The concept of an immaterial and immortal soul – distinct from the body – did not appear in Judaism before the Babylonian exile, [1] but developed as a result of interaction with Persian and Hellenistic philosophies. [2] Accordingly, the Hebrew word נֶ֫פֶשׁ, nephesh, although translated as " soul" in some older English-language Bibles, actually has a meaning closer to "living being". Nephesh was translated into Greek in the Septuagint as ψυχή ( psūchê), using the Greek word for "soul". The New Testament also uses the word ψυχή.
The textual evidence indicates a multiplicity of perspectives on souls, including probable changes during the centuries in which the biblical corpus developed. [3]
The only Hebrew word traditionally translated "soul" (nephesh) in English-language Bibles refers to a living, breathing conscious body, rather than to an immortal soul. [4] In the New Testament, the Greek word traditionally translated "soul" (ψυχή) "psyche", has substantially the same meaning as the Hebrew, without reference to an immortal soul. In the Greek Septuagent psyche is used to translate each instance of nephesh. [5]
Number of times Nephesh and Psūchê are translated into certain English words. [6] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Translated as | Nephesh | Psūchê | ||
NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | |
Soul | 110 | 475 | 25 | 58 |
Life | 165 | 117 | 37 | 40 |
Person | 25 | 29 | ||
Spirit | 5 | |||
Mind | 3 | 15 | 3 | 3 |
Heart | 21 | 15 | 4 | 1 |
Yourselves | 19 | 6 | ||
Himself | 18 | 8 | ||
Any | 11 | 3 | ||
Creature | 10 | 9 | ||
Themselves | 10 | 3 | ||
Number of miscellaneous words & phrases appearing >10 to 1 times |
301 | 53 | 25 | 1 |
Not Translated | 47 | 0 | 8 | 2 |
TOTALS | 754 | 753 | 102 | 105 |
Number of times Hebrew and Greek words are translated into certain English words. [6] | ||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Translated as: | ruah | neshama | leb | Kilyah | ’ob | elohim | pneuma | autos | sympsychos | |||||||||
NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | |
Spirit | 182 | 232 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 325 | 317 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Spirits (angels, evil spirits) | 4 | 16 | 34 | 42 | ||||||||||||||
Soul | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
Breath | 31 | 27 | 18 | 17 | 3 | |||||||||||||
Wind | 94 | 92 | 2 | |||||||||||||||
Mind | 6 | 5 | 28 | 12 | 4 | 1 | ||||||||||||
Heart | 4 | 384 | 517 | 6 | 1 | |||||||||||||
Number of miscellaneous words & phrases appearing >4 to 1 times |
69 | 22 | 22 | 4 | 187 | 64 | 20 | 31 | 15 | 17 | 2601 God |
2606 | 13 | 21 | 5592 pronouns |
5785 |
According to Genesis 2:7 God did not make a body and put a soul into it like a letter into an envelope of dust; rather he formed man's body from the dust, then, by breathing divine breath into it, he made the body of dust live, i.e. the dust did not embody a soul, but it became a soul – a whole creature. [7]
And the Lord God created man in two formations; and took dust from the place of the house of the sanctuary, and from the four winds of the world, and mixed from all the waters of the world, and created him red, black, and white; and breathed into his nostrils the inspiration of life, and there was in the body of Adam the inspiration of a speaking spirit, unto the illumination of the eyes and the hearing of the ears. – Targum Pseudo-Jonathan [8]
And the Lord God created Adam from dust of the ground, and breathed upon his face the breath of lives, and it became in Adam a Discoursing Spirit. – Targum Onkelos [9]
The LORD God formed man of the dust of the groundadamah, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lifenishmat ḥayim; and man became a living soullenephesh ayyah.
— Genesis 2:7 (with notes added)
Here and "all through Scripture" a "living soul" denotes a "living person". [10] This is because, as Brevard Childs writes, in the biblical view, a person "does not have a soul, but is a soul". [11]
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living[chay] creature,[nephesh] that was the name thereof.
— Genesis 2:19 (with notes added)
In 1 Corinthians 15:45 (KJV), soul [psūchê] is defined based on an interpretation of Old Testament text; “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soulpsūchê; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”( 1 Corinthians 15:45)
The New Testament counterpart to the Old Testament word for soul, nephesh, is psyche. The two words carry a similar range of meanings. [2] Both can designate the person or the person’s life as a whole. [12] For all uses and meanings of psyche/ψυχἠ, see Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. [13]
According to some writers, nephesh and psūchê are not naturally immortal. [2] [14] [15] [16] [17] They die [18] [19] and are uncomprehending [20] during the time between death and Judgment Day resurrection, [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] also known as the intermediate state.
