--On Mon, 15 Jul 2002 22:05:08 Allen Roy wrote: > >From: "Adrian Teo" <ateo@whitworth.edu> >> The difficulty here is that the OT uses the word nephesh ina variety >> of ways. It occurs 754 times in the OT, and most often applies to >> humans, although, sometimes it applies to animals (e.g. Gen 1:20), >> and interestingly, to God himself (Judg 10:16 and Is 1:14). >> If we were to draw your conclusion, then we would also have to say >> that God is not immortal. > >You are correct that the word "Nephesh" is used in many ways and has many >meanings. Not only is it translated as 'soul' but also 'spirit' in both the >KJV and the NIV. The word "soul" in English also has many meanings. This, >of course, brings us back to important point of the context. Obviously the >context of Genesis 2:7 is different from that in Judges 10:16 and Isaiah >1:14. You cannot apply the definition of the human 'soul' in Genesis 2:7 to >any and every occurrence of the word in the Bible. But it would be logical >to apply it to those contexts which deal with the human being. > >The same definition could work for animals also. A body + the breath of >life = a living animal/soul. The word soul, as 'living being,' (per the >NIV) can apply to the animal world also. It is only if you try to make the >soul into some kind of conscious intelligent entity that exists in a body >that one would be hesitant to think of animals as having a conscious >intelligent entity in their bodies. > >A living being is a soul, a soul is a living being, whether human or >animal. > >Allen > What is soul? If we are all individual souls, then what sustains us? Are we self sustained souls? That would be sophistry, which is pretty limited. But what sustains us, obviously something does, since we all have consciousness. Perhaps we are not individual entities or souls, but reflections of the one Soul, or Life which is God, who is our life and our truth of being. If we acknowledge God as the one Soul or one Life, are we not more in tune with the first commandment? As soon as we divide the one Soul into multiple souls, or multipel lives, it is like a schism, and we are without a rational basis for what sustains these souls. This is pantheism, which is also very limited, and breaks the first commandment. But if God is Soul, the one Soul, in whom we live and move and have our being, then we know what sustains us, and we don't have to feel overly burdened by the notion that we are ultimately responsible for our fate. We can cast our burdens on the Lord, and He will lift u! s u p.
Stuart K.
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