The Bible Meaning of 'Soul' - Bible Truth - Welcome · moved by the Holy Spirit" ... especially...

THE BIBLE MEANINGOF

"SOUL"

AN ANIMAL LIFE OR BODYSUBJECT TO DEATH - NOT IMMORTAL

44Whosoever toucheth the dead body(nephesh-soul) of any man that is dead,

and purifieth not himself...shall becut ofr r— Numbers 19:13.

Reprinted 1983 from"The Berean Christadelphian Magazine'

The Bible Meaningof

' 'Sour'

"Whosoever toucheth the dead body (nephesh)of any man that is dead, and pur if ieth not

himself.. .shall be cut off'1 --Numbers 19:13.

To the average person, the word "soul"carries the meaning of an undying,immaterial essence that continues in con-scious existence after death. This concep-tion is accepted without thought orexaminat ion·

As soon as we start to look into thequestion, however, we begin to make veryinteresting discoveries. We find, first ofall, that the BIBLE meaning of soul isALTOGETHER DIFFERENT from this, andimmediately the question arises:

How can the commonly accepted religiousconception of soul be entirely differentfrom the soul of the Bible, seeing that thebeliefs of Christendom are supposed to bebased upon the Bible?

GOD HIDES THE TRUTH FROM ALL BUT A FEW

The Scriptures themselves give theanswer. They tell us that the Truth ishidden from all except those few whose mindsand hearts please God [2 Cor. 4:4; Matt.13:11-15; Mark 4:11; Luke 8:10; 1 Cor. 2:14;Isa. 55:8; Matt. 7:13-14; 20:16; 22:14;

Brackets in this booklet represent addi-tions made by the publisher.

2 THE BIBLE MEANING OF "SOUL"

Matt. 24:12-13; Luke 13;23-24; 18:8; 2 Tim.4:3-4; Matt. 11:25; Luke 10:21]. Divinetruth is not a common thing to be probed byevery curious scholar [1 Cor. 1:17-29;2:1-16; 3:18-20]. Unless a man sets hisheart to seek God and sets his life toconform to GodTs will, he can no more findthe truth of1 Chron. 2828:5; Isa.Matt. 6:33;Acts 17:27;men of Sodom

the Scriptures [Deut. 4:29;9; 2 Chron.55:6; Jer7:7; LukeHeb. 11:6;could find

15:2; 31:21; Prov.29:13; Amos 5:14;

11:9; 12:31; 13:24;Rom. 12:1-2] than thethe door of LotTs

house [Gen. 19:11].

God has said that He will send astrong delusion upon all those who receivenot the LOVE of the Truth, that they shouldbelieve a lie (2 Thess. 2:10-11).

CHRISTENDOM ADMITS "IMMORTAL SOUL"UNBIBLICAL, AND BASED ON GREEK PHILOSOPHY

When we turn to works of reference bythe learned expositors of the immortal soultheory, we see how this "believing a lie"works out quite naturally. Most of themmake no attempt to conceal the fact thatscriptural teaching and popular theologyare very different regarding the meaning of"soul." They arehave developed manythey consider thetions voiced by thespake as they were(2 Peter 1:21).

in fact, proud that they"improvements" upon whatpartial and hazy concep--- "Holy men of God whomoved by the Holy Spirit"

We soon find that wechoose between Scripture

are forced toteaching and

THE BIBLE MEANING OF "SOUL" 3

orthodox Christianity. It is very fortunatefor us that the issue is so clearcut, andthat the leading exponents of the immortalsoul theory are so frank in admission ofits non-Biblical origin. Webster'sDictionary says:

"The Christian conception of the soulderives from the Greek, especially asmodified by the mystery cults, as well asfrom the Bible .. .

"The more exact determination of theChristian conception was reserved for theChurch Fathers, especially Saint Augustine,who taught that it is simple, immaterial andspiritual, devoid of quality and spatialextension. He argued its immortality fromthe fact that it is the repository ofimperishable truth."

Funk & Wagnall Dictionary is evenmore to the point:

"Among the ancient Hebrews ^oul* wasthe equivalent of the principle of life asembodied in living creatures, and thismeaning is continued throughout the Bible·.·

"It was Augustine especially who, inpart on religious grounds and in part as thedisciple of the later Greek Philosophy,taught the simple, immaterial and spiritualnature of the human soul—a view which hasremained that of the scholastic philosophyand of Christian theologians down to thepresent time."

