Soul

1. Shades of Meaning in the Old Testament:

(1) Soul, like spirit, has various shades of meaning in the Old Testament, which may be summarized as follows: "Soul," "living being," "life," "self," "person," "desire," "appetite," "emotion" and "passion" (BDB under the word). In the first instance it meant that which breathes, and as such is distinguished from basar, "flesh" (Isa 10:18; Dt 12:23); from she'er, "the inner flesh," next the bones (Prov 11:17, "his own flesh"); from beTen, "belly" (Ps 31:10, "My soul and my belly are consumed with grief"), etc.

(2) As the life-breath, it departs at death (Gen 35:18; Jer 15:2). Hence, the desire among Old Testament saints to be delivered from Sheol (Ps 16:10, "Thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol") and from shachath, "the pit" (Job 33:18, "He keepeth back his soul from the pit"; Isa 38:17, "Thou hast .... delivered it (my soul) from the pit of corruption").

(3) By an easy transition the word comes to stand for the individual, personal life, the person, with two distinct shades of meaning which might best be indicated by the Latin anima and animus. As anima, "soul," the life inherent in the body, the animating principle in the blood is denoted (compare Dt 12:23,24, `Only be sure that thou eat not the blood: for the blood is the soul; and thou shalt not eat the soul with the flesh'). As animus, "mind," the center of our mental activities and passivities is indicated. Thus we read of `a hungry soul' (Ps 107:9), `a weary soul' (Jer 31:25), `a loathing soul' (Lev 26:11), `a thirsty soul' (Ps 42:2), `a grieved soul' (Job 30:25), `a loving soul' (Song 1:7), and many kindred expressions. Cremer has characterized this use of the word in a sentence: "Nephesh (soul) in man is the subject of personal life, whereof pneuma or ruach (spirit) is the principle" (Lexicon, under the word, 795).

(4) This individuality of man, however, may be denoted by pneuma as well, but with a distinction. Nephesh or "soul" can only denote the individual life with a material organization or body. Pneuma or "spirit" is not so restricted. Scripture speaks of "spirits of just men made perfect" (Heb 12:23), where there can be no thought of a material or physical or corporeal organization. They are "spiritual beings freed from the assaults and defilements of the flesh" (Delitzsch, in the place cited.). For an exceptional use of psuche in the same sense see Rev 6:9; 20:4, and (irrespective of the meaning of Ps 16:10) Acts 2:27.

2. New Testament Distinctions:

(1) In the New Testament psuche appears under more or less similar conditions as in the Old Testament. The contrast here is as carefully maintained as there. It is used where pneuma would be out of place; and yet it seems at times to be employed where pneuma might have been substituted. Thus in Jn 19:30 we read: "Jesus gave up his pneuma" to the Father, and, in the same Gospel (Jn 10:15), Jesus gave up His "psuche for the sheep," and in Mt 20:28 He gave His psuche (not His pneuma) as a ransom--a difference which is characteristic. For the pneuma stands in quite a different relation to God from the psuche. The "spirit" (pneuma) is the outbreathing of God into the creature, the life-principle derived from God. The "sour" (psuche) is man's individual possession, that which distinguishes one man from another and from inanimate nature. The pneuma of Christ was surrendered to the Father in death; His psuche was surrendered, His individual life was given "a ransom for many." His life "was given for the sheep"

(2) This explains those expressions in the New Testament which bear on the salvation of the soul and its preservation in the regions of the dead. "Thou wilt not leave my soul unto Hades" (the world of shades) (Acts 2:27); "Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil" (Rom 2:9); "We are .... of them that have faith unto the saving of the soul" (Heb 10:39); "Receive ..... the implanted word, which is able to save your souls" (Jas 1:21).

The same or similar expressions may be met with in the Old Testament in reference to the soul. Thus in Ps 49:8, the King James Version "The redemption of their soul is precious" and again: "God will redeem my soul from the power of Sheol" (Ps 49:15). Perhaps this may explain--at least this is Wendt's explanation--why even a corpse is called nephesh or soul in the Old Testament, because, in the region of the dead, the individuality is retained and, in a measure, separated from God (compare Hag 2:13; Lev 21:11).

3. Oehler on Soul and Spirit:

The distinction between psuche and pneuma, or nephesh and ruach, to which reference has been made, may best be described in the words of Oehler (Old Testament Theology, I, 217): "Man is not spirit, but has it: he is soul. .... In the soul, which sprang from the spirit, and exists continually through it, lies the individuality--in the case of man, his personality, his self, his ego." He draws attention to the words of Elihu in Job (33:4): `God's spirit made me,' the soul called into being; `and the breath of the Almighty animates me,' the soul kept in energy and strength, in continued existence, by the Almighty, into whose hands the inbreathed spirit is surrendered, when the soul departs or is taken from us (1 Ki 19:4). Hence, according to Oehler the phrases naphshi ("my soul"), naphshekha ("thy soul") may be rendered in Latin egomet, tu ipse; but not ruchi ("my spirit"), ruchakha ("thy spirit")--soul standing for the whole person, as in Gen 12:5; 17:14; Ezek 18:4, etc.

