Pet Bible-Thumping Peeves: You Have no Soul

I know that being called soulless is considered an insult to one’s humanity, compassion, mercy, etc. I don’t mean to offend you in that manner. Meanwhile, I must say, “You don’t have a soul. Neither do I.”

You see, according to the Hebrew Scriptures, none of us have souls. We are souls. Soul is the term often translated in our Bibles as being in the context of “a living being.” So, not only do you not have a soul, not only are you a soul, we humans are not the only souls of God’s creation.

Case in point, Genesis 1:24 says, “Let the earth bring forth living souls (nephesh hayyah) after their kind.” Then when the narrative gets around to talking about the creation of humanity, the term for soul or living being is not used. In Genesis 2:4, we find the beginning of a different account of creation. This time the description is a little different and in one sense more specific.

In Genesis 2:8, God forms humanity out of dust, breathes into him the “breath of the living,” and that which was formed becomes a living soul, a living being, a soul with life. He is not given a soul, he becomes a soul, a person, a living being.

In Genesis 3:20, the woman is named Life (Chawah, Eve), “For she is the mother of all having life.” No comment is made of the woman regarding being or having a soul, for the matter is obvious from the outset that she lives. Not only does she live, she is mother of all others who have God’s gift of life.

Our notion of being composed of body, soul, and spirit does not come from Judaism and Christianity. Rather, it comes from Greek philosophy. As far as the Bible is concerned, you have no soul, because you are a soul, instead.



— ©Copyright 2023, Christopher B. Harbin 



http://www.sermonsearch.com/contributors/104427/

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