Animals Are "Souls" Nehphesh - Living Creature

By William Robert West

Animals ARE souls, not animals HAVE souls. In Genesis 1:20; 1:21; 1:24; 1:30, most translations try to hide this. WHY? Why is it "living creature" when used referring to animals and "soul" when used referring to a person? There is no excuse or defense for it. It is a deliberate attempt by the translators, who did not believe God's word as it is, to mislead; and all Bible teachers should point this out to all they teach [James 3:1]. If "the living soul" [nehphesh] is the immortal part of a person, then bugs, all sea creatures, all birds, and all animals have an immortal soul. "Living soul" is used more of these creatures than it is of man.

Passages in which soul [nehphesh] is speaking of animals being souls.

Genesis 1:20 "Then God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living souls [soul - nehphesh, used referring to animals]."
Genesis 1:21 "And God created the great sea-monsters, and every living soul [soul - nehphesh, used referring to animals] that moves wherewith the waters swarmed."
Genesis 1:24 "And God said, Let the earth bring forth living souls [soul - nehphesh, used referring to animals] after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth after their kind."
"And with ever living creature [soul - nehphesh, used referring to animals] that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you" [Genesis 9:10]. Also Genesis 9:12, 9:15 and 9:16.
"One soul [nehphesh life, used referring to man and animals] offive hundred, of the persons and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep" [Numbers 31:28].
The "leviathan," [Job 41:1] used six times in the Bible, probably a crocodile, has a soul [soul - nehphesh, used referring to animals] [Job 41:21]. From over 870 times nehphesh is used, this is the only time it is translated breath in the Kings James Version. After all, they could not have a crocodile, a sea monster, or whatever it was having an "immortal soul" for then they would have to put it in Heaven or Hell for an immortal crocodile could never die and would have to be somewhere for all eternity.
"SOUL" [nehphesh] OF MAN AND ANIMALS IS IN THE BLOOD "For the life [soul - nehphesh, used referring to man and to animals] of the flesh is in the blood" Leviticus 17:11. "For the life [soul - nehphesh, used referring to man and to animals] of every creature is the blood of it" Leviticus 17:14, Genesis 9:4.
"In whose hand is the life [soul - nehphesh, used referring to man and to animals] of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?" [Job 12:10].
"A righteous man has regard for the life [soul - nehphesh, used referring to animals] of his beast" [Proverbs 12:10].
Genesis 2:19, 9:15-16 and many more. "The living soul" in Genesis 2:7 is the one distinctive thing, for many that makes a person different from an animal. If a person has an immortal soul, there is no way around all living things having immortal souls.

Nothing is said in these passages about bugs, birds, fish or a person being anything more than "living beings."

"The last two lines of verse 7 affirm that a person's life is God-given. God enables a person to breathe, and thus, to be alive, as he does other creatures (see Genesis 7:22). Some have tried to justify a threefold division of man into flesh (or body), soul, and spirit from Genesis 2:7. They equate dust with flesh or body, breath with spirit, and insist that the last phrase of the verse must be translated as 'a living soul.' However, this understanding reads more into the biblical text than it really says. (1) The Hebrew words for 'flesh' or 'body' and 'spirit' do not occur in this passage. (2) The Hebrew expression nehphesh chayyah, which some insist on translating 'a living soul,' is used of fish and marine life in Genesis 1:30; and beasts and birds in 2:19. If 'soul' means the eternal part of a person or the sum total of man's 'body' and 'spirit' in Genesis 2:7, it must mean the eternal part of a fish or the sum total of a fish's 'body' and 'spirit' in Genesis 1:20, 21; etc. (3) The flow of the context in Genesis 2:7 indicates that the word translated being in RSV (nehphesh) means the whole person. The author's emphasis is on the gift of life." John T, Willis, "The Living Word Commentary On the Old Testament - Genesis" Page 103-104, Sweet Publishing Company, 1979.
"Far from referring simply to one aspect of a person, 'soul' refers to the whole person" Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, Page 1245.
"A human being is a totality of being, not a combination of various parts and impulses. According to the Old Testament understanding, a person is not a body, which happens to possess a soul. Instead, a person is a living soul...Because of God's breath of life; the man became 'a living being' (Gen. 2:7). A person, thus is a complete totality, made up of human flesh, spirit (best understood as "the life-force'), and nephesh (best understood as "the total self' but often translated as 'soul')." Holman Bible Dictionary, Page 61.
"There is not dualism in the sense of separation, as though there could be full man either as body alone or as soul alone...together they make up the one man" International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Page 134.
"A consideration of EVERY passage in which these terms are used leads us to the consideration that the term 'soul' is a term that was applied in the Bible to every being that normally has sensory capacities (life), whether or not they have that capacity when the term is used referring to them. For example, one might see a body of a dead person and say, 'That poor soul is dead.' The Bible uses the term that way, even as we do, and it has nothing at all to do with the immorality or mortality of the soul. It simply means that the PERSON (the one who HAD life-soul-sensory capacity) is dead." T. Pierce Brown, "Soul and Spirit" Gospel Advocate, June 14, 1979.

