial Greek Orthodox lay theologian, preacher, ethicist and philosopher who was a leader of the “awakening movement” in post-revolutionary Greece, and arguably one of the most important religious personalities of the 19th century. He was an extremely prolific writer whose works were translated widely outside of Greece, however his vigorous religious movement eventually turned the Holy Synod against him, resulting in his being condemned and jailed several times.

“…Apostolos Makrakis made ten Gospel tours across the country in total during his lifetime, becoming the most influential figure on the development of the Greek Church in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

“As a preacher, he was a new phenomenon in newly reborn Greece. Preaching during that period mostly was an activity of the marginal competitors of the Church, so that preaching, especially outside the temples by non-authorized figures, was violently repressed.

“…Apostolos Makrakis, the inspired theologian and powerful preacher of blessed memory…was gifted with a great mind, a deeply cultivated Christian heart, and an enthusiastic soul devoted exclusively to the Savior Jesus Christ.”[1]

Makrakis belief about man as spirit, soul, and body:

“Heaven-roving and God-taught St. Paul shows man to be composed of three essences when in writing to the Thessalonians he says: ‘And the very God of peace render you entirely complete; and may your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ’ (Thess. 5: 23). Further the same Apostle in writing to the Hebrews says: “‘the Logos of God is so perspicuous that it separates the soul from the spirit.” So here you have three proved elements in man verified by reason and by experience and by the Holy Bible itself, namely, a spirit, a soul, and a body.”[2]

The doctrinal opposition to Makrakis

A biographer commented on the hostile motive of the bishop who rallied the synod to condemn Makrakis:

“…so long as Makrakis combated only Freemasonry and neither said nor wrote anything against the high priests, he was recommended by the latter as the Saviour of Orthodoxy, but when he proved certain high priests to be guilty of the crime of Simony [the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things] and demanded their dismissal in accordance with the sacred regulations of the Church, war began to be waged upon him as a heretic teaching that man consists of body, soul, and spirit. Makarios, Bishop of Karystia, published excommunications and anathemas in opposition to this belief.”[3]

Affirmations from a defender of Makrakis

[Here is a reference to his teaching about the nature of man, beginning with the creation of Adam in Genesis 2:7. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” NKJV]

“That the soul and the spirit of man are two different constituents of man can be proved by the Holy Bible itself and by the Fathers of the Church, as Apostolos Makrakis has shown. For every soul has received a body analogous to its nature and destiny, as is attested by the Bible, which says: ‘“‘Let the earth bring forth a living soul after its kind, quadrupeds and reptiles and wild beasts of the earth after their kind: and it was so. And God made the wild beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and all the reptiles of the earth after their kind: and God saw that they were good” (Gen. 1: 24-25). According to this passage God took the soul of every animal out of the earth, whether it were a wild beast, or one of the cattle, or a reptile, and invested it with a body analogous to its nature and destiny; accordingly, every animal was formed as a composite of soul and body. Similarly He took the soul of man out of the earth and moulded a body for it analogous to its nature and destiny. And for this reason the Bible says: “‘And God formed man out of the dust of the ground,” meaning, the soul together with the body, and not a body without a soul, as the irrational and arbitrary interpretation offered by modernistic theologians would have it by distorting the sense of the words of the Bible, which goes on to say: “‘and (God) breathed into his person a breath (or spirit) of life; and the man became a living soul’ (Gen. 2: 7), vivified by the Spirit of God, who had already made the soul… The word man as signifying a human being, of either sex and of any age, denotes the two constituents of a human being, namely, the soul and the body, both of which, according to the Bible, were taken out of the earth; thereupon there was added the spirit breathed in, by virtue of which the soul received the additional attribute of life, and man thus became a tricomposite creature consisting of three distinct essences, namely, body, soul, and spirit, and not bicomposite.”

[Concerning I Thessalonians 5: 23] “These positions concerning the soul and concerning the tricomposite constitution of man were shown by the teacher Makrakis directly from the beginning to be true by means of countless testimonies of Scripture and by means of logical proofs, which the enemies of the truth were unable to traverse, except by the offer of unwitnessed and unproved calumnies and slanders. Thus, in the first place they garbled the positions of the teacher by omitting the words immaterial, immortal, and substituting therefor the contrary words material, mortal, and afterwards traducing and slandering him…”[4]

Other testimonies of trichotomy in Greek Orthodoxy of the day.

“GREGORY PARAMICHAEL, [was] a contemporary of A. Makrakis and a professor of theology in the National University of Athens, Greece. He wrote the Preface to the Practical Sunday Sermons on the Gospels, by Constantine Callinicos, former parson of the Greek Orthodox Community of Manchester, England. Among other things in the Preface he writes the following: ‘According to the three components of man, namely, the body, the soul, and the spirit,’ etc. (Edition of Alexandria, 1916, page xii). Here is clear and unmistakable evidence concerning the tricompositeness of man and taught by a professor of theology, and one belonging officially to the clergy of the Church of Greece.”[5]

Conclusion

Note that this influential, scholarly, Greek Orthodox preacher taught man as trichotomous with strong arguments from the Bible, and Church history, and contemporary Orthodox teachers. The debate about dichotomy versus trichotomy continues in the Protestant church also.

JBW

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[1] Quotes from https://orthodoxwiki.org/Apostolos_Makrakis

[2] The Paramount Doctrines of Orthodoxy by Apostolos Makrakis Translated by D. Cummings. Chicago: The Orthodox Christian Education Society, 1954
( Referenced at www.Archive.org )

[3] https://orthodoxwiki.org/Apostolos_Makrakis

[4] The Paramount Doctrines of Orthodoxy

[5] The Paramount Doctrines of Orthodoxy