Word Studies - Soul

Does man have a soul, a spirit that survives death of the body? The publications of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society deny that he does. They frequently point to the language of the creation account in Genesis to support the view that man is a soul, but does not have a soul. In Genesis 2:7 Moses stated that "...man became a living soul." The word "soul" here is translated from the Hebrew word "nephesh." This word also appears in Genesis 1:24, where it is rendered "creatures," referring to the land animals created on the sixth day. If a man is a soul and an animal is a soul, the thinking goes, then a man no more has an existence beyond death than does an eel.

"Nephesh" and its Greek equivalent, "psuche," occur hundreds of times in the Bible, and sometimes they do refer merely to existence in this life. Lot was warned to escape from Sodom for his "nephesh" (Genesis 19:17), and God referred to Herod as one who sought to take the child Jesus's "psuche" (Matthew 2:20). Our English word "soul" has that meaning at times, as well. An "S.O.S." signal by persons in distress is a plea to "save our souls," but they mean by it "our lives."

However, these words, no matter what the language, have many different uses and shades of meaning because human existence is such a complex matter. The physical body has certain vital signs by which we determine whether life is present, but even mere earthly existence is much more than blood flow and brain waves! One's actions, habits, and relationships to others are also his "life," but there is certainly more than that.

Thayer's lexicon gives as one use of "psuche," "the soul as an essence which differs from the body and is not dissolved by death (distinguished from 'to soma' [Greek for 'the body'--SDW] as the other part of human nature; the soul freed from the body, a disembodied soul.)" Matthew 10:28 is given as an example which draws a clear distinction between the body and the soul: "And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul." If the soul is no more than the life and breath within the body, then whoever would kill the body would also kill the soul, and Jesus's admonition would be meaningless.

Peter preached on Pentecost that Jesus fulfilled David's prophecy in Psalm 16 that God would not leave his soul in Hades nor allow his flesh to see corruption (Acts 2:26, 31). When the body is dead and in the grave, the soul still exists in another place. The soul is not simply that life that moves the body. Note that this passage in Acts 2 relies upon both the Hebrew "nephesh" (Ps. 16:10) and the Greek "psuche" to tell the state of the soul of Jesus while His body was entombed.

As for references to man's "spirit," the Jehovah's Witnesses hold that Hebrew and Greek words thus translated are often used to mean the wind or man's breath, therefore any reference to the "spirit" of man should be taken to mean the breath that sustains life in the body. Thus, "the body without the spirit is dead" in James 2:26 would mean only that when the body stops breathing, death has come.

The Hebrew word "ruach" and the Greek "pneuma" also appear many times in scripture, sometimes being translated "breath;" others, "wind;" and many times, "spirit." Again, these have many uses, not just one. Thayer states that "pneuma" sometimes refers to "a human soul that has left the body," as in Hebrews 12:23, "the spirits of just men made perfect." These are spirits of men who had been alive on earth, but were no longer. They are personalities, not breath or wind.

Paul commanded that the Corinthians discipline a brother in sin "that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." This was not a desire to save the man's breath, but his soul for eternity.