Hasting9 s well-known BibleDictionary freely admits:


"Soul is throughout a great part of theBible simply the equivalent of flife?

embodied in living creature. In the earlierusage of the Old Testament it has noreference to the later philosophical meaning--the animating principle--sti11 less to theidea of an immaterial nature' which willsurvive the body."

The International Standard BibleEncyclopedia says:

"Soul has various shades of meaning inthe Old Testament, which may be summarizedas follows: Soul, living being, life, self,person, desire, appetite, emotion andpass ion.

"Nephesh or soul , can only denote theindividual life with a materialorganization or body.

"In the New Testament Tpsuche! appearsunder more or less similar conditions as inthe Old Testament."

Young's Concordance defines bothnephesh and psuche as "animal soul."

Strong's Concordance defines nepheshas, "A breathing creature, an animal; or,abstractly, vitality." Psuche it likewisedefines as "The animal, sentient principle."

The noted lexicographer Parkhurst(himself a believer in immortal soulism)says:

"As a noun nephesh hath been supposedto signify the spiritual part of man, or


what we commonly call his soul. I must formyself confess that I can find no passageswhere it hath undoubtedly this meaning.

"Gen. 35:18, 1 Kings 17:21-22 andPsalms 16:10 seem fairest for this signi-fication. But may not nephesh in thethree former passages be most properlyrendered 'breath,! and in the last, !abreathing or animal frame'?"

These quotations show clearly that theimmortal soul doctrine is generally admittedby its supporters to be entirely differentfrom the BIBLE meaning of soul, and basedmainly upon GREEK PHILOSOPHY.

IS GODfS WORD A FINAL,INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY?

The issue then is this: is the Word ofGod to be our final authority, or isreligious truth something to be graduallydeveloped by man's speculation on the basisof pagan Greek philosophy?

For nearly 2,000 years, the bulk ofChristendom, beginning with the ChurchFathers, have favored the latter, but therehave always been a few who have regarded theBible as wholly inspired by God, con-sistent from beginning to end, and the onlypossible source of true knowledge of suchthings as life, death and the nature anddestiny of man.

A Bible that is anything less thanthis is NO BIBLE AT ALL. And the Bibleitself leaves no room for compromise. It


takes a bold and unequivocal stand through-out as the direct Word of God in every part[Isa· 8:20; Jer. 36:1-4; 1 Cor. 2:9-13; Gal.1:11-12; 2 Tim. 3:16-17; Heb. 1:1-2; 2 Peter1:19-21; Rev. 1:1-2]. We must accept it asthat, or else throw it away entirely as themost brazen and blasphemous of falsehoods.

Those who take the middle ground arethe Bible's greatest enemies, and thisunfortunately includes the vast majority ofprofessing Christians. They dare not openlydeny its divinity, because it is soobviously divine, but they seek to rob it ofall power by spinning an endless web oftheories around it that confuse the mind anddistract the attention, and obscure itsplain, clear teaching.

It is impossible in any one considera-tion to fully examine the Biblical use andmeaning of "soul." But it is possible tolay the foundation by demonstrating thatpopular theology on the subject isadmittedly derived from other sources thanthe Bible, and is at direct variance withit.

The Bible meaning of "soul" (whichmodern writers mention briefly in passing),is regarded by them as a rather amusingphase of ancient Hebrew speculation, hardlyworthy of serious attention, and which noone laying claim to "modern" learning woulddare allow his name to be associated with.

The following brief outline of theBIBLICAL use of the term is for those few towhom the Bible is still the one unique Bookamong millions—the wholly inspired divine


message to man—one verse of which is worthmore than countless volumes of the cloudy,inconclusive speculations of humanphilosophy and "modern wisdom." [1 Cor.1:17; 2:16; 3:18-20].

THE ORIGINAL WORDS TRANSLATED "SOUL"

In the Old Testament Hebrew, theoriginal word for soul is nephesh. In theNew Testament Greek it is psuche. Bothmean the same thing and are used inter-changeably. One is used to translate theother .

Nephesh occurs about 750 times.About 500 times it is translated "soul"in the Authorized Version. The other 250times it is translated by over 40 differentEnglish words, as shown on the chart on page8.

Psuche occurs about 100 times, andis translated similarly.

