How are human souls created?

Now, the meaning usually given to the word "created" has been questioned or denied; but here throughout it seems in contrast with mere making, and strictly to apply to the bringing into being of something not developed out of any thing pre-existing. In the beginning, (if strictly that,) there was nothing pre-existing. The "living soul" was an entirely new existence, not a development out of matter or its forces. In man, there is spirit as well as soul: hence again a new existence, and that in the image of God,

Man has, then, a living soul; nay, he is one. How he became so Gen. 2:7 informs us: "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." Now, upon the most cursory glance at this, it is evident that something more took place in man's creation than in the creation of the brute. It is plain that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and that He did not into the brute's. Roberts, indeed, contends that Ps. 104:25-30 supplies what is omitted in Genesis. He obtains this by means of the old confusion between God's Spirit and the breath of life. Nor does any one deny that "God giveth unto all life and breath and all things." The question is why was the gift given in this especial way to man alone? "No matter," says Mr. R., "if they all have it." But the point is, did God come in in this special way to give merely the same gift after all? The language is phenomenal, as Old Testament language largely is, and that makes one only the more to ask, is this breathing of God not a form of expression pointing to the communication of something from Himself, and more akin to Himself, than is implied in water or earth simply producing?

Thus the inner organs of the body seem with him to be the soul, the outer only, the soul-tabernacle or body. It would be well to attempt something in the way of proof of so startling a proposition as that the lungs and other parts not defined are not the body! "In the body," "out of the body," "absent from the body," "putting off the tabernacle," would certainly have a new significance in this way. But I think it scarcely needful to pursue this further. Man has, then, a living soul; nay, he is one. How he became so Gen. ii. 7 informs us: "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." Now, upon the most cursory glance at this, it is evident that something more took place in man's creation than in the creation of the brute. It is plain that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life, and that He did not into the brute's. Roberts, indeed, contends that Psa. civ. 25-30 supplies what is omitted in Genesis. He obtains this by means of the old confusion between God's Spirit and the breath of life. Nor does any one deny that "God giveth unto all life and breath and all things." The question is why was the gift given in this especial way to man alone? "No matter," says Mr. R., "if they all have it." But the point is, did God come in in this special way to give merely the same gift after all? The language is phenomenal, as Old Testament language largely is, and that makes one only the more to ask, is this breathing of God not a form of expression pointing to the communication of something from Himself and more akin to Himself, than is implied in water or earth simply producing? Surely it is so. For although what is communicated may not be yet fully shown - and it is quite the character of an initial revelation, that it should not be - it is plain that man has a link here with God Himself which the beast has not.

335 If we examine scripture, we shall see it furnishes the simple truth, and, at the same time, by its statement of it, meets all these human wanderings. It speaks of nephesh, and ruach, and neshama, but it speaks in a way which, in a few sentences, sets aside all the speculations of men. In the leading text on the subject, the revelation of God on the subject, we read, God formed man (as a potter, vayizar) from the dust of the ground, and blew into his nostrils a breath of life (a nishmath chaia), and man became a living soul (nephesh chaia). Here we find that it was by God's breathing this highest power of life from Himself that man became a living soul. He had formed his body before, as he saw good, and it was by the communication of life from Himself that He animated the form He had made. The animals had issued by His will from the earth. He had said, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind [a nephesh chaia came forth (yozu)], and it was so." Not so with man. God consults solemnly as to his creation, and resolves to make man in His image, after His likeness. So God created man in His image, and gave him dominion, and God blessed him, and God said to him and gave him to know his place, his food, the beasts' food. He was the vessel of divine communications, as of the divine breath of life, and the object of divine counsels. He was to have a help meet for him, as an intelligent and affectionate and devout creature. God made a paradise, a dwelling for him, and for none else, gave him his easy and pleasant service, putting him into the garden.

Man, as God's creature, is made up of these three distinct parts. Like men, the lower animals are said in Scripture to possess both soul and body, but not spirit. In the word of God (Gen. 1), where alone we can read anything of the origin of this present creation, God has been pleased to instruct us as to this matter. "Let the waters bring forth the moving creature that hath life" (or, in Hebrew, "nephesh," soul); and again, in verse 21, "Every living creature that moveth" (or, every living soul - the same word). So also in verse 24, " Let the earth bring forth the living creature (or living soul) after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so." God thus created them by His word living souls (ghahy nephesh) upon the earth; and verse 30 tells us that that class wherein there is (nephesh) "soul," includes "every beast of the earth, every fowl of the air, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth."

