LIFE ONLY
IN CHRIST
- - - - - - -
- - - -
RESURRECTION
OR
IMMORTALITY
Subtitled
The
Resurrection, Our Only Hope Of Life After Death
Or Is
William Robert West
Author of ÒThe Rapture And IsraelÓ
"The Wages Of Sin Is Death"
"The Wages Of Sin Is Eternal
Life With Torment In Hell"
An Immortal Soul
And The Doctrine Of Hell
Is There A Soul
In You That Will Live After You Are Dead?
Updated
3/30/18
Over
1,074,500 download
LIFE IN CHRIST
RESURRECTION OR
IMMORTALITY
The Resurrection,
Our Only Hope Of Life After Death
William Robert West
Table of Contents
INDEX and CHAPTER ONE: The nature of man–what is man?
You are now on INDEX and CHAPTER
ONE
CHAPTER TWO: Life or Death
At: http://www.robertwr.com/life.html
CHAPTER THREE: The great doctrines of the Bible
At: http://www.robertwr.com/immortal.html
CHAPTERS FOUR, FIVE, SIX, AND SEVEN AT:
http://www.robertwr.com/hell.html
Chapter four: From where came Hell, from man or God?
o Unquenchable fire,
weeping, gnashing of teeth
o Old Testament
history of Gehenna
o Gehenna used by
Christ on four occasions
o The vanishing Hell
o Twenty-nine plus
version of Hell
o Three Catholic
versions of Hell
o Seventeen plus
Protestant versions of Hell
o Nine other versions
of Hell
Chapter five: Sheol, Hades, and Tartarus
Chapter six: The thirty-one Hell
passages
Chapter seven: A strange and unexplainable silence of the Old
Testament on punishment and life after death, life, death, torment,
destruction, destroy, perish, die, and end
CHAPTERS EIGHT, NINE, TEN, ELEVEN AND TWELVE AT: http://www.robertwr.com/heaven.html
Chapter eight: Figurative language, metaphors, and symbolical
passage
o Part one: The rich
man
o Part two: The symbolic
pictures in Revelation
o Part three: The
forever and ever of the King James Version
Chapter nine: Universalist: The "age lasting" Hell
Chapter ten: The results of attributing evil Pagan
teachings to God
Chapter eleven: Historical proof of the changing of the
teaching of the Bible
Chapter twelve: ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION, her weeping,
gnashing of teeth, outer darkness, Matthew 24, Preterits
Eschatology, Realized Eschatology, A. D. 70 Doctrine, The day of
the Lord, 2 Peter 3
Appendix one
ALL TWELVE CHAPTERS ON ONE WEB SITE AT: http://www.robertwr.com/resurrection.pdf
-————————————————-—————————
Foreword
What do you believe about souls?
There are many very different doctrines taught in the world today concerning
souls that are believed to be in all humans. By most a soul is believed to be
something that is wholly apart from the person that a soul is in; that a soul
is something that is believed to be complete in its self without the person; it
will live after the person it is in is dead; it is believed that a soul will
exist forever without the person; it will never be dead; therefore, a soul
cannot be resurrected from the dead. It is believed that a soul must live
someplace forever, and it will live either in Heaven or Hell even if there is
no resurrection. The doctrine of unconditional immortality of a deathless soul
being in a person, and that soul leaving that person at the death of the person
makes it impossible for Christ to have give His life to save that soul from
death; if a soul had immortality it would already have life and could never not
have life; all Christ could do is give it a reward or punish it.
MANY BELIEVE
(1). At the death of a saved person
a bodiless, deathless soul that had been in a person will fly immediately to
Heaven to the very presents of Jesus and God. Many believe souls are looking
down on loved ones of the dead persons the souls had been in.
(2). At the death of a lost
person, a soul that was in that person will immediately be carried to Hell
where it will forever be alive, suffering and screaming, while it is being
eternally tormented by God with no hope that God will ever stop tormenting it.
(3). At the death of most
persons that are Catholic, souls that were in them goes immediately to
Purgatory where souls will suffer unto souls have suffered enough to pay for
the sins of the persons they were in, then these souls will be saved by their
own suffering, or by money given by others.
(4). In the AbrahamÕs bosom
version souls that had been in the saved will go immediately at death to be
rewarded in AbrahamÕs bosom, the good side of hades, unto the coming of Christ
while souls that were in the lost are tormented in the bad side of hades unto
the coming of Christ; after the judgment the souls that had been in the lost
persons will be endlessly tormented by God in an endless burning Hell.
(5). A view of a soul now
believed by some Protestants, called Rephaim, is that after the death of the
person, a soul leaves the person and it is a shadowy something that has no
substance, it is nothing more than mental thoughts without any kind of
substance or body.
(6). Spiritualism: After the
death of the person, the spirit becomes a ghost that sometimes haunts the house
of the person it had been in, it is a ghostly spook that can sometimes be seen
at night among the graves and tombstones in a cemetery. According to
Spiritualism, some people can and do call them back, but usually only after
they are paid to do the calling; Spiritualist say these ghosts or spooks roam
the earth and are seen by people, and even live in the house with people; that
the ghost that have left the persons they were dwelling in can come back, and
these ghost can do both good and evil to living persons that still have ghosts
(souls) dwelling in them. Many who do not think of themselves as being a
Spiritualist and even deny that they are a Spiritualist believe much of the
Spiritualist belief; most funerals that I have attended the preacher has a soul
that had been dwelling in the dead person dwelling in Heaven, and that soul was
looking down on the funeral of the dead person it had been freed from; have you
ever been to a funeral where the preacher said a soul that had been in the dead
person was alive in Hell and looking up from Hell at the person it had been
in? The teaching of souls going to Heaven or Hell at death without a
resurrection is from Greek philosophy, that souls are imprisoned in a person
and freed at the death of the person; in no way can it be call Christian; it is
a complete denial of Christianly.
(7). The whole person, not a
soul that had been in a person, sleeps from death unto the resurrection, the
whole person is resurrected and judged, the person is given endless life, or
endless death.
(8). There are many other
beliefs about what a soul is and what a soul can and cannot do, far too many to
list here.
Two of the views that are commonly
believed about what will happen to souls that leave mankind after death are the
subject of this book.
VIEW ONE: The belief that the you (the person you
now are) will put on immortality at the resurrection, and it is you (not just
some immaterial something that had been in you) that will live forever in
Heaven; we, not an immaterial soul,
is now in the image of Adam, we, not
an immaterial soul, will have the image of Christ after the resurrection (1
Corinthians 15:49). The wages of sin is death, and after the resurrection and
judgment lost persons they will die the second death,
they do not now have immortality and never will be immortal; those who do not belong to Christ will
forever be destroyed after their judgment. Only
saved persons will be changed from mortal to immortal persons at the
resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:42-46); it will be you, the person, that
will be immortal in the place Christ has gone to prepare for you, not whatever
anyone believes a soul to be.
VIEW TWO:
The belief that there is a ÒsoulÓ in all persons that W. E. Vine says a soul has no subjects, it is nothing but Òthe immaterial, invisible part of man,Ó
(ÒVineÕs Complete Expository Dictionary Of Old And New Testament Words,Ó page
588) and Robert A. Morey says, that after
the death of the body a soul will be nothing but Òmental thoughtsÓ (ÒDeath
And The Afterlife,Ó page 79). According to John Calvin the dualistic view that is believed by many Protestants, ÒThe soul is an incorporeal substanceÉset in
the body it dwells there as in a houseÓ (Institutes 1, xv, 2, 6). According
to those that believe as Vine does, this nothing but thoughts is the only thing
that will have eternal life in Heaven. This immaterial something that had been
in a person that is nothing but mental thoughts is all of you that will be in
Heaven or Hell; the person (you) will be gone and there will be nothing but a
soul that had been in you that is nothing but thoughts, then all of the ÒyouÓ
that you now know anything about will be forever be gone. Most that believe all
persons are born with an immortal ÒsoulÓ that is dwelling in them have only a
vague unclear understanding, or even no idea of what they believe this unknown
immaterial something they believe to be in them really is, but ÒitÓ (not
themselves) is what they believe must be saved, and only ÒitÓ will be in Heaven
if they save Òit,Ó or in Hell if they do not save Òit.Ó The belief that
everyone has an immaterial something in them and this something, whatever this
nothing but Òmental thoughtsÓ could be, will live forever and cannot die makes
it not possible for death to be the wages of sin; if a person has something in
them
that is deathless; this something would
not be subject to the wages of sin, which is death, and this deathless nothing could never
be destroyed; this, whatever it is would
be, is born with eternal life, and it could never die; therefore, it could not
be resurrected from the dead.
VIEW TWO HAS TWO MAJOR DIVISIONS
(1). That there is a "soul" in each
person that cannot ever die or be destroyed, but most of these immaterial
nothing but mental thoughts beings will forever be tormented by God after the
death of the person. I
know
of no one that believes there is a soul that is in a person that knows what a
soul is. They tell me what a soul is not, but not what they believe a soul to
be; in the many books I have read, the nearest anyone has came is to say that
after a soul departs from the person it was in is VineÕs definitions that a
soul is nothing but thoughts without any kind of substance or body.
(2). Universalism: that all mankind has a
"soul" that cannot ever die or be destroyed; everyone has this
something in them that will live forever, but it will be saved. If it (a
immaterial bodiless beings) is not saved by the person it is in during this
lifetime, then that soul will be saved after the death of the person it had
been in.
Protestant
Premillennialists: Many
Protestant Premillennialists believe the lost will be totally destroyed, but
there are three, probably more, Premillennial views that are common in
Protestant churches on how or where the lost will be destroyed.
(1). A common Protestant Premillennialists
belief is that the complete destruction of the lost will be on this earth and
the saved will forever live on this earth; no person will ever be in Heaven.
Many believe the Valley of Gehenna will be restored and the lost will literally
be burn to ashes in it.
(2). Some Protestant Premillennialists believe
that the saved will be with Christ in Heaven, not on earth after the thousand
years, the second death will be the end of the lost, but their death will not
be by literally being burned to ashes on this earth in the restored Valley of
Gehenna.
(3). Some Protestant Premillennialists believe
the wages of sin is eternal life with torment for souls that cannot die, which
puts them in the camp of those that believe that souls now have endless life
and will be tormented by God because these souls had been in unsaved persons,
they do not believe death is the wages of sin.
If there is a soul in
us that is now immortal and it can never die or be dead, how could there be a
resurrection of the dead? Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead? If
yes, what do you believe will be resurrected; will you be raised from the dead,
or do you believe as many that only a soul that can never be dead, but this
deathless soul is the only thing that will be raised from the dead? When I
first begin this study I was surprised and made to tremble at how few really
believed in the resurrection, and how many there are that do not really know
what they believe about it. Many believe some deathless something that they
believe to be in themselves will instantly be translated from this world to
Heaven or Hell at death without a resurrection, before the resurrection, before
the Judgment Day, and before the second coming of Christ, but when they are
asked what is the reason for the resurrection, many not only do not know, but
have never really thought about it. Death is looked at as being a doorway to
life in another form, that death is not really death, and there is nowhere in
their thoughts or in their faith for a resurrection for their theology says no
soul is really dead. The resurrection has been removed from the faith of many
by today's theology that says some immortal something that is believed to be in
a person will go to Heaven at the moment of death. But is there any life after death before the second coming of Christ
and the resurrection of the dead? Paul said life after death will be only
at the resurrection when, "This
mortal must put on immortality," but if there is a soul that is now
immortal in us, then what is it that is now mortal that will put on immortality
at the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:53)? It is the mortal person (you), not a
soul that will be raised from the dead; the mortal person (you) will put on
immortality.
WHAT DOES THE BIBLE
SAY
ABOUT AN IMMORTAL
SOUL AND/OR SPIRIT?
Together soul and spirit are used
about 1,600 times in the Bible, but not one time is immortal ever used in the
same verse with either one; Òimmortal soul,Ó or an Òimmortal spirit,Ó
Òdeathless or never dying soul or a never dying spiritÓ is not in the Bible,
not even in the King James Version. Immortal or immortality is not in the Old
Testament; the promise of immortality is given to no one. In the New Testament,
immortal is used only one time, immortality is used five times, all six by
Paul. What does he say?
1. "Now unto the King eternal, immortal" (1
Timothy 1:17).
2. Only God has immortality (1 Timothy 6:16).
3. Christ "abolished death and brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel" (2 Timothy 1:10).
4. "To them (Christians persons, not souls) that...seek
for glory and honor and immortality" (Romans 2:7).
5. "This mortal must put on immortality" (1
Corinthians 15:53) at the resurrection.
6. "This mortal shall have put on immortality" (1
Corinthians 15:54) after the resurrection. This mortal person must put on
immortality at the resurrection, not this soul that is already immortal must
put on immortality.
Why are we to "seek for immortality" if
we are born immortal? Why will we "put on immortality" if
the only part of us that will ever be immortal has been immortal from birth (or
as some believe–before birth)? The fact that a person must "seek
for...immortality," and immortality must be "put
on" at the resurrection is conclusive proof that a person does
not now have immortality, nor does a person have some immaterial, immortal
something in them that is now immortal and this immortal ÒitÓ cannot die. If
Romans 2:7 and 1 Corinthians 15:53 teaches nothing more, it teaches that no
part of a person now possess immortality. Not one passage in the Bible says
anyone is now immortal. The immortal soul theology is from pagan
philosophy and was brought into the church by a few of the so-called church
fathers and Roman Catholicism in the Dark Age. If all have a deathless soul,
and we are told that this deathless soul is the only thing that will ever be
immortal, and it is already immortal, the resurrection is made to be
useless. The question is, resurrection or immortality? Will YOU be
saved from the dead, or is there a deathless soul in you that cannot be dead,
and it cannot be resurrected from the dead, and only that soul, not you, will
live in Heaven? Are will it be you that will be in Heaven?
==============================================
CHAPTER ONE
What Is Man?
What is a man? Are all persons born with
immortal souls in them, or do only the saved put on immortality at the
resurrection? Is a person a three part being, an animal body with both a soul
and a spirit that will live after the body is dead? This is one of the most
important questions of all time. It has more influence on our conception of our
nature, our view of life in this world, and our view of life after death than
any other question.
Soul in the Old Testament is
translated from nehphesh, StrongÕs Hebrew word #5315–Òa breathing
creature.Ó A study of the way it is translated in the King James Version, and
how other translations differ greatly from the King James reveals facts that
are far different than the belief of most about what a soul is, and facts that
many will find upsetting. The Hebrew word ÒnehpheshÓ is used in the Old
Testament about 870 times and is translated soul only about 473 times in the
King James Version, but in the New International Version (2010-2011
updated version) only 72 out about 870 times nehphesh is used.
Of the 870 times Nehphesh is in the Bible, in the New
International Version:
o Nehphesh is translated soul only 72 times.
o Nehphesh is not translated soul 798 times.
o Of the 473 times nehphesh is translated ÒsoulÓ
in the King James Version, it was translated soul 401 less times in the New
International Version.
Nehphesh is translated in the King
James Version into about 40 words; one Hebrew word is translated (or
mistranslated) into nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc. Of 870 times
nehphesh is used in the Hebrew it was changed into many words by the
translators of many versions, changed as they chose to, and all choosing many
times to translate the same word difference even when this word is used two or
more times in the same passage, the same Hebrew word is translated into two
English words that definitely are nothing alike; by todayÕs meaning of ÒsoulÓ
and ÒlifeÓ they means two completely difference things; ÒsoulÓ and ÒlifeÓ are
not synonymous.
IN THE KING JAMES
VERSION NEHPHESH IS TRANSLATED
1. NOUNS: Soul about 473
times; Life about 122 times; Person about 26
times; Mind about 15 times; Heart about 15
times.
2. PERSONAL PRONOUNS: 44 plus
times–yourselves, themselves, her, me, he, his, himself
3. ALL OTHERS: (verbs,
adjectives, adverbs, etc.) about 200 times–man, creature,
living being, fish, own, any, living thing,living creatures, lives, the
dead, dead body, kills, slays, slay him, mortally, discontented, ghost, breath,
will, appetite, hearty desire, desire, pleasure, lust, and deadly.
Can one word have this many totally
difference meaning; can one word be a noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb,
etc.? If it did could anyone know which one was being used; it is evidence that
the translators of many translations changed ÒnehpheshÓ into whatever they
wanted to.
In all 870 times that nehphesh is
used it is always associated with the activity of a living being, including
dying, and it never implies anything about life after the death of the living
being. In none of the 870 times, nehphesh is not an immortal, immaterial,
inter something in a person that has no substance (W. E. Vine, Expository
Dictionary Of Old And New Testament Words); souls (nehpheshs) are the living
beings (persons, animals, or any living thing) that can die, be killed, or is
already dead; although itÕs use is often hid from the English readers
by the way it was translated or mistranslated.
SOUL (NEHPHESH) AS
IT IS USED IN THE BIBLE
(1) Genesis 1:20 "THE
MOVING CREATURE THAT HAS LIFE" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings, used referring to animals, StrongÕs Hebrew word
#5315–Òa breathing creatureÓ). Footnote in the King James Version–"The
moving creature that has soul." American Standard
Version–"Let the waters swarm with swarms of living
creatures" (nehpheshs–all mortal beings, including all
animals and mankind).
If ÒsoulÓ 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? According to those that believe there is an immortal soul
in a person a Òliving creatureÓ and a Òliving soulÓ are
two completely difference beings. If this Hebrew word (nehphesh) were an
immaterial, immortal living something that is in a person, it would also be the
same immaterial, immortal living something that is in animals.
(2) Genesis 1:21 "LIVING
CREATURE" (nehpheshs–mortal living beings, used
referring to all life in the water), "And God
created the great sea-monsters, and every living creature (nehpheshs–mortal
living beings) that moves wherewith the water swarmed.Ó
(3) Genesis 1:24 "LIVING
CREATURE" (nehpheshs–mortal living beings), used
referring to animals, all life on the land), "And
God said, Let the earth bring forth living creatures (nehphesh–soul) after
their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth." In
Genesis 1:21-24 every living thing on earth, whether in the water or on land,
every thing that has life is a nehphesh, a living being.
o All sea life are nehpheshs, are living beings
(souls)
o All land life are nehpheshs, are living beings
(souls)
o And mankind are nehpheshs, are living beings
(souls)
None of the three are inherent
indestructible immortality beings; none have an immortal deathless ÒsoulÓ
dwelling in them.
(4) Genesis 1:30 "LIFE" (nehpheshs–mortal
living beings, 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" (nehpheshs–mortal
living beings); animals are "a living soul."
All four times that soul (nehphesh) is
used in Genesis one it is used referring to animals StrongÕs Hebrew
word #5315 Òa breathing creature, i. e., animal;Ó not to a person.
Animals were souls, living beings, before any man existed; why did the
translators deliberately hide the fact that it is the same word that they
sometimes translated soul?
o They translated it
souls when it is speaking of people.
o They translated it
living creatures when the same word is speaking of animals. How could the
translators possibly know when the same word is speaking of mortal being and
when it is speaking of immortal soul that is in a mortal person? Just as ÒupÓ
cannot mean Òdown,Ó ÒMortalÓ cannot mean ÒImmortal.Ó
o Although it is clear that the translators
attempted to hide this from their readers, every breathing creature has the
same ÒsoulÓ (nehphesh) that persons have.
"Then God said, 'Let the waters
teem with swarms of living souls (nehpheshs–mortal
living beings), 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 (nehphesh–mortal living beings) 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 (nehpheshs–mortal
living beings) 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 (nehpheshs–mortal
living beings) I have given every green herb for meat" (Genesis
1:20-30). ÒLiving creatures" (nehpheshs–mortal
living beings) is used to describe all living things on earth, people, animals,
birds, and fish, not some, immortal, immaterial, invisible living something
that is in a person that is now 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 have an immortal soul in
them.