It is quite obvious at the outset thata word of such broad application, includingall the animal kingdom, all its bodily [and]physical aspects, CANNOT POSSIBLY indicatesome immortal essence in man distin-guishing him from the lower creation.

It is clear from the words used to tran-slate it that it is related throughout toANIMAL BODIES, including man, and this willbecome more and more clear as we considersome of the passages in which it is used.

Engl i

(1)

soul

beast

sh

Aa

creatur

body

dead

fishthing

2

117

539611

31

11

32

242

(No

13

13te

b1

e

t

t

t

t

t

t

t

t

t

t

t

Soul

r eathi

i ν ing

imeimeimeime

ime

ime

ime

CORRESPONDING WORDS

Hebrew: Nephesh Greek: PsucheMEANINGS OF NEPHESH

ng body, (2

creature, an

) Animal life

animal ·

(3)

WORDS USED IN TRANSLATION(Soul, 472 t imes

man

per

any

one

he,

meson mysel

self

thems

her they

hims elf your s

her

s ·

s :

s

s

s

s

s

imes

imeime

imeLas

sss

t 5

self own

of animals al

of men and an

of individual

of persons do

ο f man: appet

(Prov. 6:30

ο f man : ment a

souls cut offsouls k i l l e dsouls subj ect

souls actuall

-- All others

f soulbreath

elves ghos t

lifeelves

USES OF NEPHESHone (Gen. 1:21-imals together

s, per sons (Gen

ing things (Lev

ites and animal; Gen. 34:3)

t o g e

28)(Num

. 2:

. 5:

des

Latin: Anima

Func t ions ,

of human c

ther, 181)

soul

appet ite

mindhear t

willdesirepleasure

. 31:28)

7)1, 2, and 4

ires

1 faculties, emotions (Gen. 34

by God Psa. 78

by man (Josh. 1

to DEATH (Eze.

y DEAD (I s a . 5 3

souls going to grave (Job 33

, over 320 times, souls dead

:50)

1:11

18 :

: 12 )

: 21)

, dy

)4; Psa. 11:

ing , subj ec

quali t i

r eatures

lustm o r t a 1deadlyr ef reshear t i

greedy

es

#

i ty

h

ly

cont cnt ed

)

:3; Num.

29)

t to dea

21:4)

th)


It can be readily seen, too, that withsuch a range of meaning the translatorscould do much to color the various passagesby their choice of English words—using oneset of terms when used of animals andanother when of man.

On the other hand, it is evident thatin an article of this kind, it is impossibleto quote sufficient of the 850 occurrencesto fully illustrate the word, and that bychoosing obscure, borderline passages, avery distorted picture could be drawn.

Therefore, only a careful, individualinvestigation, seeking divine guidance, canbring solid, durable conviction and enlight-enment· THERE IS NO SHORT CUT TO THEENLIGHTENED FAITH THAT LEADS TO SALVATION.

For instance, soul is used in relationto God. He says: "My servant in whom MYSOUL delighteth" (Isa. 42:1). But examin-ation will show that this is a very excep-tional, isolated use, and is a figure ofspeech that has no bearing on the literalmeaning of soul. The expression "my soul"is often used simply as an emphatic termmeaning "myself," because of its undeniableanimal basis. Clearly it is in this second-ary sense of emphasis only [that] it is usedof God.

"THE SCRIPTURES CANNOT BE BROKEN11

As in the case of most other Biblicalsubjects, we find ourselves taken back tothe opening chapters of Genesis when webegin to examine the meaning of soul.


There the foundations for many things arelaid, and lost indeed are those poor"modern" thinkers who dismiss these earlybooks of the Bible as folklore and fairytales .

Here again, let us courageously facethe consequences of our convictions,Christ put his seal upon the ancient HebrewScriptures as the unbreakable Word of God·He said:

"The SCRIPTURES CANNOT BE BROKEN" (John10:35).

And again (John 5:47): "If ye believe notMoses1 writings, how shall ye believe mywords?"

If we reject Moses' writings, let us atleast be consistent and reject ChristTs too.If we believe in Christ, let us give thoseHoly Writings he endorses our full assuranceof faith.

NEPHESH: FIRST USED OF ANIMALS

THE FIRST FOUR OCCURRENCES OF THE WORD"NEPHESH" RELATE EXCLUSIVELY TO ANIMALS.That is a good fact to start with and toremember. A good foundation. Let us getthem firmly in our mind:

Gen. 1:20: "And God said, Let thewaters bring forth abundantly the movingcreature that hath life" (The word "life"here is nephesh—soul).