See PSYCHOLOGY.

J. I. Marais

The Old Testament. The Hebrew word so rendered is nepes [v,p,n]. It appears 755 times in the Old Testament. The King James Version uses 42 different English terms to translate it. The two most common renderings are "soul" (428 times) and "life" (117 times). It is the synchronic use of nepes [v,p,n] that determines its meaning rather than the diachronic. Hebrew is inclined to use one and the same word for a variety of functions that are labeled with distinct words in English.

Nepes [v,p,n] in the Old Testament is never the "immortal soul" but simply the life principle or living being. Such is observable in Genesis 1:20, 21, 24, where the qualified (living) nepes [v,p,n] refers to animals and is rendered "living creatures." The same Hebrew term is then applied to the creation of humankind in Genesis 2:7, where dust is vitalized by the breath of God and becomes a "living being." Thus, human being shares soul with the animals. It is the breath of God that makes the lifeless dust a "living being"—person.

Frequently in the Old Testament nepes [v,p,n] designates the individual (Lev 17:10; 23:30). In its plural form it indicates a number of individuals such as Abraham's party (Gen 12:5), the remnant left behind in Judah (Jer 43:6), and the offspring of Leah (Gen 46:15).

Nepes [v,p,n] qualified by "dead" means a dead individual, a corpse (Num 6:6). More significant here is that nepes [v,p,n] can mean the corpse of an individual even without the qualification "dead" (Num 5:2; 6:11). Here nepes [v,p,n] is detached from the concept of life and refers to the corpse. Hebrew thought could not conceive of a disembodied nepes [v,p,n].

Frequently nepes [v,p,n] takes the place of a personal or reflexive pronoun (Psalm 54:4; Prov 18:7). Admittedly this movement from the nominal to the pronominal is without an exact borderline. The Revised Standard Version reflects the above understanding of nepes [v,p,n] by replacing the King James Version "soul" with such translations as "being, " "one, " "self, " "I/me."

Nepes [v,p,n] is also used to designate parts of the body, primarily to stress their characteristics and functions. It can refer to the throat (Isa 5:14; Hab 2:5), noting that it can be parched and dry (Num 11:6; Jer 31:12, 25), discerning (Prov 16:23), hungry (Num 21:5), and breathing (Jer 2:24). Nepes [v,p,n] also can mean the neck, and the vital function that takes place there, noting that it can be ensnared (1 Sam 28:9; Psalm 105:18), humbled and endangered (Prov 18:7), and bowed to the ground (Psalm 44:25). Even while focusing on a single part of the body, by synecodoche the whole person is represented.

Nepes [v,p,n] is often used to express physical needs such as hunger (Deut 12:20; 1 Sam 2:16) and thirst (Prov 25:25). It can be used of excessive desires (gluttony — Prov 23:2) and of unfulfilled desires (barrenness — 1 Sam 1:15). Volitional/spiritual yearning is also assigned to nepes [v,p,n], such as the desire for God (Psalm 42:1-2), justice (Isa 26:8-9), evil (Prov 21:10), and political power (2 Sam 3:21). Emotions are expressed by nepes [v,p,n] so that it feels hate (so used of Yahweh — Isa 1:14), grief (Jer 13:17), joy and exultation, disquietude (Psalm 42:5), and unhappiness (1 Sam 1:15).

Clearly, then, in the Old Testament a mortal is a living soul rather than having a soul. Instead of splitting a person into two or three parts, Hebrew thought sees a unified being, but one that is profoundly complex, a psychophysical being.

The New Testament. The counterpart to nepes [v,p,n] in the New Testament is psyche [yuchv] (nepes [v,p,n] is translated as psyche [yuchv] six hundred times in the Septaugint). Compared to nepes [v,p,n] in the Old Testament, psyche [yuchv] appears relatively infrequently in the New Testament. This may be due to the fact that nepes [v,p,n] is used extensively in poetic literature, which is more prevalent in the Old Testament than the New Testament. The Pauline Epistles concentrate more on soma [sw'ma] (body) and pneuma [pneu'ma] (spirit) than psyche [yuchv].

This word has a range of meanings similar to nepes [v,p,n]. It frequently designates life: one can risk his life (John 13:37; Acts 15:26; Rom 16:4; Php 2:30), give his life (Matt 20:28), lay down his life (John 10:15,17-18), forfeit his life (Matt 16:26), hate his life (Luke 14:26), and have his life demanded of him (Luke 12:20).

Psyche, as its Old Testament counterpart, can indicate the person (Acts 2:41; 27:37). It also serves as the reflexive pronoun designating the self ("I'll say to myself" — Luke 12:19; "as my witness" — 2 Cor 1:23; "share … our lives" — 1 Thess 2:8).

