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(29), mind (15), heart (15), creature (9), body (7). It can also be used for ‘dead body’ as in Leviticus 21:11, ‘dead’, ‘man’, ‘beast’, ‘ghost’ (as in ‘giving up the ghost’ in both Jeremiah 15:9 and Job 11:20) Other words used in translating nephesh are ‘will’, ‘appetite’, ‘lust’, ‘thing’, and ‘breath’
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It is a word that is used for a very wide variety of concepts. In Leviticus 24:18 it is used for a beast that can be killed.
There is no implication in any of these references that it is used to mean something immortal. Here is a sample, just a random selection, from the 471 usages of the word. |
- Genesis 12:5. Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls they had gotten in Haran.
- Exodus 31:14. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.
- Numbers 15:31. Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken His commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.
- Deuteronomy 4.29 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find Him, if thou seek Him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
- 1 Samuel 1:14. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee.
And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD.
- Job 33:22. Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave, and his life to the destroyers.
- Psalm 19.7. The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
- Ezekiel 8:20. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
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| The aim of the these booklets is to be entirely fair and therefore any possible references to immortality will be explored fully. Here are the verses in the Old Testament that are often referred to as Bible arguments that we have an immortal soul. |
* 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 soul. Genesis 2:7.
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Man is referred to in the beginning, however, as becoming ‘a living soul’. This was when God breathed life into him. If this soul is an immortal soul, then it was quite unnecessary to use the word ‘living’ with the word ‘soul’ because soul on its own would mean immortal.
Simply put, this verse means that Adam became a living being. It was the breath from God that made him alive. The use of the word ‘soul’ in the Old Testament never implies something with immortality that lives on somewhere else after death. This idea came from Greek philosophy, not God’s Word.
The word nephesh has the idea of a person or being. It includes the reasoning function of the mind, but includes the feelings, interests, and inclination, having a mind toward something or somebody. It is interesting that it comes from a verb meaning to refresh oneself, something like the expression we use - to take a breather - hence the translation of nephesh as ‘breath’ in some cases. |
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- ‘The son of the house fell sick, and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him … and he (Elijah) cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again, And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again and the child revived.’ 1 Kings 17:17-23.
In this case the word nephesh - soul - stands for ‘life’.
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