1. Nehphesh (soul): When nehphesh is used referring only to animals is translated nine different ways in the King James Version.

Creature [soul - nehphesh] Genesis 1:21; 1:24; 2:19; 9:10; 2:12; Leviticus 11:46
Thing [soul - nehphesh] Leviticus 11:10. Ezekiel 47:9
Life [soul - nehphesh] Genesis 1:20; 1:30; Leviticus 17:10-14 - 2 times
The life [soul - nehphesh] Genesis 9:4; Deuteronomy 12:23; Proverbs 12:10

Beast [soul - nehphesh] Leviticus 24:18
The soul [soul - nehphesh] Job 12:10
Breath [soul - nehphesh] Job 41:21
Fish [soul - nehphesh] Isaiah 19:10
Her [soul - nehphesh] Jeremiah 2:24

2. Nehphesh (soul): When it is used referring to BOTH Animals and Man is translated in three different ways.

Creature [soul - nehphesh] Genesis 9:15; 9:16
The life [soul - nehphesh] Leviticus 17:11; 17:14
Soul [soul - nehphesh] Numbers 31:28

3. Nehphesh (soul): When it has the animal appetites and desires of Man is translated in five different ways. [1] Soul, [2] pleasure, [3] lust, [4] appetite, [5] and greedy.

1. Translated Soul (Nehphesh) 17 things the "soul" (person) does

The soul dried away Numbers 11:6
The soul lusts Deuteronomy 12:15
The soul longs to eat flesh Deuteronomy 12:20
The soul lusts after Deuteronomy 12:20
The soul lusts Deuteronomy 12:21
The soul lusts Deuteronomy 14:26
The soul desires Deuteronomy 14:26
The soul loathes Deuteronomy 21:5
The soul desires 1 Samuel 2:16
The soul refused Job 6:7
The soul abhorred Job 33:20
The soul abhorred Psalms 107:18
The soul hunger Proverbs 6:30
The soul satisfying Proverbs 13:25
The soul empty Isaiah 29:8
The soul has appetite Isaiah 29:8
The soul desired figs Micah 7:1

Translated pleasure [soul - nehphesh] Deuteronomy 23:24
Translated lust [soul - nehphesh] Psalms 78:18
Translated appetite [soul - nehphesh] Proverbs 23:2. Ecclesiastes 6:7
Translated greedy [soul - nehphesh] Isaiah 56:11

The soul [person] can be hungry, have an appetite, be thirsty, eat meat

"Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself [soul - nehphesh] when he is hungry" [Proverbs 6:30].
"I will set my face against that soul [soul - nehphesh] that eats blood, and will cut him off from among his people" [Leviticus 17:10].
"And you shall say, I will eat flesh, because your soul [soul - nehphesh] desires to eat flesh; you may eat flesh, after all the desire of your soul [soul - nehphesh]" [Deuteronomy 12:20].

"And it shall be as when a hungry man dreams and, behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his soul [soul - nehphesh] is empty; or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul [soul - nehphesh] has appetite" [Isaiah 29:8].