Next verse: "And God created greatwhales, and every living creature(nephesh—soul) that moveth, which thewater brought forth abundantly."

Verse 24: "The living creature(nephesh) after his kind, cattle andcreeping things."

Verse 30: "Every beast·..everyfoul...everything that creepeth, whereinthere is life [See center column referencein your Bible.] (nephesh)."

THEN USED OF MAN

Then, having prepared our understandingby applying nephesh four times to everyspecies of living creature on the earth, theScriptures1 next use of the word is in therecord of the creation of man (Gen. 2:7):

"The Lord God formed man of the dustof the ground."

(and that in itself is a phrase to be wellnoted when we consider the nature andcomposition of man)

"The Lord God formed man of the dust ofthe ground, and breathed into his nostrilsthe breath of life; and man became a livingsoul (nephesh)·"

(EXACTLY THE SAME WORD as four times alreadyapplied to animals, Man, formed of the dustof the ground, became a living soul (ananimal, breathing creature) when Godbreathed into him the breath of life.)


Now the usual response at this pointfrom the immortal soulist is to switch overto the word spirit, and abandon the argu-ment based on soul. Our present subject,is however, SOUL, and we hope to thoroughlydispose of that, but in passing it may bementioned that exactly the same remarksapply to "spirit." It, too, in these earlyfoundation chapters of Genesis, is used ofanimals alone, and also of men and animalstogether, and to the same point Solomon says(Eccl. 3:19):

"Man and beasts... they have all ONEspiri t."

In applying both these words, soul ANDspirit, to animals as well as to men, theScriptures seem to be taking especial careto protect us from erroneous conceptions, ifonly we will heed and accept its divineguidance, and not depend upon the Greekphilosophers against whose teachings theApostle Paul so bitterly contended and sovehemently warned.

MAN AND ANIMALS TOGETHER INDISCRIMINATELY

We have considered the first five occur-rences. Of the next eight, SIX are appliedto animals· There are seven places wherethe word is applied to man and animalstogether without distinction. Aninteresting example is Num. 31:28:

"Levy a tribute. · «one SOUL (nephesh) of500, both of the persons, of the beeves,of the asses ..


One more typical passage of the use ofsoul for animals before we go on, Prov.12:10:

"A righteous man regardeth the life(nephesh--SOUL) of his beast; but the tendermercies of the wicked are cruel."

Surely we can consider it definitelyestablished, therefore, that there is nodifference between men and animals in thematter of being or having souls. This ISVERY IMPORTANT. It is one of the firstprinciples of Scripture. If we have notdefinitely fixed this in our minds, let uskeep going back over these facts and pass-ages and stick with them. They are worthmore than all the volumes ever written ofGreek or modern philosophy.

ADAM'S SENTENCE: "DUST THOU ART"

The sentence passed on Adam is in fullaccord with the record of his creation fromthe dust (Gen. 3:19):

"Dust THOU art, and unto dust shaltTHOU return."

The sentence was passed upon theconscious, thinking, sinning individual--the LIVING SOUL, created from dust, andanimated by breath from God. This is inharmony with the general expression of thedispensation of GodTs justice, as expressedthrough Ezekiel:

"The soul that sinneth, IT SHALL DIE"(Ezek. 18:4).


Any attempt to transfer this sentencefrom the thinking, responsible Adam to hismere body is such an obviously weak subter-fuge as not to be worthy of serious consider-at ion.

And finally, we note, in passing, verydistinctly that in this first pronouncementof the wages of sin, THERE IS NO MENTION OFETERNAL TORTURE—but on the contrary, thesentence is dissolution into original dust.

NEPHESH: PHYSICAL FUNCTIONS OFFLESHLY CREATURES

Now a few passages to show that "soul"(Hebrew: nephesh) is not some immaterialessence, but is applied to the ordinary,natural functions of fleshly creatures:

Prov. 6:30: "Men do not despise athief, if he steal to satisfy his soul(nephesh) when he is hungry·"

Isa. 29:8: "A hungry man dreameth,and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, andhis soul (nephesh) is empty—a thirsty mandreameth, and, behold, he drinketh, but heawaketh, and his soul (nephesh) hathappet i te·"

Lev. 17:10-11: "I will even set myface against that soul (nephesh) that eatethblood...For the life (nephesh—soul) of theflesh is in the blood..."

