What is a Soul?

[Skyangel]

The word soul in Hebrew is "nephesh" which is also translated as mind, person, heart, creature, body, himself, yourself, will, desire, appetite.

The word soul in Greek is psychē which is also translated as mind, heart, life.

We get our English words psychiatry, psychiatric, psychiatrist from the word psyche. It has to do with the mind heart and emotions of people. This is not a separate part of a person than the spirit and body but is a combination or a unity of the spirit and body.

Some religions teach about a "soul sleep" There is no such term as "soul sleep" in the bible. That is a man made false doctrine which is not taught in the bible at all when you study the word death in the bible and understand what it means both spiritually as well as physically.

What the bible refers to as "sleep" or "rest" is actually death in a physical sense and a state of spiritual unawareness in a spiritual sense. ( Luke 8:52-53, John11:11-14 ) Jesus used the terms dead and asleep interchangeably.

To understand what a soul really is, we can find a description of what a soul is made of and how it is made 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 soul.

Now read it carefully and study this. God formed man from dust. Stop there and you have a lump of dust or clay which has some form.
That clay body is lying lifeless on the ground. It began from dust and returns to dust. ( Ecc 12:7 )
That lifeless dust had no Spirit in it till God BREATHED a Spirit into the body of clay. and man became a living soul as opposed to a dead body.

DUST ( body ) + BREATH ( the Spirit of God ) = SOUL. ( A living thinking mortal )

When the Spirit is separated from the body, the soul is destroyed. It no longer exists because a soul is a combination of the body and Spirit or a unity of the flesh and the spirit which makes the flesh come alive. The soul is not something separate from a spirit or a body. It is a combination of the two as you can see from the "recipe" of a soul in Gen2:7.
The Body and the Spirit can be separate but when they are, the body is dead, lifeless, is not a soul at all. Therefore "soul sleep" is an imaginary fictional construct of the deceived carnal mind of man.

Ecc 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

There is the body which returns to dust and there is the Spirit which returns to God. There is no soul that goes any place or sleeps anywhere because it simply disappears and is no more when the Spirit leaves the body.

As a visual example,
Imagine you have two ingredients.... flour and water. They are two completely different things alone. Mix them together and you get a dough. You do not end up with flour, water and dough. You end up with dough which is made of water and flour. If you begin with the dough ( soul ) and then separate the dough ( soul ) from the water ( Spirit ), you do not end up with flour ( body ) water (Spirit ) and dough (soul ) but the dough ( soul ) disappears completely and is no longer dough but goes back to where it started as flour ( dust) and water ( Spirit )

The word soul is referring to the flesh of man ( body ) in a literal as well as a spiritual sense.
The Spirit is referring to the Spirit of God ( breath ) which is the LIFE of God inside the body of flesh or the literal air that we breathe which enables us to think and move and do as the Father tells us to do.


When you read the word soul in the bible, do not think of something that is separate from the spirit but rather think of a combination of flesh and spirit. A soul does not exist without flesh or without spirit. A soul IS a mortal living being not something separate from a mortal living being.

The only scripture in the bible which refers to body soul and spirit is..... 1 Thess 5: 23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Many religions tend to teach and imply by using that scripture, that the body is made up of three parts and is an example of a "trinity" concept but it is not.
What Paul is saying or praying is that the Spirit and the body be preserved together as a soul and the Spirit will be preserved together with the body to complete a blameless soul.

The little word "and" between body, soul, spirit, in 1 Thess 5:23, is the word "kai" in Greek which is a correlative conjunction which coordinates things and brings them together as a parallelism rather than separating them as two or three different things. They are merely different words describing the same thing which is the soul. It is like saying Father and God and Creator. These three words are not referring to three different gods or three "persons" or even three parts of one being but are merely different words describing the very same being or same Spirit.

[Heterodoxus]

Info in the OP is interesting, but is there:

• 1: an issue for debate, or
  
  2:a point for discussion?

[Skyangel]

Info in the OP is interesting, but is there:

• 1: an issue for debate, or
  
  2:a point for discussion?

It's a bible study which I wrote myself a few years ago. I thought I would post it in this bible study forum and see if anyone comments on it. Please feel free to discuss it or debate it or question it or add to it as you wish.

[Ooberman]

What is "Spirit"?

[Skyangel]

What is "Spirit"?

The word "Spirit" in the bible is defined in the lexicon H7307
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lex ... 7307&t=KJV

The main meaning being wind, breath, mind, spirit.

The definition in the lexicon includes all kinds of emotions or attributes including anger, courage, patience, etc

I perceive it as basically being the life inside the body which animates the body.

[Ooberman]

What is "Spirit"?

The word "Spirit" in the bible is defined in the lexicon H7307
http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lex ... 7307&t=KJV

The main meaning being wind, breath, mind, [strike]spirit[/strike].

(we can strike "spirit" as a definition of spirit)

The wind and breath are moving air, nothing more. We have a term for that, and certainly blowing dust around doesn't make a person!

