At first sight the material adduced by Reitzenstein is impressive. It is impressive by its very bulk. The reader is led by the learned investigator into many new and entrancing fields. Surely after so long a journey the traveler must arrive at last at his desired goal. But somehow the goal is never reached. All of Reitzenstein's material, strange to say, seems to prove the exact opposite of what Reitzenstein desires. Reitzenstein desires apparently to explain the Pauline use of the adjectives "psychic" and "spiritual"[196] in 1 Cor. ii. 14, 15; apparently he is quite sure that the usage finds its sufficient basis in Hermes Trismegistus and related sources. But the plain fact--almost buried though it is under the mass of irrelevant material--is that the adjective "psychic" and the adjective "spiritual" occur each only once in the sources which are examined, and that they never occur, as in 1 Cor. ii. 14, 15, in contrast with each other.[197] What is even far more disconcerting, however, is that the noun "spirit"[198] is not used (certainly not used ordinarily) in contrast with "soul,"[199] as Paul uses it. Certainly it is not so used ordinarily in the Hermetic writings. On the contrary, in Hermes the spirit appears, in certain passages, not as something that is higher than the soul, but as something that is lower. Apparently the common Greek materialistic use of "pneuma" to indicate "breath" or "wind" or the like is here followed. At any rate, the terminology is as remote as could be imagined from that of Paul. There is absolutely no basis for the Pauline contrast between the human soul and the divine Spirit.[200] [196] ψυχικός and πνευματικός. [197] On the occurrence of ψυχικός at the beginning of Dieterich's "Mithras Liturgy" (line 24), see Bousset, _Kyrios Christos_, 1913, p. 141, Anm. 1. On the occurrence of πνευματικός, see Reitzenstein, _Hellenistische Mysterienreligionen_, 2te Aufl., 1920, p. 162. Compare Bousset, _Jesus der Herr_, 1916, pp. 80f. [198] πνεῦμα. [199] ψυχή. [200] For this whole subject, see especially the comprehensive monograph of Burton (_Spirit, Soul, and Flesh_, [1918]), with the summary on pp. 205-207.