Part 3. The Living Soul

 This is the 3rd part in a series of 7 written under the title:

You Shall Surely Die

Rediscovering Life, Death, and Resurrection Through Scripture
See index for previous parts.
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 3. The Living Soul

In the previous chapter we saw that God formed the man from the dust of the ground, breathed into him the breath of life, and the man became a living nephesh—a living being.

Rather than describing two independent beings joined together—a physical body and an immortal soul—Genesis describes the creation of one living person. That observation naturally raises another question.

    How does the Bible itself use the word?”

For many English readers the answer appears obvious. We instinctively read the word soul as referring to an invisible, immaterial part of a person that survives death. Yet before assuming that is what the author intended, we should ask a more basic question. How does the Bible itself use the word?

The Hebrew word translated “living creature” in Genesis 2:7 is nephesh. This is the first occurrence of nepheshin relation to humanity, and in Scripture first occurrences often establish the basic sense in which a word will later be understood. Depending upon the translation, it may be rendered living creature, living being, or living soul. None of these translations is necessarily wrong. The difficulty lies not in the Hebrew word but in what modern readers usually mean when they hear the English word soul.

Most people today think of a soul as something a person possesses. The Hebrew Scriptures generally present a different picture. They present the person not as one having the living nephesh; the person was the living nephesh. Perhaps the easiest way to see this is to look at where the word first appears.

Before Adam is ever called a living nephesh, the same expression has already been used several times in Genesis 1. On the fifth day God created the creatures of the sea and the birds of the air.

"So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves..." (Genesis 1:21)

Here, the expression translated “living creature” is again nephesh chayyah. On the sixth day, land animals are likewise described as living nephesh.

“Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds...” (Genesis 1:24)

Only afterwards does Genesis describe the creation of mankind.

“...and the man became a living creature.” (Genesis 2:7)

This observation often surprises modern readers. The same expression used of Adam is also used of fish, birds, livestock, wild animals, and every other creature possessing life. At least within the creation account, Genesis does not distinguish humanity from the animals by introducing the concept of an immortal soul. Instead, it uses the same ordinary Hebrew expression for all living creatures. The emphasis falls not upon different kinds of souls but upon the gift of life itself.

Anything animated by the life God gives is described as a living nephesh. This broader meaning continues throughout the Old Testament. Note the following:

• A nephesh can become hungry (Proverbs 27:7).

• It can become thirsty (Psalm 42:1-2).

• It can love (Song of Solomon 1:7).

• It can desire (Deuteronomy 12:20).

• It can become weary (Jeremiah 31:25).

• It can sin (Ezekiel 18:4).

Remarkably, Scripture can even speak of a nephesh dying. The prophet Ezekiel declares:

“The soul who sins shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4)

If we approach that verse with the modern definition of “soul,” it sounds almost contradictory. How can an immortal soul die? The difficulty, however, does not lie in Ezekiel's words. It lies in our assumptions. Ezekiel was using the word exactly as it had been used throughout the Hebrew Scriptures.

• The nephesh is the living person.

• The person who sins dies.

The same pattern appears repeatedly throughout the Law of Moses. Someone who touches a dead body is literally said to touch a dead nephesh (Numbers 6:6; 9:6-10). This would be a very strange expression if nephesh always referred to an immortal, conscious entity. English translations often avoid the expression because it sounds strange to modern ears, rendering it instead as “dead body” or “corpse.” Yet the Hebrew text continues using the same word.

This reminds us of an important principle of Bible study. Words do not carry fixed meanings independent of their context. We naturally read the English word soul through centuries of later theological discussion. Moses and the prophets did not. Their concern was not to distinguish between material and immaterial substances but to describe life as God had created it. That understanding fits perfectly with Genesis 2:7. God did not first create a body and then place a soul inside it. He formed the man from the dust, breathed into him the breath of life, and the man became a living nephesh. The person himself was the living soul.

That does not however, answer every question about human nature.

The Old Testament also speaks of God's Spirit, of the human spirit, of breath, of life, and eventually of resurrection. Each of those ideas deserves careful study.

But before exploring them, we should allow Genesis to establish its own foundation. The Bible's first description of humanity is wonderfully simple.

Genesis has therefore established the foundation upon which the rest of Scripture builds. Humanity is presented as a living person formed from the dust and sustained by the breath of God. Yet this raises another question. If the nephesh is the living person, what exactly is the breath of life that God breathed into Adam? What does Scripture mean by spirit? And what returns to God when a person dies?