HENRY CONSTABLE, A. M.: ÒThe Hebrew
scholars knows that when Moses, in Genesis I. 20, 29, speaks of the nature of
the lower order of animals, and when in Genesis ii, 7, he speaks of the nature
of man, the inspired writer used the very same Hebrew terms of both one
and the other. Each fish, and fowl, and creeping thing, and beast is
called in the Hebrew a nephesh chajah as much as man who was
given the rule over them. But this was in its apparent bearing wholly
inconsistent with the philosophical ideas of the translators. They
considered it dangerous that the similarity of description should appear in the
English version, which Moses did not consider it dangerous to exhibit in the
Hebrew original. Hence they must guard GodÕs Word from its supposed dangerous
language by translating nephesh chajah very differently in the
first chapter of Genesis, where it is applied to the lower creatures, from what
they translated it in the second chapter, where it is applied to manÉA gross,
through unintentional fraud has been committed against the English reader. He
is mislead in his searching of the Scriptures He is put on a false scentÉOur
English translators have supplied us with a commentary of their own instead of
a translation, a comment we will here add, utterly alien to truth. But
the result of this mistranslation is to lead astray the English reader who
trusts in it. This is not the only instance, which occurs of the thing in
reference to this question. The same Hebrew word is throughout the Old
Testament translated according as the Platonic notions of the translator led
him to think it ought to be translated. Plato had a considerable hand in the
translation of King JamesÕ Bible. The Hebrew word nephesh is
translated Ôcreature,Õ ÔsoulÕ ÔlifeÕ &c., just as squared with the notions
of men who carried PlatoÕs philosophy into their noble work of the translation
of Scripture. We affirm that a grave injury has been done to the English
reader, and a gross wrong to GodÕs word.Ó ÒHades or The Intermediate State
of Man,Ó page 31–32, 1873, pubic domain.
(5) Genesis 2:7 "A LIVING
SOUL" (nehphesh–a living being, used referring to a
person, StrongÕs Hebrew word #5315–Òa breathing creatureÓ) 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," Genesis 2:7, New
King James Version.
o ÒLiving
creatures" (nehpheshs–mortal beings) Genesis 1:20
o ÒLiving things" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings) Genesis 1:21
o ÒLiving creature" (nehpheshs–a
mortal being) Genesis 1:24
o ÒIn which there is life" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings) Genesis 1:30
o "Man became
a living being" (nehphesh–a mortal being) Genesis 2:7.
o It was the ÒmanÓ that
became a Òliving being,Ó not the ÒmanÓ that
had a never dying living being put into him. Nothing is said about the creation
of two being, a living man, and then the creation of another immortal living
soul that was put in the first mortal living being.
It is obvious that the translators
of the King James Version translated according to a preconceived opinion in an
attempt make persons have an immortal soul dwelling in them, but keeps animals
from also having souls that are dwelling in them; they made a distinction in
animals and men, a distinction that dose not exist in the Hebrew Bible.
Genesis 2:7 Man became:
o ÒA living
soul" (1) King James Version.
o "A living
being" (1) New King James Version, (2) American Standard Version,
(3) New American Standard Version, (4) Revised Standard Version, (5) New
Revised Standard Version, (6) New International Version, (7) Amplified Version,
(8) The New American Bible
o "A living
creature" (1) The Revised English Bible, (2) Young's Literal
Translation.
o "A living
person" (1) New Century Version, (2) The Living Bible, (3) New
Living Translation
o "Life" (1)
Contemporary English Version
o Of these many translations, none would go along
with the mistranslation of the King James Version, not even the New King James
Version.
According to chapter one to three of
Genesis man was created a mortal living being just as the animals were. ÒBehold, the
MANÉlest HE stretch out HIS hand, and
take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, therefore the Lord
sent HIM out from the garden of EdenÓ (Genesis
3:22-23) is speaking of the physical person eating of the tree of life and
living forever physically, it says nothing about an immortal something that was
dwelling in a mortal person, nothing about a soul eating that was already
deathless, nothing about a soul that was already immortal without eating of the
tree of life and living forever. It was the physical person (Adam) that would
have eaten from a physical tree, and the physical person (Adam) that would have
physically lived forever; without the tree of life Adam was not immortal,
without the tree of life Adam died. What reason would there have been to
keep Adam from eating of the tree of life if Adam was already immortal?
(1). THREE THINGS
ABOUT ÒMANÓ IN GENESIS 2:7
1. The body: God
formed manÕs body out of dust. ÒGod formed MAN out of
the dust of the earth.Ó
2. God Òbreathed
into HIS nostrils the breath of life.Ó
o God breathing into the nostrils of the lifeless
body give the body life; breathing into the nostrils of the lifeless body did
not put an immortal soul into the lifeless body, and then it was that immortal
soul that gives life to the body.
3. ÒMAN became a living being (nehphesh).Ó
o MAN AND ANIMALS ARE
BOTH MADE OF THE DUST OF THE EARTH. Both man and animals are a nehphesh, both are a
living being; both man and animals have Òthe breath of life.Ó Neither
one became a living being with another living being living in them. There is
absolutely nothing about PlatoÕs immortal soul in this passage, not one word.
o Job said, ÒThe breath of the Almighty
gives ME life,Ó (Job 33:4); he did not say, ÒThe
breath of the Almighty put a soul in me and that soul give my body life.Ó
Paul quoted Genesis 2:7 showing that
the Ònatural bodyÓ of Genesis 2:7 that was given to Adam and
all mankind is not the Òspiritual bodyÓ that will be given
only to the saved by Christ at the resurrection. ÒSo also it is written, the
first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a
life-giving spirit. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that
which is natural; THEN that which is spiritual. The first man
is of the earth, earthy: the second man is of heaven. As is the earthy, such
are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that
are heavenly. As we have born the image of the earthly, we SHALL also bear
the image of the heavenlyÓ (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
ÒIn the day that YOU eat from it YOU SHALL SURELY DIEÓ (Genesis 2:17); for Adam to be told HE WOULD DIE is very different from
Adam being told that there was something in him that would not die, but it
would live forever in torment. In Genesis 3:19 there is a clear
statement on what dies, ÒBy the sweat of YOUR face YOU shall eat
bread, till YOU return to the ground, because from it YOU were taken; for YOU
are dust, and to dust YOU shall return,Ó (Also
Genesis 18:27; Psalms 103:14; Job 10:9). ÒIt is appointed for MEN to die once and after this comes
judgmentÓ (Hebrews 9:27). It is the PERSON that will die, the PERSON
that returns to dust, and the PERSON that will be resurrected from the dead,
the PERSON that will come into judgment, the PERSON that will put on
immortality, not a soul that cannot die; therefore, it could not be resurrected
from the dead.
If, as some teach, Adam was not one
being, but two being, an earthly mortal being and an immortal being living in
the earthly mortal being, which of the two being was addressed in the singular
pronoun ÒYOU shall surely dieÓ? We are repeatedly told that an
immortal soul is deathless and cannot die.
o It was Adam that was made from the dust.
o It was Adam that ate.
o It was Adam that was told, Òdying YOU
shall die.Ó
o It was Adam that was put out and kept out of the
garden away from the tree of life.
o It was Adam that died and returned to dust.
Not one word is said about a soul.
If there were an immortal soul living in Adam, it suffered nothing from what
Adam did. To make this be Òspiritual death,Ó not real death is to change, ÒIn
the day that you eat from it YOU shall surely dieÓ to be saying, ÒIn
the day you eat you will be an immortal sinner that cannot die.Ó ÒSurely dieÓ
is used many times and all ways means a real death of a real person, Genesis
20:7; 1 Samuel 14:44; 22:16; 1 Kings 2:37; 2:42; Jeremiah 26:8; Ezekiel 3:18;
33:8; 33:14; Numbers 26:65; and any more
DR. BERT THOMPSON, PH. D. says
Genesis 2:7 is teaching that Adam was given Òphysical life.Ó Then
said it is not teaching that Adam had instilled in him Òan immortal
nature.Ó ÒThe Origin, Nature, and Destiny of the Soul,Ó page 19,
Apologetics Press, Inc. 2001.
MIKE WILLIS said expositors have
generally appealed to Genesis 2:7 to prove that all men are born with and now
have immortal spirits. However, in 1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul has clearly
expounded the meaning of the Hebrew words nehphesh, chayyah. "The
living soul" of Genesis 2:7 is the natural body of this passage.
He said this corresponds with the book of Genesis itself because the same
construction is used in Genesis 1:24 to describe animals. When Moses recorded
that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life and he became a living
soul, what the writer of Genesis was saying was that the dust of the earth
began to have animal life and does not prove that a person has an immortal
spirit (soul); rather it states that a person has animal life. All men possess
animal life through Adam. ÒA Commentary On Paul's First Epistle To the
Corinthians,Ó page 578, 1979. For one who knows the Bible as he does, and
believes a person now has an immortal soul, yet says, the living soul of
Genesis 2:7 is the natural body, proves beyond doubt that a living soul is not
an immortal something that is in a person. ÒThe first man Adam became a
living soulÉthe first man is of the earth, earthyÓ (1 Corinthians
15:45-49).
GUY N. WOODS said the first time the
word soul is used in Genesis 1:20 it is from the Hebrew nehphesh where it is
assigned to fish, birds, and creeping things. He said, ÒIt is clear that the
soul in these passages does not refer to anything peculiar to the constitution
of man, but it signifies, as its usage denotes, and the lexicons affirm, any
creature that breathes.Ó "What Is The Soul Of Man," Gospel Advocate,
1985, Number 21.
JOHN T. WILLIS: ÒThe last two lines
of verse 7 affirm that manÕs life is God Given. God enables man to breathe, and
thus to be alive, as he does all other creatures (see Gen. 7:22). Some have
tried to justify a threefold division of man into flesh (or body), soul, and
spirit from Genesis 2:7. They equate dust with flesh or
body, breath with spirit, and insist that the last phrase of
the verse must be translated as Ôa living soul.Õ However, this understanding
reads much more into the biblical text than it really says. (1) The Hebrew
words for ÔfleshÕ or ÔbodyÕ and ÔspiritÕ do not occur in this passage. (2) The
Hebrew expression nephesh chayyah, which some insist on translating
Ôa living soul,Õ is used of fish and marine life in Genesis 1:20, 21; land
animals in 1:24; beasts, birds, and reptiles in 1:30; and beasts and birds in
2:19. If ÔsoulÕ means the eternal part of man or the sum total of manÕs
ÔbodyÕ and ÔspiritÕ in Genesis 2:7, it must mean the eternal part of a fish or
the sum total of a fishÕs ÔbodyÕ and ÔspiritÕ in Genesis 1:20, 21; etc. (3)
The flow of the context in Genesis 2:7 indicates that the word translated being in
the RSV (nephesh)means the whole person. The authorÕs emphasis is
on the gift of life.Ó The Living Word Commentary, ÒGenesis,Ó page
103–104, 1979, Sweet Publishing Company.
ADAM CLARKE: "Nephesh
chayyah; a general term to express all creatures endued with animal
life, in any of its infinitely varied gradations, from the half reasoning
elephant down to the stupid potto, or lower still, to the polype, which seems
equally to share the vegetable and animal life."
(2). BOTH MAN AND
ANIMALS HAD THE SAME
BREATH OF LIFE
(NSHAHMAH) BREATHED INTO THEM
o ÒBreathed into his
nostrils the breath of life (nshahmah)Ó man (Genesis 2:7).
o ÒAnd all
flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every
swarming that the swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on
the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of life (nshahmah) died.Ó
Both man and animals have the same Òbreath of life (nshahmah)Ó
both died (Genesis 7:21-22).
o ÒSaved alive
nothing that breaths (nshahmah–breath of life)Ó both men and
animals (Deuteronomy 20:16). ÒBreath of lifeÓ and ÒbreathsÓ are
the same in the Hebrew, both are translated from Ònshahmah,Ó but
who knows why the translators choose to make them different in the English
Bible.
o ÒUtterly destroyed
all that breaths (nshahmah–breath of life)Ó both men and
animals (Joshua 10:40).
o ÒThere was not any
left to breaths (nshahmah–breath of life)Ó both men and
animals (Joshua 11:11).
o ÒNeither left they
any to breaths (nshahmah–breath of life)Ó both men and
animals (Joshua 11:14).
o Does an immortal immaterial deathless soul, or a
spirit breathe or die when breathing stops?
o ÒAnd the breath (nshahmah) of
the Almighty gives me lifeÓ (Job 33:4).
It is the breath (nshahmah) of life
that God puts into the body that gives life (Genesis 2:7),
nshahmah–breath is not an immortal deathless soul that has an endless
life of its own. If the breath of life (nshahmah) gives immortality to a
person, then the same breath of life (nshahmah) would give immortality to all
living being, all are given the same nshahmah. The Òbreath of lifeÓ is
as much the possession of all living creatures as it is the possession of man.
The Òbreath of lifeÓ does not make any living creature
immortal, not animals, not fish, or persons. All living being depend on this
breath from God for life and all die when the Òbreath of lifeÓ from
God returns to God, and if there were no resurrection no person would ever
again have life.
Question: What effect did the Òbreath
of lifeÓ (nshahmah) in the nostrils of animals have on them? Most all
would answer that it made them a living being, not that it put an immortal
deathless soul in them that will live after the death of the animals. Then what
effect did the same Òbreath of lifeÓ (nshahmah) have on
mankind? It made them a living being just as it did animals; the Òbreath of
lifeÓ (nshahmah) did not put an immortal deathless soul in mankind
that the same Òbreath of lifeÓ (nshahmah) did not put in animals.
JAMES HERMAN WHITMORE: ÒWhat is more
evident than anything else is that the Lord did not address an
unconscious body, but a conscious and intelligent man.
Whoever or whatever was addressed, the same died. According to the
popular notion, the soul is the only part of man that possesses
intelligence. The conclusion then is unavoidable, that it was the
ÔsoulÕ that was addressed as Ôthou,Õ and sentenced to return to dust. Hence,
the soul must not only be mortal, but material. It is
further evident that whatever or whoever sinned, the same died.Ó ÒThe Doctrine
Of Immortality,Ó page 118, Kellaway and Co.
THE BREATH OF LIFE: Many have now
switched from a soul being an immortal living being in a person to a spirit
being the immortal living being that is in a person; a living being that animals
do not have in them; ÒspiritÓ is now the same thing that ÒsoulÓ has been for
hundreds of years. ÒThen 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.Ó The phrase Òbreath of lifeÓ that
was breathed into man in Genesis 2:7 is the same Hebrew Òbreath of
lifeÓ in Genesis 7:21-22 that is in the nostrils of birds, cattle, men
and beasts; the Òbreath of lifeÓ in animals is the same Òbreath
of lifeÓ that is in persons. The Òbreath of lifeÓ (1)
is not an immortal spirit, (2) is not an immortal soul that men now have
in them that animals do not have it in them; it does not say that the Òbreath
of lifeÓ God breathed into Adam was an immortal deathless spirit, or
an immortal deathless soul breathed into him, and it does not say all persons
now have the same deathless being living in them; the breathless body that God
made from the earth is what became a living breathing being when the Òbreath
of lifeÓ was breathed into the breathless body. 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.
(3). BOTH MAN AND
ANIMALS BECAME ÒA LIVING BEING.Ó
The body of dust
plus the breath of life = a living being–soul
(Nehphesh–a living being), Genesis 2:7.
1. The body: ÒThe Lord God formed man of
the dust from the ground.Ó
2. The life of the body: ÒAnd breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life.Ó
3. The result: ÒAnd
man became a living being.Ó The lifeless earthly body became alive, a
living breathing being.
o Both man and animals became Òa living
being,Ó when they received the Òbreath of lifeÓ from
God; neither man nor animals had another living being put into them.
o ÒYou take
away their breath, they dieÓ (Psalms
104:29). The breath of life gives life to the person; it does not put
a soul in the person that has itÕs own life. The breath of life that God
breathed into the body gives life to the body, whither it is a person or
animal; it makes the person or animal be Òa living being.Ó There
is life in the body only as long as there is breath in the body.
o It was the lifeless body that God made from the
earth that became a living being, a living person. Most believe as Plato did,
that a living deathless soul is imprisoned in the body unto the living soul is
able to escape the body, and then the lifeless body goes back to the earth.
Although this passage is repeatedly used to
prove that an immortal, deathless soul that was put in a person that was not
put in animals, most translations, other than the King James, apply it to the
living breathing being or person, not to an invisible, deathless, immaterial
something that does not have breath
that was put in a person. Adam being spoken of as a "living
being" (nehphesh StrongÕs Hebrew word #5315–Òa breathing
creatureÓ) 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 most used proof texts used to prove Adam
had an immortal soul put in him? If it proves Adam had an immortal soul, then
it proves that fish have an immortal soul that cannot die.
ÒThe body without the spirit is
deadÓ James 2:36. Just as the body when God made it had no life
unto God Òbreathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man
became a living beingÓ (Genesis 2:7), when ÒThe dust will
return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave itÓ (Ecclesiastes
12:7), after death there is no living being and will not be a living being unto
the resurrection when life will again come from God; ÒsoulÓ with the meaning it
has today (immortal being that is in a person) is a total mistranslation. If
the Òbreath of lifeÓ that returns
to God is a conscious being that returns to God at the death of the person,
that soul could not return to God if
it had not previously existed with God; it is life that came from God
and life that returns to God.
Both Òa living beingÓ and Òbreath
of lifeÓ are used by most that call themselves orthodox to prove
mankind has an immortal soul in them that no animal has. Both mankind and all
animals are Òa living beingÓ and both have the Òbreath
of life,Ó both can and do die. Having the Òbreath of lifeÓ does
not make mankind or animals immortal.
It is importance to understand that
it is being said by Moses that both animals and mankind ARE A SOUL (are a
living being), not that animals or mankind HAVE A SOUL, do not have something
in them that is now immortal, invisible, a no substitute something in them that
cannot die; there is a world of different in a person or animal being a soul,
and having a living immortal soul being that was put into the person. Many
assume, with much help from the translators and theology that Genesis is saying
only mankind have souls, but animals do not. Because of what most have been
taught, without realizing it they read into this that only mankind have a soul
that is an immortal, invisible, no substitutes something that cannot die. This causes them to
believe that only this immortal something that is in them, whatever they think
it is, will be saved (more on this at the end of this chapter). A soul is
not a second being, an unearthly being that exist within the earthly person any
more than a soul is a second entity existing in beast. Both man and
animals are souls, both are living beings. We are a soul, we do not have a
soul. If we have a soul, that is a living being in us, then we are one
living being with another, a second living being living in us. According to the
doctrine that we have a soul living in us, one living being is living in
another living being, and it is only this immortal deathless being that is us
that will be saved, or will be tormented forever, is the foundation of many of
the errors that have divided the churches. That we are a soul (we
are a living being), not we have a soul (not have a living
being living in us) is one of the most fundamental and most misunderstood
teaching in the Bible.
(6) Genesis 2:19 "LIVING CREATURE" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings, used referring to animals), "Every
beast...every bird...whatsoever the man called every living
creature (nehpheshs–mortal beings), that was the name
thereof"
(7) Genesis 9:4 "LIFE" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings, used referring to animals)
(8) Genesis 9:5 "LIVES" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings, used referring to man)
(9) Genesis 9:5 "LIFE" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings, used referring to man)
(10) Genesis 9:10 "LIVING CREATURE" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings, used referring to animals)
(11) Genesis 9:12 "LIVING CREATURE" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings, used referring to animals)
(12) Genesis 9:15 "LIVING CREATURE" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings, used referring to man and animals)
(13) Genesis 9:16 "LIVING CREATURE" (nehpheshs–mortal
beings, used referring to man and animals)
-———————————————————————
A birdÕs eye view of the translation of nehphesh in the first nine
chapters, King James Version
1. ÒMoving creature that has life" (nehphesh)
Genesis 1:20 – animals
2. ÒA living creature" (nehphesh)
Genesis 1:21 – animals
3. ÒA living creature" (nehphesh)
Genesis 1:24 – animals
4. ÒWherein there is life" (nehphesh)
Genesis 1:30 – animals
5. ÒA living soul" (nehphesh)
Genesis 2:7 – man
6. ÒA living creature" (nehphesh)
Genesis 2:19 – animals
7. ÒLife" (nehphesh)
Genesis 9:4 – animals
8. ÒLivesÓ (nehphesh)
Genesis 9:5 – man
9. ÒLife" (nehphesh)
Genesis 9:5 – man
10. ÒLiving creature" (nehphesh)
Genesis 9:10 – animals
11. ÒLiving creature" (nehphesh) Genesis
9:12 – animals
12. ÒLiving creature" (nehphesh)
Genesis 9:15 – man and animals
13. ÒLiving 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 pagan theology. It
takes a lot of preconceived theology to make nehphesh be an immaterial
invisible no substance soul existing in 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.
Moses applies nehphesh four times to lower creatures before he applied it to
man, then immediately after he has applied it to man he again applied the same
word to animals a fifth and sixth time with no hint that he uses the same word
with a different meaning. When the translators give it a different meaning in
only one of the six times it is used in the first two chapters of Genesis it is
nothing more than a deliberate change to add PlatoÕs immortal soul to God word.