Deut. 12:20-23: "Thy soul (nephesh)longeth to eat flesh; thou mayest eat flesh,whatsoever thy soul (nephesh) lusteth


after...the blood is the life (nephesh —soul); and thou mayest not eat the life(nephesh—soul)..."

It is clear that the immortal soulists'only solution is to do what they have done,and regard the Bible as merely the specula-tions of partially enlightened men. Theycould not possibly agree with PeterTs state-ment (2 Peter 1:21), that:

"Holy men of God spake as they weremoved by the Holy Spirit."

SOULS SUBJECT TO DEATH

Now we reach what perhaps may be termedthe climax of the subject — the soul'srelation to death. The term "immortalsoul" expresses one side of the argument."Immortal" means "not subject to death."That is the stand of Plato and orthodoxChr istendom.

Let us look at what GOD says. Now itwould have been quite possible for the Scrip-tures never to have mentioned soul in connec-tion with death. Many other terms andexpressions could have been used. So thatwhen we find that in nearly 300 places(one-third of the total uses of the word)souls are described as being mortal, sub-ject to death, from which they can be savedand delivered, it is quite clear that God istaking special pains to give us correctideas on this subject, and remove all excusefor believing in "immortal souls" after themanner of the unenlightened heathen.Examples of this are:


Psa. 22:20: "Deliver my soul (nephesh)from the sword·.."

Jer. 38:17: "If thou wilt assuredly goforth unto the King of Babylon's princes,then thy soul (nephesh) shall live..."

1 Sam. 19:11: "If thou save not thylife (nephesh--soul) tonight, tomorrow thoushalt be slain."

1 Kings 19:10: "...they seek my life(nephesh) to take it."

Esther 7:7: "Haman stood up to makerequest for his life (nephesh)..."

Psa. 22:29: "...none can keep alivehis own soul (nephesh)."

One out of every three occurrences ofthe word are of this character — referring toits mortality and liability to death.How could the immortal soul theory be morestrikingly disproved? The most prominentfact regarding the soul that is forced uponour attention throughout is its frailtyand danger of destruction· Upon this isbased the one great lesson of Scripture:

"Hear, and your soul (nephesh) shalllive" (Isa. 55:3).

SOULS KILLED

Let us go further· In 32 passages,souls (nephesh) are spoken of as beingKILLED BY MAN. Examples are:

Josh· 10:28: "Joshua took Makkedah,


and smote it with the edge of the sword, andthe king thereof he utterly destroyed, andall the souls (nephesh) that weretherein..."

This is repeated in verses 30, 32, 35, 37,and 39.

Deut. 27:25: "Cursed be he that takethreward to slay an innocent person (nephesh--soul)."

Let us look particularly at Lev. 24:17-18.The Authorized Version reads:

"...he that killeth any man shallsurely be put to death. And he that killetha beast shall make it good; beast forbeast."

In the original, nephesh occurs here fourt imes, as follows:

"He that smiteth the nephesh (soul)of a man, shall surely be put to death. Andhe that smiteth the nephesh (soul) of abeast shall make it good; nephesh fornephesh."

Here again the translators have, byinconsistent and biassed translation,obscured another clear divine lesson in themeaning of nephesh, or "soul."

SOULS DEAD

One more step, and then we are as faraway from the immortal soul theory as it ispossible to be--in 13 places souls(nephesh) are said to be actually DEAD·


Examples are:

Num. 6:6: "...he shall come at no deadbody (nephesh).

Lev. 21:11: "Neither shall he go in toany dead body (nephesh)..."

These are parts of the Mosaic regula-tions concerning uncleanness and defilementby contact with corpses.

NEW AND OLD TESTAMENTS IN HARMONY

All references quoted so far have beenfrom the Old Testament. That is the founda-tion of the New, and the word "soul" occursin the Old seven times as often as in theNew. It is ignoring the foundation work ofthe Old Testament that has prevented so manyfrom understanding the New.

T h e B i b l e is o n e s i n g l e , i n d i v i s i b l eunit. It cannot be broken up and a partcast aside. Only when it is regarded as oneequally inspired and equally divine book canit be properly understood. God has variedHis commands at different times to differentpeople, but statements of FACT and TRUTHnever change from beginning to end·

"Soul" in the New Testament cannot beconsidered apart from soul in the Old. Con-sidering them together, we find them incomplete harmony. As in the Old, so in theNew, "soul" is used of animals; it is spokenof as dying; it is used for the mind, theheart, the appetite and the emotions.


