Soul [Nehphesh] in the Old Testament
By William Robert West
(Strong spells it "nehpesh" Hebrew word #5315). If the "soul" is an immortal "immaterial, invisible part of man" (Vine), why is this Hebrew word that is translated soul throughout the Old Testament 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? In the Hebrew, if this were an immaterial, immortal part of a person, it would also be an immaterial, immortal part of animals.
All four times soul is used in genesis one, it is used referring to animals, not to a person. Animals were souls before any man existed.
"Then God said, 'Let the waters teem with swarms of LIVING SOULS [soul-nehpheshs], 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 [soul - nehphesh] 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 [soul-nehpheshs] 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 [soul - nehphesh], I have given every green herb for meat" [Genesis 1:20-30].
[5] Genesis 2:7 "A living soul" [soul - nehphesh, used referring to a person]. 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" New King James Version.
Man became:
The first time nehphesh is used referring to a person, most translations apply it to the living breathing being or person, not to an invisible inter part of a person. Adam being spoken of as a "living being" [nehphesh] proves he was mortal, not immortal, just as all "living beings" [nehphesh] are mortal, not immortal. How can this be one of the proof texts used to prove Adam was made with an immortal soul? If it proves Adam had an immortal soul, then it proves that fish have an immortal soul.
In genesis 9:4-16 the same word is used for both man and animals seven times in the same passage.
"But flesh with the LIFE [soul - nehphesh, used referring to animals] thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall you not eat. And surely your blood, the blood of your LIVES [soul - nehphesh, used referring to man], will! require; at the hand of every beast will! require it: and at the hand of men, even at the hand of every man's brother, will! require the LIFE [soul - 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 [soul - 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 [soul - 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 [soul - 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 [soul - nehphesh, used referring to man and animals] of all flesh that is upon the earth."
All four times in Genesis 1, soul [nehphesh] is used referring to animals, not to a person. IN TEN OF THE FIRST THIRTEEN TIMES SOUL [NEHPHESH] IS USED IT IS USED REFERRING TO ANIMALS, but the King James Version hides this by using different words, and most who read the King James Version never know it. 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, or New International Version. Mankind has 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] that cannot die. His dominion over other living creatures [Other nehpheshs - souls] is not his nehphesh.
Mike Willis says 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 says 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. A Commentary On Paul's First Epistle To the Corinthians, Page 578, 1979. For one who knows the Bible as he does and believes a person 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 inter part of a person.
Guy N. Woods says the first time in Genesis 1:20 the word soul is used is from the Hebrew nehphesh where it is assigned to fish, birds, and creeping things. He says it 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. "What Is The Soul Of Man," Gospel Advocate, 1985, Number 21.
Adam Clarke "Nephesh chaiyah; 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."
In the first nine chapters of genesis soul [nehphesh] is the animal life, which both a person and animals have in common. How did the translators know when it changed to an invisible inter immortal part of a person, which animals do not have?
The doctrine that we have a soul living in us and it is this soul that will be saved or tormented forever is the foundation of many of the errors that have divided the churches. That we are a soul (a living being), not have a soul living in us is one of the most fundamental and most misunderstood teaching in the bible.
In the first nineteen times nehphesh is used it is translated soul only three times in the King James Version, none in the new King James Version, new American Standard Version, new revised standard version, or new international version.
UP TO GENESIS 27:4 NEHPHESH IS TRANSLATED "SOUL" IN THE KING JAMES VERSION FOUR TIMES AND THE NEW KING JAMES VERSION ONE TIME. EVEN THEN IT IS NOT TRANSLATED "SOUL" IN MANY OTHERS TRANSLATIONS.
Nehphesh has been used 21 times before the New King James Version used "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. If the translators had continued to translate nehphesh as life, living creature, living being, or person, as they did in the first twenty-one 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? 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 deliberately hid the truth from their readers; deliberately hid the truth from you.
[25] Genesis 34:8
[26] Genesis 35:18
[27] Genesis 36:6 "All the persons [nehphesh] of his house" King James Version. Genesis 37:21 "Let us not kill him [nehphesh]" King James Version.
"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." David J. Heinizman, "Man Became A Living Soul."
[34 to 870] It would be too long to quote about 870 times the Hebrew word nehphesh is in the Old Testament with just over one-half being translated "soul" in King James Version [Wigram, Page 829, Old Testament].
Can one word be rightly translated this way? Can a word that is not a pronoun be rightly translated into a pronoun as it is in the King James Version? How could the translators know when to change the noun into a pronoun? NO ONE READING MANY OF THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE WOULD HAVE ANY WAY OF KNOWING THAT ALL THESE WORDS 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 use many words and change it as they wish to from a noun to a pronoun? Did they think that for all the years from Adam unto Christ, God thought people could understand just one word; but now about forty words are needed to translate one word? If one word were all that was needed from Adam to the King James Version, why would God's one word not be enough today? Do the translators think they have improved the Hebrew Old Testament? The use of many words came when the 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?
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 inter undying PART of 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 THE WORD "SOUL" IS UNDERSTOOD AS IT IS USED TODAY. 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 will think that the outlook of the translator, which seems to be somewhat prejudice, 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.