-———————————————————————
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, none of the seven was translated Òsoul.Ó
o Three times to
animals alone, translated life, creature, and creature.
o Two times to man
alone, translated lives, and life.
o Two times to
animals and man together, translated creature, and creature.
"But flesh with the LIFE (Nehphesh used
referring to animals) thereof, which is the blood thereof,
shall you not eat. And surely your blood, the blood of your LIVES (nehphesh,
used referring to man), will I require; at the hand of every beast will
I require it: and at the hand of men, even at the hand of every man's brother,
will I require the LIFE (nehphesh, used referring
to man) of man. Whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be
shed, for in the image of God made He-men. And you, be you fruitful, and
multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. And God
spoke unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, and I, behold, I establish
my covenant with you and with your seed after you; and every LIVING
CREATURE (nehphesh, used referring to animals) that is with you, of the
fowl, and the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that
go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my
covenant with you; neither shall the waters of a flood cut off all flesh be any
more; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God
said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and
every LIVING CREATURE (nehphesh, used referring
to animals) that is with you, for perpetual generation: I
do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a token of a covenant between me
and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth,
that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant, which
is between me and you and every LIVING CREATURE (nehphesh,
used referring to man and animals) of all flesh; and the
waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be
in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting
covenant between God and every LIVING CREATURE (nehphesh,
used referring to man and animals) of all flesh that is
upon the earth."
All four times that soul (nehphesh)
is used in Genesis 1; it is referring to animals, not to a person. IN TEN OF
THE FIRST TWELVE TIMES NEHPHESH (soul) IS USED IT IS USED REFERRING TO ANIMALS,
but the King James Version delicately hid this by using different words, and
most who read the King James Version never know what was delicately hid from
them. Nehphesh is translated "soul" only one
time of the first thirteen times it is used in the King James Version, but it
is not translated "soul" in any of the first
thirteen times it is used in the New King James Version, New American Standard
Version, New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, or most other
translations. Mankind is the same soul (life–nehphesh) as the
other "living creatures." He does not differ from
other living creatures (soul–nehphesh) by having a soul (nehphesh) living
in him that cannot die. His dominion over other living creatures (other
nehpheshs–souls) is not his nehphesh. In the first nine chapters
of Genesis soul (nehphesh–StrongÕs Hebrew word #5315–Òa
breathing creatureÓ) is used more often with reference to animals than
it is with reference to persons; it is the animal life, which both a
person and animals have in common. How did the translators know when
it changed to an invisible immortal something that is in a person, which
animals do not have?
(14) Genesis 12:5 "And the PEOPLE (nehpheshs–"living
beings") whom they had acquired" New King James
Version ("soul" in King James Version.) Why did the New
King James change this from ÒsoulsÓ to Òpeople;Ó was it that the translators
did not believe invisible souls could be bought, but people could be bought?
(15) Genesis 12:13 "That I (nehphesh–a "living
being") may live because of you" New King James
Version ("soul" in King James Version.) Do you
wonder why this was changed from, ÒThat a soul may liveÓ to ÒThat I may
liveÓ?
(16) Genesis
14:21 "Give me the PERSONS (nehphesh–"living
beingsÓ) and take the goods" King James Version. Can anyone give
immortal souls to another person? Is there anyone that cannot see why nehphesh
was not translated ÒsoulÓ in this passage?
(17) Genesis 17:14 "That PERSON (nehphesh–a "living
being") shall be cut off" New King James
Version.
(18) Genesis 19:17 ÒEscape for your LIFEÓ (nehphesh–a "living
being") King James Version.
(19) Genesis 19:19 ÒSaving my LIFEÓ (nehphesh–a "living
being") King James Version.
In the first nineteen times nehphesh is used it is
translated Òsoul.Ó
o Only three times in
the King James Version
o None in the New
King James Version
o None in the New
American Standard Version
o None in the New
Revised Standard Version
o None in the New
International Version
(20) Genesis 19:20 "That my LIFE (nehphesh–a "living
being") may be saved" New American Standard
Version (Translated soul for the fourth time in the King James Version, but
only for the first time in the New King James Version). Do you wonder why the
translators of the New King James Version did not think this word means ÒsoulÓ
in the nineteen times it was used before this, but changed their minds this
time? But the New American Standard said both King James Versions are wrong.
(21) Genesis 23:8 ÒIf it be your MINDÓ (nehphesh–a "living
being") King James Version.
(22) Genesis 27:4 "So that I (nehphesh–a "living
being") may bless you before I die"
Up to Genesis 27:4 for hundreds of years nehphesh is
translated soul
o Only four times out
of twenty-two in the King James Version.
o Only one time out
of twenty-two in the New King James Version.
o None in The New
International Version and many other translations.
Nehphesh has been used 22 times
before the New King James Version translated it "soul" for the first
time, but even then the translators of many versions have chosen not to
translate it "soul." In Genesis "nehphesh" is not
an immortal "immaterial, invisible part of man," but
it is the life, living creature, living being, any living thing, whether
animals, fish, or man, all mortal beings are a nehphesh. If the translators had
continued to translate nehphesh as life, living creature, living being, or
person, as they did in most of the first twenty-two times it is used, there may
not be the divisions there are today. Why did they not translate nehphesh into
soul in the first part of the Bible that covers hundreds of years? Maybe
because they thought it would have made animals have souls, and they did not
believe animals could have souls. I find it difficult to see how
anyone could not call their honesty into question for it is undeniable that
they put their belief over the word of God, and they deliberately hid the truth
from their readers; they deliberately hid the truth from you.
(23) Genesis 32:30 "My LIFE (nehphesh–"living
beings") is preserved" King James Version. Most
translations use "life" in this passage for the translators believed
an immortal soul could not perish and would not need to be preserved.
(24) Genesis 34:3
(25) Genesis 34:8
(26) Genesis 35:18
(27) Genesis 36:6 "All the PERSONS (nehpheshs–mortal
beings) of his house" King James Version.
(28) Genesis 37:21 "Let us not kill HIM (nehphesh–a
mortal being)" King James Version. It was obvious to the translators that
they could not translate this nehphesh into soul, after all an immortal soul
could not be killed.
(29) Exodus 12:16 ÒExcept what must be eaten by every PERSON (nehpheshs–mortal
beings).Ó A soul as was believed in by the translators could not eat,
therefore; they would not translate nehphesh into soul.
(30) Job 12:10 "In whose hand is the SOUL (nehpheshs–mortal
being, used referring to animals) of every living thing,
and the breath of all mankind." Is it not strange that the King
James Version gives animals souls, but other translations took their souls away
from them? "The life of every living thing" New
American Standard Bible.
(31) Job 41:21 ÒHis breathÓ (nehphesh–a
mortal being, used referring to an animal, possibly a
crocodile).
(32) Isaiah 19:10 "All that make sluices and ponds
for FISH (nehpheshs–mortal beings, used referring
to animals, fish)" King James Version. Although nehphesh is in
the Hebrew, many translations seems not to know what to do with it, and just
took it out, or completely changed it for they did not want a soul to be in a
pond.
(33) Jeremiah
2:24 "A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffed up the wind
in HER (nehphesh–a mortal being, used referring to
an amimal) desire."
(34) Proverbs 27:7 ÒThe full SOUL (nehphesh–a
mortal being) loathes an honeycomb; but to the hungry SOUL (nehphesh–a
mortal being)" ever bitter thing is sweet.Ó How could the
translators think an immaterial something could be full, or that a soul could
be hungry for honey?
o ÒA sated MAN (nehphesh) loathes
honey, but to a famished MAN (nehphesh) any
bitter thing is sweetÓ New American Standard Bible.
o ÒHE (nehphesh) who
is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes
sweetÓ New International Version. ÒNehpheshÓ is in the Hebrew two
times, but one of the two times nehphesh was left out in the New International
Version.
(35) Numbers 31:28 "And levy a tribute unto the Lord
of the men of war which went out to battle: one SOUL (nehphesh–mortal
being–used referring to both persons and animals) of
five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses and of
the sheep." Of about 870 times ÒnehpheshÓ is in the Old Testament
Numbers 31:28 and Job 12:10 are the only two passages where the King James
translators translated ÒnehpheshÓ as ÒsoulÓ when it has reference to animals,
and it maybe that the only reason they did this these two times is that it has
equal reference to people as it does to animals and they had no choice. Their
usual substitutes failed to work; Òliving creaturesÓ or ÒpersonÓ would
not work for them in these two passages as nehphesh has reference to both man
and animals.
DAVID J. HEINIZMAN: "So
carefully has the translation of nehphesh been guarded in relation to animals
as 'souls,' that we can't help but wonder if it were not done intentionally to
conceal the fact that animals are souls as well as men." "Man Became
A Living Soul."
(36) Proverbs 12:10: ÒA righteous man has regard for the LIFE (nehphesh) of his
beast.Ó The translators made this one word (nehphesh) be:
1. Any earthly being,
o Before God breathed the breath of life into the
body of a person or a beast.
o While they had the breath of life.
o And the dead body after the breath of life of
the person or beast was gone.
2. The life in any earthly being only while they have the breath
of life in them.
3. The pagan immaterial, invisible, no substance, deathless being
that lives after the person it was in is dead, but this deathless being is not
in any beast.
Do you wonder, as I do, how they
came up with three meaning of this one word when the three meaning are nothing
alike, and how they knew when it was a mortal living thing that could not keep
from dying, and when the same word was a immortal living thing that is in a
person that could not die?
(37 to 870) It would be to long to quote all the 870 times the
Hebrew word nehphesh is in the Old Testament with just over one-half being
translated "soul," about 473 times in King James
Version. Nehphesh in the New International Version Old Testament is
translated soul only 72 times out of the 870 times it is used, according to the
this translation, 798 times nehphesh was not a Òsoul.Ó Not once dose any of the
870 imply anything about life beyond the grave, or about there being a immortal
soul in a mortal person.
A nehphesh could be
1. Saved (Genesis 19:19; 1 Samuel 19:11; 2 Samuel 19:5)
2. Killed (Numbers 35:11; 35:15; 35:30)
3. Ransomed (Exodus 21:30)
4. Destroyed (Leviticus 23:30; Joshua 11:11)
5. Delivered (Joshua 2:13)
6. Sought to be killed (Judges 18:25)
7. Taken (Deuteronomy 19:21)
8. Forfeited (Joshua 2:14)
9. Risked (Judges 12:3; 1 Samuel 28:21)
10. Lost (Judges 1:25)
11. Jeopardized (Judges 5:18; 1 Samuel 19:50
All 870 times have one thing in
common, they are all associated with the activity of a living being including
dying, and nehphesh never implies anything about life after the death of the
living being, all the 870 are all speaking of living beings that will die, or
that is already dead. None of the 870 times are an immortal deathless being that is in a
person; they are all a mortal living being that can die, be killed, or be dead, whether
the living being is a person, animal or fish. Nehphesh never implies
anything about life beyond the grave. IT IS NEVER TRANSLATED
"SPIRIT" Although nehphesh–StrongÕs Hebrew
word #5315–Òa breathing creatureÓ is translated into about forty
words, thirty-nine of the forty all have reference to a mortal being, animal,
or person that is not deathless, none to an Òimmaterial invisible part of a
personÓ (E. W. Vine) that is deathless.
How could nehphesh be a mortal
breathing creature that will die in thirty-nine of the words into which it is
translated, and then be an immortal something that does not have breath, and
that will not die in only one (soul) of the forty words? Is
it because this is the only word that they could use to put the Pagan immortal
soul into the Bible by mistranslating, but were not able to mistranslate it
into an immortal invisible deathless something most of the times it was used?
Can one word be rightly translated
this way? No one reading some of the English translations of the Bible
would have any way of knowing that all the forty words which nehphesh is
translated into are translations (or mistranslations) of only one word. Did
the translators do so because they wanted to make a person be an "immortal
being," and more than a "living creatures?" In almost one half
of the times nehphesh is used in the Old Testament, even the King James
translators could not translate it "soul." When the all-knowing God
used just one word, why did the translators used forty words and change it as
they wished to, changed it from a noun to pronouns, changed from a noun to
verbs, changed from a noun to adjectives, changed from a noun to adverbs, etc.?
Did they think that for all the years from Adam unto Christ? God people could
understand the one word God used, but now many words are needed to translate
that one word? If one word were all that was needed from Adam unto the
translation of the King James Version in 1611, why would God's one word not be
enough today? Do the translators think they have improved the Hebrew Old Testament
by changing the one word that God used into about forty words, and changing
this noun into about all parts of speech? The use of many words came when the
Roman Catholic Church brought in unconditional immortality, and they had to get
it into the Bible. The Hebrew manuscripts still have just one
word–nehphesh, which was the one word God inspired. Were the translators
inspired to change it to many words? And changed from one part of speech into
many parts of speech?
Nehphesh is translated soul far
fewer times in the New American Standard Version, and in most other
translations, including the New King James Version, than it is in the King
James Version. Were they going as far as they dared to in correcting the King
James Version?
The way soul is understood
and used today in English (an undying living something that is in a person)
makes putting the word soul in a translation for the English
people today be a false and deliberately misleading translation, for it makes
it where today's English reader cannot know what God said, and will
understand only what the prejudiced outlook the translators wanted their
readers to understand when they knew that most that read it would understand
the word soul only as it is used in todayÕs English. Without much study of
Bible words, which most Bible reader will never do, they cannot know what God
said to them when they read the word soul, and they will think
that the somewhat prejudice outlook of the translator is the word of God. God's
word has been deliberately replaced with the teaching of man (Matthew 15:9) in
a way that will have more influence on our conception of what our nature is and
the nature of all living beings than any other question.
THE ÒSOULÓ AND ÒEATING
OF BLOODÓ
Is the
immortal "soul" (nehphesh) in the blood? Is a part of
a person that many say it lives after the death of the body that a soul is in
the blood of both men and animals? In Leviticus 17:10-15, in only six verses
nehphesh is used ten times but the translators concealed this from their
readers by translating nehphesh as both life and soul, always life the four
times it was speaking of animals, and soul the six times it was speaking of a
person; does this not show their reluctance to let us see what God said to us?
The vanishing use
of soul in Leviticus 17:10-15
Leviticus
17:10-15 King James Version
o Used referring to animals four
times–nehphesh translated life four times
o Used referring to man six times–nehphesh
translated soul six times.
"I will even set my face against that SOUL (person–nehphesh,
used referring to man) that eats blood, and will cut him off from among
his people. For the LIFE (soul–nehphesh, used
referring to animals that are being eat) of the flesh is in the
blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for
your SOULS: (nehphesh, used referring to man) for
it is the blood that makes an atonement for a SOUL (nehphesh,
used referring to man). Therefore I said unto the children of Israel,
no SOUL(nehphesh, used referring to man) of you shall
eat blood...For it is the LIFE (soul–nehphesh,
used referring to animals) of all flesh; the blood of it is for
the LIFE (soul–nehphesh, used referring to
animals) thereof; therefore I said unto the children of Israel,
no SOUL (nehphesh, used referring to man) shall
eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the LIFE (soul-nehphesh,
used referring to animals) of all flesh is the blood thereof:
whosoever eats it shall be cut off. And every SOUL (nehphesh,
used referring to man) that eats that which died of itself...he shall
wash his clothes, and bath himself in water." In this passage,
the King James Version translated the same word "soul" all six times
when it used referring to man, and "life" all four times when it used
referring to animals. Can anyone not see how the translators picked when
they wanted "nehphesh" to be "soul," and when they wanted
"nehphesh" to be "life"? They could not let an immortal
soul be in the blood, nor could they let animals have an immortal soul in them.
Their theology said a man had to have a soul in him, but an animal could not
have one, and they were not willing that their reader see that the word
"nehphesh" is used referring to both, and that both do not have a
soul but both are a soul.
Leviticus 17:10-15
New Revised Standard Version
o Used referring to animals five
times–nehphesh translated life five times.
o Used referring to man five times–nehphesh
translated lives one time, translated person four times. A soul could not eat blood;
therefore, none of the five are mistranslated soul.
"If anyone of the house of
Israel or of the aliens who reside among them eats any blood, I will set my
face against that PERSON(nehphesh) who eats blood, and
will cut that PERSON (nehphesh) off from the
people. For the LIFE (nehphesh-animals) of
the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for
your LIVES (nehphesh-persons) on the altar, for,
as LIFE, (nehphesh-animals) it is the blood
that makes atonement. Therefore I have said to the people of Israel: No PERSON (nehphesh)among
you shall eat blood...For the LIFE (nehphesh-animals) of
every creature–its blood is its LIFE; (nehphesh-animals)therefore
I have said to the people of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any
creature, for the LIFE (nehphesh-animals) of
every creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off. All PERSONS, (nehphesh) citizens
or aliens, who eat what dies of itself...shall wash their clothes, and bathe
themselves in water"
Leviticus 17:10-15
New International Version
o Used referring to animals three
times–nehphesh translated life three times
o Used referring to man six times–nehphesh
translated person, him, yourselves, life, you, and anyone.
"Any Israelite or any alien
living among them who eats any blood–I will set my face against
that PERSON (nehphesh) who eats blood and will
cut HIM (nehphesh-person) off from his people. For
the LIFE (nehphesh-animals) of a creature
is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for YOURSELVES (nehphesh-persons) on
the altar; it is the blood that makes atonements for one's LIFE (nehphesh-person).
Therefore I say to the Israelites, 'None of YOU (nehphesh-persons) may
eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood'...because the LIFE (nehphesh-animals) of
every creature is its blood. That is why I have said to the Israelites, You
must not eat the blood of any creature, because the LIFE (nehphesh-animals) of
every creature is its blood; anyone who eats it must be cut off. ANYONE (nehphesh-persons),
whether native-born or alien, who eats anything found dead or torn by
wild animals must wash his clothes and bathe with water'."
o "No soul (nehphesh) shall
eat blood" Leviticus 17:12. No person shall eat blood–can
an immortal, immaterial soul eat material blood?
THE DYING USE OF
"SOUL" IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
In translations that were made by
those who believe a person has an immortal soul, why is the use of the word
"soul" becoming used less? The dying use of ÒsoulÓ in the newer
translations and the growing use of ÒlifeÓ "person,"
"heart," or pronouns that are related to a person in the place
of ÒsoulÓ is strongly objected to by many that believe there is an immortal
soul that will live on after the person is dead; that believe SatanÕs
lie, ÒYou surely shall not dieÉyou will be like GodÓ (Genesis
3:5), but only after they change the ÒyouÓ to Òa soul that is in you
surely shall not dieÉit is as immortal GodÓ.
Nehphesh is used in
the Old Testament 870 times
NEHPHESH TRANSLATED
SOUL
o 443 times out of 870 times–King James
Version in 1611.
o 289 times out of 870 times–New King James
Version in 1982. Soul is used 154 times less in the Old Testament than
it is in the King James Version.
o 111 times out of 870 times–Amplified Bible
in 1954.
o 142 times out of 870 times–The Message in
1993.
o 111 times out of 870 times–New American
Standard Bible in 1960.
o 188 times out of 870 times–Revised
Standard Version in 1946.
o 144 times out of 870 times–New Revised
Standard Version in1989.
o 115 times out of 870 times–New
International Version in 1973.
o 95 times out of 870 times–New
International Version in 2010–2011 update.
o 96 times out of 870 times–New
International Reader's Version in 1996.
o 44 times out of 870 times–New Living
Translation in 1996.
o 10 times out of 870 times–New Century
Version in 2005.
o 5 times out of 878 times–Common English
Bible in 2011.
When nehphesh was not translated
"soul" it was translated "life," "person,"
"heart," or the noun was changed to many pronouns (he, him, she, her,
etc.) that is related to a person, and has no reference to an immortal being
that is in a person.
THE DYING USE OF
"SOUL" IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
The Greek word translated soul
(psukee) is used 106 times. IT IS TRANSLATED SOUL ONLY:
1. 55 times out of 106 times in the King
James Version in 1611.
o 52 times out of 106 times in the New King James
Version in 1982.
o 79 times out of 106 times–Amplified Bible
in 1954.
o 79 times out of 106 times–New American
Standard Bible in 1960.
o 41 times out of 106 times–Revised Standard
Version in 1946.
o 31 times out of 106 times–New Revised
Standard Version in1989.
o 41 times out of 106 times–New
International Version in 1971.
o 23 times out of 106 times–New
International Version in 2010–2011 update.
o 29 times out of 106 times–New Living
Translation in 1996.
o 21 times out of 106 times–New
International Reader's Version in 1996.
o 25 times out of 106 times–New Century
Version in 2005.
o 3 times out of 106 times–Common English
Bible in 2011.
o 0 times out of 106 times–Christian Bible
in 1991.
