What is your soul? ( Part 1)
MANY people believe that man has a soul, which is something distinct and separate from the body. It is assumed that this soul leaves the body at death. Depending on whether someone has led a good life or not, his soul supposedly either goes to hell and is tortured there or to heaven and enjoys eternal happiness with God.
This shows that the belief in a hell of fire is based on the doctrine that man has a soul that survives the death of the body. But does this doctrine agree with the Bible?
The first book of the Holy Scriptures, Genesis, shows what the human soul is. Genesis 2:7 says about the creation of the first man: "Jehovah God proceeded to form man from the dust of the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul [Hebrew: nephesh]." Note that the Bible does not say that man received a soul, but says: "Man became a living soul."
In his inspired letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul showed that the Christian doctrine of the soul was no different from what is set forth in Genesis. Quoting Genesis 2:7, he said, "So also it is written: 'The first man Adam became a living soul.'" (1 Cor. 15:45) Paul used the word psyche, the Greek word for soul, which proves that psyche, like the Hebrew word nephesh, can refer to man himself.
It is noteworthy that numerous twentieth century biblical scholars, Catholic, Protestant and Jewish, have openly admitted that man himself is a soul. We read:
"The famous verse in Genesis [2:7] does not say, as is often supposed, that man is composed of body and soul; it says that Yahweh formed man, dust from the ground, and then proceeded to animate the motionless form with living breath blown into his nostrils, so that man became a living being, which is the only meaning of nephesh [soul] here" (Journal of Old Testament Science, Volume 41).
"Man must not be thought to have a soul; he is a soul" (The New Bible Commentary).
"The soul, according to the Old Testament, is not a part of man, but the whole man - man as a living being. In the N[ew] T[estament] the term has a similar meaning, and here it means human life: the life of a single rational being" (New Catholic Encyclopedia).
"In the New Testament, 'to save one's soul' (Mark 8:35) does not mean to save a 'spiritual' part of man, as opposed to his 'body' (in the Platonic sense), but the whole person, emphasizing the fact that the person is alive, has a desire, shows love, is willing to do something, etc., and also that he is something tangible, physical" (The New American Bible, "Glossary of Biblical Theology Terms".
"The Bible does not say we have a soul. 'Nefesh' is the person himself, his need for nourishment, the blood in his veins, his being" (Dr. H. M. Orlinsky of Hebrew Union College, quoted in the New York Times, October 12, 1962).
Since in the original languages the words for "soul" (nephesh and psyche) can refer to man himself, we should expect that the normal physical functions or characteristic features of human beings would be ascribed to it. Is this the case? Your soul - is that really you?
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