CAN THE SOUL DIE?
Soul in our English Bible is translated from “nehphesh” in the Hebrew Old Testament. In all 870 times this word is used it is associated with the activity of a living being, mankind, animals, and sea life, including dying, it never implies anything about life after the death of the living being. None of the 870 times are an immortal, immaterial, inter something in a person that has no substance; souls (nehpheshs) are the living being (persons, animals, or any living thing) that can die, be killed, or is already be dead.
Soul (nehphesh) as it is used in the Bible although that it is used it is more often than not hid for the English readers by the way it was translated or mistranslated.
[1] Genesis 1:20 "The moving creature that has life" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to animals]. Footnote in the King James Version, "The moving creature that has soul." "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures" [soul–
nehphesh] (American Standard Version) "The moving creature that has life"
(footnote in KJV).
If ― soul” were an immortal "immaterial, invisible part of man" (W. E. Vine, Expository Dictionary Of Old And New Testament Words), why is this Hebrew word that is translated soul also translated "living creature" when it is speaking of animals in Genesis 1:21; 1:24; 2:19; 9:10; 9:12; 9:15; 9:16 when the same Hebrew word [nehphesh] is translated "living soul"
in Genesis 2:7 when it is speaking of a person? In the Hebrew, if this word were an immaterial, immortal part of a person, it would also be an immaterial, immortal part of animals.
[2] Genesis 1:21 " living creature" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to animals], "And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature
[soul–nehphesh] that moves wherewith the water swarmed.”
[3] Genesis 1:24 " living creature" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to animals], "And God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures [soul–
nehphesh] after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth."
[4] Genesis 1:30 " life" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to animals], " And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps upon
the earth, wherein there is life" [soul–nehphesh]; animals are "a living soul."
ALL FOUR TIMES THAT SOUL [nehphesh] IS USED IN GENESIS ONE, IT
IS USED REFERRING TO ANIMALS, NOT TO A PERSON. ANIMALS WERE
SOULS, LIVING BEINGS, BEFORE ANY MAN EXISTED. "Then God said,
'Let the waters teem with swarms of living souls [soul–nehpheshs], and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens.' And God created the great sea monsters, and every living soul [soul-nehphesh] that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.'
And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. Then God said, 'Let the earth bring forth living souls [soul–nehpheshs] after their kind: cattle and creeping thing and beasts of the earth after their kind'; and it was so...and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is life [soul–nehphesh], I have given every green herb for meat" [Genesis 1:20-30]. “Living creatures" [soul–nehphesh]
is used to describe all living
things on earth, people, animals, birds, and fish; not eternal life or some immaterial invisible part of them that is eternal. If a person being a soul
[nehphesh–a living being] makes that person be either immortal or in the image of God, then it makes animals, birds, and fish being a soul [nehphesh–a living being] also be immortal and in the image of God.
[5] Genesis 2:7 " A living soul" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to a person].
The first time the King James Version translated nehphesh into "soul, "
most other translations did not agree with it, not even the New King James Version. "Man became a living being" New King James Version.
“A living creature" [nehphesh] Genesis 1:20
“A living creature" [nehphesh] Genesis 1:21
“A living creature" [nehphesh] Genesis 1:24
― Wherein there is life" [nehphesh] Genesis 1:30
“A living soul" [nehphesh] Genesis 2:7 "Man became a living being" New King James Version
o
It is obvious that the translators of the King James Version translated according to a preconceived opinion in an attempt make persons have immortality but keep animals from having souls; they made a distinction in animals and men that dose not exist in the Hebrew Bible.
o
Genesis 2:7 Man
became :
“A living soul" King James Version
" A living being" New King James Version, American Standard Version, New American
Standard Version, Revised Standard Version, New Revised Standard Version, New
International Version, Amplified Version, The New American Bible.
" A living person" New Century Version, The Living Bible, New Living Translation.]
" A living creature" The Revised English Bible, Young's Literal Translation.
" Life" Contemporary English Version.