"LIVING SOUL" EQUALS "NATURAL BODY"

Whenever speakers in the New Testamentquote from passages in the Old containingthe Hebrew word nephesh, they use the Greekword psuche· One outstanding example willillustrate this. In 1 Cor. 15, beginning atverse 42, Paul makes a contrast between cor-ruption and incorrupt ion, weakness andpower, mortality and immortality. Then(verse 44) he says:

"There is a naturala spiritual body."

body and there is

The word "natural" here is--soulish, from psuche — soul. Heverse 45:

psuchikoscont inues ,

"And so it is written, The first manAdam was made a living soul (psuche)..."

He is quoting Gen. 2:7 which we have con-sidered· In verse 46, he calls this livingsoul, "that which is natural." In verse 47,he calls it "of the earth, earthy." In verse50 he calls"corrupt ion."fits perfectlydiscovered·

it "flesh and blood" andPaul's conception of nsouln

with what we have already

Similarly souls are applied to animals,die, in the New Testament just asand souls

in the Old. In Rev. 8:9. we read:

"And the third part of the creatureswhich were in the sea, and had life (psuche--soul), died..."

...every living soulRev. 16:3:(psuche) died in the sea


And "soul" is used for natural life and func-tion, as in the Old. In Matt. 6:25, Jesussays:

"...Take NO THOUGHT for your life(psuche — soul), what ye shall eat, or whatye shall drink..."

The soul here is clearly that which issupported by eating and drinking. Acts15:25-26 we read:

"...Our beloved Barnabas and Paul, menthat have hazarded their lives (psuche) forthe Name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

In faithfully serving Christ, theycertainly could not have been hazardingimmortal souls, but they WERE hazardingtheir scriptural souls—their natural1 ives and bodies.

The same applies to Paul's words inAc t s 20:24:

"...neither count I my life (psuche)dear unto myself, so that I might finish mycourse with joy..."

And JesusT words (John 10:15): "...I laydown my life (psuche) for the sheep."

And Phil. 2:30: "...for the work of Christhe was nigh unto death, NOT REGARDING his1i fe (psuche)..."

In all these, psuche is used in thecommon sense of natural life, and cannotbe harmonized with the immortal soul idea.


"NOT ABLE TO KILL THE SOUL"

Now, as in the Old [Testament], so inthe New [Testament], there are a few pass-ages where the use of the word couldpossibly be made to fit with the immortalsoul idea. There are none, of course, thatprove or even support this idea — thatwould be impossible as we can see from thebasic meaning and general use of the word---but there are some where it could beread in if the rest is ignored.

The passage most frequently quoted isMatt. 10:28:

"...fear not them which kill the body,but are not able to kill the soul: butrather fear Him which is able to DESTROYboth soul and body in Gehenna."

Now it is rather peculiar at the outsetthat the one passage most quoted to supportthe indestructible soul theory is the veryone that speaks of the soul being DESTROYED,but, we find that these people do notregard "destroyed" as meaning destroyed, butthe opposite--eternally preserved.

And we find further that they do notregard "death" as meaning death, but"eternal LIFE in misery." We can see thatwith definitions such as this we could makeanything prove anything·

We have seen that according to theScriptures elsewhere, a man can and DOESkill the soul. We have looked at severalpassages to this effect, and there are manyothers. The first use of the word in the

22 THE BIBLE MEANING OF nSOULn

New Testament (Matt· 2:20) speaks of Herod"seeking the young child's life" (psuche—soul). The first appearance in the gospelof Mark is similar. Jesus says (Mark 3:4):

"...is it lawful...on the sabbath...tosave life (psuche), or to kill?..."

Paul in Rom. 11:3 quotes Elijah as saying:"...I am left alone, and they seek my

life (psuche)."