John Goldingay writes, "The life of a human being came more directly from God, and it is also evident that when someone dies, the breath (rûaḥ, e.g., Ps 104:29) or the life (nepeš, e.g., Gen 35:18) disappears and returns to the God who is rûaḥ." [26]
The concept of an immaterial soul separate from and surviving the body is common today but according to modern scholars, it was not found in ancient Hebrew beliefs. [27] The word nephesh never means an immortal soul [28] or an incorporeal part of the human being [29] that can survive death of the body as the spirit of the dead. [30]
In Patristic thought, towards the end of the 2nd century, psūchê had begun to be understood in a more Greek than a Hebrew way, contrasted with the body. By the 3rd century, with the influence of Origen, the traditions of the inherent immortality of the soul and its divine nature were established. [31] As the new Encyclopædia Britannica points out: “The early Christian philosophers adopted the Greek concept of the soul’s immortality and thought of the soul as being created by God and infused into the body at conception.” [32] Inherent immortality of the soul was accepted among western and eastern theologians throughout the Middle Ages, and after the Reformation, as evidenced by the Westminster Confession. [33][ citation needed]
The scholarly consensus of the 20th century held that the canonical teaching of the Old Testament made no reference to an immortal soul independent of the body in at least its earlier periods. [34] [35] [36] [37] A wide range of scholarly reference works consistently represent this view. [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] In recent times, a minority of scholars have partially dissented from this view. [3] [43] [44] According to Stephen Cook, scholars "now hotly debate the older, commonplace position that the idea of a soul, separable from the body, played little or no role in preexilic Israel" and that "recent approaches to Israelite religion that are increasingly informed by archaeological artifacts are defending the view that Israel’s beliefs in an afterlife were much more vibrant than many scholars have been willing to admit." [45]
Many modern theologians reject the view that the Bible teaches the doctrine of the immortal soul, [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] and Hebblethwaite claims the doctrine is "not popular amongst Christian theologians or among Christian philosophers today". [55]
For mortalists the Bible did not teach the existence of a separate immaterial or immortal soul and the word 'soul' simply meant 'life'; the doctrine of a separate soul was said to be a Platonic importation.
In the nt, 'soul' retains its basic Hebrew field of meaning. Soul refers to one's life: Herod sought Jesus' soul (Matt. 2:20); one might save a soul or take it (Mark 3:4). Death occurs when God 'requires your soul' (Luke 12:20). 'Soul' may refer to the whole person, the self: 'three thousand souls' were converted in Acts 2:41 (see Acts 3:23). Although the Greek idea of an immortal soul different in kind from the mortal body is not evident, 'soul' denotes the existence of a person after death (see Luke 9:25; 12:4; 21:19); yet Greek influence may be found in 1 Peter's remark about 'the salvation of souls' (1:9). A moderate dualism exists in the contrast of spirit with body and even soul, where 'soul' means life that is not yet caught up in grace. See also Flesh and Spirit; Human Being.
The crucial test is probably Genesis 2:7, which gives the process by which Adam was created: '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.' My mind, like most people's, has been deeply influenced by dualism, and I can see how dualistic minds deal with this verse. They conclude that the formula for man-making is man equals body plus soul. But that conclusion cannot be derived, except by violence, from Genesis 2:7, which is not dualistic. The formula given in Genesis 2:7 is not man equals body plus soul; the formula there is soul equals dust plus breath. According to this verse, God did not make a body and put a soul into it, like a letter into an envelope. He formed man of dust; then, by breathing His breath into it, He made the dust live. The dust, formed as man and made to live, did not embody a soul, it became a soul-that is, a whole creature. Humanity is thus presented to us, in Adam, not as a creature of two discrete parts temporarily glued together but as a single mystery.
But among philosophers they were perhaps equally notorious for their commitment to the mortalist heresy; this is the doctrine which denies the existence of a naturally immortal soul.
mortalism, the denial that the soul is an incorporeal substance that outlives the body
In Leviathan, soul and body are one; there are no "separated essenses [ sic]"; death means complete death – the soul, merely another word for life, or breath, ceases at the death of the body. This view of the soul is known as Christian mortalism – a heterodox view held, indeed, by some sincere believers and not unique to Hobbes.
Mortalism, the idea that the soul is not immortal by nature
christian mortalism - the view that the soul either sleeps until the Day of Judgment, or is annihilated and re-created
Thus the so-called Ganztodtheorie, or mortalism, states that with death the human person totally ceases to be.
doctrindes of mortalism or psychopannychism, which asserted that the being or the experience of the soul were suspended during the remainder of secular time
Theologian Edward Fudge defines mortalism as "the belief that according to divine revelation the soul does not exist as an independent substance after the death of the body."
mortalist views - particularly of the sort which affirmed that the soul slept or died - were widespread in the Reformation period. George Williams has shown how prevalent mortalism was among the Reformation radicals.
