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There are a number of verses to be considered in more detail in this section also: |
- And they fell on their faces and said, Oh God, the God of the spirits of all flesh… Numbers 16:22.
A Jewish translation says ‘O God, the source of the breath of all flesh.’ It is only the preconceptions that are in our minds that makes us think of immortal spirits when we read a verse like this. We must allow the Bible to interpret itself and read it in context.
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- Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward? And the spirit of the beast that goeth downward? Ecclesiastes 3:21.
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| This verse cannot be read in isolation, but is better understood if the previous verse is read too. ‘All go unto one place. All are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.’ Ecclesiastes 3:20. Verse 19 tells us that ‘as the one dieth, so dieth the other.’ People have understood this to mean that people can be resurrected to life once again when Jesus comes, and there is a blueprint kept in heaven of us all, but that this is not so of animals. They die and return to the dust of the earth and there is no resurrected future for them spoken of in the Bible. We cannot take one verse, for example v.21, the first part, and ignore the other verses around it. |
- Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12:7
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This verse is often thought to express the view that we have two entities within us, but we have learned how man was made of the dust, God added the breath and man became a living person. When a person dies, the breath is exhaled for the last time and the person dies. The breath that leaves the body is absorbed into the atmosphere as happens any time we breathe out. The breath is incapable of a life separate from the body. If it was not for generally held theology, coming from a pagan origin, the whole concept would be unthinkable.
There is a way to gain deeper insight into the meaning of this word and that is through the poetry of the Old Testament. |
Poetry in the Bible is very different from our own rhyming poetry. It was written in parallel thoughts, in a style called ‘parallelism’. In this system we find one verse with Part A and Part B. In our search for examples of any mention of an immortal soul in the Old Testament, this needs to be examined, as each pasrt makes the Hebrew understanding of ‘spirit’ clearer for us, by giving a synonym or another word with the same concept. The Bible is always to be used as its own interpreter.
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| The two words that are partners and come together frequently are ruach, which we are considering, and neshamah. Here are some of the pairings. |
- Part A - By the blast (neshamah) of God they perish,
Part B - and by the breath (ruach) of His nostrils are they consumed. Job 4:9.
- Part A - All the while my breath (neshamah) was in me,
Part B - and the spirit (ruach) of God is in my nostrils. Job 27:3
- Part A - The spirit (ruach) of God hath made me,
Part B - and the breath (neshamah) of the Almighty hath given me life. Job 33:4.
- Part A But there is a spirit (ruach) in man
Part B And the inspiration (neshamah) of the Almighty giveth them understanding. Job 32:8
- If He set His heart upon man, if He gather unto Himself his spirit (ruach) and his breath (neshamah), all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again into dust. Job 34: 14,15
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| Through the use of these two words placed in tandem, the texts show that God gives the breath and with the breath comes the life principle. When the breath goes, this life principle goes too. For, whichever word is used in the original Hebrew, there is no indication of immortality in any of the verses that have been quoted using those words. Neither is there anything conclusive of immortality in the words as they read in English in the King James Version of the Bible. |
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