Psyche can express emotions such as grief (Matt 26:38, ; Mark 14:34), anguish (John 12:27), exultation (Luke 1:46), and pleasure (Matt 12:18).

The adjectival form "soulish" indicates a person governed by the sensuous nature with subjection to appetite and passion. Such a person is "natural/unspiritual" and cannot receive the gifts of God's Spirit because they make no sense to him (1 Cor 2:14-15). As in the Old Testament, the soul relates humans to the animal world (1 Cor 15:42-50) while it is the spirit of people that allows a dynamic relationship with God.

There are passages where psyche [yuchv] stands in contrast to the body, and there it seems to refer to an immortal part of man. "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matt 10:28). While Scripture generally addresses humans as unitary beings, there are such passages that seem to allow divisibility within unity.

Carl Schultz

See also Person, Personhood; Spirit

Bibliography. W. Dryness, Themes in Old Testament Theology; R. H. Gundry, Somma in Biblical Theology; R. Jewett, Paul's Anthropological Terms; N. Snaith, The Distinctive Ideas of the Old Testament; H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament.

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[N] indicates this entry was also found in Nave's Topical Bible

Old Testament usage

The writers of the Old Testament did not speak of the soul as something that exists apart from the body. To them, soul (or nephesh) meant life. Both animals and people are nephesh, living creatures. Older English versions of the Bible have created misunderstanding by the translation ‘man became a living soul’ (Gen 2:7), for the words translated ‘living soul’ are the same words as earlier translated ‘living creatures’ (Gen 1:21,24). All animal life is nephesh (or psyche; Rev 8:9), though human nephesh is of a higher order than the nephesh of other animals (Gen 2:19-22).

From this it is easy to see how nephesh came to refer to the whole person. We should understand a person not as consisting of a combination of a lifeless body and a bodiless soul, but as a perfect unity, a living body. Thus nephesh may be translated ‘person’; even if translated ‘soul’, it may mean no more than ‘person’ or ‘life’ (Exod 1:5; Num 9:13; Ezek 18:4,27). A reference to someone’s nephesh may simply be a reference to the person (Ps 6:3-4; 35:9; Isa 1:14) or the person’s life (Gen 35:18; 1 Kings 17:22; Ps 33:19).

New Testament usage

Similarly in the New Testament psyche can be used to mean no more than ‘person’ (Acts 2:41,43; 7:14; Rom 2:9; 13:1). Again, a reference to someone’s psyche may simply be a reference to the person (Matt 12:18; 26:38; Luke 1:46; 12:19; 1 Thess 2:8; Heb 10:38) or the person’s life (Matt 16:26; 1 Cor 15:45; Phil 2:30; 1 Peter 4:19). Sometimes ‘soul’ appears to be the same as ‘heart’, which in the Bible usually refers to the whole of a person’s inner life (Prov 2:10; Acts 4:32; see HEART; HUMANITY, HUMANKIND).

A person characterized by psyche is an ordinary person of the world, one who lives solely according to the principles and values of sinful human society – the ‘natural person’, in contrast to the ‘spiritual person’. The latter is one who has new principles and values because of the Spirit of God within (1 Cor 2:12-16; cf. Jude 19; see FLESH; SPIRIT).

Human uniqueness

Both Old and New Testaments teach that when people die they do not cease to exist. The body returns to dust (Gen 3:19; Eccles 3:20), but the person lives on in a place, or state, of the dead, which the Hebrew calls sheol and the Greek calls hades (Ps 6:5; 88:3-5; Luke 16:22-23; see HADES; SHEOL). The Old Testament does not say in what way people live on after death. Certainly, they live on as a conscious personal beings, but that personal being is not complete, for it has no body (Ps 49:14; Ezek 26:20).

The New Testament also is unclear on the subject of a person’s existence after death. It speaks of the bodiless person after death sometimes as a soul (Acts 2:27; Rev 6:9; 20:4), sometimes as a spirit (Heb 12:23; 1 Peter 3:18), but again the person, being bodiless, is not complete. Also, this existence as a bodiless person is only temporary, just as the decay of the body in the grave is only temporary. That is why the Bible encourages believers to look for their eternal destiny not in the endless existence of some bodiless ‘soul’ or ‘spirit’, but in the resurrection of the body to a new and glorious life (1 Cor 15:42-53; Phil 3:20-21).

Since there is more to a human life than what people experience during their earthly existence, psyche naturally developed a meaning relating to more than normal earthly life. Eternal destiny also is involved (Matt 10:28; 16:26; Heb 10:38-39).

From this usage, psyche developed an even richer meaning. It became the word most commonly used among Christians to describe the higher or more spiritual aspect of human life that is popularly called the soul (Heb 6:19; 13:17; James 1:21; 1 Peter 1:9,22; 2:11,25; 3 John 2).