The concept of an immaterial and immortal soul – distinct from the body – did not appear in Judaism before the Babylonian exile, [1] but developed as a result of interaction with Persian and Hellenistic philosophies. [2] Accordingly, the Hebrew word נֶ֫פֶשׁ, nephesh, although translated as " soul" in some older English-language Bibles, actually has a meaning closer to "living being". Nephesh was translated into Greek in the Septuagint as ψυχή ( psūchê), using the Greek word for "soul". The New Testament also uses the word ψυχή.
The textual evidence indicates a multiplicity of perspectives on souls, including probable changes during the centuries in which the biblical corpus developed. [3]
The only Hebrew word traditionally translated "soul" (nephesh) in English-language Bibles refers to a living, breathing conscious body, rather than to an immortal soul. [4] In the New Testament, the Greek word traditionally translated "soul" (ψυχή) "psyche", has substantially the same meaning as the Hebrew, without reference to an immortal soul. In the Greek Septuagent psyche is used to translate each instance of nephesh. [5]
Number of times Nephesh and Psūchê are translated into certain English words. [6] | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Translated as | Nephesh | Psūchê | ||
NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | |
Soul | 110 | 475 | 25 | 58 |
Life | 165 | 117 | 37 | 40 |
Person | 25 | 29 | ||
Spirit | 5 | |||
Mind | 3 | 15 | 3 | 3 |
Heart | 21 | 15 | 4 | 1 |
Yourselves | 19 | 6 | ||
Himself | 18 | 8 | ||
Any | 11 | 3 | ||
Creature | 10 | 9 | ||
Themselves | 10 | 3 | ||
Number of miscellaneous words & phrases appearing >10 to 1 times |
301 | 53 | 25 | 1 |
Not Translated | 47 | 0 | 8 | 2 |
TOTALS | 754 | 753 | 102 | 105 |
Number of times Hebrew and Greek words are translated into certain English words. [6] | ||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Translated as: | ruah | neshama | leb | Kilyah | ’ob | elohim | pneuma | autos | sympsychos | |||||||||
NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | NIV | KJV | |
Spirit | 182 | 232 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 325 | 317 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
Spirits (angels, evil spirits) | 4 | 16 | 34 | 42 | ||||||||||||||
Soul | 1 | |||||||||||||||||
Breath | 31 | 27 | 18 | 17 | 3 | |||||||||||||
Wind | 94 | 92 | 2 | |||||||||||||||
Mind | 6 | 5 | 28 | 12 | 4 | 1 | ||||||||||||
Heart | 4 | 384 | 517 | 6 | 1 | |||||||||||||
Number of miscellaneous words & phrases appearing >4 to 1 times |
69 | 22 | 22 | 4 | 187 | 64 | 20 | 31 | 15 | 17 | 2601 God |
2606 | 13 | 21 | 5592 pronouns |
5785 |
According to Genesis 2:7 God did not make a body and put a soul into it like a letter into an envelope of dust; rather he formed man's body from the dust, then, by breathing divine breath into it, he made the body of dust live, i.e. the dust did not embody a soul, but it became a soul – a whole creature. [7]
And the Lord God created man in two formations; and took dust from the place of the house of the sanctuary, and from the four winds of the world, and mixed from all the waters of the world, and created him red, black, and white; and breathed into his nostrils the inspiration of life, and there was in the body of Adam the inspiration of a speaking spirit, unto the illumination of the eyes and the hearing of the ears. – Targum Pseudo-Jonathan [8]
And the Lord God created Adam from dust of the ground, and breathed upon his face the breath of lives, and it became in Adam a Discoursing Spirit. – Targum Onkelos [9]
The LORD God formed man of the dust of the groundadamah, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of lifenishmat ḥayim; and man became a living soullenephesh ayyah.
— Genesis 2:7 (with notes added)
Here and "all through Scripture" a "living soul" denotes a "living person". [10] This is because, as Brevard Childs writes, in the biblical view, a person "does not have a soul, but is a soul". [11]
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living[chay] creature,[nephesh] that was the name thereof.
— Genesis 2:19 (with notes added)
In 1 Corinthians 15:45 (KJV), soul [psūchê] is defined based on an interpretation of Old Testament text; “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soulpsūchê; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.”( 1 Corinthians 15:45)
The New Testament counterpart to the Old Testament word for soul, nephesh, is psyche. The two words carry a similar range of meanings. [2] Both can designate the person or the person’s life as a whole. [12] For all uses and meanings of psyche/ψυχἠ, see Joseph Henry Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. [13]
According to some writers, nephesh and psūchê are not naturally immortal. [2] [14] [15] [16] [17] They die [18] [19] and are uncomprehending [20] during the time between death and Judgment Day resurrection, [21] [22] [23] [24] [25] also known as the intermediate state.