Although this passage is repeatedly used to prove man has an immortal soul that animals do not have most translations other than the King James apply it to the living breathing being or person, not to an invisible inter part of a person. Adam being spoken of as a "living being"
[nehphesh] proves he was mortal, not immortal, just as all "living beings"
[nehphesh] fish, birds, animals, are mortal, not immortal. How can this be one of the proof texts used to prove Adam was made with an immortal soul? If it proves Adam had an immortal soul then it proves that fish have an immortal soul that cannot die.
It is importance to understand that it is being said that animals and mankind are a soul [are living beings] not that animals or mankind have a soul [have a part, an immortal, invisible, no substitute something in them that cannot die]. Many assume Genesis is saying only mankind has souls but animals do not. Because of what they have been taught most, without realizing it they read into this that only mankind has a soul that is an immortal, invisible, no substitutes something that cannot die. This causes them to believe that only this immortal part of them self will be saved (more on this at the end of this chapter).
THE BREATH OF LIFE : Some have switched from the soul being the immortal part of a person to the spirit being the immortal part of a person that animals do not have. “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathe into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being”
The phrase “breath of life” that was breathed into man is the same Hebrew
“breath of life” in Genesis 7:21-22 that is in the nostrils of birds, cattle, men and beasts. It is not a soul that men have but animals do not have; it does not say that God breathed into Adam an immortal soul; the breathless body that God made from the earth is what became a living breathing being [nshahmah]. God
did not tell Adam he had a body that was made from the earth but the real Adam was made of something not from the earth.
“Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [nshahmah]” man [Genesis 2:7]
“All in whose nostrils was the breath of life [nshahmah]” both man and animals have the same
― breath of life [nshahmah]”
[Genesis 7:22]
“Saved alive nothing that breaths [nshahmah]” both men and animals
[Deuteronomy 20:16]
“Utterly destroyed all that breaths [nshahmah]” both men and animals [Joshua 10:40]
“There was not any left to breaths [nshahmah]” both men and animals [Joshua 11:11]
“Neither left they any to breaths [nshahmah]” both men and animals [Joshua 11:14]
o Why was one word [nshahmah] translated with three words [ “breath of life” ], then with only one word [ “breaths” ]?
[6] Genesis 2:19 " living creature" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to animals],
" Every
beast...every bird...whatsoever the man called every living creature [soul-nshahmah] , that was the name thereof"
[7] Genesis 9:4 " life" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to animals] [8] Genesis 9:5 " lives" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to man]
[9] Genesis 9:5 " life" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to man]
[10] Genesis 9:10 " living creature" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to animals] [11] Genesis 9:12 " living creature" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to animals]
[12] Genesis 9:15 " living creature" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to man and animals] [13] Genesis 9:16 " living creature" [soul–nehphesh, used referring to man and animals]
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A bird‘s eye view of the translation of nehphesh in the first nine chapters 1. “Moving creature that has life" [nehphesh] Genesis 1:20 - animals 2. “A living creature" [nehphesh] Genesis 1:21- animals
3. “A living creature" [nehphesh] Genesis 1:24 - animals 4. ―Wherein there is life" [soul - nehphesh] Genesis 1:30 - animals 5. “A living soul" [nehphesh] Genesis 2:7 - man 6. “A living creature" [nehphesh] Genesis 2:19 – animals 7. “Life" [nehphesh] Genesis 9:4 - animals 8. “Lives” [nehphesh] Genesis 9:5 - man
9. “Life" [nehphesh] Genesis 9:5 - man
10. “Living creature" [nehphesh] Genesis 9:10 - animals 11. “Living creature" [nehphesh] Genesis 9:12 - animals 12. “Living creature" [nehphesh] Genesis 9:15 - man and animals 13. “Living creature" [nehphesh] Genesis 9:16 - man and animals This is an example of men attempting to cover up the truth when it is contradictory to their theology. It takes a lot of preconceived theology to make nehphesh be an immaterial invisible no substance part of a man that is now immortal that is not in animals when it is not deliberately hid as it is in the King James Version.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In Genesis 9:4-16 the same word is used for both man and animals seven times in the same passage.
To animals five times, to man four times