THE DYING USE OF
"SOUL" IN BOTH
THE OLD AND NEW
TESTAMENT
The
Hebrew word nehphesh, some of the time translated soul is used over 870 times
in the Old Treatment, and the Greek word psukee, sometimes translated soul
is used 106 times, both together about 976 times. TOGETHER BOTH
NEHPHESH AND PSUKEE ARE TRANSLATED SOUL ONLY:
o 498 times out of 976 times–King James
Version in 1611.
o 341 times out of 976 times–New King James
Version in 1982. Soul is used 157 times less in the New King James
Version than it is in the King James Version.
o 111 times out of 976 times–Amplified Bible
in 1954.
o 190 times out of 976 times–New American
Standard Bible in 1960.
o 229 times out of 976 times–Revised
Standard Version in 1946.
o 175 times out of 976 times–New Revised
Standard Version in 1989.
o 229 times out of 976 times–New
International Version in 1971.
o 136 times out of 976 times–New International
Version in 1984.
o 118 times out of 976 times–New
International Version in 2010–2011 update.
o 41 times out of 976 times–New
International Reader's Version in 1996.
o 177 times out of 976 times–The Message in
1993.
o 73 times out of 976 times–New Living
Translation in 1996.
o 8 times out of 976 times–Common English
Bible in 2011.
o 0 times out of 106 times–Christian Bible
in 1991.
Most, if not all these translators
believe in an immortal soul, but have been reducing the times this Hebrew word
nehphesh, and the Greek word psukee are translated "soul" and
replacing then with "life," "person," "heart," or
changed them to pronouns that are related to a person. The way soul has been
mostly removed in most translations, and replaced with life or person, the
translators are saying soul is not a true translation of neither the
Hebrew, nor the Greek.
WHY THE USE OF SOUL
IS DYING?
In many passages the psukee does
thing that only this earthly body can do, things that an immortal soul that has
no substance could not do. ÒAnd He told them a parable, saying, "The
land of a rich man was very productive. And he began reasoning to himself,
saying, 'What shall I do, since I have no place to store my crops?' Then
he said, 'this is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger
ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to
my soul (psukee), Soul (psukee), you have
many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be
merry.Õ But God said to him, ÔYou fool! This very night your soul (psukee) is
required of you'" Luke 12:19-21. That which the rich man
laid up for his ÒsoulÓ(psukee) in verse 19 is said to be laid up
for ÒhimselfÓ in verse 21 making both psukee and himself be
the same thing. The New International Version removed Òsoul.Ó ÒAnd I'll
say to myself (Greek psukee–life), Ôyou (Greek
psukee–life) have plenty of good things laid up for
many years. Take life easy; eat drink and be merry.Õ But, God said to him,
ÔYou fool! This very night your life (Greek–psukee) will
be demanded from you.ÕÓ
It is obvious that an immaterial,
invisible, no substance soul would have no use for the things the rich man
stored in his barns, a soul would not be able to eat and drink the thing stored
in barns, that this was not speaking of an immaterial soul without any
substance, but was speaking of an earthly person that can eat and drink of
the substance that was stored, and a person would be able to use the
things stored; it was life that would be required of the earthly person, not
life from an immortal soul that could not die; when a persons life was required
who would use the things he had stored?
It is those who are members of
churches that believe a person has an immortal soul that are little by little
taking the word "soul" out of the Bible. Why is soul being
used less in the newer translations? These translators knew is not a
translation of nehphesh or psukee; at the time the Old or New
Testament was written neither nehphesh nor psukee had the meaning
that the English word ÒsoulÓ has today.
A few of the many examples that show
why the numbers above are difficult in difficult translations.
Numbers 29:7
Joshua 11:11
Judges 16:16
Numbers 30:2
Numbers 15:30
Acts 15:24-26 is an example of how
the translation of psukee was changed even in the same passage by the
translators when it would not fit in with their belief about an immortal
soul. ÒSince we have heard that some of our number to whom we gave no
instruction have disturbed you with their words, unsettling your souls (psukee), it
seemed good to us, having become of one mind, to select men to send to you with
our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men who have risked their lives (psukee) for
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.Ó The psukee–life they risked
was their earthly life, not a deathless soul.
o ÒCertain persons
who have gone out from us, though with no instruction from us, have said things
to disturb you and have unsettled your minds (psukee)Éwho has risked
their lives (psukee)Ó New Revised Standard Version.
o ÒAnd disturbed you,
troubling your minds (psukee) by what they
saidÉmen who have risked their lives (psukee) for the
name of our Lord Jesus ChristÓ New International Version.
o ÒWe have heard that
some of our group have come to you and said things that trouble and upset you (psukee)Épeople who
have given their lives (psukee) to serve our LordÓ New
Century Version.
AARON ELLIS: ÒIt is plain from
history, that our first transcribers and translators were Romanish priests, who
were interested in sustaining the profitable corruptions of the separate
existence of the soul in purgatory, and the endless misery of the wicked. Every
English translation made prior to the 18th century, has but too
clearly copied from the Vulgate, and the translators were not able, as McKnight
has fully prove, to translate the whole Bible from the original tongues, and
the various editions only profess to be compared with the
original. King James, who died a Papist, gave strict orders to translators of
our common version, not to deviate widely from the BishopÕs Bible, to be
followed, and as little altered as the original will permit.Ó ÒBible Vs.
Tradition,Ó page 6, 1853.
The Hebrew noun,
nehphesh, has been changed by the translators to many different pronouns,
but all the pronouns they changed have a reference to an earthly being, none to
PlatoÕs no substance soul. Nehphesh did not mean an immaterial invisible something in a
person that was not the person in the Old Testament; how could the translators
think it was right to change one noun into many pronouns, many verbs, many
adjectives, many adverbs, etc.?
The Hebrew people in the Old Testament that were
reading their Scriptures would have had no way to make a distinction in the
life (soul–nehphesh) of animals or men for Moses made no distinction.
Even today in the Hebrew Old Testament there is no distinction between a
person, and an animal being a soul–a living creature, but translators
have changed this. Only in the English translations, not in the Hebrew, is
there a distinction, and this distinction is because man has changed
God's word. God used the same word to describe both persons and
animals. If this one word proves anyone now has an immortal soul, it would
prove both man and animals now have an immortal soul. Man says animals do
not have a soul that lives in them unto their death, but there is a
soul that is living in people. God says both people and animals are
a soul.
In many passages nehphesh is
translated rightly persons, not souls. ÒSoulÓ as it is used today is a
completely difference thing than Òperson,Ó but the translators in trying to put
ÒsoulÓ into the Bible translated both from the same Hebrew word just as they
translated the same word into ÒlifeÓ and many other words in many passages
where they did not think they could change ÒnehpheshÓ a mortal being into an
immortal soul.
1. ÒGive me the persons (nehphesh)Ó
(Genesis 17:14)
2.ÒAll the persons (nehphesh)Ó
(Genesis 37:31)
3. ÒThe persons (nehphesh) shall
be for the LordÓ (Leviticus 26:29)
4. ÒAnd that person (nehphesh) be
guiltyÓ (Numbers 5:2)
5. ÒBody of any man (nehphesh)Ó (Numbers
19:11)
6. ÒThe dead body of any man (nehphesh)Ó
(Numbers 19:13)
7. ÒThe person (nehphesh) that was thereÓ (Numbers
19:18)
8. ÒKilled any person (nehphesh)Ó (Numbers
31:19)
9. ÒTwo thousand persons (nehphesh)Ó
(Numbers 31:35)
19. ÒAnd sixteen thousands persons (nehphesh)Ó
(Numbers 31:46)
11. ÒWhich killed any person (nehphesh)Ó
(Numbers 35:11)
12. ÒThat killed any person (nehphesh)Ó
(Numbers 35:30)
13. ÒAn innocent person (nehphesh)Ó
(Deuteronomy 27:25)
14. ÒThat killeth any person (nehphesh)Ó (Joshua
20:3)
15. ÒGod respect any person (nehphesh)Ó (2
Samuel 14:14)
16. ÒThey had decreed for themselves (nehphesh)Ó (Esther
9:31)
17. ÒHe teareth himself (nehphesh)Ó (Job
18:4)
18. ÒHe justified himself (nehphesh)Ó (Job
32:2)
19. ÒI have behaved and quieted myself (nehphesh)Ó (Psalms
132:2)
20. ÒThe blood of any person (nehphesh)Ó
(Proverbs 28:17)
21. ÒHas enlarged herself (nehphesh)Ó (Isaiah
5:14)
22. ÒShall not deliver themselves (nehphesh)Ó (Isaiah
47:14)
23. ÒWhom any man (nehphesh) despisethÓ (Isaiah
49:7)
24. ÒHas justified herself (nehphesh)Ó
(Jeremiah 3:11)
25. ÒTake heed to yourselves (nehphesh)Ó (Jeremiah
17:21)
26. ÒDeceive not yourselves (nehphesh)Ó
(Jeremiah 37:9)
27. ÒEvery person (nehphesh)Ó
(Jeremiah 43:6)
28. ÒSworn by himself (nehphesh)Ó
(Jeremiah 51:14)
29. ÒTwo persons (nehphesh)Ó
(Jeremiah 52:29)
30. ÒAnd five persons (nehphesh)Ó
(Jeremiah 52:30)
31. ÒThe lothing of thy person (nehphesh)Ó (Ezekiel
16:5)
32. ÒCut off many persons (nehphesh) (Ezekiel
17:17)
33. ÒThey traded the persons (nehphesh) of
manÓ (Ezekiel 27:13)
34. ÒTake any person (nehphesh)Ó
(Ezekiel 33:6)
35. ÒThe mighty deliver himself (nehphesh)Ó
(Amos 2:14)
36. ÒDeliver himself (nehphesh)Ó (Amos
2:15)
37. ÒGod hath sworn by himself (nehphesh)Ó (Amos
6:8)
38. ÒA dead body (nehphesh)Ó (Haggai
2:13)
40. ÒIf any one (nehphesh)Ó
(Leviticus 4:27)
41. ÒAny living thing (nehphesh)Ó
(Leviticus 11:10)
42. ÒAnd slayeth him (nehphesh)Ó
(Deuteronomy 22:26)
43. ÒSetteth his (nehphesh) heartÓ (Deuteronomy
24:15)
44. ÒAt thine (nehphesh)
own pleasureÓ (Deuteronomy
23:24)
45. ÒWhosoever killeth any person (nehphesh)Ó (Joshua
20:9)
46. ÒAll the persons (nehphesh)Ó (I
Samuel 23:22)
47. ÒAll that thine (nehphesh) heartÓ (2
Samuel 3:21)
48. ÒEvery man (nehphesh)Ó (2 Kings 12:4)
49. ÒThey (nehphesh) die in youthÓ (Job
36:14)
50. ÒOf his heartÕs (nehphesh) desireÓ (Psalms
10:3)Ó
51. ÒMy deadly (nehphesh) enemiesÓ (Psalms
17:9)
52. ÒUnto to the will (nehphesh) ofÓ (Psalms
27:12)
53. ÒSo would we (nehphesh) have
itÓ (Psalms 35:25)
54. ÒUnto to the will (nehphesh) of
his enemiesÓ (Psalms 35:41)
55. ÒWhy are you (nehphesh) cast
downÓ (Psalms 42:5, 42:11, 45:5)
56. ÒAsking meat for their (nehphesh) lustÓ (Psalms
78:18)
57. ÒHe (nehphesh) was laid in
ironÓ (Psalms105:18)
58. ÒI have behaved and quieted myself (nehphesh)Ó
(Psalms 131:2)
59. ÒKnows his (nehphesh) own
bitternessÓ (Proverbs 14:10)
60. ÒAs he thinketh in his (nehphesh) heartÓ (Proverbs
23:7)
61. ÒAt her (nehphesh) pleasureÓ
(Jeremiah 2:24)
62. ÒAt their (nehphesh) pleasureÓ
(Jeremiah 34:16)
63. ÒShould he slay you (nehphesh)Ó
(Jeremiah 40:15)
64. ÒWith a despiteful heart (nehphesh)Ó
(Ezekiel 25:15)
65. ÒWith a bitterness of heart (nehphesh)Ó
(Ezekiel 27:31)
Nehphesh is translated ÒmindÓ 15 times.
Nehphesh is translated ÒlifeÓ and ÒlivesÓ many
times referring to both mortal persons and animals.
Summary: About one-third of the words
translated soul from nehphesh in the Old Testament, and from psukee in the New
Testament, are associated with the destruction and death of a soul
(life, nehphesh). This is an insoluble problem for those that believe today's
theology, which says a soul cannot die.
Since the word ÒsoulÓ has a meaning
in English that in not in the Hebrew word ÒnehpheshÓ or the Greek word ÒpsucheÓ
the question is, ÒIs soul a true translation, or was it the translators putting
their Platonic and Hellenized philosophy into the Bible?Ó The doctrine of an
immortal soul did not exist when the Old Testament was written, and nehphesh
would not have been understood to be a Òsoul,Ó not unto the Greek doctrine was
brought into the church by some of the so called Òchurch fathers,Ó and by the
Dark Age Catholic Church; they were not called Òchurch fathersÓ in their day,
but were called this by the Catholic Church, probably to justify the use of
ÒfatherÓ the way Catholics use it, and to make the writing of the Òchurch
fathersÓ have more authority. The translators of the King James Version still
believed this pagan doctrine and they changed the word of God in this and many
places, but think goodness most translations have now partly corrected this
change.
NEW KING JAMES VERSION STUDY EDITION
1990, page 935: ÒThe Hebrew word for soul has many meanings and seldom
(some would say never) equals what English-speaking Christians man mean by the
term.Ó Most Christians under stand ÒsoulÓ to be an immaterial,
deathless something in a person that will forever fly away from the person it
was in at their death.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPEDIA:
"Not, however, to dwell on the fact that many peoples have no clear
conception of an immaterial 'soul' in the modern sense (the Egyptians,
e. g. distinguished several parts, the Ka, the Ba, etc., which survived death; often
the surviving self is simply a ghostly resemblance of the earthly self,
nourished with food, offerings, etc.), there is the more serious consideration
that the state into which the surviving part is supposed to enter as death is anything
but a state which can be described as 'life,' or worthy to be dignified with
the name 'immortality.' It is a state peculiar to 'death;' in most cases,
shadowy, inert, feeble, dependent, joyless; a state to be dreaded and shrunk
from, not one to be hoped for. If, on the other hand, as in the hope of
immortality among the nobler heathen, it is conceived of, as for some, a state
of happiness–the clog of the body being shaken off–this yields
the idea, which has passed into so much of our modern thinking, of an
'immortality of the soul,' of an imperishableness of the spiritual part,
sometimes supposed to extend backward as well as forward; an inherent
indestructibility." From the article "Immortal; Immortality."
Also from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "We are
influenced always more or less by the Greek, Platonic idea that the body dies,
yet the soul is immortal. Such an idea is utterly contrary to the Israelite
consciousness and is nowhere found in the Old Testament." From
the article "Death," page 812. "Soul, like spirit, has various
shades of meaning in the O.T., which may be summarized as follows: 'Soul,'
'living being,' 'life,' 'self,' 'person,' 'desire,' 'appetite,' 'emotion' and
'passion'...NEHPHESH OR SOUL, CAN ONLY DENOTE THE INDIVIDUAL LIFE WITH A
MATERIAL ORGANIZATION OR BODY." Page 2837. "For the
Hebrews a person was a unity, not to be divided into body, soul, and spirit as
the Greeks did." Page 592.
JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA: "The
belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body
is a matter of philosophical or theological speculation rather than of simple
faith, AND IS ACCORDINGLY, NOWHERE TAUGHT IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURE...The belief in
the immortality of the soul came to the Jews from contact with Greek thought
and chiefly through the philosophy of Plato, its principal exponent, who was
led to it through Orphic and Dleusinian mysteries in which Babylonian and
Egyptian views were strangely blended." Article-"Immortality
of the Soul," 1925. The concept of punishment after death is not in
the Old Testament. The Law given through Moses deals only with punishment in
this life and has no provisions for punishment after death. From their contact
with pagan philosophy, the pagan immortal soul teaching had made some inroads
with some Jews by the time of Christ. Paul warned about this Philosophy
(Colossians 2:8).
C. R. GRESHAM commenting on 1
Corinthians 15:51-52: "Paul is pointing out that the resurrection
truth which he is revealing was partially, if not wholly, hidden to past
generations. We must take this seriously and not read New Testament revelation
back into the Old Testament accountsÉIt is generally conceived that there is
little about resurrection or after-life in what the Jews called the Torah...and
the Former Prophets...Death is seen as the end, the destruction of human
existence," page 25. "Man's soul is primarily his vitality,
his life, not some separate part of a person that has independent existence and
an immortal nature, God's spirit (His breath, His power) creates and sustains
all living things (Ps 33:6; 104:29-30), even the human spirit (Zech
12:1), but never is man's soul or spirit seen as an immortal part of
man surviving death." Page 40. "The widespread
misunderstanding that the New Testament teaches the immortality of the
soul...If one recognizes that death and eternal life in the New Testament are
always bound up the Christ-event, then it becomes clear that for the first
Christians the soul is not intrinsically immortal, but rather became so only
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." "What The Bible Says About
Resurrection," page 275, The College Press, 1983, (Christian Church).
INTERPRETERÕS DICTIONARY OF THE
BIBLE: ÒNo biblical text authorizes the statement that the soul is separated
from the body at the moment of death.Ó Volume 1, Article ÒDeath,Ó page 802,
1960. ÒThe word ÔsoulÕ in EnglishÉcoming from philosophical Greek (Platonism)ÉIn
the OT it never means the immortal soul, but it is essentially the life
principle, or the living being, or the self as the subject of appetite, and
emotion.Ó Volume 4, Article ÒSoul,Ó 1960.
The belief of Socrates and Plato was
that when a soul is freed from the person it was in, that freed soul would live
forever in a better place without the person that it had been imprisoned in.
If, as Plato taught, a soul is a separate being from the person it is
in, then it would make it unjust for a soul to be tormented for what the person
did. It would be like making Bill be judged and punished for what John did.
This Greek philosophy, that a soul
was imprisoned in the body of a person unto the death of the person, was what
many of the Òchurch fathersÓ had been taught and believed, the background from
which they came. Tertullian, one of the first of the Òchurch fathersÓ to teach
this philosophy was truthful about from where he had learned it. He said,
"For some things are known even by nature: the immortality of the soul,
for instance, is held by many...I may use, therefore, the opinion of a Plato,
when he declares, 'Every soul is immortal.'" Ante–Nicene Fathers,
Volume 3, page 1916. By the time of the translation of the King James Version
this heathen doctrine was believed by the Roman Catholic Church and most
Protestants, but had been changed from PlatoÕs belief that all souls are freed
and go on to a much better place to a few souls go to a better place, but most
souls, after being freed from the persons they were in by the death of the
persons, will go to eternal torment in Hell; the ÒHellÓ part had to be added to
what was taught by Plato by the Catholic Church, it was changed from what was
believed by Plato that after the death of the persons all souls that was
trapped in then would have gone to the same place.
Neither ÒnehpheshÓ nor ÒpsucheÓ are
used with the qualifying words aionios, immoral, undying, endless, or
everlasting, but in todayÕs preaching these words are continually added to
Òsoul.Ó
The Egyptians might have been the
first to believe in the dual nature of a person. They believed that death was a
door to a new form of life for a soul, which may be higher or lower, depending
on how good or bad a person was that a soul had been in. They believed the body
was evil and a prison to a soul. They built the pyramids and other tombs and
put the things in them they thought would be needed by the soul after the death
of the person. Death was a friend to them that freed a soul from the evil body
it was in; but it was the Greeks (Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato) who adopted this
Egyptian belief of the dual nature of a person and developed the philosophy of
the immortal soul. Many church fathers were schooled in and believed in this
Greek philosophy, and were only partly converted. They, after greatly expanding
on the teaching of Plato, brought the Greek philosophy into the church, which
led to the apostasy in the Dark Age. Unconditional immortality is the
foundation of the doctrine of Hell. If a person had an unseen immortal soul in
them that would not die when the person died, there had to be a place to put
the evil souls after they were freed from the persons they had imprisoned been
in; therefore, the doctrine of a soul going to Heaven or Hell immediately after
the person died came into being without a resurrection or a judgment, and the
New Testament teaching of the resurrection of the dead became unneeded and of
little or no importance.