Mind is another matter and provides some difficulty. First, the mind is not wind or breath, so the definition you've provided in contradictory.

It is, at best, a metaphorical; or poetic allusion to "Life" - which you allude to later...

Let's get to that.

The definition in the lexicon includes all kinds of emotions or attributes including anger, courage, patience, etc

I perceive it as basically being the life inside the body which animates the body.

So, spirit is "life". If we infuse dust with "life" do we have a person? How do we do that?

I understand your metaphor for dough, but in this case, dos it really apply? After all, we know what flour is, we know what water is, and we know dough.

Here we have a problem because "Life" is a poorly defined term in general, but you seem to indicate that it can exist on its own, free of any chemical reaction (physical body).



Now, before we go too far, I think I generally agree with your definition in a poetic sense, but I don't see how it helps us understand anything. It's like enjoying a dance with a beautiful girl. It's aesthetically pleasing, but you don't arrive at any better understanding of the Universe.

That is, I agree that a living person can be construed as a "soul". When they die, the memory of them lives on in my physical brain and will until I forget (and everyone else does).

However, to be precise, I don't think the term "soul" needs to be used. Can't we just say "person"? After all, that is what we are talking about - not some other thing that is separate from the body?

[Skyangel]

(we can strike "spirit" as a definition of spirit)

The words in the lexicon are words which describe the Hebrew word 'ruwach "

The same word "ruwach" has been translated as wind, breath, side, mind, blast, vain, air, anger, courage.

The wind and breath are moving air, nothing more. We have a term for that, and certainly blowing dust around doesn't make a person!

Agreed, wind alone does not make a person but a person cannot be alive without breathing air or wind.

Mind is another matter and provides some difficulty. First, the mind is not wind or breath, so the definition you've provided in contradictory.

The words in the lexicon are defining the word "ruwach" as thoroughly as possible. You need to take all those definitions or descriptions into account and see them as one thing not as separate things.
The mind won't work unless you are breathing either.

It is, at best, a metaphorical; or poetic allusion to "Life" - which you allude to later...

Correct and agreed.

So, spirit is "life". If we infuse dust with "life" do we have a person? How do we do that?

If you find out how to infuse literal dust with life, please let me know how to do that. I don't think it has been done in any literal sense. I see the word "dust" as being a metaphoric word the same as I see "spirit" being a metaphoric word.

I understand your metaphor for dough, but in this case, dos it really apply? After all, we know what flour is, we know what water is, and we know dough.

Here we have a problem because "Life" is a poorly defined term in general, but you seem to indicate that it can exist on its own, free of any chemical reaction (physical body).

I was using the "dough" metaphor to try to show people that the concept taught in many religions of spirit soul and body being three parts of mankind is false. The soul or person mentioned in the bible is made of two parts not three when you study it properly.

Life in general obviously exists in physical visible bodies of humans plants and animals. The concept of life existing outside a body is true in the sense that wind or air is a living force or a moving force or a power which has no body. Germs also exist outside "bodies" in the air. Germs are a tiny form of life, are they not? They can get into a body or live outside a body.

Now, before we go too far, I think I generally agree with your definition in a poetic sense, but I don't see how it helps us understand anything. It's like enjoying a dance with a beautiful girl. It's aesthetically pleasing, but you don't arrive at any better understanding of the Universe.

If mankind can manage to come to a better understanding of himself/ourselves, I am sure any understanding of the universe will also grow and mature as our understanding of ourselves grows and matures.

That is, I agree that a living person can be construed as a "soul". When they die, the memory of them lives on in my physical brain and will until I forget (and everyone else does).

However, to be precise, I don't think the term "soul" needs to be used. Can't we just say "person"? After all, that is what we are talking about - not some other thing that is separate from the body?

I agree that the memory of a person will live on in the hearts and minds of those who remember them. That memory is like their lives continuing through others.
Some people are obviously remembered far longer than others because of what they have achieved in history.

I agree we could drop the word soul and just use the word person but then we ruin the poetry of the metaphor. It is like stepping on the toes of the beautiful girl with whom you are dancing. or like using only one shade of green on a nice painting of a country side. Too boring.

Different words , synonyms bring "color" and "life" to our lives like different shades of the same color brings life and light to a painting.

[arayhay]

The word soul in Hebrew is "nephesh" which is also translated as mind, person, heart, creature, body, himself, yourself, will, desire, appetite.

The word soul in Greek is psychē which is also translated as mind, heart, life.

.

what about the word Nashamah?

[Ooberman]

I agree we could drop the word soul and just use the word person but then we ruin the poetry of the metaphor. It is like stepping on the toes of the beautiful girl with whom you are dancing. or like using only one shade of green on a nice painting of a country side. Too boring.

Different words , synonyms bring "color" and "life" to our lives like different shades of the same color brings life and light to a painting.

I agree. Artistry is a wonderful aspect of humanity. It's great that we developed it and appreciated our ability to create it.

[Skyangel]

what about the word Nashamah?

In what context is it used?