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Watch for part 4.  "The Breath of Life - What Did God Breathe into Adam?"

This will be posted very soon.

This is the 2nd part in a series of 7 written under the title:

You Shall Surely Die

Rediscovering Life, Death, and Resurrection Through Scripture
See index for previous parts.
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Part 2. Dust + Breath = Life?

In the previous chapter we arrived at the point where the biblical story of humanity truly begins. Before asking what death is or what happens after death, we must first understand how God created human life. Genesis 2:7 tells us:

"Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." (ESV)

It is a familiar passage, yet perhaps because it is so familiar, we often read past what it actually says.

Before we attempt to answer larger questions about the soul, death, resurrection, or eternal life, we should pause and ask a few simple questions about this verse itself.

• What was Adam before God breathed into him?
  
• What happened when God breathed the breath of life into him?
• What became alive?
• If the man became a living being, what exactly dies when a person dies?

These questions are not as obvious as they first appear.

Genesis describes two distinct elements coming together. God first formed the man from the dust of the earth. He then breathed into him the breath of life. Only after these two elements were united did "the man become a living creature."

Notice carefully what the text does—and does not—say. It does not say that God placed a living soul inside a body. It says that the man became a living being.

If we were to express the verse as a simple equation, it might look like this:

Dust of the earth + the breath of life = a living being.

That is the entire biblical description of humanity's creation!

This simple observation raises another important question. If Genesis intended to teach that humanity consists of an immortal soul temporarily inhabiting a physical body, why does it never describe creation in those terms? Instead, it presents a remarkably unified picture. God forms the man. God breathes into the man. The man becomes a living being. The emphasis falls not upon two independent entities but upon the creation of one living person. Before asking what later generations believed about human nature, we should first ask what Moses intended his readers to understand.

This also gives us insight into how ancient Israel—the first audience to receive Genesis—would have understood the human person. They would not have approached the text with centuries of later philosophical discussion about the nature of the soul. They would simply have understood the account as describing how God created a living human being. The man was formed from the dust of the ground. God breathed into him the breath of life. As a result, the man became a living creature.

Throughout the Old Testament, this same picture continues to dominate. Human beings are ordinarily presented as whole, living persons rather than as immortal souls temporarily inhabiting physical bodies. Life is God's gift. Humanity is animated by His breath. The emphasis falls upon the living person as a unified whole.

This understanding also explains something that many modern readers find surprising. The same expression translated “living creature” or “living soul” (nephesh chayyah) in Genesis 2:7 is also used of the animals God created in Genesis 1. Fish, birds, land animals, and mankind are all described in the same way—as living creatures. The expression emphasizes that they are living beings; it does not, by itself, describe an immortal, immaterial component existing independently of the body.

The language of Genesis is remarkably concrete. Adam is formed from the dust of the ground, and his life depends entirely upon the breath God gives him. Neither element alone is described as a living person. Dust is not alive, and the breath of life is not presented as a conscious individual. Life begins only when the Creator brings the two together. This does not answer every question we might ask about human nature, but it establishes the foundation upon which those questions must be explored. If we are to understand what the Bible means by words such as soul, spirit, life, and death, we should begin with the meanings those words carried for those who first received God's revelation, rather than with ideas that developed centuries later.

This picture should not surprise us. Throughout Scripture, life is consistently portrayed as God's gift rather than humanity's inherent possession. Human beings do not possess life independently. They receive it. They remain alive because God continually sustains the life He has given.

The importance of this picture becomes even clearer when Scripture begins to describe death.

When Adam was warned that disobedience would result in death, God did not introduce an entirely new concept. Death would be the undoing of what had happened in Genesis 2:7. The body would return to the dust from which it was formed, while the breath of life would return to the God who gave it.

The creation account itself prepares us for this understanding.

The creation account therefore establishes the pattern that will guide everything that follows. Human beings are not introduced as immortal souls temporarily inhabiting bodies, but as living creatures whose life depends entirely upon the Creator. That distinction may seem small, yet it profoundly shapes the way we understand the rest of Scripture. It also prepares us for the next question. When Genesis says that Adam “became a living creature,” what exactly does that expression mean? More specifically, what does the Bible mean by the word so often translated “soul?” Before asking whether the soul is immortal, we must first discover what the biblical writers meant by the word itself.

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Watch for part 3.  "The Living Soul"

Now posted.