In the Greek philosophy a soul never
dies; only the body dies, freeing a soul from the person to live a higher life.
Christ taught the resurrection of man, not the Greek "immaterial,
invisible part of man" (W. E. Vine) that never dies. The Greeks did
not believe in or need a resurrection, or a savior, or a redeemer; these would
not fit into their belief. They believed in an immortal soul; therefore, there
could be no death for any soul. The Greek philosophy of an immortal soul is
opposed and opposite to the teaching of Christ on the resurrection. The
immortal soul doctrine was believed by most pagan religions in the time of
Paul, and when he was before Agrippa, he asked, "Why is it
considered incredible among you people if God does raise the dead?" (Acts
26:8). To Plato and Agrippa, the resurrection of the dead would have been a
step backward. It would put a soul that was freed from its imprisonment in a
body back into the prison it had been freed from.
o The Greek and heathen belief that the immortal
soul is indestructible, demands that a soul cannot die, but must be alive
forever somewhere.
o The resurrection as taught by Christ demands
that a person be dead, if not, there cannot be a resurrection.
The resurrection is a calling back
to life of the whole person God created, not a calling back to life of a
deathless something that is a difference being than the person that it had been
imprisoned in. If the Greek doctrine of an immortal soul that cannot die, which
is believed by many today were true, then the resurrection of Christ and our
resurrection would be pointless even if it were possible to raise a dead a soul
that is not dead.
SOCRATES and PLATO -- versus
- CHRIST
Immortality ---------
versus - A resurrection to life
Death a friend ------
versus - Death is "the last enemy"
Plato: A soul is immortal| If there is no
resurrection
therefore only
ÒitÓ | death is the end of all
is alive after death |
life 1 Corinthians 15:14-23
Plato: Only the body dies| "Then
they also that are
freeing a soul to higher | fallen
asleep in Christ
life without a
body | have perished" 1
Cor. 15:18
Only some inter something| A person who in
Christ
that is in person
is | will put on immortality,
immortal, not the person |
not something in a person
Souls that were in all | Christ
is "the first
the dead are now alive | born from the dead"
Souls cannot
perish | Souls (psukee) will perish
Souls cannot be destroyed|
in Gehenna Matthew 10:28
Plato's immortal soul and Christ's
resurrection are not compatible, both cannot be. One can be true, but not both;
they are alien and complete opposite to each other. The immortal soul doctrine
of Plato is a total rejection of the teaching of Christ on the resurrection of
a person to life at the second coming of Christ. To believe Plato is to reject
Christ.
o Plato argued for an immortal, immaterial soul
that was better off after the death of the person it had been imprisoned in.
o Paul taught the resurrection of the dead person.
The two are completely incompatible;
it is difficult to understand why many that say they believe the Bible choose
PlatoÕs pagan philosophy over the Bible.
Paul and Plato used the same Greek
words, but not in the same way. Immortal, immortality, indestructible,
never dying was used by Plato, and are used by many today to describe a soul
that lives after the death of the person it once was in, but in the Old or New
Testament these words are never used referring to any lost person, or to
anything that had been in a person. The expression "immortal soul" is
very common in the writing of the pagan philosophers and today's preachers, but
is not found in the Bible.
IF THERE IS NO
RESURRECTION
o If a soul is immortal (deathless) then Christ
has not been raised, 1 Corinthians 15:13-15.
o If a soul is immortal (deathless) we are false
witnesses, the dead have not be raised, 1 Corinthians 15:15.
o If a soul is immortal (deathless) our faith is
vain and we are yet in our sins, 1 Corinthians 15:17.
o If a soul is immortal (deathless) no Christians
will be raised from the dead, dead persons are dead forever, 1 Corinthians
15:18-19.
PAUL USED |PLATO
AND MANY TODAY SAY
Die |an
immortal soul cannot die
Death |no
death for a immortal soul
Destroyed |an
immortal soul cannot be destroyed
Corruption |all souls are
now incorruptible
Mortal |all
souls are now immortal
Perish |a soul cannot perish
What Plato and the Greeks thought
about there being a soul in a person, and that soul would not die when the
person it was in died, is not the word of God; to those that believe the Bible,
the Greek immortal soul that has some kind of life after the death of the
person it had been in is not any part of the Christian faith.
HENRY CONSTABLE: "In the very
terms in which the punishment of the wicked is asserted in the New Testament.
1) Where the latter says the soul shall die, Plato says it shall not
die;
2) Where the latter says it shall be destroyed, Plato says it shall
not be destroyed;
3) Where the latter says it shall perish and suffer corruption, Plato
says it shall not perish and is incorruptibleÉ
But the discussion of the question was not confined to the school
of Plato or to his times. Every school of philosophy took it up, whether to
confirm Plato's view, or to deny it, or to heap ridicule upon it. All the
phrases we have been discussing from the New Testament had been explained,
turned over and over, handled with all the power of the masters of language,
presented in every phase, so that of their sense there could be no doubt, nor
could there be any one ignorant of their sense before Jesus spoke, or an
Evangelist or Apostle wrote. The subject had not died out before the days of
Christ. It never could and never will die out. In every city of the Roman world
were schools of Grecian taught in the days of the Apostles. In every school the
question before us was discussed in the phrases and language of the New
Testament.Ó "Duration and Nature of Future Punishment," 1871.
CATHOLIC
ENCYCLOPEDIA: "Plato established the basic Western tradition on this
topic by defining the soul as the spiritual part of the human that survived
death." 1991.
OSCR CULLMANN: ÒHe (Christ) must
indeed be the very one who in His death conquers death itself. He cannot obtain
this victory by simply living on as an immortal soul, thus fundamentally not
dying. He can conquer death only by actually dying, by betaking Himself to the
sphere of death, the destroyer of lifeÉWhoever wants to conquer death must die,
he must really cease to live–not simply live on as an immortal soulÉFor
Socrates and PlatoÉthe body is indeed bad and should not live on. And that
part, which is to live on, the soul, does not die at all Étherefore it is
deathÉwhich must be conquered by the resurrection Éthe whole thinking of
the New Testament is governed by the belief in the resurrection. Belief in the
immortality of the soul is not belief in a revolutionary event. Immortality, in
fact, is only a negative assertion: the soul does not die, but simply lives on.
Resurrection is a positive assertion: the whole man, who has really died, is
recalled to lifeÉThe Greek doctrine of immortality and the Christian hope in
the resurrection differ so radically because Greek thought has such and
entirely different interpretation of creation.Ó ÒImmortality Of The Soul Or
Resurrection Of The Dead?Ó 1958.
Some believe that in the afterlife
there will be nothing more than a collection of disembodied spirits or souls
that will be just as alive and just the same from the day of birth of the
persons these soul were in as these souls will be after they leave the person
after the persons death. Death and the resurrection are out of step with the
belief of Plato.
That there is something in a person
and that something being deathless is a philosophy of man that Paul warned
about (Colossians 2:8). An immortal soul was copied from heathen philosophy and
superstition. Those who believe we now have "an immortal soul" get
their belief from Greek philosophy, but are inconstant and self-contradicting;
they say a soul cannot die, but it needs a Savior anyway. If we were born with
an immortal soul, it would have no need for Christ to save it from the death it
cannot die. Christianity did not destroy the pagan doctrine of Egypt
and Greece; in the Dark Age it adopted it and made it the teaching of the Roman
Church.
Death is the enemy (1 Corinthians
15:26). It is the destruction of the life given by God. It is not the liberator
of an immortal soul, as Plato believed it to be. It is death, which must be
conquered by the resurrection. When we understand that death is really
death, not another kind of life for an immortal living something that has no
substance that is in a person, the resurrection is all-important. Without a
resurrection we can do what we want for this life is all there is (1
Corinthians 15:32). Our only hope is the resurrection, and without it there
will be no life of any kind for us after death. Plato's immortal, deathless
soul needs no resurrection; A DEATHLESS SOUL CANNOT BE RESURRECTED.
1. "Set your hope perfectly on the grace that
is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter
1:12). It is at the resurrection that we "shall receive the crown
of glory that fades not away" (1 Peter 5:4).
2. "Be patient; therefore, brethren, until the
coming of the LordÓ (James 4:7-8). As the farmer is patient unto the harvest to
receive his reward, the believers are to be patient unto the coming of Christ
to receive their reward.
3. "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a
spiritual body" (1 Corinthians 15:43); it is not the natural body that will
be raised. It is not a spiritual body that is now in a natural body that will
go to Heaven at the death of the natural body. "We (persons,
not souls) shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at
the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible.Ó Dead persons will be raised from the dead with a
completely new body, not already living souls that have no bodies raised from
the dead (1 Corinthians 15:52).
4. "Beloved, now are we children
of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall
be. We know that, when he shall be manifested, we shall
be like him; for we shall see him even as he is" (1 John 3:2).
Every one knows what kind of body we now have, but no one knows what we shall
be after the resurrection; it is ÒweÓ (persons) that do not
know what ÒweÓ shall be after ÒweÓ are resurrected; if there
were a soul now in a person, that soul would be the same while the person was
alive, the same after the person was dead, the same after the coming of Christ;
how could a soul not know what ÒitÓ shall be?
The wrath of God will be "in
the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God" (Romans
2:5), not wrath at death before the Judgment Day, and not eternal wrath after
the Judgment Day is over. On that day, it will be rendered "to them that
by patience in well doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal
lifeÓ (Romans 2:8), not to souls that now has eternal life that are
believed to be in all that will be given eternal life. The judgment will be
"in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men" (Romans
2:16), not at death. It is the Judgment Day when "we (not
souls) shall all stand before the judgment-seat of God" (Romans
14:10). It is the day that the Lord will judge all. "Wherefore
judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes who will both bring to
light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the
hearts" (1 Corinthians 4:5, also, Ephesians 4:30).
1. "And to wait for his Son from heaven" (1
Thessalonians 1:10). Death will not take anyone to Heaven without waiting for
the second coming of Jesus.
2. When the Lord shall descend from Heaven, them
that have fallen asleep in Jesus, "the dead in Christ
shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall
together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the
Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord" (1
Thessalonians 4:17). There hope is to be raised from their sleep at the coming
of Christ, not come back from living in Heaven or Abraham's bosom.
3. Paul says he will
receive a "crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
judge, shall give to me at that day; and not to me only, but also to all them that
have loved his appearing." (2 Timothy 4:8).
The Bible speaks of Òus,Ó Òwe,Ó and
ÒyouÓ that shall be with the Lord after the Judgment Day, the person will be
resurrected, not a soul that once was in a person, but that soul that had been
in a person has already gone on to be with the Lord both without the person,
and without the resurrection.
The Bible teaching, "The
wages of sin is death" leaves no lost souls alive after the
judgment and second death to be put anywhere. The teaching of Christ,
that life (everlasting life or immortality) will be given only to those who
obey Him, makes Hell impossible. Unless Christ gives eternal life (immortality)
to the lost, they cannot live forever anywhere. The Greek teaching of
an immortal soul must be made to stand, and the teaching of Christ that He will
give life only to those who come to Him must be removed from the Bible, or
there cannot be a Hell.
Socrates drinks hemlock and died
with a smile on his face because he thought he was freeing a soul to leave his
body and live with the gods, for a soul that was in him to live free of being
in him. Christ "sweats as it was great drops of blood" (Luke
22:44). Death is the enemy of man; it destroys him, and only the resurrection
frees us from death, and gives us back the life death takes. In death there is
no life in Heaven, or no life in any other place for us before the
resurrection. The resurrection is not deathless souls coming back from Heaven
and Hell to be judged and then going back to Heaven and Hell, it is our only
hope of life after our death. Without the resurrection "then they
also that are fallen asleep in Christ have perished" (1
Corinthians 15:18). The Greek philosophy that found its way into the Church
says souls that have left the persons they were in have not perished, but these
souls are freed to live with God in Heaven, that souls are alive without the
need of a resurrection; if there were an immortal soul that cannot perish then
those who Òare fallen asleep in ChristÓ have forever perished,
but souls that were in them cannot perish; how could Paul have been so wrong?
ÒFor since by MAN came death, by
a MAN also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also
in Christ all shall be made aliveÓ (1 Corinthians 15:Ó21-22). If, as
we are told, a soul is the only thing that will ever be immortal, and that soul
is already immortal and cannot die, it cannot be Òmade alive.Ó The
pagan deathless soul doctrine makes this passage be total nonsense.
o ÒBy man came
deathÉin Adam all dieÓ (1 Corinthians 15:21-22).
o ÒBy man came the
resurrection of the deadÉin Christ all shall be made aliveÓ (1 Corinthians
15:21-22).
By Adam death came to all
persons, all literally die. By Christ the same all that are dead will be
Òmade aliveÓ by the resurrection of the dead; neither persons or souls that are
not dead could not be resurrected, could not be raised from the dead.
As the results of the pagan immortal
soul doctrine there came into existent many other false doctrines, Hellfire,
Purgatory, worship of Mary and saints, etc. The Protestant Reformation was
largely a reaction to medieval superstitious beliefs, and to Purgatory that is
an intermediate state of temporal punishment where souls that were not good
enough to go to Heaven, and not bad enough to go to Hell; in the Church in the
Dark Age this was believed to be almost all souls that had left the dead
persons that they had been in. The priests would have the loved ones pay for
souls to shorten the time souls that had been in the dead persons were in
Purgatory. Selling indulgences and paying to reduce the time deathless souls
that had left the dead loved ones would spend in Purgatory was rejected by the
Reformation, as was many other beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church; but the
Greek dual nature of a person and the doctrine of Hell were retained. Calvin
believed a soul did not sleep, but a soul went to Heaven or Hell as soon as it
left the person.
The Westminster Confession says,
"Souls of the righteous...are received unto the highest heavens...soul of
the wicked are cast into Hell."
Different characteristics of a person, not
different parts of a person that one part can live without any other part; a
person looked at from different points of view.
1. BODY: Flesh and blood.
2. SOUL: A person is a living being: the body plus
the breath of life is a soul, a living being.
3. MIND: If the intellectual part of a person is
his mind, does a ÒsoulÓ as it is used in today's theology have its own mind?
Does a soul have any thoughts that our mind does not have? If not, according to
today's theology, the only thing that will be in Heaven will have no thoughts.
4. HEART: The most commonly used characteristic of
a person. (Genesis 6:5; Judges; 16:15, 17, 18, 20; Matthew 5:8; Luke 12:34;
Romans 10:10; Hebrews 3:10). The heart is used in the place of the mind for the
thing that the mind does, the seat of, intellect, affection, understanding and
will, not the part of the body that pumps blood. (Matthew 13:15; 15:19; Mark
7:19; Luke 6:45; 9:47; Acts 8:21; 8:37; 28:27; Romans 10:9; 10:10; 1
Corinthians 2:9; 7:37; Hebrews 3:10; 4:12; 1 John 3:20-21). Has not the things
said about the heart been transferred to a soul by those who believe a soul is
an immaterial, immortal being that has no substance?
The whole person dies, the whole
person is buried, the whole person is resurrected for judgment, and the whole
resurrected person that is in
Christ will live with Christ.
(1) The whole person dies and the whole person is buried.
o ÒAaron died and there he was buriedÓ (Deuteronomy
10:6).
o ÒThere they buried
Abraham and his wife Sarah, there they buried IsaacÉÓ (Genesis
49:31).
o ÒDavid that he both
died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this dayÓ (Acts 2:29).
David himself, not a part of David, is dead and in his tomb, and many others
where the whole person died and was buried.
(2) It is because the whole person is asleep, the whole person is
actually dead, that the whole person must be resurrected and judged, not just an
undead, immaterial something that had been in a person unto the death of the
person.
o Stephen Òfell asleepÓ (Acts
7:59).
o ÒDavid slept with
his fathers and was buriedÓ (1 Kings 2:10).
(3) The whole person will be raised and live with Christ, not
PlatoÕs pagan soul that will never be dead, that will never be in the tombs or
graves (plural graves), or will never be raised from the dead.
o ÒALL that
are in the TOMBS shall hear his voice, and shall come forthÓ (John
6:28-29). ÒGravesÓ (plural) in King James Version, but
we are told by those that believe in souls that souls are never in Ògraves.Ó
o ÒAnd I will
raise HIM up at the last dayÓ (John 6:54),
not will raise Òit.Ó
ASHLEY S. JOHNSON, founder and
president of the Johnson Bible College: ÒGenerally the word ÔsoulÕ in the
ordinary version should be life.Ó ÒThe Resurrection And The Future
Life,Ó page 336, Knoxville, Lithographing Company, 1913.
"MAN BECAME A LIVING
BEING" Genesis 1:26. "Then God said, 'Let Us
make MAN in Our image,'" not, "Let Us make
a soul in Our Image and put this soul in MAN unto the death of
the MAN it is in;" it is MAN that is in
the image of God, nothing is said about the image of a soul. Genesis 2:7 "Then
the Lord formed MAN of dust from the ground and breathed into HIS nostrils
the breath of life; (not breathed into the body an immortal undying no
substance soul, but breathed into ÒmanÓ the breath of life, which both men and
animals have), and MAN became a living being." Not
a body plus an immortal soul, but "a living being." Not
two beings, a body being (a person) with an invisible soul being living in the
person. How can the breath of life in your nose (breathing) be an immortal
something that dose not breathe? The same ÒmanÓ that was
created Òin the image of GodÓ is the same ÒmanÓ that
breathes.Ó It is not an immaterial something in ÒmanÓ
that does not breathe that is in the image of God.
The body of dust plus the breath of
life = a living soul (a living being–nehphesh), Genesis 2:7. The breath of
life without the body would not be a person or animal; it would not be an
immortal living being, not a nehphesh. ALL living creatures, whether they are animals or
sea-dwelling creatures are souls (nehpheshs–living beings). All life
comes from God and returns to God. The body plus the breath of life makes a
living being (a nehpheshs), makes a living person or animal.
DEATH OF
MANKIND–CREATION IN REVERSE
Creation–body made of dust–breath of life from God = a living
person (a nehpheshs) (Genesis 2:7).
Death–breath of life returns to God–body returns to dust =
a dead person (a nehpheshs) (Ecclesiastes 12:7).
Genesis 2:7
1. Body formed of the dust from the ground.
2. Breathed into the nostrils of the body the breath of life.
Psalm 104:29
1. God takes away their breath.
2. They return to the earth.
Psalm 146:29
1. God takes away the breath.
2. He returns to the earth.
God formed MAN, not merely the body of man; it was MAN that
was formed from the dust of the ground. It is MAN, not an
invisible something that was put in the MAN but something is
not the MAN, not something that has no substance that is in the
image of God. After Adam was put out of the garden he was still in the image of
God, mankind is still in the image of God. If Adam was created innate immortal,
then what was the purpose of the tree of life? If there was an immortal soul
that was in Adam and that soul was created not subject to death, then the tree
of life could have had no purpose; an immortal soul that cannot die would live
forever with or without the tree of life; if there was a deathless soul that
was in Adam, that deathless soul would not have died if it did eat, or did not
eat of the tree of life; it was Adam that could and did die for eating of the
forbidden fruit, not a deathless soul that could not die; an immaterial soul
could not eat of the forbidden fruit, or die for eating of the forbidden fruit
which a soul could not eat.
Summary: The Bible says, ÒMan BECAME a living soulÓ is
changed to, ÒMan had a soul put in him.Ó There is a world of difference in (1) a
person being a BEING, (2)
and a person HAVING a
soul put in them; it is two difference gospels. Both man and animals ARE a living soul, neither
one HAVE a soul
that is living in them. If the breath of life in his nostrils in Genesis 2:7
makes a person have an immortal being (soul) living in him or her that cannot
die, then "all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of
life" in Genesis 7:22 would also prove all beasts, birds, and
fish have the same immortal something being in them that cannot die, but both
persons (nehphesh) and beasts (nehphesh) died in the flood.
GOD IS A LIVING
BEING (Not God has a soul in Him)
ÒMoreover, I will
make My dwelling among you, and My soul (nehphesh) will
not reject youÓ (Leviticus 26:11).
ÒI then will destroy your high
places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains
of your idols; for My soul (nehphesh) shall abhor youÓ (Leviticus 26:30).
I know of no one that believes God
has Òan invisible, no substanceÓ something in Him that can exist apart from
Him. His soul (nehphesh) is His person, His being–life,
not an immortal soul living in the immortal God, just as a soul of a person or
animal is the life (the living being) of the person or animal, not an immortal
being in them.