What is meant here by saying that mancannot kill the soul? Are the Scripturescontradictory? Of course they are not. Wemust use wisdom to discern them properly.There is no difficulty in understanding whatChrist means, if we sincerely seek a scrip-tural solution· Man can kill the body, butthis has no permanent effect on our ultimateexistence. To the faithful, this is but abrief sleep [Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2; Matt.9:24;11:1151; 1Deut.7:21;13:3615:8,10:3538;9:31;27:9;25:5]

27:52 ; Mark 5:39;-14; Acts 7:60; 1Thess .31:16

14:12;

4:13-15; 5:1; 2 Sam. 7:12;Psa. 13:3: Jer

; 1 Kings 2:10; 11:24; 16; 13:916:20;

12:1628:27;

In

:6, 28; 22:40,, 13; 14:16,20:21; 21:18;; 14:1; 16:1332:33; 33:20;

this sense

Luke 8:52Cor. 15:6,

; John18, 20,

0; 2 Peter 3:4;1 Kings 1:. 51:39, 5721, 43; 14:50; 2 Kings22, 29; 1524:6; 2

; 21:1; 26Job 3:13;, the ul

21; Job; Acts20, 31;

8:24;•7 99Chron.:2, 23;Matt.

timate,eternal sense, man can not kill the soul, orlife. But God on the other hand is able toblot us out of existence forever and makeall our memory to perish [Deut. 32:39;1 Sam.2:6; Ecc. 9:4-6; Psa· 31:12; 88:5; Isa.26:14; Ecc. 8:10].

THE BIBLE MEANING OF "SOUL"

SUMMARY

23

Now, to sumbeen covered:

up the points that have

1. We have seen that the doctrine ofthe immortality of the soul is admittedlytraced to heathen Greek philosophers, andits followers are quite willing to concedethat the Bible meaning of soul is somethingvery di fferent.

2. The issuemiddle ground--weteaching and human

is clear and there is nomust choose between Biblespeculat ion.

3. The wordstranslatedBible and insuggestion of

nephesh and psuche,occur 850 times in the

not one case is there anyimmortality·

"soul ,"

4. The translators have used over 40words in translation and a glance at thislist shows how far different the Biblesoul is from the orthodox one.

5. The word is first used of ANIMALS.

6. One-third of all its occurrencesspeak of it in terms indicating itsmortality and subjection to death.

7. It is often spoken of as beingkilled by man, and it is several timesspoken of as actually being dead, andbeing handled and touched in a dead state.

ANYTHING MORE DIFFERENT FROM THE IMMORTALSOUL THEORY IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TOIMAGINE.


SALVATION REQUIRES DEVOTION, ANDDILIGENT APPLICATION TO TRUTH

In Conclusion, let us urge two pointsof action: FIRST, make a thorough, scrip-tural examination of the word "soul." Theword occurs 850 times. Make the effort totrace them through. Compare them with thegeneral, hazy ideas on the subject. Ittakes time, but there is no other way.God requires us to work and search.

And SECOND, having determined the factsof what we are--perishing creatures ofdust-- investigate God's great offer of whatwe may become: "...There is a natural(soul) body, and there is a spiritual body."[1 Cor. 15:44].

"...As we have borne the image of theearthy, we shall also bear the image of theheavenly." [1 Cor. 15:49].

"...this corruptible must put on incor-ruption, and this mortal must put on immor-tal i ty ... then shall be brought to pass thesaying that is written, Death is swallowedup in victory." [1 Cor. 15:53-54].

These glorious words of the ApostlePaul will be fulfilled someday in the greatjoyful host of the redeemed, as they standassembled before the judge of all the earth[Rev. 5:9-14; 14:1-5; Gen 18:25; Acts 10:42;17:31; Rom. 2:16; 14:10; 1 Cor. 4:5; 2 Cor.5:10; 2 Tim. 4:1, 8; 1 Pet. 4:5].

For all others it will be: "As thebeasts that perish." [Psa. 49:12, 20].

THE BIBLE MEANING OF "SOUL11 25

"Like sheep they are laid in the grave;death shall feed upon them;··.and theirbeauty shall consume in the grave···" [Psa.49:14].

Let US choose the path of wisdom andlife.

Reader!If you have found this booklet interesting and would likemore information concerning this or some other Bible sub-ject, then please feel free to write to the publisher or to the ad-dress given in the box below. The issues involved are vital andwe would be only too happy to further your understanding ofour position so that you can come to an objective andenlightened decision concerning it.

The Bible Meaning of 'Soul' - Bible Truth - Welcome · moved by the Holy Spirit" ... especially...

Documents

Transcript of The Bible Meaning of 'Soul' - Bible Truth - Welcome · moved by the Holy Spirit" ... especially...