What is more important, religion or your soul?
While this topic is being discussed in great lengths on another thread in this forum, I would like to enter this discussion.
Even if I repeat what others have said, I feel I must lay a foundation from the Scriptures, not from our feelings, or philosophy.
The key is stated in 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." AV
Notice: A separate soul was not joined to a prepared body to give it life.
Man BECAME A LIVING SOUL when the breath of the spirit of life was breathed into his nostrils.
Gendou Ikari, you did quite a job with the list you posted, where translators used many different words for 'nephesh' instead of 'soul'. IMO, if 'soul' had been used in every case, there would be less confusion. As it is, a person must use a concordance to see where 'nephesh' was the word in the Hebrew.
'Soul' is not exclusive to mankind. There are many passages that refer to creatures of the sea, to land animals, and to flying creatures as living souls, and having a soul. See: Gen.1:20,21,24; 2:19, 9:3,4, 8-10, 12, etc.
Studying verses concerning man's soul:
Many times man is called a 'soul' in the scriptures:
Gen.12:5 "Abram took his wife....and the souls they had gotten in Harran."
Gen.46:26 "All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt..."
Exod.12:4 "....take it according to the number of souls..."
Acts 2:41 "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day were added...about three thousand souls."
Acts 2:43 "And fear came upon every soul..." See also: Acts 7:14; 27:37; Rom.2:9; 13:1; 1 Cor. 15:45, etc.
Many times the soul is said to die or be dead:
Lev.24:17 "And he that killeth any man (soul) shall surely be put to death."
Num.23:10 "Let me (my soul) die the death of the righteous."
Josh.10:28 "...Joshua took Makkedah and smote it with the edge of the sword and the king thereof....and all the souls therein."
Josh.10:30 "Israel...smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls.."
Judg.16:30 "And Somson said, Let my soul die with the Philistines."
Job 36:14 "Their soul dies in yoth."
The soul can be destroyed:
Lev.23:30 "Whatsoever soul it be that doeth any work in that some day, the same soul will I destroy from among the people."
Ezek.22:27 "Her princes....are like wolves....to shed blood, to destroy souls"
Acts 3:23 "And if shall be, that every soul that shall not hearken to that prophet, shall be utterly destroyed from among the people."
The soul can be smitten to death and killed: See Deut.19:11; Josh.11:11;
Num.31:19, etc.
The soul is said to desire, lusteth after food and drink:
Deut.12:15,20,21 "...thou mayest kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, whatsoever thy soul lusteth after.."; "I will eat flesh because thy soul longeth to eat flesh.."; "..and thou shalt eat in thy gates whatsoever thy soul lusteth after." etc.
SOUL could be said to be the consciousness, the feelings, the desires, produced by the breath of life vitalizing the body. It will be seen from scripture that knowledge, memory, thought, love, joy, delight, bitterness, distress, impatience, mourning, sorrow, grief, abhorrence and hatred are related to the soul.
Since the soul is the feelings, the desires, the consciousness of man, when he dies they just disapppear. The Bible says the soul 'goes to Hades', which means 'goes to the unseen'; 'unseen being the literal meaning of 'Hades'.
If you have ever been mystified by Acts 2:27, you're not alone. When, as a teen-ager and a new Christian, I could not understand why Christ, after suffering on the cross, was put in Hell, a place of fire and punishment. That's what it says in the AV, and in the Westminster Confession.
"Thou wil not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption." These verses are quoting Psa.16:10, where the NIV reads, "...thou will not abandon me to the grave", where 'grave' is 'sheol' in the Hebrew. And the NIV in Acts2:27 says, "...you will not abandon me to the grave."
To conclude: Being living souls, made of the dust, the earth, Paul explains to us in 1 Cor.15:35-50, using 'soul' where it is in the originals: that this body must die to bring forth a new and glorious body in the resurrection of the Church/Body of Christ. Verse 44 reads, "It is sown a soulish body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a soulish body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, 'The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last man Adam a quickening spirit.' Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is soulish; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven."
God bless for now, Bick