ANIMALS ARE "SOULS"
Nehphesh–a living creature–a
living being, not animals HAVE souls. They do not HAVE an immaterial,
invisible, or a no substance, deathless something living in them; they ARE a
living being. In Genesis 1:20; 1:21; 1:24; 1:30, most translations
try to hide this. WHY? Why is the same word translated "living
creature" when used referring to animals, and the same word is
changed and translated "soul" when used referring to
a person? There is no excuse or defense for it; it is a deliberate attempt by
the translators, who did not believe God's word as it is, to mislead their
readers; all Bible teachers should point this out to all they teach (James
3:1). If "the living soul" (nehphesh) is an immortal
living something that is in a person, then bugs, all sea creatures, all birds,
and all animals have an immortal soul. In Genesis "Living soul" is
used much more of these creatures than it is of man.
Passages in which soul
(nehphesh) is speaking of animals being souls, but it is deliberately hid from
the English readers that the word nehphesh–the word that they
mistranslated souls is used.
1. Genesis 1:20 ÒThen God said, Let the
waters swarm with swarms of living souls (nehpheshs, used
referring to animals)Ó
2. Genesis 1:21 ÒAnd God created the great
sea-monsters, and every living soul (nehphesh, used
referring to animals) that moved wherewith the waters
swarmed.Ó
3. Genesis 1:24 ÒAnd
God said, Let the earth bring forth living souls
(nehpheshs, used referring to animals) after their
kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind.Ó
4. Genesis 2:19 ÒAnd out of the ground the
Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought
them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called
a living creature (nehpheshs, used referring to animals),
that was its name.Ó
5. Genesis 1:30 ÒAnd to every beast of the
earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth
which has life (nehphesh, used referring to animals).
6. Genesis 9:10 "And with ever living
creature (nehpheshs, used referring to animals) that
is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with
you."
7. Genesis 9:12 ÒThis
is the covenant which I am making between Me and you and ever living
creature (nehpheshs, used referring to animals) that is with you.Ó
8. Genesis 9:15 ÒAnd I will
remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and ever living
creature (nehpheshs, used referring to both man and
animals) of all flesh.Ó
9. Genesis 9:16 ÒWhen the bow is in the
cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between
God and ever living creature (nehpheshs, used referring to
both man and animals) of all flesh that is on the earth.Ó
10. Leviticus 11:10 ÒBut whatever is in the seas and in the
rivers, that do not have fins and scales among all the teeming life of the
water, and among all the living creatures (nehpheshs, used
referring to animals) that are in the water, they are
detestable things to you.Ó
11. Leviticus 11:46 ÒThis is the law regarding the animal, and
the bird, and every living thing (nehpheshs, used
referring to animals) that swarms on the earth.Ó
12. Leviticus 17:11 ÒFor
the life (nehphesh, used referring to an animal) of the flesh is in the
blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls (lives–nehpheshs,
used referring to men); for it is the blood by reason of
the life(nehphesh, used referring to animals) that
makes atonement.Ó The exact same word in the same sentence in the
Hebrew (nehphesh) is translated life when referring to animals and
is translated soul when referring to mankind!
13. Leviticus 22:11 ÒBut if the priest buy any souls (nehpheshs,
used referring to animals that are to be used as food) with
his money, he shall eat of it, and he that is born in his house: they shall eat
of his meatÓ King James Version.
14. Leviticus 24:18 ÒAnd the one who takes the life (nehphesh,
used referring to animals) of an animal shall make it
good, life (nehphesh, used referring to animals) for life (soul–nehphesh,
used referring to animals).Ó ÒAnd he that killest a beast
(nehphesh) shall make it good, beast (nehphesh) for beast (soul–nehphesh),Ó
King James Version.
15. Numbers 31:28 "One soul (nehphesh
life, used referring to both man and animals) of five
hundred, of the persons and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep."
16. Job 41:1 ÒLeviathan,Ó (nehphesh, used
referring to an animal) is used six times in the Bible, probably a
crocodile (Job 41:21). From over 870 times nehphesh is used, this is the only
time nehphesh is translated breath in the Kings James Version.
After all, they could not have a crocodile, a sea monster, or whatever his
nehphesh was having an "immortal soul" for then they would have to
put itÕs soul in Heaven or Hell for a soul in an immortal crocodile could never
die, and, according to the theology of many, it would have to be somewhere for
all eternity.
17. Ezekiel 47:9 ÒAnd
it will come about that every living creature (nehpheshs, used
referring to animals) which swarms in every place where the
river goes.Ó
18. Leviticus 17:14, Genesis 9:4 "For the life (nehphesh,
used referring to man and to animals) of every creature is
the blood of it."
19. Deuteronomy 12:23 ÒOnly be sure not to eat the
blood, for the blood is the life (nehphesh, used referring
to animals), and you shall not eat the life (soul–nehphesh,
used referring to animals) with the flesh.Ó
20. Job 12:10 "In whose hand is the life (nehphesh,
used referring to man and to animals) of every living
thing, and the breath of all mankind?"
21. Proverbs 12:10 "A righteous man has regard for
the life (nehphesh, used referring to animals) of
his beast."
22. And many more, but if this does not convict anyone that all living
being are a soul nothing will. Noties how the translators tried to hide this
from their readers.
Many believe, "The
living soul" in Genesis 2:7 is the one distinctive thing that
makes a person different from an animal, but if this makes a person have an
immortal soul in them, there is no way around all living things having immortal
souls in them. In these passages bugs, birds, fish, persons, are all
nehpheshs, all are "living beings," not a deathless, immaterial
something.
ERDMANN DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE:
"Far from referring simply to one aspect of a person, 'soul' refers to the
whole person." Page 1245.
HOLMAN BIBLE DICTIONARY: "A
human being is a totality of being, not a combination of various parts and
impulses. According to the Old Testament understanding, a person is not
a body, which happens to possess a soul. Instead, a person is a living soul...Because
of God's breath of life; the man became 'a living being' (Gen. 2:7).
A person thus is a complete totality, made up of human flesh, spirit (best
understood as "the life-force'), and nephesh (best understood as "the
total self' but often translated as 'soul')." Page 61.
INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE
ENCYCLOPEDIA: "There is not dualism in the sense of separation, as though
there could be full man either as body alone or as soul alone...together they
make up the one man." Volume 1, page 134.
HASTINGS BIBLE DICTIONARY: ÒSoul is
throughout the great part of the Bible simply the equivalent of ÔlifeÕ embodied
in living creature.Ó
PARKHURSTÕS LEXICON: ÒAs a noun
nephesh has been supposed to signify the spiritual part of man, or what we
commonly call his soul. I must for myself confess that I can find no passages
where it has undoubtedly this meaning.Ó Parkhurst was a highly regarded person
that believed in an immortal soul, but confessed that he was unable to find his
belief in the Old Testament.
T. PIERCE BROWN: "A
consideration of EVERY passage in which these terms are used leads us to the
consideration that the term 'soul' is a term that was applied in the
Bible to every being that normally has sensory capacities (life), whether
or not they have that capacity when the term is used referring to them. For
example, one might see a body of a dead person and say, 'That poor soul is
dead.' The Bible uses the term that way, even as we do, and it has nothing at
all to do with the immorality or mortality of a soul. It simply means that the
PERSON (the one who HAD life–soul–sensory capacity) is dead."
ÒSoul and Spirit" Gospel Advocate, June 14, 1979.
(1) Nehphesh (soul): When
nehphesh is used referring only to animals, it is translated nine
different ways in the King James Version.
1). Creature (nehphesh) Genesis 1:21; 1:24; 2:19; 9:10; 2:12;
Leviticus 11:46
2). Thing (nehphesh) Leviticus 11:10. Ezekiel 47:9
3). Life (nehphesh) Genesis 1:20; 1:30; Leviticus 17:10-14—2 times
4). The life (nehphesh) Genesis 9:4; Deuteronomy 12:23;
Proverbs 12:10
5). Beast (nehphesh) Leviticus 24:18
6). A soul (nehphesh) Job 12:10
7). Breath (nehphesh) Job 41:21
8). A fish (nehphesh) Isaiah 19:10
9). Her (nehphesh) Jeremiah 2:24
(2) Nehphesh (soul): When
it is used referring to BOTH Animals and Man, it
is translated in three different ways.
1). Creature (nehphesh) Genesis 9:15; 9:16
2). The life (nehphesh) Leviticus 17:11; 17:14
3). Soul (nehphesh) Numbers 31:28
(3) Nehphesh (soul):
When it has the animal appetites and desires of Man, when the
material nature of a person is being referred to, nehphesh is translated in
five different ways, (1) pleasure, (2) lust, (3) appetite, (4) greedy (5) and
soul.
1). Nehphesh is translated pleasure (nehphesh)
Deuteronomy 23:24
2). Nehphesh is translated lust (nehphesh) Psalm
78:18
3). Nehphesh is translated appetite (nehphesh)
Proverbs 23:2. Ecclesiastes 6:7
4). Nehphesh is translated greedy (nehphesh)
Isaiah 56:11
5). Nehphesh is translated soul (Nehphesh).
Fifteen material–physical things a
"soul–person–nehphesh" does.
1). A soul dried away Numbers 11:6
2). A soul can be utterly destroyed Joshua 10:28
3). A soul can be saved from physical danger by fleeing (running
away from danger) Jeremiah 51:6
4). A soul can be kept back from the pit–grave (for
a short time) Job 33:18
5). A soul can be deliver from death Psalm 33:10
6). A soul can longs to eat flesh Deuteronomy
12:20; can be hunger Proverbs 19:15; Proverbs 6:30; can
eat Leviticus 7:25
7). A soul can lusts Deuteronomy 12:15;
12:21; 14:26. A soul lusts after Deuteronomy 12:20
8). A soul can desires Deuteronomy 14:26; 1
Samuel 2:16. A soul desired figs Micah 7:1
9). A soul can loathes Deuteronomy 21:5; Proverbs
27:7
10). A soul can abhorred Job 33:20; Psalm 107:18
12). A soul can breaths 1 Kings 20:32
13). A soul can be bought and sold with money Leviticus
22:11; Ezekiel 27:13
14). A soul can touch unclean things and be unclean,
bodies of dead persons, dead beast, creeping thing, Leviticus 5:2
15). A soul can refused to touch Job 6:7
16). A soul can be dead, and a dead soul can be touched by
living persons Numbers 19:11
A SOUL
(PERSON–NEHPHESH) CAN BE HUNGRY
CAN HAVE AN
APPETITE, BE THIRSTY, EAT MEAT
"Men do not
despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself (nehphesh–living
being) when he is hungry" (Proverbs 6:30). An example of
how well the translators hid the fact that this is the same word that they
translated soul in other places when they did not want you to see it.
"I will set my face against
that soul (nehphesh–living being) that eats blood, and will
cut him off from among his people"(Leviticus 17:10).
"And you shall say, I will eat
flesh, because your soul (nehphesh–living
being) desires to eat flesh; you may eat flesh, after all the desire of
your soul (nehphesh–living
being)" (Deuteronomy 12:20). An immaterial something eating material
flesh!
"And it shall be as when a
hungry man dreams and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul (nehphesh–living
being) is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he
drinks; but he awakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul (nehphesh–living
being) has appetite" (Isaiah 29:8).
SOUL IS THE LIFE,
NOT AN IMMORTAL SOMETHING
ÒYou shall not eat flesh with its life (nehphesh–living
being)Ó (Genesis 9:4).
ÒFor the life (nehphesh–living being) of
the fleshÓ (Leviticus 17:11; 17:14).
ÒThose who seek my life (nehphesh–living
being)Ó (Psalm 38:12).
ÒFor those who sought the ChildÕs life (psukee) are
deadÕ (Matthew 2:20).
There are many more passages that
show that both nehphesh and psukee are the life of the person or animal, not an
immortal something that has itÕs own life and lives after the person is dead.
SOULS CAN DIE,
SOULS CAN BE DEAD
SOULS CAN BE
KILLED, BE MURDERED
IF A SOUL CAN DIE THEN IT CANNOT
BE IMMORTAL. Although it is often hid in many translations, the Bible says over
320 times that a nehphesh (soul):
1). Can die
2). Can be killed by man
3). Or that it is already dead
If a soul can die, then whatever
"nehphesh" is translated into something that can die. If the
many words that "nehphesh" is translated into is something that can
die, then a soul cannot be immortal, and a soul can die. To say that
"nehphesh" is a soul that is immortal and it cannot die makes the
Bible be wrong repeatedly. If a nehphesh is something that is immortal
and cannot die, the writers of the Bible did not know it.
(1). Souls (nehpheshs) can
die Numbers 23:10, Ezekiel 18:4, 20, Joshua 11:11.
o "They smote (killed) all
the souls (nehphesh)Ó King James Version.
o ÒAnd they struck
every person (nehpheshs) who was in it with the edge
of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was no one left who breathedÓ New
American Standard Bible.
An immortal soul can die or be utterly destroy. Not only
does the Bible not say a soul is immortal, it denies it by saying often that a
soul can die, can be killed, or a soul is already dead.
(2). Souls (nehpheshs) can be murdered.
Deuteronomy 12:23; Numbers 35:11-15.
(3). Souls (nehpheshs) can be killed Leviticus
24:17. An immortal soul can be killed? "Kills any person" (soul-nehphesh)
Numbers 35:11, 15, 30, 31.
(4). Souls (nehpheshs) can be smote with
the sword and utterly destroyed Joshua 11:11. Can a
immortal soul be killed by the sword?
(5). Souls (nehpheshs) can be slain.
An immortal soul can be slain? Deuteronomy 27:25.
(6). Souls (nehpheshs) can be destroyed.
Can an immortal soul can be destroyed? Leviticus 23:30.
(7). Souls (nehpheshs) can be taken away 1
Kings 19:4.
(8). Souls (nehpheshs) can be sought to
kill it Jeremiah 44:30.
(9). Souls (nehpheshs) cannot be kept
alive. An immortal soul that cannot die, but it cannot be kept alive? Psalm
22:29.
(10). Souls (nehpheshs) have blood and
can bleed. "The blood of the souls (nehpheshs) of
the poor" Jeremiah 2:34.
A FEW OF THE MANY
PASSAGES IN THE KING JAMES VERSION
THAT HID THE FACT
THAT A SOUL CAN AND DOES DIE
(1). ÒLet us not kill himÓ (soul–nehphesh). ÒLet
us not take his lifeÓ (soul–nehphesh) New American
Standard, Genesis 37:21.
(2). "Life (soul–nehphesh) for life (soul–nehphesh).Ó
ÒImmortal soul for immortal soul?" Exodus 21:23.
(3). "Any dead body (soul–nehphesh)"
Leviticus 21:11. Any dead soul? Nehphesh is translated Òdead
bodyÓ thirteen times in the King James Version.
(4). And he that killeth a beast shall make it good beast (soul–nehphesh) for beast (soul–nehphesh)Ó Leviticus
24:17 King James Version, ÒLife (soul–nehphesh) for life (soul–nehphesh)
(soul for soul?)"
(5). ÒWhosoever is defiled by the dead (soul–nehphesh)"
Numbers 5:2. Defiled by a dead soul?
(6). ÒHe
shall come at no dead body (soul–nehphesh)"
Numbers 6:6 King James Version. "He shall not go near to
a dead person (soul-nehphesh).Ó
(7). ÒAnd he that killeth any man (soul–nehphesh) shall
surely be put to death. And he that killeth a beast shall make it good beast
(soul–nehphesh) for beast (soul–nehphesh)Ó (soul
for soul?) Leviticus 24:17-18 King James Version. "And if a
man takes the life (soul–nehphesh) of
any human being." Does anyone believe a person can take the life
of an immortal, immaterial, deathless soul?
(8). "Because of a dead person (soul–nehphesh)"
Numbers 6:11.
(9). "Defiled by the dead body of a man (soul–nehphesh)"
Numbers 9:6- 7.
(10). "Unclean by reason of a dead body (soul–nehphesh)"
Numbers 9:10.
(11). "He that toucheth the dead body of
any man (soul–nehphesh)Ó Numbers 19:11. ÒWhoever
touches a human corpse
(soul–nehphesh)" (New International Version).
(12). ÒWhosoever toucheth the dead body (soul–nehphesh) of
any man that is deadÓ " Numbers 19:13 King
James Version. "Anyone who touches a corpse, the body (soul–nehphesh) of
a man who has died.Ó How could anyone touch the corpse of something
that has no substance and cannot die? By todayÕs definition of soul this says
an immaterial deathless something is dead, and this immaterial something is
touched by man. Why did they not translate this ÒsoulÓ? It would have destroyed
their pagan belief if they had.
(13). "Whosoever has killed any person (soul–nehphesh)"
Numbers 31:19.
(14). ÒWhich killeth any person (soul–nehphesh)"
Numbers 35:11.
(15). "Everyone that kills any person (soul–nehphesh) " Numbers
35:15.
(16). "Whoso kills any person (soul–nehphesh)"
Numbers 35:30.
(17). ÒAnd slay him (soul–nehphesh)Ó
Deuteronomy 19:6 KJV. "And take his life (soul–nehphesh)"
(18). "And strikes him so that he (soul–nehphesh) dies" Deuteronomy
19:11.
(19). "Life (soul–nehphesh) for life (soul–nehphesh), eye
for eye, tooth for tooth" Deuteronomy 19:21.
(20). "A man rises against his neighbor and murders him (soul–nehphesh)"
Deuteronomy 22:26.
(21). "Cursed be he who takes a bride to slay an
innocent person (soul–nehphesh)" Deuteronomy
27:25.
(23). "And deliver our lives (souls–nehpheshs) from
death" Joshua 2:13. Not, ÒSave our immortal, deathless
souls from death.Ó
(24). "Who kills any person (soul–nehphesh)"
Joshua 20:9. Not, ÒWho kills any immortal soul that cannot be killed.Ó
(25). "That kills any person (soul–nehphesh)"
Joshua 20:3.
(26). "Let me (soul–nehphesh) die" Judges
16:30. Not "Let my soul that cannot die, die anyway?"
(27). "And you lose your life (soul–nehphesh), with
the lives (souls–nehpheshs) of your
household" Judges 18:25.
(28). "If you do not save your life (soul–nehphesh) tonight" 1
Samuel 19:11.
(29). "The death of all the persons (souls–nehpheshs) of
your father's house" 1 Samuel 22:22.
(30). "He that seeks my life (soul–nehphesh) seeks
your life (soul–nehphesh)" 1 Samuel 22:23.
(31). "He is seeking my life (soul–nehphesh)"
1 Samuel 20:1.
(32). "And David saw that Saul was come out
to seek his life (soul–nehphesh)" 1
Samuel 23:15
(33). "Deliver him that smote his
brother, that we may kill him for the life (soul–nehphesh) of
his brother whom he slew" 2 Samuel 14:7.
(34). "Who today have saved your life (soul–nehphesh) and
the lives (souls–nehpheshs) of your sons and
daughter, the lives (souls–nehpheshs) of your
wives, and the lives (souls–nehpheshs) of
your concubines" 2 Samuel 19:5.
(35). "Have you asked for the life (soul–nehphesh) of
your enemies" 1 Kings 3:11.
(36). "Prolong my life (soul–nehphesh)"
Job 6:11. Not ÒProlong the life of an immortal, deathless soul?Ó
(37). "For himself that he might die,
and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life (soul–nehphesh)"
1 Kings 19:4.
(38). "A man that dose violence to the blood
of any person (soul–nehphesh) shall flee
unto the pit; let no man stay him" Proverbs 28:17. A person has
blood; if there were an immaterial soul it would have no blood.
(39). "Ammon
has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to take your life (soul–nehphesh)...wherefore
should he take your life (soul–nehphesh)"
Jeremiah 40:14-15.
(40). "By shedding blood and destroying lives (nehpheshs–living
beings)" Ezekiel 22:27.
PASSAGES IN THE
KING JAMES VERSION THAT CLEARLY
SAYS A SOUL CAN
DIE, OR THAT A SOUL ALREADY DEAD
The same word
(nehphesh) that many times was translated life or person that will die, or is
already dead is also translated into an immortal, deathless soul (nehphesh)
that many tell us is in a person (nehphesh) unto the personÕs (nehphesh)
death, but it (nehphesh) is not the person (nehphesh);
nevertheless, according to the King James Version, that deathless,
immortal soul (nehphesh) will die just as the mortal person (nehphesh)
that it (nehphesh) is in will die, or that it (nehphesh) is already dead.
