Bible Dictionary
SOUL
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).
Bible Dictionary
BETHEL
BETHEL
is the name of a Canaanite city in the ancient region of Samaria, located in the center of the land of Canaan, northwest of Ai on the road to Shechem, 30 kilometers south of Shiloh and about 16 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
Bethel is the second most mentioned city in the Bible. Some identify it with the Palestinian village of Beitin and others with the Israeli settlement of Beit El.
Bethel was the place where Abraham built his altar when he first arrived in Canaan (Genesis 12:8; Genesis 13:3). And at Bethel Jacob saw a vision of a ladder whose top touched heaven and the angels ascended and descended (Genesis 28:10-19).
For this reason Jacob was afraid, and said, “How terrible is this place! It is nothing other than the house of God, and the gate of heaven »and he called Bethel the place that was known as «Light» (Genesis 35-15).
Bethel was also a sanctuary in the days of the prophet Samuel, who judged the people there (1 Samuel 7:16; 1 Samuel 10:3). And it was the place where Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, was buried.
Bethel was the birthplace of Hiel, who sought to rebuild the city of Jericho (1 Kings 16:34).
When Bethel did not yet belong to the people of Israel, Joshua had to battle against the king of Bethel and other kings and defeated them (Joshua 12-16).
When the people of Israel had taken possession of the promised land, in the division by tribes it was assigned to the Tribe of Benjamin (Joshua 18-22), but in later times it belonged to the Tribe of Judah (2 Chronicles 13:19).
It was one of the places where the Ark of the Covenant remained, a symbol of the presence of God.
In Bethel the prophet Samuel judged the people.
Then the prophet Elisha went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some boys came out of the city and mocked him, and said to him: “Go up, bald man; Come up, bald! When he looked back and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the forest and tore to pieces forty-two boys” (2 Kings 2:23).
After the division of the kingdom of Israel, Jeroboam I, king of Israel, had a golden calf raised at Bethel (1 Kings 21:29) which was destroyed by Josiah, king of Judah, many years later (2 Kings 23:15). .
Bethel was also a place where some of the Babylonian exiles who returned to Israel in 537 BC gathered. (Ezra 2:28).
The prophet Hosea, a century before Jeremiah, refers to Bethel by another name: “Bet-Aven” (Hosea 4:15; Hosea 5:8; Hosea 10:5-8), which means ‘House of Iniquity’, ‘House of Nothingness’, ‘House of Vanity’, ‘House of Nullity’, that is, of idols.
In Amos 7: 12-13 the priest Amaziah tells the prophet Amos that he flee to Judah and no longer prophesy in Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary, and the head of the kingdom.
The prophet Jeremiah states that “the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel” (Jeremiah 48:13), because of their idolatry and, specifically, the worship of the golden calf.
Bible Dictionary
PUTEOLI
PUTEOLI
(lat.: “small fountains”).
Two days after arriving in Rhegium, the ship carrying Paul arrived at Puteoli, which was then an important maritime city.
The apostle found Christians there, and enjoyed their hospitality (Acts 28:13).
It was located on the northern coast of the Gulf of Naples, near the site of present-day Pouzzoles.
The entire surrounding region is volcanic, and the Solfatare crater rises behind the city.
Bible Dictionary
PUT (Nation)
PUT
Name of a nation related to the Egyptians and neighbors of their country (Gen. 10:6).
Put is mentioned with Egypt and other African countries, especially Libya (Nah. 3:9) and Lud (Ez. 27:10; Is. 66:19 in the LXX. Put appears between Cush and Lud in Jer. 46:9; Ez. 30:5).
In the LXX he is translated as Libyans in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Josephus also identifies it with Libya (Ant. 1:6, 2), but in Nah. 3.9 is distinguished from the Libyans.
Current opinion is divided between Somalia, Eastern Arabia and Southern Arabia (Perfume Coast).
Bible Dictionary
PURPLE
PURPLE
A coloring substance that is extracted from various species of mollusks. The ancient Tyrians used two types of them: the “Murex trunculus”, from which the bluish purple was extracted, and the “Murex brandaris”, which gave the red.
The ink of its coloring matter varies in color depending on the region in which it is fished.
Piles of murex shells, artificially opened, have been discovered in Minet el-Beida, port of ancient Ugarit (Ras Shamra), which gives evidence of the great antiquity of the use of this purple dye (see UGARIT).
Due to its high price, only the rich and magistrates wore purple (Est. 8:15, cf. the exaltation of Mordecai, v. 2, Pr. 31:22; Dan. 5:7; 1 Mac. 10 :20, 62, 64; 2 Mac. 4:38; cf. v 31; Luke 16:19; Rev. 17:4).
The rulers adorned themselves in purple, even those of Midian (Judg. 8:26). Jesus was mocked with a purple robe (Mark 15:17).
Great use had been made of purple-dyed fabrics for the Tabernacle (Ex. 25:4; 26:1, 31, 36) and for the high priest’s vestments (Ex. 28:5, 6, 15, 33; 39: 29). The Jews gave symbolic value to purple (Wars 5:5, 4).
Bible Dictionary
PURIM
PURIM
(Heb., plural of “luck”).
Haman cast lots to determine a day of good omen for the destruction of the Jews.
As Haman’s designs were undone, the liberation of the Jews was marked by an annual festival (Est. 3:7; 9:24-32) on the fourteenth and fifteenth days of the month of Adar.
This festival is not mentioned by name in the NT, although there are exegetes who assume that it is the one referred to in Jn. 5:1.
This festival continues to be celebrated within Judaism: the book of Esther is read, and curses are pronounced on Haman and his wife, blessings are pronounced on Mordecai and the eunuch Harbonah (Est. 1:10; 7: 9).
Bible Dictionary
PURIFICATION, PURITY
PURIFICATION, PURITY
In the Mosaic Law four ways to purify oneself from contamination were indicated:
(a) Purification of contamination contracted by touching a dead person (Num. 19; cf. Num. 5:2, 3),
(b) Purification from impurity due to bodily emissions (Lev. 15; cf. Num. 5:2, 3).
(c) Purification of the woman in labor (Lev. 12:1-8; Luke 2:21-24).
(d) Purification of the leper (Lev. 14).
To this, the scribes and Pharisees added many other purifications, such as washing hands before eating, washing vessels and dishes, showing great zeal in these things, while inside they were full of extortion and iniquity (Mark 7: 2-8).
In Christianity the necessary purification extends:
to the heart (Acts 15:9; James 4:8),
to the soul (1 Pet. 1:22), and
to the conscience through the blood of Christ (Heb. 9:14).
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