Soul

[Beetow]

.
● Gen 2:7 . .The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living soul.

The Hebrew word translated soul isn't unique to human life. Its first appearance is
at Gen 1:20-21 in reference to aqua creatures and winged creatures; again at Gen
1:24 as terra creatures; viz: cattle, creepy crawlies, and wild beasts; and again in
Gen 2:7 as the human creature; and yet again at Gen 9:10 to classify every living
thing aboard Noah's ark.

NOTE: I have yet to discover a passage in the Bible saying God is a soul, however
I've run across several saying He has a soul. (Lev 26:11, Lev 26:30, Judg 10:16,
Isa 42:1, Jer 32:41, Zech 11:8)

Soul is somewhat ambiguous. It can be said that creatures are souls and also that
they have souls. But here in the beginning, nephesh (neh'-fesh) simply refers to
consciousness. (It's sometimes a reference to one's heart, e.g. Gen 34:3, and to the
core of one's being, e.g. Gen 27:4)

All fauna life was created conscious in the book of Genesis. However, I've yet to
discover a passage in the Bible indicating that flora life was created conscious, viz:
vegetation has no soul.

So then it's safe to say Man is a person, and it's safe to say that parakeets and
meerkats are persons (in their own way) but it would likely be unwise to posit that
turnips, saguaro cactus, and kelp are persons because it's necessary to be a soul
and/or have a soul, in order to qualify as a person.

* According to Matt 10:28, the body and the soul are perishable. However; though
the body is perishable by most any means, the soul is perishable only by divine means.
The deaths of body and soul aren't necessarily simultaneous, viz: the soul lives
on until such a time as God decides to give it either a thumb up or a thumb down.
_

 

[Whatever]

Got this from Strongs:
nepesh (H5315), "soul; self; life; person; heart." This is a very common term in both ancient and modern Semitic languages. It occurs over 780 times in the Old Testament and is evenly distributed in all periods of the text with a particularly high frequency in poetic passages.
The basic meaning is apparently related to the rare verbal form, napash. The noun refers to the essence of life, the act of breathing, taking breath. However, from that concrete concept, a number of more abstract meanings were developed. In its primary sense the noun appears in its first occurrence in Gen_1:20 : "the moving creature that hath life," and in its second occurrence in Gen_2:7 : "living soul."

Gen 1:20 Then God said, "Let the waters abound with an abundance of living (nepesh) creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens."

Gen 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 (nepesh).

The New King James has "living being."
The ESV has "living creature."

The real difficulty of the term is seen in the inability of almost all English translations to find a consistent equivalent or even a small group of high-frequency equivalents for the term. The KJV alone uses over 28 different English terms for this one Hebrew word. The problem with the English term "soul" is that no actual equivalent of the term or the idea behind it is represented in the Hebrew language. The Hebrew system of thought does not include the combination or opposition of the terms "body" and "soul," which are really Greek and Latin in origin.

I have yet to discover a passage in the Bible saying God is a soul

Isaiah 1:14 Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul (nepesh) hates; They are a trouble to Me, I am weary of bearing them.

Leviticus 26:11 I will set My tabernacle among you, and My soul (nepesh) shall not abhor you.