(1). ÒWhatsoever soul (life–nehphesh) it
be that doest any work in the same day, the same soul (life–nehphesh) will
I destroy" Leviticus 23:30 King James Version. ÒThat person (nehphesh) will
I destroy."
(2). "And they smote all the souls (persons–nehpheshs) that
were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there
were none left that breathed" Joshua 11:11.
(3). "He utterly destroyed them
and all the souls (persons–nehpheshs) that
were therein; he left none remaining" Joshua 10:28.
(4). "And
he smote it with the edge of the sword, and all the souls (persons–nehpheshs) that were therein; he
left none remaining in it" Joshua 10:30.
(5). "And all the souls (persons–nehpheshs) that
were therein" Joshua 10:32.
(6). "And all the souls (persons–nehpheshs) that
were therein he utterly destroyed that day" Joshua
10:35.
(7). "But he utterly destroyed it,
and all the souls (persons–nehpheshs) that
were therein" Joshua 10:37.
(8). "And he captured it and its king and all
its cities, and they smote them with the edge of the sword, and utterly
destroyed all the souls (persons–nehpheshs) that
were therein" Joshua 10:39. Can immortal souls be utterly
destroyed with the sword?
(9). "That his soul (person–nehphesh) was vexed
to death" Judges 16:16. "Annoyed to
death" New American Standard Version. We say, "He
worried me to dead."
(10). ÒYet
thou huntest my soulÓ (life–nehphesh) 1
Samuel 24:11 KJV. "You are lying in wait for my soul (life–nehphesh) to
take it" New KJV, American Standard Version.
(11). "To pursue you and to seek your soul (life–nehphesh)
1 Samuel 25:29. Note: sometimes nehphesh was translated Òseek
your soul,Ó and sometimes the same word was
translated Òseek your life.Ó See 12-21 below. Did
they think the Hebrew word nehphesh is a mortal person that both can and will
die, or an immortal soul that cannot die?
o ÒWhich sought
your lifeÓ (nehphesh) 2 Samuel 4:8
o ÒSeeking my lifeÓ (nehphesh)
2 Samuel 16:11
o ÒTake away my lifeÓ (nehphesh)
1. Kings 19:10
o ÒThey seek my life, (nehphesh) to
take it awayÓ 1 Kings19:14
o ÒSeek after
my soulÓ (nehphesh) Psalm 35:4
o ÒSeek after
my lifeÓ (nehphesh) Psalm 38:12
o ÒSeek after
my soulÓ (nehphesh) Psalm 40:14
o ÒLet all those that
seek theeÓ (nehphesh) Psalm 40:16
o ÒTo slay theeÓ (nehphesh)
Jeremiah 40:14
(12). "The blood of the souls (persons–nehpheshs) of
the innocent poor" Jeremiah 2:34. Dose an immaterial, invisible
soul that is in a person have no substance, but it has blood!
(13). "To slay the souls (persons–nehpheshs) that
should not die and to save the souls (persons–nehpheshs) alive that
should not live" Ezekiel 13:19. If a soul were something that
is immortal and cannot die, this passage is completely nonsense.
(14). ÒHe spared not their soul (nehphesh–life) from
deathÓ (Psalms 78:50).
(15). "Like
a roaring lion ravening the prey: they have devoured souls (nehpheshs–living
beings)" Ezekiel 22:25.
(16) ÒThe soul (nehphesh–life) of
every living thingÓ King James Version (Job 12:10). ÒIn
whose hand is the life (nehphesh) of every living
thing."
(17). "He did not spare their soul (nehphesh–living
being) from death, but gave over their life to the plague, and smote
all the firstborn in Egypt" (Psalm 78:50).
(18). "The soul (person–nehphesh) who
sins will die" Ezekiel 18:4.
(19). Ezekiel 18:20
Ezekiel 18:20 is a person dying
(being put to death) for a sin under the Old Testament Law, but is almost
always used referring to something that cannot die by those who believe there
is a soul that will not die when the person it was in dies. When this
is misapply, as it often is, to some immaterial something that is believed to
be in a person; this is an undeniable statement that the immortal something
that they say cannot die will die, that if there were a soul it will not have
everlasting life with torment. This is definitely not what they
wanted, but what they made in their attempt to make there be a soul that is
immortal. If "soul" means "an immortal
something that cannot die," then James said, "Shall save an immortal
something, which cannot die, from death" James 5:20. This theology makes
nonsense of the Bible.
The divine sentence, "The
soul that sins, it shall die" has been revised to say, "The
soul that sins, it shall live eternally in torment." Not only must this be
changed from "die" to "eternal life" but
after making the change then torment, which is not in Ezekiel 18:20 must be
added to it; changed to Òa soul that sins, it shall live forever being
eternally torment by God.Ó To make it teach what many want it to teach, first,
God's word must be changed, and then added to.
ÒShall dieÓ in Ezekiel
18:4 is in contrast to Òshall surely liveÓ in Ezekiel 18:9. It
is life or death of a living person under the Law that is being spoken of, not
two kinds of life after death; if death is only a separation of soul and body
as men teach, what is the death of a soul; how can a soul that is alive but
separated from God be dead?
(20). IN OVER 320, over one-third of the about 870 times that
nehphesh, the Hebrew word that is translated or mistranslated soul, is used:
o A soul (nehphesh)
is already dead.
o A soul (nehphesh)
can die, and can be killed.
o A soul (nehphesh)
can be buried.
o A soul
(nehphesh) can be sought to be killed.
o A soul (nehphesh)
can be murdered.
o A soul (nehphesh)
can be delivered from death.
o A soul (nehphesh)
can be smote (killed).
o A soul (nehphesh)
can be affected.
o A soul (nehphesh)
can be cut off.
In most of these passages the
translators of the King James and other translations have hidden from the
readers that the very thing they believe to be immortal and cannot die, that it
can and does die. By picking when they translated nehphesh into soul and
picking when to translate "nehphesh" into "life,"
"person" and many other words; can such hiding have been anything
more then a deliberate deceiving because they wanted to teach PlatoÕs Greek
philosophy of a deathless souls in place of the resurrection of dead persons,
but even in the King James Version there are many passages which says that
souls (nehpheshs) can and do die, or that souls are already dead. The nehphesh
(that is often mistranslated into the pagan Greek deathless, no subjects
ÒsoulÓ) is a physical person or animal, whether they are living or
dead.
SOULS CAN BE KILLED
BY OTHERS
(1). "We feared greatly for our soul (nehphesh–life,
living being) because of you" (Joshua 9:24). They
feared for their life, not for a deathless being that was in them.
(2). "All the men who were seeking your soul (nehphesh–life) are
deadÓ (Exodus 4:19).
(3). ÒSaul had come out to seek his life (nehphesh–life,
living being) while David was in the wildernessÓ (1 Samuel
23:15).
(4). They had to flee to save their souls (nehpheshs–lives,
living beings) (2 King 7:7), their lives (nehphesh–living
being) would be utterly destroyed "with the edge of the
sword" or other weapons (Joshua 10:27; 10:30; 10:32; 10:35,
10:37; 10:39).
(5). ÒAnd deliver our lives (nehpheshs–living
beings) from deathÓ (Joshua 2:13).
SOULS CAN DIE FOR
LACK OF FOOD
Not only could souls
(nehpheshs–living beings) be killed by their enemies, and souls
(nehpheshs–living beings) could also die for lack of food (Lamentations
1:11; Numbers 11:6).
SOULS CAN EAT FOOD
Leviticus 7:18; 7:20; 7:25; 7:27; also, Genesis
9:4; 9:5; 12:13; 17:14; 19:17; 19:19; 19:20; 32:30; 32:31; 35:18; 37:21; Exodus
21:23; 30:12; 30:15; 31:14; Leviticus 7:21; 17:11; 17:12; 17:14; 19:8; 21:1;
21:11; 22:3; 24:17; 24:18; Numbers 5:2; 6:6; 9:6; 9:7; 9:10; 9:18; 19:11;
19:13; 19:20; 23:10; 31:19; 35:11; 35:15; 35:30; 35:31; Deuteronomy 12:23;
Joshua 11:11; 20:3; 20:9; Judges 5:28; 12:3; 16:16; 18:25; Ruth 4:15; 1 Samuel
1:19; 1:20; 1:23; 23:15; 23:20; 25:29; 28:9; 28:21; 2 Samuel 4:8; 14:7; 16:11;
19:5; 19:6; 1 Kings 1:12; 1:29; 3:11; 17:21; 17:22; 19:10; 19:14; 20:32; 2
Kings 1:13; 19:24; 1 Chronicles 11:19; 2 Chronicles 11:11; Esther 7:7; Job
13:14; 30:16; 33:18; 33:22; 36:14; Psalm 7:2; 17:13; 22:20; 22:21; 22:29:
22:30; 31:13; 33:19; 35:4; 35:17; 38:12; 38:13; 70:2; 70:3; 71:10; Proverbs
1:19; 7:23; 12:10; 13:3; 23:14; Isaiah 10:18; 43:4; Jeremiah 2:34; 4:30;
34:20-21; 38:2; 38:16; 39:18; 40:15; 44:30; 45:5; 49:37; Ezekiel 17:17; 18:4;
18:20; 18:27; 22:25; 22:27; Jonah 4:3; 4:6.
Summary: The "nehphesh
(soul)" of the Old Testament is an earthly being, man, animal, or sea
creature; souls (nehpheshs) can be either living souls or dead souls (dead
persons or animals). The "nehphesh (soul)" can die, it can be dead,
be killed, be sought to kill, be smote, die from a lack of food or water, be
cut off, be murdered, be delivered from death, be born, live, sorrow, eat,
drink water, desire, be discontented, be grieved, be bound with a bond, be
affected, loathes, lust, have anguish, etc. Not one of the about 870 times that
nehphesh is used does it have reference to an invisible, immaterial something
in a person that has no substance and cannot die. Nehphesh in the
Old Testament and psukee in the New Testament are together used about 967 times
with over one-third being associated with the death of a soul (person). Some
(nehpheshs–souls) are dead. Some are dying. Some are in fear of death.
Some have those who are trying to kill them. Some are saved from death,
etc. On the other hand, in the 976 times soul is used, not one time is
a soul said to be deathless or immortal.
In about thirty-two passages souls (nehpheshs) are
spoken of as being killed by man ÒAnd he that kills any man (nehphesh) shall
surely be put to death. And he that kills a beast (nehphesh) shall
make it good; beast (nehphesh) for beast(nehphesh)Ó
Leviticus 24:17-18. In this passage hehphesh is used four times in the Hebrew,
but because of the bias of the translators not one time is it translated soul
in the King James Version. They changed nehphesh into both man and beast to
deliberately hide from their readers that animals, the same as men, are
souls–that both are living beings that can and do die. (See Joshua
10:28; 30; 32; 35; 37; 39; Deuteronomy 27:25; Leviticus 24:17-18).
THE WAY THE FOUR
TIMES NEHPHESH
IS TRANSLATED IN
LEVITICUS 24:17-18
As it is in the Hebrew
o ÒAnd he that kills
any NEHPHESH shall surely be put to death. And he that kills
a NEHPHESH shall make it good; NEHPHESH for NEHPHESH.Ó
As it is in the King James Version
o ÒAnd he that kills
any MAN shall surely be put to death. And
he that kills a BEAST shall make it good; BEAST for BEAST.Ó
As it is in the New American Standard Bible
o ÒAnd if a man takes
the LIFE of any human being, he shall surely be put to death.
And the one who takes the LIFE of an animal shall make it
good, LIFE for LIFE.Ó
In about thirteen passages
souls (nehpheshs) of men are said to be actually dead (see
Numbers 6:6; Leviticus 21:11). In many of these passages, the King James
Version and others translated nehphesh as life or body; and the English reader
cannot see that animals are souls (are living beings), and
that man kills souls of both men and animals, and sometimes souls are actually
dead. Under the Law anyone that touched a dead body was unclean. ÒDead
bodyÓ (nehphesh) Leviticus 21:11 ÒDead bodyÓ (nehphesh) Numbers
6:6. Corpses are dead souls, and anyone (any living souls) who came in contact
with a dead soul was unclean.
This clearly shows that the meaning
of the Hebrew word nehphesh is something that is not immortal, and that it can
die, or that it can be already dead. There is no other word in the Bible that
could be translated into Plato's immortal soul; therefore, the translators had
to use this word and hide, the best they could, the fact that a nehphesh can
and does die.
Of the hundreds of times Nehphesh is
used in the Old Testament only five are used in the same passage as sheol.
Of these five in the Kings James Version sheol is translated Hell
three times (Psalm 16:10; 86:13; Proverbs 23:14). The other two they had to
translate it grave (Psalm 30:3; 89:48).
In most translations nehphesh is
sometimes translated to be immortal, sometime as mortal, often in the same
passages. How could it be known when the same word is something that is mortal
and when it is something that is immortal? The only answer is that the
translators were trying to put PlatoÕs immortal soul in the Bible by
mistranslating when they could, but many times found nehphesh would not make
sense if translated into something immortal and deathless.
==================================================
The Companion Bible, Appendix 13 says nehphesh (life–soul)
is used:
1. Of the lower animals (nehpheshs–souls) in 22 passages
2. Of the lower animals and man (nehpheshs–souls) in 7
passages
3. Of man (nehphesh–soul) as an individual person in 53
passages
4. Of man (nehphesh–soul) as exercising certain powers or
performing certain acts in 96 passages
5. Of man (nehphesh–soul) as possessing animal appetites and
desires in 92 passages
6. Of man (nehphesh–soul) as exercising mental faculties and
manifesting certain feelings, affection and passions in 231 passages
7. Of man (nehphesh–soul) being cut off by God and as being
killed or slain by man in 54 passages
8. Of man (nehphesh–soul) as being mortal, subject to death
of various kinds, from which it can be saved and delivered and life prolonged
in 243 passages
9. Of man (nehphesh–soul) as actually dead in 13 passages
====================================================
Just one of the many examples of the
absurdity of the translations of nehphesh in the King James Version with the
meaning of "soul" as it is used today, an invisible, no substance
something that is in a person that no one has ever seen, that no one can see
this immortal something that cannot be seen. "For mine enemies
speak against me; and they that lay wait for my soul (nehphesh) take
counsel together" (Psalm 71:10). How could anyone lay in wait
(ambush) for an undying invisible something that is now in a person that no one
can see? How could anyone kill something that cannot die even if they could see
it?
"Deliver my soul" (nehphesh)
Psalm 17:13 in today's English would be "Save my life" (nehphesh).
Many more times "soul" (nehphesh)
would only make sense if translated "life." To apply
today's meaning, "An undying invisible something that is now in a
person" makes many passages be total nonsense. Today's meaning of "soul" is
very different from the meaning of nehphesh in Biblical times, which
makes "soul" be a mistranslation every time they
changed nehphesh to soul. When anyone reads the Bible, and reads "soul," and
knows only what the word "soul" means today, they
cannot understand what God said. Many English translations use "soul" and "person" interchangeable.
The Revised Standard used "person" frequently where the
King James used "soul." The problem is that most
English readers would not know that when the translators said a "person" died,
that the translators are hiding the fact that "person" (soul–nehphesh)
is the same word that is translated ÒsoulÓ
in many places. Why did some translators do this? Was it because they believed
an immortal "soul" cannot die, but a person can die?
If a ÒsoulÓ (nehphesh) dies, it would not be immortal; therefore, they were
forced to use "person" or "life" in
many places to hide the fact from you that a nehphesh can die. The truth is
that they were trying to put "soul" with today's meaning in the Bible
despite the fact that it is not there. If they had been consistent in
translating, they would not have been able to add the doctrine of an undying
soul in the Bible.
"The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself (soul–nehphesh)"
(Jeremiah 51:14). By His own being or person. God "could swear by
no one greater, He swore by Himself (psukee–soul)" (Hebrews
6:13). Not even the King James translators wanted God to have an invisible
something in Him that would live after He was dead. God's nehphesh and man's
nehphesh are their being, person, not an invisible something that is in God or
in a person.
All the Old Testament words, which
are translated life, spirit, breath, or soul, are all used referring to both
persons and animals. Every word that is used to prove a person has an immortal
soul or an immortal spirit would also prove all breathing creatures have an
immortal soul or an immortal spirit if they proved a person does.
(1) NEHPHESH/SOUL–LIFE–LIVING BEING is
used to describe all living beings.
(2) NSHAHMAH–BREATH is also used to describe all living
being/breath of life; all living things that breathes (Used 24 times in
the Hebrew Old Testament).
o Used to describe
man, "Breathed into his nostrils the BREATH of
life" Genesis 2:7; 1 Kings 17:17; Job 27:3.
o Used to describe
man and animals, both man and animals have the same nshahmah (breath of life–spirit).
o "All in whose
nostrils was the BREATH (nshahmah) of the spirit of life, of all
that was on the dry land, died" Genesis 7:22. All living being,
man, and animals.
o "But of the
cities of these peoples, that Jehovah your God gives you for an inheritance,
you shall save alive nothing that BREATHS (nshahmah)"
Deuteronomy 20:16. All living being, both man and animals that breathed.
o "So Joshua
smote all the land, the hill-country, and the South, and the lowland, and
the slopes, and all their kings: he left none remaining, but he utterly
destroyed all that BREATHED (nshahmah)" Joshua 10:40. All living
being, both man and animals that had life, that breathed (nshahmah) were
killed.
o "And they
smote all the souls (nehpheshs) that were therein with the edge of the sword,
utterly destroying them; there were none left that BREATHED (nshahmah)"
Joshua 11:11. All living being, both man and animals that breathed were killed.
o Also, Joshua 11:14; 1 Kings 15:29; Job 34:14;
Psalm 150:6.
NSHAHMAH
Nshahmah is used 24 times, no one of the
24 says anything about anything that is immortal. Nshahmah as it is
translated in the New International Version.
1. Genesis 2:7 ÒBreathed
into his nostrils the breath (nshahmah) of life.Ó
2. Genesis 7:22 ÒEverything
on dry land that had the breath of life (nshahmah) in
its nostrils died.Ó
3. Deuteronomy 20:16 ÒDo not leave alive
anything that that breathes (nshahmah).Ó
4. Joshua 10:40 ÒHe
totally destroyed all who breathed (nshahmah).Ó
5. Joshua 11:11 ÒThey
totally destroyed them, not sparing anything that breathed (nshahmah).Ó
6. Joshua 11:14 ÒBut all the people they put to
the sword until they completely destroyed them, not sparing anyone that breathed (nshahmah).Ó
7. 2 Samuel 22:16 ÒAt
the blast of breath (nshahmah) from his nostrils.Ó
8. 1 Kings 15:29 ÒHe
did not leave Jeroboam anyone that breathed (nshahmah), but
destroyed them all.Ó
9. 1 Kings 17:17 ÒHe grew worse and worse, and
finally stopped breathing (nshahmah).Ó
10. Job 4:9 (Hebrew
dualism in Job–the same thing said in two different ways).
o ÒAt the
breath (ruach) of God they are destroyed:
o At the blast (nshahmah) of
his anger they perish.Ó
11. Job 26:4
o ÒWho has helped you
utter these words?
o And whose spirit (nshahmah) spoke
from your mouth?Ó
12. Job 27:3
o ÒAs long as I have
life (ruach) within me,
o The breath (nshahmah)
of God in my nostrils.Ó
13. Job 32:8
o ÒBut it is the spirit (ruach) in
a man,
o The breath (nshahmah) of
the Almighty.Ó
14. Job 33:4
o ÒThe Spirit (ruach) of
God made me;
o The breath (nshahmah)
of the Almighty gives me life.Ó
15. Job 34:14-15 ÒIf
it was his intention and he withdrew his spirit (ruach) and breath (nshahmah).
o All mankind would
perish together,
o And man would
return to the dust.Ó
16. Job 37:10
o ÒThe tempest comes
out from its chamber, the cold from the driving winds.
o The breath (nshahmah) of
God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen.Ó
17. Psalm 18:15 ÒO
Lord, at the blast (nshahmah) of breath from your
nostrils.Ó
18. Psalm 150:6 ÒLet
everything that has breath (nshahmah)
praise the Lord.Ó
19. Proverbs
20:27 ÒThe lamp of the Lord searches the spirit (nshahmah) of a man; it searches out his inmost
being.Ó
20. Isaiah 2:22 ÒStop
trusting in man, who has but a breath
(nshahmah) in his nostrils.Ó
21. Isaiah 30:33 ÒThe breath (nshahmah) of
the Lord, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.Ó
22. Isaiah 42:5 ÒWho
gives breath (nshahmah) to its people, and life to
those who walk on it.Ó
23. Isaiah 57:16 ÒThe breath (nshahmah) of
man that I have created.Ó ÒSpirit of manÓ in King James Version.
