Reference: Soul
American
The ancients supposed the soul, or rather the animating principle of life, to reside in the breath, that it departed from the body with the breath. Hence the Hebrew and Greek words which, when they refer to man, in our Bibles are translated "soul," are usually rendered "life" or breath" when they refer to animals, Ge 2:7; 7:15; Nu 16:22; Job 12:10; 34:14-15; Ps 104:29; Ec 12:7; Ac 17:25.
But together with this principle of life, which is common to men and brutes, and which in brutes perishes with the body, there is in man a spiritual, reasonable, and immortal soul, the seat of our thoughts, affections, and reasonings, which distinguishes us from the brute creation, and in which chiefly consists our resemblance to God, Ge 1:26. This must be spiritual, because it thinks; it must be immortal, because it is spiritual. Scripture ascribes to man alone understanding, conscience, the knowledge of God, wisdom, immortality, and the hope of future everlasting happiness. It threatens men only with punishment in another life, and with the pains of hell. In some places the Bible seems to distinguish soul from spirit, 1Th 5:23; Heb 4:12: the organ of our sensations, appetites, and passions, allied to the body, form the nobler portion of our nature which most allies man to God. Yet we are to conceive of them as one indivisible and spiritual being, called also the mind and the heart, spoken of variously as living, feeling, understanding, reasoning, willing, etc. Its usual designation is the soul.
The immortality of the soul is a fundamental doctrine of revealed religion. The ancient patriarchs lived and died persuaded of this truth; and it was in the hope of another life that they received the promises. Compare Ge 50:22; Nu 23:10; 1Sa 28:13-15; 2Sa 12:23; Job 19:25-26; Ec 12:7; Heb 11:13-16. In the gospel "life and immortality," and the worth of immortal souls, are fully brought to light, Mt 16:26; 1Co 15:45-57; 2Ti 1:10. To save the souls of men, Christ freely devoted himself to death; and how does it become us to labor and toil and strive, in our respective spheres, to promote the great work for which He bled and died!
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.
So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years.
And they fell on their faces and said, "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and will you be angry with all the congregation?"
Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!"
In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.
For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God,
If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
and the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party.
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. read more. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
Hastings
The use of the term in the OT (Heb. nephesh) for any animated being, whether human or animal (Ge 1:20 'life,' Ge 2:7), must be distinguished from the Greek philosophical use for the immaterial substance which gives life to the body, and from the use in the NT (Gr. psyche) where more stress is laid on individuality (Mt 16:26 Revised Version margin). As the Bible does not contain a scientific psychology, it is vain to dispute whether it teaches that man's nature is bipartite (body and soul or spirit) or tripartite (body and soul and spirit): yet a contrast between soul and spirit (Heb. r
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens."
then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?
And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished," and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being";the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. read more. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel,
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.
Watsons
SOUL, that immortal, immaterial, active substance or principle in man, whereby he perceives, remembers, reasons, and wills. See MATERIALISM.