Soul

"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."

However, in over 400 later occurrences it is translated "soul." While this serves to make sense in most passages, it is an unfortunate mistranslation of the term. 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. The Hebrew contrasts two other concepts which are not found in the Greek and Latin tradition: "the inner self" and "the outer appearance" or, as viewed in a different context, "what one is to oneself" as opposed to "what one appears to be to one's observers." The inner person is nepesh, while the outer person, or reputation, is shem, most commonly translated "name." In narrative or historical passages of the Old Testament, nepesh can be translated as "life" or "self," as in Lev 17:11: "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for [yourselves]…." Needless to say, the reading "soul" is meaningless in such a text.

But the situation in the numerous parallel poetic passages in which the term appears is much more difficult. The Greek Septuagint and the Latin Vulgate both simply use the Greek and Latin equivalent "soul," especially in the Psalms. The first occurrence is in Psa 3:2: "Many are saying of my soul, There is no deliverance for him in God" (nasb). The next occurrence is in Psa 6:3: "And my soul is greatly dismayed; but Thou, O Lord, how long?" (nasb). In both passages the parallel contrast is between nepesh and some aspect of the self, expressed as "him" in Psa 3:2 and not expressed but understood in Psa 6:3. There is no distinction as to whether it appears as an "A" or "B" word in the parallelism. However, since Hebrew rejects repeating the same noun in both halves of a poetic line, nepesh is often used as the parallel for the speaker, primary personal subject, and even for God, as in Psa 11:5: "The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence [he himself] hateth." Such passages are frequent, and a proper understanding of the word enlightens many well-known passages, such as Psa 119:109: "My life is continually in my hand, Yet I do not forget Thy law" (nasb).

The versions vary widely in their readings of nepesh, with the more contemporary versions casting widely for meanings.
Usage Number: 2
Part of Speech: Verb
Original Word: napash

Usage Notes::Napash means "to breathe; respire; be refreshed." This verb, which is apparently related to the noun nepesh, appears 3 times in the Old Testament (Exod 23:12; Exod 31:17). The other appearance is in 2Sa 16:14: "And the king, and all the people that were with him, came weary, and refreshed themselves there."

denotes "the breath, the breath of life," then "the soul," in its various meanings. The NT uses "may be analyzed approximately as follows:

(a) the natural life of the body, Mat 2:20, Luk 12:22, Act 20:10, Rev 8:9, Rev 12:11; cp. Lev 17:11, 2Sa 14:7, Est 8:11; (b) the immaterial, invisible part of man, Mat 10:28, Act 2:27; cp. 1Ki 17:21; (c) the disembodied (or "unclothed" or "naked," 2Co 1:5-4) man, Rev 6:9; (d) the seat of personality, Luk 9:24, explained as : "own self," Luk 9:25, Heb 6:19, Heb 10:39; cp. Isa 53:10 with 1Ti 2:6; (e) the seat of the sentient element in man, that by which he perceives, reflects, feels, desires, Mat 11:29, Luk 1:46, Luk 2:35, Act 14:2, Act 14:22; cp. Psa 84:2, Psa 139:14, Isa 26:9; (f) the seat of will and purpose, Mat 22:37, Act 4:32, Eph 6:6, Phi 1:27, Heb 12:3; cp. Num 21:4, Deu 11:13; (g) the seat of appetite, Rev 18:14; cp. Psa 107:9, Pro 6:30, Isa 5:14 ("desire"); Isa 29:8; (h) persons, individuals, Act 2:41, Act 2:43, Rom 2:9, Jam 5:20, 1Pe 3:20, 2Pe 2:14; cp. Gen 12:5, Gen 14:21 ("persons"); Lev 4:2 ('any one'); Eze 27:13; of dead bodies, Num 6:6, lit., "dead soul;" and of animals, Lev 24:18, lit., "soul for soul;" (i) the equivalent of the personal pronoun, used for emphasis and effect:, 1st person, Joh 10:24 ("us"); Heb 10:38; cp. Gen 12:13, Num 23:10, Jdg 16:30, Psa 120:2 ("me"); 2nd person, 2Co 12:15, Heb 13:17, Jam 1:21, 1Pe 1:9, 1Pe 2:25; cp. Lev 17:11, Lev 26:15, 1Sa 1:26; 3rd person, 1Pe 4:19, 2Pe 2:8; cp. Exo 30:12, Job 32:2, Heb. "soul," Sept. "self;" (j) an animate creature, human or other, 1Co 15:45, Rev 16:3; cp. Gen 1:24, Gen 2:7, Gen 2:19; (k) "the inward man," the seat of the new life, Luk 21:19 (cp. Mat 10:39); 1Pe 2:11, 3Jo 1:2.

"With (j) compare a-psuchos, "soulless, inanimate," 1Co 14:7.

"With (f) compare di-psuchos, "two-souled," Jam 1:8, Jam 4:8; oligo-psuchos, "feeble-souled," 1Th 5:14; iso-psuchos, "like-souled," Phi 2:20; sum-psuchos, "joint-souled" (with one accord"), Phi 2:2.

"The language of Heb 4:12 suggests the extreme difficulty of distinguishing between the soul and the spirit, alike in their nature and in their activities. Generally speaking the spirit is the higher, the soul the lower element. The spirit may be recognized as the life principle bestowed on man by God, the soul as the resulting life constituted in the individual, the body being the material organism animated by soul and spirit.

"Body and soul are the constituents of the man according to Mat 6:25, Mat 10:28, Luk 12:20, Act 20:10; body and spirit according to Luk 8:55, 1Co 5:3, 1Co 7:34, Jam 2:26. In Mat 26:38 the emotions are associated with the soul, in Joh 13:21 with the spirit; cp. also Psa 42:11 with 1Ki 21:5. In Psa 35:9 the soul rejoices in God, in Luk 1:47 the spirit.

"Apparently, then, the relationships may be thus summed up 'Soma, body, and pneuma, spirit, may be separated, pneuma and psuche, soul, can only be distinguished' (Cremer)."* [* From notes on Thessalonians, by Hogg and Vine, pp. 205-207.]