24. Daniel 10:17 ÒMy
strength is gone and I can hardly breathe
har (nshahmah).Ó
o Of the twenty-four times nshahmah is in the
Hebrew, it is translated soul only three times in the King James Version, Job
26:4, Proverbs 20:27; Isaiah 57:16; none in New American Standard Version, New
International Version, many others.
(3) Ruach/spirit–breath: Is used of:
o God (Exodus 15:8; 2
Samuel 22:16; Isaiah 4:4)
o Spirit of the Lord (Zephaniah
4:6)
o Heavenly being (Psalm 104:4)
o All flesh, birds,
cattle, beasts, and every creeping thing–all have the same spirit (ruach) as man
(Genesis 7:22).
Both ruach and nshahmah have very near if not the same
meaning.
o ÒAll in whose nostrils
was the breath (nshahmah) of the spirit of life, diedÓ (Genesis
7:22).
o "To destroy
all flesh in which is the breath (ruach) of life" (Genesis
6:17).
Both ruach and nshahmah are used in Hebrew dualism in Job
three times as two ways of saying the same thing (Job 4:9; 27:3; 32:8).
1. Job 4:9:
a. ÒBy the breath (ruach) of
God they perish,
b. And by the blast (nshahmah) of His anger they come
to an endÓ
2. Job 27:3:
a. ÒAll the while my breath (nshahmah) is
in me,
b. And the spirit (ruach) of
God is in my nostrils.Ó
3. Job 32:8:
a. ÒBut it is a spirit (ruach) in
man,
b. And the breath
(nshahmah) of the Almighty gives them understanding.Ó
The above is an example of the many
times ruach and nshahmah seem to be used interchangeable; they are both the
breath, both are the life of a living being (man or beast). Nshahmah is limited
to the air or breath of the mouth of any breathing being; ruach also means any
breathing being, but has a mush broader use in that it is also used of wind and
any air movement. Neither the breath (nshahmah) of a person, or the
breath (ruach) of a person is not an immortal entity added to the person that
has life in itself apart from the life of the person any more then the breath (nshahmah) of
God, or the breath (ruach) of God is an entity that has life in itself apart
from God.
RUACH IS TRANSLATED SIXTEEN
DIFFERENT WAYS IN THE KING JAMES VERSION. Of about 389 times ruach is used in the
Old Testament it is translated wind about 90 times, breath 28 times, blast 4
times, air, windy, tempest, whirlwind, and tempest. Both ruach and nshahmah are
basically translated with the same words, both have something to do with the
breath or air without which there would be no life; in Genesis 2:7 it was when
God breathed into AdamÕs nostrils the breath of life (nshahmah) that Adam
became a living being.
There is no suggestion in any one of
the many times ruach is used referring both to mankind and to animals that
ruach is an immaterial, immortal something that has itÕs own life and will live
after the death of the person or animal that it is in.
(1) Ruach translated BREATH of man and
beast (ruach–spirit)
(2) Ruach translated WIND (ruach)
(3) Ruach translated BLAST
1. ÒAnd at the BLAST (ruach)" of
Thy (GodÕs) nostrils (a blast of air) the
waters were piled upÓ (Exodus 15:8).
2. Also 2 Samuel 22:6.
(4) Ruach translated WINDY ÒMy escape from the
WINDY (ruach) stormÓ (Psalm 55:8).
(5) Ruach translated WHIRLWIND ÒA WHIRLWIND (ruach) came
out of the north" (Ezekiel 1:4).
(6) Ruach translated TEMPEST ÒAn horrible
TEMPEST (ruach)" (Psalm 11:6).
(7) Ruach translated AIR "That no AIR (ruach) can
come between them" (Job 41:16; 41:8).
(8) Ruach translated MIND "A grief of MIND (ruach)Ó (Genesis
26:35, Proverbs 29:11).
(9) Ruach translated COURAGE "Neither did there remain any more
COURAGE (ruach) in them" (Joshua 5:1).
(10) Ruach translated COOL "Walking in the garden in the COOL (ruach) of
the day" (Genesis 3:8).
(11) Ruach translated ANGER "Their ANGER (ruach) was
abated" (Judges 8:3).
(12) Ruach translated SIDE (Jeremiah 52:23; Ezekiel 42:16; 42:17; 42:18;
42:19; Òside windÓ in footnote).
(13) Ruach translated QUARTERS (ruach) (1 Chronicles 9:24).
(14) Ruach translated SPIRITUAL (ruach) (Hosea 9:7).
(15) Ruach translated VAIN (ruach) (Job 15:2;
16:3).
(16) Ruach translated SPIRIT (ruach) (Job 27:3).
An example of how other translations differ on the sixteen ways
(above) ruach is translated in the King James Version.
| King |New |
New Revised | The |
| James |International|
Standard | Living |
| Version |Version |
Version | Bible |
1 Genesis
6:17 | breath |
breath |
breath |
breath |
2 Genesis
8:1 | wind |
wind |
wind |
wind |
3 Psalm
55:8 | windy | tempest |
raging wind | storm |
4 Ezekiel
1:4 | whirlwind | windstorm | stormy
wind | storm |
5 Psalm
11:6 | tempest |
wind |
wind |
wind |
6 2 Samuel 22:16 |
blast |
blast |
blast |
blast |
7 Job
41:16 |
air |
air |
air |
air |
8 Genesis
26:35 | mind |
grief | better life |
bitter |
9 Joshua
5:1 | courage |
courage |
spirit | courage |
10 Genesis
3:8 | cool |
cool | cool | |
11 Judge
8:3 | anger |
resentment | anger |calmed
down|
12 Jeremiah 52:23|
side |
side |
side |
side |
13 1 Chron. 9:24 |
quarters | side |
side |
side |
14 Hosea
9:7 | spiritual |
inspired | spirit |
inspired |
15 Job
15:2 |
vain |
winded |
windy | windbag |
16 Job
27:3 | spirit | east
wind | breath |
breath |
Why was the same word
translated ÒBy the BREATH (ruach) of his
mouthÓ (Job 15:30), and then ÒAnd the SPIRIT (ruach) of
God in my nostrilsÓ (Job 27:3)? Many of the sixteen different ways
ruach is translated have nothing in common; their meanings are not even close
to being the same; yet they are the same word in the Hebrew. There is no way
that ruach could have had all these meaning.
Were they saying God has an
Òimmaterial invisibleÓ (E. W. Vine) something in Him that can exist after His
death, as we are told that mankind has? There is no possible way that the
translators could have known:
(1) When (ruach) was breath of
any mortal being.
(2) And when the same word was
an immortal deathless something that does not breathe air.
The two meaning are nothing
alike. ÒYou take away their breath
(ruach), they die, and return to their dust. You send forth
your spirit (ruach), they are created:
and you renew the face of the earthÓ (Psalm 105:29-30).
(1) When God take away ruach
(breath) they die.
(2) When God sends ruach (breath),
they live.
The spirit as it is used today
cannot die; therefore, this word (ruach) could not be translated spirit, but
when the earth is renewed by new life, the translators give this new life a
spirit (ruach), not just breath (ruach).
(1). HOLMAN CHRISTIAN STANDARD BIBLE
ÒWhen You hide Your face, they are terrified; When You take away
their breath (ruach), they die and return to the
dust. When You send Your breath (ruach), they
are created, and You renew the face of the earth.Ó
(2). AMPLIFIED BIBLE ÒWhen You hide Your face,
they are troubled and dismayed; when You take away their breath (ruach),
they die and return to their dust. When You send forth Your Spirit and
give them breath (ruach),
they are created, and You replenish the face of the ground.Ó
(3). COMMON ENGLISH BIBLE ÒBut when you hide your face,
they are terrified; when you take away their breath (ruach),
they die and return to dust. When you let loose your breath (ruach),
they are created, and you make the surface of the ground brand-new again.Ó
(4), NEW CENTURY VERSION ÒWhen you turn away from them,
they become frightened. When you take away their breath (ruach),
they die and turn to dust. When you breathe (ruach) on
them, they are created, and you make the land new again.Ó
(5). HOLMAN CHRISTIAN STANDARD BIBLE ÒWhen You hide
Your face, they are terrified; when You take away their breath (ruach),
they die and return to the dust. When You send Your breath (ruach),
they are created, and You renew the face of the earth.Ó
Does the number of times ÒruachÓ is
translated ÒspiritÓ in the difference translations show the scholars that
translated them were easing away from the King James Version?
o ÒSpiritÓ 236 times
in King James Version
o ÒSpiritÓ 221 times
in New American Standard Bible
o ÒSpiritÓ 193 times
in New International Version
o ÒSpiritÓ 167 times
in New Living Translation
o ÒSpiritÓ 131 times
in The Message
o ÒSpiritÓ 79 times
in Contemporary English Version
o ÒAnd
the SPIRIT (ruach) of God in my nostrilsÓ (Job
27:3)
o "SPIRIT (ruach) of
God" (Genesis 1:2)
o "And the
SPIRIT (ruach) shall return unto God" (Ecclesiastes 12:7)
o "And the
SPIRIT (ruach) of the beast that goes downwardÓ (Ecclesiastes
3:21)
SPIRIT (ruach) in passages that
has reference to attitude, behavior, thinking, disposition, mood, or
temperament. As ÒA happy disposition,Ó Ògood attitudeÓ or Òbad mood.Ó None
of these passages are speaking of an immortal, no substance something that has
it own life, and it will live even after the person it is in is dead; the
teaching of Plato says a soul will live without a resurrection, it will live
freed from the person it was trapped in.
2. "The SPIRIT (ruach) of
jealousy came" (Genesis 1:2; 41:8, Numbers 5:14; 5:30)
3. ÒThe SPIRIT (ruach) of
heavinessÓ (Isaiah 61:3)
W. E. Vine, ÒVineÕs Complete
Expository Dictionary,Ó pages 240–241 gives nine ways spirit–ruach
is used in the Old Testament.
(1). First: this word means Òbreath.Ó
(2). Second: this word can be used with emphasis on the invisible,
intangible, fleeting quality of air.
(3). Third: ruach can mean, Òwind.Ó
(4). Fourth: the wind represents direction.
(5). Fifth: ruach frequently represents the element of life in a
man, his natural ÒspiritÓ: ÒAnd all flesh died that moved upon the earthÉAll
in whose nostrils was the breath of life.Ó (Gen. 7:21–22). In
these verses the animals have ÒspiritÓ (cf. Ps. 104:29).
(6). Sixth: ruach is often used of:
o A manÕs mind–set,
disposition, or ÒtemperÓ: ÒÕBlessed is the man unto whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit (ruach) there is no
guileÕ (Ps. 32:2). In Ezek. 13:3 the word is used of oneÕs mind or
thinking: ÔWoe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own
spirit (ruach), and have seen nothingÕÓ (cf. Prov.
29:11).
o Ruach can represent
particular dispositions, as it does in Josh. 2:11: ÒAnd as soon as we had heard
this things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more
courage (ruach–spirit in King James) in any man, because
of youÉÓ (cf. Josh. 5:1; Job 15:12).
o Another disposition
represented by this word is ÒtemperÓ: ÒIf the spirit (temper) of
the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy placeÉÓ (Eccl. 10:4).
David prayed that God would Òrestore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with the free SpiritÓ (Ps. 51:12). In this verse Òjoy
of salvationÓ and Òfree SpiritÓ are parallel and;
therefore, synonymous terms. Therefore, ÒspiritÓ refers to
oneÕs inner disposition, just as ÒjoyÓ refers to an inner
emotion.
(7). Seventh: the Bible often speaks of GodÕs ÒSpirit.Ó
(8). Eight: the non-material beings (angels) in heaven are
sometimes called Òspirits.Ó
(9). Nine: the ÒspiritÓ may also be used of that
which enables a man to do a particular job of that which represents the essence
of a quality of man..
o Just as in the New Testament, when spirit is
used in reference to a person, it is the disposition of the persons mind or
thinking.
Why did the translators translate
the word "ruach" into "spirit" in
one place, and "blast" or "wind" in
others? The meaning of "spirit" as it was used
in 1611 and as it is used today, an immortality no substance something in a
person is not a thirty-first cousin to "wind" or "breath," etc.,
yet the translators, at will, translated the same word into many words, into
things that have meaning that are worlds apart. If the same word has many
completely different meanings:
1). One meaning that had reference to the mortal person or animal.
2). And another meaning of the same word that would have had
reference to a immortal living being that is in a person unto the death of the
person that animals do not have.
o ÒRuach,Ó is it mortal or immortal? If ruach is
something that is in a person that is immortal, then ruach is also something
that is in an animal that is immortal.
Then how could the Hebrew people know when it was speaking of a
mortal person, or when it was actual speaking of something in the person that
is immortal; how could they know that when the same word was speaking of an
animal that it was speaking of something in the animal that was not immortal?
How could the translators know? They could not. The translators had
to put their theology into the Bible, even if they could not be consistent. How
could anyone read the Kings James Version and know that anger, cool, courage,
air, mind, breath, wind, blast, and spirit are the same thing? Most English
reader today would not know that "wind" and "spirit" are
indiscriminately translated all from the same word, and that almost without
exception today's reader would understand "spirit" to
be an immortal soul, but would never understand "wind" to
be an immortal soul. Those who do not read Hebrew are misled by such
indiscriminately translations.
Summary: Nehphesh, nshahmah,
and ruach are something that both a person and an animal have in common, and
all three are something that can and does die. Both an animal and a
man are a soul, a living being of this earth. Animals or
people do not have a soul, do not have a pagan immortal
something imprisoned in them that cannot die that when is freed it will live after
the death of the animal or person it was in.
How nehphesh and psukee are translated in seven different
versions, and in different verses.
| K.J.V. | N.K.J.V. | N.A.S.V. | R.S.V. |
Gen. 1:20 |
creatures | creatures | creatures | creatures |
Gen. 2:7 |
soul | living being| living
being| living
being|
Gen. 9:5 |
life |
life |
life | life |
Mt 16:25-26|life &
soul | life & soul | life & soul | life 4 times|
Acts 3:23 |
soul |
soul |
soul | soul |
1 Cor15:45 |
soul | living being|
soul | living being|
1 Pet 3:20 |
souls |
soul |
persons | persons |
Rev. 16:3 |
soul |
creature | living thing| living thing|
-----------------------------------------------------
| N.R.S.V. | N.I.V. |Robert
Young|
Gen. 1:20 |
creatures | creatures |
creature |
Gen. 2:7 |
living being| living being |living being-creature|
Gen. 9:5 |
life | life |
life |
Mt 16:25-26| life 4 times|
life & soul | soul |
Acts 3:23 |
everyone |
anyone |
soul |
1 Cor15:45 | living
being| living being | creature |
1 Pet 3:20 |
persons |
people |
soul |
Rev. 16:3 |
living thing| living thing | soul |
A bird's eye view (below) of the way
psukee is translated all 105 times it is used in the New Testament in four
versions shows that a psukee is a living being, not an immortal no substance
something. The translators wanted to put their immortal soul in the Bible, but
they had a problem for if they had uniformly translated psukee into
"soul," in some passages their immortal soul would have been subject
to death and in other passages it would be dead.
Of the 105 times psukee is used in the Greek it
is translated ÒsoulÓ
(1) King James only 58 times.
(2) New Revised Standard only 33 times.
(3) American Standard only 56 times.
(4) New International (2011) only 24 times.
| (1) | (2) | (3) | (4)
Matthew
2:20 | LIFE | LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Matthew
6:25 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Matthew
6:25 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Matthew
10:28 | soul | soul |
soul | soul
Matthew
10:28 | soul | soul |
soul | soul
Matthew
10:39 | LIFE | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE
Matthew
10:39 | LIFE | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE
Matthew
11:29 | souls | souls |
souls | souls
Matthew
12:18 | soul | soul |
soul | I
Matthew
16:25 | LIFE | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE
Matthew
16:25 | LIFE | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE
Matthew
16:26 | soul | LIFE |
LIFE | soul
Matthew
16:26 | soul | LIFE |
LIFE | soul
Matthew
20:28 | LIFE | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE
Matthew
22:37 | soul | soul |
soul | soul
Matthew
26:38 | soul |
I | soul | soul
Mark
3:4 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Mark
8:35 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Mark
8:35 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Mark
8:36 | soul |
LIFE | LIFE | soul
Mark
8:37 | soul |
LIFE | LIFE | soul
Mark
10:45 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Mark
12:30 | soul |
soul | soul | soul
Mark
12:33 | soul |
HEART | HEART | HEART
Mark
14:34 | soul |
I | soul | soul
Luke
1:46 | soul |
soul | soul | soul
Luke
2:35 | soul |
soul | soul | soul
Luke
6:9 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Luke
9:24 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Luke
9:24 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Luke
9:56 |
LIVES | | |
LIFE
Luke
10:27 | soul |
soul | soul | soul
Luke
12:19 | soul |
soul | soul | MYSELF
Luke
12:19 | soul |
soul | soul | LIFE
Luke
12:20 | soul |
LIFE | soul | LIFE
Luke
12:22 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Luke
12:23 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Luke
14:26 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Luke
17:33 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Luke
21:19 | soul |
souls | souls | YOURSELVES
John
10:11 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
John
10:15 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
John
10:17 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
John
10:24 | US |
US | US | US
John
12:25 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
John
12"25 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
John
12:27 | soul |
soul | soul | HEART
John
13:37 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
John
13:38 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
John
15:13 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Acts
2:27 | soul |
soul | soul | ME
Acts
2:31 | soul |
FLESH | FLESH | BODY
Acts
2:41 | souls | PERSONS |
souls | .
Acts
2:43 | soul |
EVERYONE| soul | EVERYONE
Acts
3:23 | soul |
EVERYONE| soul | ANYONE
Acts
4:32 | soul |
soul | soul | MIND
Acts
7:14 | souls |
ALL | souls | ALL
Acts
14:2 | MINDS |
MINDS | souls | MINDS
Acts
14:22 | souls | souls |
souls | DISCIPLES
Acts
15:24 | souls |
MINDS | souls | MINDS
Acts
15:26 | LIVES |
LIVES | LIVES | LIVES
Acts
20:10 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | ALIVE
Acts
20:24 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE
Acts
27:10 | LIVES |
LIVES | LIVES | LIVES
Acts
27:22 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | YOU
Acts
27:37 | souls | PERSONS |
souls | US
Romans
2:9 | soul | EVERYONE|
soul | BEING
Romans
11:3 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | ME
Romans
13:1 | soul | PERSON |
soul | EVERYONE
Romans
16:4 | LIFE |
LIFE | LIFE | LIVES
1 Cor.
15:45 | soul | BEING |
soul | BEING
2 Cor.
1:23 | soul |
ME |
soul | .
2 Cor.
12:15 | YOU |
YOU | souls | YOU
Ephesians
6:6 | HEART | HEAT |
HEART | HEART
Philippians 1:27|
MIND | MIND | soul |
MEN
Philippians 2:30|
LIFE | LIFE | LIFE |
LIFE
Colossians 3:23
|HEARTILY|YOURSELVES|HEARTILY|HEART
1 Thess.
2:8 | souls | SELVES |
souls | LIVES
1 Thess.
5:23 | soul | soul |
soul | soul
Hebrews 4
12 | soul |
soul | soul | soul
Hebrews
6:19 | soul |
soul | soul | soul
Hebrews
10:38 | soul | soul |
soul | I
Hebrews
10:39 | soul | SAVED |
soul | SAVED
Hebrews
12:3 | MINDS | HEART |
souls | HEART
Hebrews
13:17 | souls | souls |
souls | YOU
James
1:21 | souls |
souls | souls | YOU
James
5:20 | soul |
soul | soul | HIM
1 Peter
1:9 | souls | souls |
souls | souls
1 Peter
1:22 | souls | souls |
souls | YOURSELVES
1 Peter
2:11 | soul |
soul | soul | soul
1 Peter
2:25 | souls | souls |
souls | souls
1 Peter
3:20 | souls | PERSONS | souls |
PEOPLE
1 Peter
4:19 | souls |THEMSELVES |souls | THEMSELVES
2 Peter
2:8 | soul |
soul | soul | soul
2 Peter
2:14 | souls | souls |
souls | UNSTABLE
1 John 3:16 | LIFE | LIFE | LIFE | LIFE