But when we come to man, we read something different. As to all the other animals, God had but spoken and had called them into being. At the fiat of their Creator they had come forth; but He now consults as to the creature that is to have dominion. This is man. Neither the earth, nor the air, nor the sea is called upon to produce him. He is to be made, and made also in the very image and after the likeness of God. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (n'shahmah ghahy*); and man became a living soul (ghahy nephesh)" - the same expression as we find used of the lower animals in Gen. 1:21. But what an important and twofold difference! First, man was, as to his body, God's own formation out of the dust of the ground - not, as they were, called into being by a word; second, he was, as and when he was thus formed, the receiver (from God still) of this "n'shahmah" of life into his nostrils. Thus the formation of his body and his inspiration, by which it is said he became a living soul (ghahy nephesh), are by no secondary means. Both are immediately from God; two things which we do not read of any of the lower creatures.

We may see an illustration of this divine character in the formation of Adam. God formed the body of the first man out of the ground, and there was a shapely form — not of some hairy uncouth savage, as many persons think nowadays but of a handsome man, a man that God had designed to occupy a place of sovereignty in His world below. But there it was, a lifeless, inert mass, beautiful to look at, but a thing without life; no motion, no sound, just simply a part of this lower world dust, a grand and beautiful body of dust only. Now God communicated from Himself to that inanimate mass; “He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” Thus were the soul and spirit communicated by the direct inspiration of the Almighty, and thus man was placed at a tremendous distance from the rest of the living world. The beasts that perish have their soul and spirit; they return to the dust from which they have sprung. Man received his originally from on high. This emanation from God constitutes the difference between man and lower creation.

In the word of God, the incarnation of the Son is recorded, not as a creation, but as a birth: we read that “the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise..." (Matt. 1:18; 2:1). God created Adam the first man, but Eve gave birth to Cain and Abel (Gen. 1:27; 4:1, 2). In the case of Adam, life in maturity was directly bestowed by Jehovah upon the inanimate dust of the ground, of which man was formed by his Creator; but in the case of Cain and Abel, their infant life was received by transmission from their living parents. And the whole of Adam's race to this day began their being in a similar manner.

As the formation of man's body links him with material creation, so the breathing into his nostrils the breath of life links him directly with God. He is thus the offspring of God. This inbreathing surely cannot mean of the mere bodily life which man has in common with the beasts. It suggests those mental and moral faculties with which he has been endowed, of knowledge, will and affection, which link him in nature with God. This is a direct, definite act. Many questions might detain us here, the answers to some of which we certainly could not give. It is not amiss, however, to ask these, if in a reverent spirit.

What, for instance, we may ask, exactly corresponds to this inbreathing into the nostrils of Adam, in the case of every person who is born into the world? How is his individuality, personality, imparted to him? In one sense we may say by heredity, which is perfectly true. In another, we must guard against the mere thought of multiplication of the species apart from divine act. While the inbreathing is only spoken of in connection with the first man, yet is there not in connection with each individual that is born into the world something that answers to this unique individuality, this personality stamped upon each human soul? Solemn, in one sense dreadful, that God Himself imparts to every responsible being that which is the pledge and the necessity for an eternal existence of joy or woe unutterable, according to the way he meets the thought of God in grace.

Now Scripture speaks of the spirit of man being not only, as we have seen, a separate entity in each individual, which the breath of life is not, but (as the breath of life clearly is not) a thing formed within him (Zech. xii. 1): "The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him." Thus, along with the formation of the heavens and the earth, as of equal importance with these (the body being moreover passed over in the matter) there is put by the inspired writer this formation of the spirit of man. And this is the complete upsetting of the materialistic theory. The spirit of man is formed within him. It is a separate entity then in each individual man, not (like the breath of life) a common principle shared by all.*

Now Scripture speaks of the spirit of man being not only, as we have seen, a separate entity in each individual, which the breath of life is not, but (as the breath of life clearly is not) a thing formed within him (Zech. 12:1): "The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him." Thus, along with the formation of the heavens and the earth, as of equal importance with these (the body being moreover passed over in the matter) there is put by the inspired writer this formation of the spirit of man. And this is the complete upsetting of the materialistic theory. The spirit of man is formed within him. It is a separate entity then in each individual man, not (like the breath of life) a common principle shared by all.*