 

Rediscovering Life, Death, and Resurrection Through Scripture

This is the 1st part in a series of 7 written under the title:

You Shall Surely Die

Rediscovering Life, Death, and Resurrection Through Scripture
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1.  Who Are We? - Beginning Again in Eden

"What is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor."  Psalm 8:4–5 (ESV)

Throughout my Christian journey, I have wrestled with many questions. Most have centered on subjects such as:

    • What is a human being? What does it mean to be alive?

    • What is death, and what happens when we die? 

    • What is the soul? Is it naturally immortal?

    • Why is there a resurrection, and what does resurrection mean?

    • What is eternal life?

Each of these questions is important and deserves careful study. Yet they all depend upon an even more fundamental question—one raised by God Himself in the opening chapters of Genesis.

What is man?

Before asking what happens to us after death, we should first ask what we are in life. Are human beings immortal souls temporarily inhabiting physical bodies? Is the body merely a temporary vessel? Or does Scripture describe humanity in an altogether different way?

The answer matters more than we might think. Our understanding of human nature shapes how we understand nearly every major biblical doctrine concerning death, resurrection, judgment, eternal life, heaven, and hell. If we begin with the wrong assumptions about what a human being is, we should not be surprised if we arrive at mistaken conclusions about what happens after death.

That possibility may seem unlikely until we discover that many of the ideas modern Christians take for granted about human nature did not originate with the biblical writers themselves. Instead, some entered Christian thought gradually through philosophical and religious influences that arose entirely outside the world of the Old and New Testaments.

Before we can answer questions about the soul, death, or eternity, we must first return to the beginning and ask the question Scripture itself asks: What is man?

The search for an answer should begin where the Bible begins. Very early in Genesis we are told how humanity came into existence:

"Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." — Genesis 2:7 (ESV)

Everything that follows in this study grows from this remarkable verse.

Genesis also tells us why humanity was created. In the opening chapter, mankind is commissioned to fill the earth, exercise dominion over the creatures God has made, and faithfully steward His creation. Humanity's calling is inseparably rooted to the earth—the created world.

At the same time, humanity was given genuine freedom—but not absolute freedom. After placing Adam in the garden, God gave him a single prohibition:

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, 'You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.'”

Genesis 2:15–17 (ESV)

These words introduce one of the most important questions in all of Scripture. What did God mean when He warned, “You shall surely die”?

Everything that follows in the biblical story ultimately grows out of that warning.

The following chapter immediately introduces a competing claim. The serpent's first recorded words are not an attempt to explain death differently or redefine what God had said. They are a direct contradiction of God's warning. The serpent said, “You will not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4)

The issue is therefore not one of definition but of trust. Would humanity believe what God had said, or would they believe the serpent's denial?

Ever since that moment, humanity has lived between those two competing claims. Did God mean what He said about death? Or was the serpent right? 

Nearly every question we ask about the soul, death, resurrection, judgment, heaven, and hell ultimately depends on how we answer that question.

Getting back to the story, we know what happened next. Eve believed the serpent's words, ate the fruit, and gave some to Adam, who also ate. The consequences were immediate and far-reaching. Yet the account raises several important questions that deserve careful consideration.

The account raises important questions, though perhaps not the ones we often ask. The narrative never suggests that Eve misunderstood God's warning or asked what death meant. The serpent did not redefine death or explain it differently. He simply denied that God's warning would come to pass.

The issue before Adam and Eve was therefore one of trust.

Would they believe the Creator?   Or would they believe the serpent?

The New Testament leaves no doubt about the significance of that choice. Paul writes:
"Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned." (Romans 5:12, ESV)

Paul's words raise one final question that reaches far beyond the Garden of Eden.

When God warned Adam, “You shall surely die,” what did He mean? That question lies at the heart of the biblical story. It is the very warning the serpent denied when he declared, "You will not surely die."

Throughout the remainder of Scripture, those two opposing claims stand in tension. Was God speaking the truth about death? Or was the serpent?

Yet Genesis leaves us with another question as well. Did God abandon the creation that sin had disrupted? The remainder of Scripture answers that question with a resounding “No.” Instead, it tells the story of the Creator's determination to restore the life that death had undone.

That is why this study begins where the Bible begins. Before we can answer questions about the soul, death, resurrection, eternal life, heaven, or hell, we must first understand what God revealed about humanity in the opening chapters of Genesis. Only then can we follow the biblical story as it unfolds from creation, through the Fall, to the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the restoration of all things.

In many ways, the chapters that follow are an extended attempt to answer one simple question:

What did God mean when He said, “You shall surely die?”
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Watch for part 2.  Dust + Breath = Life?
Now posted.