John Goldingay writes, "The life of a human being came more directly from God, and it is also evident that when someone dies, the breath (rûaḥ, e.g., Ps 104:29) or the life (nepeš, e.g., Gen 35:18) disappears and returns to the God who is rûaḥ." [26]
The concept of an immaterial soul separate from and surviving the body is common today but according to modern scholars, it was not found in ancient Hebrew beliefs. [27] The word nephesh never means an immortal soul [28] or an incorporeal part of the human being [29] that can survive death of the body as the spirit of the dead. [30]
In Patristic thought, towards the end of the 2nd century, psūchê had begun to be understood in a more Greek than a Hebrew way, contrasted with the body. By the 3rd century, with the influence of Origen, the traditions of the inherent immortality of the soul and its divine nature were established. [31] As the new Encyclopædia Britannica points out: “The early Christian philosophers adopted the Greek concept of the soul’s immortality and thought of the soul as being created by God and infused into the body at conception.” [32] Inherent immortality of the soul was accepted among western and eastern theologians throughout the Middle Ages, and after the Reformation, as evidenced by the Westminster Confession. [33][ citation needed]
The scholarly consensus of the 20th century held that the canonical teaching of the Old Testament made no reference to an immortal soul independent of the body in at least its earlier periods. [34] [35] [36] [37] A wide range of scholarly reference works consistently represent this view. [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] In recent times, a minority of scholars have partially dissented from this view. [3] [43] [44] According to Stephen Cook, scholars "now hotly debate the older, commonplace position that the idea of a soul, separable from the body, played little or no role in preexilic Israel" and that "recent approaches to Israelite religion that are increasingly informed by archaeological artifacts are defending the view that Israel’s beliefs in an afterlife were much more vibrant than many scholars have been willing to admit." [45]
Many modern theologians reject the view that the Bible teaches the doctrine of the immortal soul, [46] [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54] and Hebblethwaite claims the doctrine is "not popular amongst Christian theologians or among Christian philosophers today". [55]
For mortalists the Bible did not teach the existence of a separate immaterial or immortal soul and the word 'soul' simply meant 'life'; the doctrine of a separate soul was said to be a Platonic importation.
In the nt, 'soul' retains its basic Hebrew field of meaning. Soul refers to one's life: Herod sought Jesus' soul (Matt. 2:20); one might save a soul or take it (Mark 3:4). Death occurs when God 'requires your soul' (Luke 12:20). 'Soul' may refer to the whole person, the self: 'three thousand souls' were converted in Acts 2:41 (see Acts 3:23). Although the Greek idea of an immortal soul different in kind from the mortal body is not evident, 'soul' denotes the existence of a person after death (see Luke 9:25; 12:4; 21:19); yet Greek influence may be found in 1 Peter's remark about 'the salvation of souls' (1:9). A moderate dualism exists in the contrast of spirit with body and even soul, where 'soul' means life that is not yet caught up in grace. See also Flesh and Spirit; Human Being.
The crucial test is probably Genesis 2:7, which gives the process by which Adam was created: '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.' My mind, like most people's, has been deeply influenced by dualism, and I can see how dualistic minds deal with this verse. They conclude that the formula for man-making is man equals body plus soul. But that conclusion cannot be derived, except by violence, from Genesis 2:7, which is not dualistic. The formula given in Genesis 2:7 is not man equals body plus soul; the formula there is soul equals dust plus breath. According to this verse, God did not make a body and put a soul into it, like a letter into an envelope. He formed man of dust; then, by breathing His breath into it, He made the dust live. The dust, formed as man and made to live, did not embody a soul, it became a soul-that is, a whole creature. Humanity is thus presented to us, in Adam, not as a creature of two discrete parts temporarily glued together but as a single mystery.
But among philosophers they were perhaps equally notorious for their commitment to the mortalist heresy; this is the doctrine which denies the existence of a naturally immortal soul.
mortalism, the denial that the soul is an incorporeal substance that outlives the body
In Leviathan, soul and body are one; there are no "separated essenses [ sic]"; death means complete death – the soul, merely another word for life, or breath, ceases at the death of the body. This view of the soul is known as Christian mortalism – a heterodox view held, indeed, by some sincere believers and not unique to Hobbes.
Mortalism, the idea that the soul is not immortal by nature
christian mortalism - the view that the soul either sleeps until the Day of Judgment, or is annihilated and re-created
Thus the so-called Ganztodtheorie, or mortalism, states that with death the human person totally ceases to be.
doctrindes of mortalism or psychopannychism, which asserted that the being or the experience of the soul were suspended during the remainder of secular time
Theologian Edward Fudge defines mortalism as "the belief that according to divine revelation the soul does not exist as an independent substance after the death of the body."
mortalist views - particularly of the sort which affirmed that the soul slept or died - were widespread in the Reformation period. George Williams has shown how prevalent mortalism was among the Reformation radicals.