Meaning of SOUL

The Hebrew word "nefesh" (which is one of the words generally translated in English as "soul") appears 754 times in the Old Testament.

As can be seen in the first biblical quote on the matter, it means "that which has life" (Gen. 2:7), and applies to both man and other living beings (Gen. 1:20, 24, 30; 9 :12, 15, 16; Ez. 17:9).

It is often identified with blood, as something that is essential for breath and animation (Gen. 9:4; Lev. 17:10-14; Deut. 12:22-24), and in man it is its main characteristic. which distinguishes him from irrational beings (Gen. 1:26).

The first function of the soul is to give life to the body, and since breathing is the main sign of physical life, hence in Hebrew, as in most languages, it is designated with terms that are more or less related with the image of breath.

This principle is the basis where feelings, passions, science, and will lie (Gen. 28:8; 34:3; Ex. 23:9; 1 Sam. 1:15; Ps. 6:4; 57: 2; 84:3; 139:14; 143:8; Song 1:6; Prov. 19:2; Is. 15:4, etc.).

The soul expresses the entire man, his total personality on many of the occasions in which it appears in the Bible. This entire conception of the soul is based on the concrete observation of man.

Thus, to be alive is to still have breath (2 Sam. 1:9; Acts 20:10); When a man dies the soul comes out (Gen. 35:18), it is exhaled (Jer. 15:9), and if he is resurrected the soul returns to him (1 Kings 17:21).

For Hebrew thought, the soul is inseparable from the total man, that is, the soul expresses living men. Perhaps here lies the origin of the soul's identification with blood (Ps. 72:14); the soul is in the blood (Lev. 17:10ff.), and it is sometimes said metaphorically (?) that the blood is life itself (Lev. 17:14; Deut. 12:23).

From all these passages it can be deduced that the "nefesh" is the principle of vegetative life that is considered linked to the blood of the living being (Gen. 9:4-5; etc.).

There are also other words in Hebrew that have almost the same meaning, such as "nesamah", which expresses a life-giving divine breath (Zech. 12:1; Jb. 12:10) that is the beginning of rational, sensitive and intellectual life (Ez. 11:5; Is. 26:9; 66:2; Pr. 15:13; 29:23; Ps. 51:14).

Another almost equivalent term is "ruah", which designates a vital breath, the beginning of life and feelings (Prov. 20:27).

Man is superior and is distinguished from beasts for having been created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 2:7; 6:3; 7:22; 27:6; Lev. 17:11; Ps. 104:29 -30; Jb. 10:9-12; 27:3; 33:3-4).

In the Old Testament the "nefesh" departs from the body with death (Gen. 25:18); but the term does not apply to the spirit of the dead.

"Since Hebrew psychology did not have a terminology similar to ours"; The explanation must be sought in the passages where the Hebrew words translated "heart" and "spirit" are used.

It is necessary to wait for the times of the New Testament, those of the fullness of Revelation in Christ, to have a complete doctrine of the soul.

In the Greek of the New Testament the word "psyche" is used as an equivalent of the Hebrew word "nefesh", but there are eleven cases in the Synoptic Gospels in which the assurance of life after death is expressed.

In all four gospels the word "pneuma", which is equivalent to "ruah", is also used to indicate the spiritual life, and the word "kardia" ("heart") is used to express the psychic life of man.

In the New Testament the soul is the invisible part of man, in opposition to the blood and the flesh (Col. 2:5; 1 Cor. 5:5; 7:34; Jn. 6:64); the "psyche", the soul, is the principle of will and willing (Mt. 26:41; Mark 14:38), the center of man's inner personality (1 Cor. 2:1); the soul is our own self (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 16:18; Gal. 6:18; Phil. 4:23).

In the New Testament, unlike the Old, the soul can live separately from the body and is the principle that gives it life (Luke 8:55; 23:46; Acts 7:59; James 2:26).

It clearly speaks of the survival of the soul (Lk. 23:46; 1 Pet. 3:19). So it is synonymous with spirit, and when the apostle Paul speaks of three components of man, namely: body, soul and spirit, we should not think of a true trichotomy, but of the distinction between the biological life of man and his spiritual life. , and that they are saved together with their body, because God saves the whole man (1 Thes. 5:23), who, if now subjected to death, will be transformed and clothed with immortality at the end of time (1 Cor. 15:53).

The expression used by Paul that compares death to a dream (1 Cor. 7:39) is a metaphor already used by the Jews and that certainly also appears in numerous inscriptions in the catacombs of the first generations, and in which it is expressed the firm conviction that if they sleep in the body, they have certainly already begun to enjoy God's salvation.

In this passage, as in others, the apostle overcomes the false conceptions that invaded the Hellenistic world regarding the resurrection.

The total man will be resurrected, in soul and body, because death does not end with man, since God, when he created him, made him immortal, and if through sin death entered the world (1 Cor. 15:22) , through Christ life entered.

Although the Bible does not develop the idea of the soul in an abstract way as philosophy does, nevertheless, it is very clear that in the New Testament the soul that animates the earthly man survives him and will animate him when, already transformed and clothed with immortality , have the full vision of God.

When God created man in his “image and likeness” (Gen. 1:26), his soul, his life, his character, his will, his psychology, his total personality had divine traits that sin He destroyed.

Man, lord of Nature, has a soul, a life superior to that of animals, over which he has dominion due to his reason and personality that come to him through an act of the sovereign will of God that allows him to lord it over and "call » by name to the animals (Gen. 2:19).

His soul is, therefore, superior and different from that of other beings. Man will be resurrected in his integrity (both good and evil) at the end of time (1 Cor. 15:45).