Bible Questions and Answers

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Using Strong’s Concordance:

Soul <05315> נפשׁ nephesh, noun, (from <05314> שׁפנ naphash, verb to take a breath). Properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental).

Translated in the King James Version – ‘soul’ 475 times, ‘life’ 117 times, ‘person’ 29 times, ‘mind’ 15 times, ‘heart’ 15 times, ‘creature’ 9 times, ‘body’ 8 times, ‘himself’ 8 times, ‘yourselves’ 6 times, ‘dead’ 5 times, ‘will’ 4 times, ‘desire’ 4 times, ‘man’ 3 times, ‘themselves’ 3 times, ‘any’ 3 times, ‘appetite’ 2 times, misc 47 times.

The word is used of animals, birds and fish:

Leviticus 11:46 This is the law of the beasts, and of the fowl, and of every living creature (נפשׁ nephesh) that moveth in the waters, and of every creature (נפשׁ nephesh) that creepeth upon the earth:

It is used of the dead:

Leviticus 21:11 Neither shall he go in to any dead body (נפשׁ nephesh), nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother;

From this we see that the soul is in fact the person or creature.

When persons or creatures are alive, they are living souls.

When persons or creatures are dead, they are dead souls.

God says that the soul that sins shall die.

Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die...

This can only be understood to mean that the person who sins will die.

We all sin and we all die.

We conclude that the soul has no separate material or immaterial existence apart from the person or creature.

The person or creature IS the soul.        

May I suggest that you read: After Death, What? Here:

https://www.thisisyourbible.com/library/show/43

I hope you find this helpful,

God bless,

Glenn