Immortality of the Soul
In the bible, "soul" is translated from the Hebrew ne'phesh and the Greek psy-khe'. Bible usage shows the soul to be a person or an animal or the life that a person or animal enjoys. To many the "soul" means the immaterial or spirit part of a human being that survives the death of the physical body. Others understand it to be the principle of life. The latter views are not bible teachings.
Can the human soul die?
Ezekiel 18:4 "Look! All the souls -- to me they belong. As the soul of the father so likewise the soul of the son -- to me they belong. The soul* that is sinning-- it itself will die." (Hebrew reads "the ne'phesh" KJ, AS, RS, NE and Dy render it as "the soul" Some translations say "the man" or "the person")
Also see: Matthew 10:28 and Acts 3:23.
Is the soul the same as the spirit?
Hebrews 4:12 "The word of God is alive and exerts power and is sharper than any two edge sword and pierces even to the dividing of soul [Greek, psy-ches'; "Life" NE], and spirit [Greek, pneu'matos], and of joints and their marrow, and is able to discern thoughts and intentions of the heart." --Observe the greek word for "spirit" is not the same as the word for soul.
Eccl 3:19: " There is an eventuality as respects the sons of mankind and an eventuality as respects the beast, and they have the same eventuality. As the one dies, so the other dies; and they all have but one spirit [Hebrew Ru'ach]."
--Thus both mankind and beast are shown to have the same ru'ach, or spirit.
Does Conscious life continue for a person after the spirit leaves the body?
Psalm 146:4 "His spirit [Hebrew, from ru'arch] goes out, he goes back to his ground; in that day his thoughts do perish."
Ecclesiastes 9:5; "For the living are conscious that they will die; but as for the dead, they are conscious of nothing at all, neither do they anymore have wages because the remembrance of them has been forgotten."
John 11:11-14 "'Lazarus our friend has gone to rest, but I am journeying there to awaken him from sleep' . . . Jesus said to them outspokenly;'Lazarus has died.'" (Also Psalm 13:3)
What is the origin or Christendom's belief in an immortal soul?
"The Christian concept of a spiritual soul created by God and infused in the body at conception to make man a living whole is the fruit of a long development in Christian philosophy. Only with Origen [died c. 254 CE.] in the East and St. Augustine [died 430 CE.] in the West was the soul established as a spiritual substance and a philosphical concept formed of its nature. . . . His [Augustine's] doctrine . . . owed much (including some short commings) to Neoplatonism."-- New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967) Vol 8., pp.452,454.
"The concept of immortality is a product of Greek thinking, where as the hope of a resurrection belongs to Jewish thought. . . Following Alexander's conquest Judaism gradually absorbed Greek concepts." --DIctionnaire Encyclopedique de la bible (Valence France; 1935), edited by Alexandre Westphal, Vol. 2, p. 557.
"Immortality of the soul is a Greek notion formed in ancient mystery cults and elaborated by the philosopher Plato." --Presbyterian Life, May 1, 1970, p.35.
"Do we beleive there is such a thing as death?. . .Is it not the seperation of soul and body? And to be dead is the completion of this; when the soul exists in herself, and is released from the body and the body is released from the soul , what is this but death?. . . And does the soul admit of death? No. Then the soul is immortal? Yes."---Plato's "Phaedo," Secs 64, 105 as published in Great Books of the Western World (1952), edited by R.M. Hutchins Vol 7, pp. 223, 245, 246.
"The problem of immortality, we have seen, engaged the serious attention of the Babylonian theologians. . . Neither the people nor the leaders of religious thought ever faced the possibility of the total annihilation of what once was called into existance. Death was a passage to another kind of life."--The religion of Babylonia and Assyria (Boston, 1898), M. Jastrow Jr., pp.556.
What do bible scholars say?
"There is no dichotomy[division] of body and soul in the OT. The Isrealite saw things concretely, in their totality, and thus he considered men as persons and not as composites. The term nepes [ne'phesh], though translated by our word soul, never means soul as distinct from the body or the individual person. . . . The term [psykhe'] is the NT word corresponding with nepes. It can mean the principle of life, life itself or the living being." New Catholic Encyclopedia (1967), Vol. 8 pg.449/450
"The hebrew term for 'soul' was used by Moses (ne'phesh, that which breaths) . . ., signifying an 'animated being' and applicable equally to nonhuman beings. . . . New Testament usage of psyche ('soul') was comparable to nefesh" --The New Encyclopedia Britannica (1976), Macropaedia, Vol. 15 p.152.
"The belief that the soul continues its existence after the dissolution of the body is a matter of philosphical or theological speculation rather than of simple faith, and is accordingly nowhere expressly taught in Holy Scripture."--The Jewish Encyclopedia (1910), Vol 6, p.564. |
